Will work out for food!

I want to eat more.  I LOVE food, but I don't love gaining weight and feeling fat!

What to do?

EXERCISE MORE!!!

This summer I took the mantra, "No excuses!" and made it my own.  I can make up all kinds of excuses NOT to exercise, most of them having to do with L-A-Z-Y!!!  Enough already!  What has LAZY gotten me?  Belly rolls, thunder thighs, and tight clothing.

I have learned that if I do a little exercise...

1. I am not just sitting around wanting to eat.
2. I eat less when I do eat.
3. I am intentional about what I eat.

My parents and teachers taught me to work for what I want in life and that is what I have learned to do!  :)  

Right now I am walking on Trudy Treadmill as I type this blog post.  Walking so that I can have a bowl of fancy ice cream and still have calories left over.

This is one tip that has really worked for me!  I've learned that I can burn about 250 calories riding my bike for 30 minutes.  :)

What is your secret?

Successes

Today marks the 45th day in a row that I have logged my food and exercise with MyFitnessPal.  :)

I have spent my summer creating healthy habits.  I started by taking Bessie out to the trail and making bike riding a habit.  Today I logged my 424th mile!!!

Secondly, I got back into the habit of tracking my food.  I started with the Weight Watchers app that I was paying for and eventually switched over to the *FREE* MyFitnessPal app.  There are so many things I LOVE about MyFitnessPal!  I will try to list them here.

• I love how quickly I can add foods.  I need not even type in the complete name and it comes up in the database.  If I eat the same thing from a previous day, I can easily copy my entry from a prior day.  
• I love the scan function!  This was something I was super excited WW had on their app, but with WW it only worked for some products.  On MyFitnessPal I have only had ONE TIME when the scanner did not work.  I find that AMAZING!
• I love that I can have friends who share a similar journey to health!  My friends encourage me by either liking my posts or making positive comments.  This has really helped me continue my journey.
• I also love that MyFitnessPal posts our successes. When I see that my friend has burned x amount of calories by completing some activity, it motivates me to keep up!
• At the end of the day, when I hit the button that says "complete today's food diary", it tells me if I ate every day like today how much I would weigh in 5 weeks.  This motivates me like you wouldn't believe!!!
• I also love that I can see the percentage of fats, carbs, and protein I am eating.
• I love that I can look at a week, month or even a year of staying within my calorie budget.  I can even see the amount of calories I spent each day.  This app is AMAZING!!!!

I am also starting to do other forms of exercise...trying out more DVDs in my basement.  :)  I still have plenty left to try, but I am proud that I am working on this.

Riding with Bessie has given me an endurance I didn't know was possible!  I jogged an entire mile last week!!!  Without stopping!!!

Today's weigh in revealed that since May 31st, 2014 I have lost 17.2 pounds!!  I am about 1/3 of the way to goal.  Feeling good about this!  :)