Better Today

Today is going to be a busy day. We're going to be attending a Newborn Blessing at a distant beach this afternoon, so we are going to take advantage of this by going early for a beach day!

I've been thinking about what went wrong the last few days and trying to come up with strategies for coping with temptations in the future. So here are some of my coping strategies, in no particular order:

- Don't eat in the morning. When I have a big breakfast (600 to 1000 calories), I don't have much margin of error for later in the day. I'm most tempted to go overboard from about 4 to 9 pm, so by skipping breakfast I'm more likely to end the day within the target calorie range. I'm told that lots of CR practitioners eat a single, large meal each day. I'm going to try this today.

- Headaches...I talked about this in an earlier post. If I start getting a headache, I think I need to treat it right away, to prevent myself from slipping.

- Drink water. I think I need to drink a lot more water. I understand that many people mistake thirst for hunger. And I had thought that between tea and water, I drank a lot. Now that I'm tracking my intake, maybe I'm a little low.

- Continue to exercise, but a little less. For a long time, I have been exercising a lot. I had typically been doing an hour or more of serious cardio per day, almost without fail. Upon starting CR, I was told that excessive exercise is counter-productive to CR, because it causes unnecessary wear and tear on the body. So now my plan is to be more moderate in my exercise...a half hour of yoga each morning and 30 to 45 minutes of moderate cardio, using weighted backpacks to increase bone density.

- When faced with temptation, walk away. Easier said than done, I know.

That's it for now. Maybe I'll report back tonight.