Day Twenty-Eight

I didn't workout yesterday and I ended going out to dinner. A couple of sushi rolls, 1.5 drinks, and a chocolate dessert tasting later and I am feeling a bit perturbed. I have every intention of going to the gym today to close out my cardio for the week. However, I have some doubts about the impact of the intense cardio on my weight loss efforts. Overall, my cardio/exercise is up and eating is down -- but, I think my calorie intake may still be too high to generate the weight loss promised in the magazine. I won't be too discouraged -- I think I developed some positive habits and my stress levels were well-managed. Instead, I think I will commit to another week of the plan -- 350 minutes here I come -- and better management of my points. I have some diet tweaks in mind:

• Avoid using all my flexees over the weekend. I need to leave myself 20 or 4/day for the workweek. This will give me about 26-27 points per day after exercise. This is in line with what I ate during the week.
• Overhaul my splurges. The weekend is for relaxing my discipline, but I relaxed too much by going out to dinner last week. Switching out restaurant pizza and cupcakes for microwaveable pizzas and ww desserts should save me over a 1000 calories this weekend.
• Minimize my coffee cream points to 2 per day. I will go back to buying fat free half & half at home. And, I will decrease the amount I am using during my Starbuck's runs. This should save me a few hundred calories.
• Ditch the mayo. I make two cans of tuna per week and use 2-3 tbsp. of mayo per can. Going back to fat free mayonanaise could save me about 500 calories.
• Stick with the WW bars for lunchtime desserts. This worked! The 1-pt bars have no nutritional value and are slightly overpriced, but they satisfy my cravings for peanut butter and chocolate.
• Continue to avoid alcohol. I ordered a drink 2 times last week and I think keeping the alcohol consumption down does wonders for my performance. I am going to keep it to one or none next week, too.

Finally, I am going to maintain my focus on the goal. One week is too soon to make a decision on the impact of new routines. I certainly feel healthier and the noticeable changes in my stamina and endurance give me pride.