Still on Track...Surprisingly

Putting myself on a budget and taking a hard look at my finances has been a good thing for me, but it has also been incredibly stressful.  I have a couple of ways that I naturally deal with stress.  One is eating.  The other is spending money.  Sometimes, I combine the two and take myself out for a ridiculously over priced meal.  

This budget thing, the 'b' word, has definitely resulted in some moments of stress eating, but I've forced myself to record those weak moments as part of my calorie intake for that day.  Sometimes, just seeing the huge dent a tempting snack puts in my calorie allowance is enough to discourage me.  Other days, I just plow right through and eat whatever it is anyway.  When that happens, so far, I've been able to pull myself together later in the day and tell myself that I have to pay the price for that indulge, getting some extra walking in or even just doing some cleaning around my apartment to get the double benefit of burning some calories and eliminating some of the clutter in my environment.  

Yesterday was a day that I came very close to exceeding my calorie allowance. I only had 18 calories left for the day when I went to bed.  I told myself I'd be happy this morning if I just hadn't gained weight.  This morning, when I stepped on the scale, I was pleasantly surprised to see that I'm still moving forward.  The number glowing back up at me was 255.4.  I'm just shy of having lost 5 pounds.  I'm happy with that.  

When I started this, I gave myself the modest goal of losing one pound per week.  I'm well ahead of that schedule.  I can already tell that I have more energy, too.  It's far easy to get out of bed in the mornings.  My main goal is just to be and feel healthier because I know I was well on my way to not being.  Being conscious of each dietary and financial decision I make is helping me make better decisions in both categories.

- Culbs

joshua.culbertson@gmail.com

Weight from the scale this morning: 255.4