Back Care Yoga and Calorie Counting!

Somehow in early July, after stopping the Weight Watchers program, I jumped up about 5lbs. It took me a few weeks to get back into the swing of just counting calories and macronutrients (fat, protein, carbs etc) rather than counting points.

Gasp!! A new high weight for me.

I love Sparkpeople - free calorie tracker for counting my calories (and fitness and more, LOVE) and they have a new option for counting where you set a baseline of calories per day based on the idea of being completely sedentary, which works great for me, as I sit at a desk all day, and then your calorie goals change day to day based on the activity that you add into your "tracker". The only caveat is that you have to be diligent in tracking what you intend to do that day and stick to it, or your calorie goals will be higher than the output you actually did.

This isn't a problem for me though, as I am doing pretty much the same workout every other day (jogging) and on my off days, I am doing yoga, Rodney Yee's Yoga for Back Care and now adding in some light strength training. That video is great. You try lugging around 20lbs of breasts and tell me your back doesn't hurt!

I really think that this way of tracking is paying off. For example, if I do not do any activity, my calorie goals for the day will be a range of 1200-1550. However, if I burn, say, 400 calories in a workout, my range will go up to 1600-1950. I usually stay pretty close to the low end of the ranges and am feeling super satisfied and have lost weight too.
Which is actually surprising, given that I just jumped into a steady fitness routine... I expected to gain some water weight until my body caught up with my new routine.


Now, with my monthly about 2 weeks away, hopefully I can do some real kicking ass on the scale so that the pound or two I most usually gain will not negate any work I have down so far. That always seems to be the problem. I lose and gain the same few pounds over and over again.
Ugh.
Well, I have another run on the schedule for today!! I have been doing them in the evenings, when it cools down. I just don't know if I will ever be able to get up early to do this! I like the feeling of a long cool shower afterword and just relaxing for the night, like I truly earned it.
It wouldn't feel the same if I had to hop in the shower and get to work after my workout. I enjoy the almost luxurious feeling of "ok, it's done. I'm a badass, now lets slather on some fruity lotion and call it a day!".