I am a living example of this.

Despite losing 80 pounds in 2014 with both diet (particularly tracking) and exercise my weight loss stopped in 2015 despite training for and running 5 half marathons and 3 full marathons that year. My weight remained around 235ish all that year.

After gaining weight after an injury in 2016 and getting back into running half marathons again 2017 to lose weight I was still unable to get the scale moving downwards.

For both of those periods I was not tracking my food intake.

At first I gave up tracking in 2015 due to finding it too hard to log all the food I was eating while training for those full marathons. I ate a lot. I ate quite a lot on impulse and would fail to log things.

The only thing that got my weight loss back in gear in 2017 was logging because I went to a low carb primal diet and switched to strength focused exercise. Common sense says it was the logging that came with the diet which did it.

Long story short, even running 50-60 miles per week won't lose weight without tracking calories because your body wants that energy and will get it unless YOU know when to stop it. And if you are training hard, you need healthy foods because unhealthy food will not satisfy the hunger your body needs and just adds worthless calories.

5th June
3 x Yes
Exercise: 80 minutes walking, 40 minutes in one go, then 20 minutes to our concert hall, (beautiful music!) walking there at some speed, and 20 minutes slow pace with partner, walking back.
Calories: Yes, stayed under. Freezer is slowly emptying out. I'll have a mini portion of the icecream tomorrow and will foist a big blob on to my partner.
Tracking: Yes, logged everything.
The weather is fantastic, warm, 25°, but not hot, and it's rarely humid here. I can now sit in the sun on my back balcony at lunchtime and in my front garden in the afternoon and evening. A lovely day! Lots of gratitude for all today's nice things, including the opportunity to wear my swanky, letterbox-red dress to the concert - it fitted, a close fit, but that works OK with this dress.

5th June

Yes 30 min Beach walk carrying bub.

Yes ate a super tiny lunch so i cld indulge on dinner out, steak sandwich and chips and a carmel cake. God it was good! Heather from half size me encourages us to plan a fun meal out of the house. Instead of depriving ourselves by ordering a salad then coming home and eating the whole fridge. Ha ha. This is the second meal out his week as hubby is on holidays.

Yes under shared chips with hubby.

This topic is def one that im living proof of. Ive always exercised, sometimes going to the gym 7 days a week but i was still overweight. Calorie counting helped me realise that i had been eating too much to loose weight.

June 5

No workouts today due to it being a rest day, but I was still active throughout the day. Definitely more than 20 minutes with household activities and being on "patrol" monitoring the kids, but I didn't actually time anything today.

✅ - Exercise 20+ Minutes
✅ - Calories within budget
✅ - Tracked every detail I consumed

0/3 Pass Days Used

Personal Challenges Met: 4/5 days (4th)
✅ - Net Carbs 30g or less (16g)
✅ - Protein 180g or more (183g)
✅ - Intermittent Fasted (21 hrs)
✅ - All Scheduled Workouts Completed? (N/A) - REST DAY

Exercise: Yes. Walked 30min up and down my hallway (raining all day outside)
Calories: Yes
Tracking: Yes

As mentioned yesterday, today was an intentional pass day. Dinner was amazing. So good. I’m so full. The hummus was so good, I may dream of it. So was the wild mushroom primavera, the Guinness chocolate cake, and the drinks? 😬 I did my personal training session today though, so about today’s topic about how you can’t out exercise a bad diet… 😂🤣😂

I’ll be back on track tomorrow. I hope everyone had a great day. ❤️ I’m sure tomorrow Maryann will be really happy about my three drinks and cake at dinner tonight while doing burpees in class at 9am tomorrow 😂🤦🏻‍♀️.

Point #4 from today's article reminds me of an old adage I used to hear when I was marathon training years ago, "you either eat to run or you run to eat"

I chose the former so that I could improve performance and help lose weight. But there are plenty of people who essentially "eat back their exercise calories" plus some on a regular basis.

It's a choice one needs to make for themselves 🤷🏿‍♀️

---|---|---|--
Did I exercise for at least 20 minutes? YES | Humid run 😪 (26) TOTAL: 26
Did I stay within my calorie budget for the day? YES | Base + 236
Did I keep track of everything I ate and drank? YES |
---|---|---|---

Personal Bonus: Did I meet my protein macro for the day (40%)? YES| 40%
Pass Days Used: (JUN04)

Exercised? Yes 20 mins walk
Calories? Yes
Tracked? Yes

Did I exercise for at least 20 minutes? Yes, a 72 minute trail run/walk in the morning, and a 48 minute trail walk in the afternoon.
Did I stay within my calorie budget for the day? Yes
Did I keep track of everything I ate and drank? Yes

Day #17 - 75 Hard Mental Toughness Challenge completed.

Yep
Yep
Yep

Exercise:✅
Tracked:✅
Under:✅

Did I exercise for at least 20 minutes? Yes, 30 minutes on a stair climber.
Did I stay within my calorie budget for the day? Yes
Did I keep track of everything I ate and drank? Yes

Pass days used: 1/3

Yes, yes, and barely yes on exercise.

I am going on vacation next week, leave Wednesday morning for 8 days. Do not expect to be able to exercise and/or log in consistently, so probably will not make the winner's circle this month. However I will do my best when I can.

Yes x 3

JUNE!!!
5
Pass Days remaining:1

THANK YOU for your hugs & words of support!

For those of you wondering about maintenance, this is how it is for me. Long stretches where everything goes smoothly, then a hiccup, I take notice, I reaffirm my desire to be healthy, I make a specific plan, and I do it & then have a long stretch again of pretty easy maintenance.

Maintenance, for me, is facing the behavior that needs improvement head on as fast as I can.

✅Exercise: lovely uphill/downhill sunset hike with son & husband! 1:12 hr 10,200 steps (would have been 90 minutes but our parking was going to expire!)

✅Calories: under - just

Keep salt 🧂 down until dinner.
⬆️ For the day. Had my first restaurant or takeout meal in 477 days. Takeout from our son’s favorite Mexican restaurant on his last night of his stay. I had skipped it the other two times

(We might hike later in month with him, but this was a special night.)

I stopped mid-bite 🎉 & packed up the rest.🎉
I put back nuts & chocolate after dinner (to meet my goal from yesterday.)🎉

I figure I can eat out once every ~ 500 days! 😁

I’m very happy to have been moderate. I can see how much I’ve changed these past 5-1/2 years!
🎉


✅Tracked: all, I always do. Self-honesty is key & I want my data to be accurate.

Other goals:
1. Sodium:
June 2 - 8 goal: 2,300mg avg
6/2 2,419 mg
6/3 2,678 mg 2-day avg 2,548 mg
6/4 1,926 mg 3-day avg 2,341
6/5 est. 3,021 (Mexican food*)
4-day average 2,510
* not sure as it was all estimates
6/6
6/7
6/8


Spoiler

2. PLAY with
Drawing & painting,
✅Textile Arts,
✅ Collage
Book Arts,
Digital Image Apps, and/or
Decorative Embellishments daily 😁

3. ✅Phone my dad at least twice a week. (I’ve realized he’s a bit lonely.) 🤗

Tomorrow will be the last not quite normal day. I will eat my normal breakfast. I will pack my lunch. I will prep & cut apples & carrots to munch. (I should have shopped today.) I’ll have a decaf nonfat latte in afternoon, possibly with a baked good. And a small dinner at home.
Goals:
Nuts + chocolate under 70g.
Sodium under 2,300mg
Use apples & carrots for munchies (along with water) for munchies.