Exercising Makes Me HUNGRY

This week has been fantastic when it comes to exercise. I went to Body Pump on Friday evening, I jogged on the treadmill on Sunday, I went to a Pilates class on Monday, and I worked out on the elliptical last night. While all of this activity is great, it definitely has made me hungrier this week. Let's just say, I've gone over my daily points nearly every day (although I'm still OP because I've only used about 30 of my 35 weekly points).

I discovered (through the WW message boards) a site called SparkPeople.com that helps you track your nutrition and activity. The site is very similar to WW E-tools. You enter your information (age, height, weight) and it tells you how much you should be eating. Unlike WW, however, this site gives you more specific guidelines in terms of calories, fat, cholesterol, protein, sodium, calcium, iron, carbs, etc...It's a great resource. Even if you don't end up using it, I'd recommend entering in a sample day and seeing how well you are meeting the guidelines.

So, according to SparkPeople, I should be eating 1200-1550 calories per day. When I eat just my DPs, I usually hit 1200 calories, which is on the low end of the spectrum. That was news to me. I guess that's why they are called your MINIMUM daily points. Anyway, yesterday I had a good OP day + two glasses of wine and ended up using 1388 calories and going over my DPs by 2 points. At first, I was kind of upset with myself for once again going over my DPs. But on the other hand, I was well within my range of calories to lose weight. In addition, I met all of my other good health guidelines, except for potassium.

So, in the end, it looks like it's good to use your additional weekly points because the daily points are the minimum of what one should be eating. I'll definitely keep this in mind as I go through this WLJ.

I really hope that I still see a loss this week, despite eating most of my WPs!