Started being more active recently, including more cardio, and trying to stick to at least 30 min of workout a day, and walking around campus or in the park to escape the ridiculous heat during the day. (If I didn't, I'd actually be cooking in my room. No joke - tried staying in last weekend and found out my mind was so sluggish that I couldn't do anything but sit in a chair drinking water for the entire day because of overheating...it actually took me several hours of staring into space before I realized something was wrong because I couldn't think straight. Ultimately I escaped to the office.) This means no more sitting in my room/the lab all the time. And feeling happy when I go outside, even when it's blazing hot! Hurray!
I think I'm also going to start changing my goals on MFP quite soon - I'm currently estimating 1200 net cals a day which is pretty low. (Although I'm not using a food scale, so I assume I'm often overestimating the calories burned/underestimating calories eaten and likely netting something around 1400-1500.) Since I am no longer only sitting in a chair all day I feel increasingly ravenous on this diet, to the point where the end of my workday is typically derailed by desperate cravings for large quantities of food, which don't fit in my limit. These cravings even made me go running/walking a few days this week so that I could burn off more calories to give myself more "room" to eat a bigger dinner! Talk about counterproductive. I have also discovered that I can't attain a decent amount of iron and other nutrients on it with my current choice of foodstuffs. Typically I overeat Vitamin C and A, am moderately ok with calcium but am consistently eating only 50% or less recommended daily dose of iron, which is not good. So I'll stay the course till the end of this week and start a higher calorie goal on Friday, and give myself the weekend to sort out cravings and gradually get used to eating more again.
When I started MFP I put slightly ridiculous goals as I had no actual idea what I was doing (didn't even know what a good goal weight was *facepalm*) and just knew I needed to make a lifestyle change in order to stave off depression and anxiety. Now I am learning how to better adjust my goals to a plan that is healthy and sustainable, while also learning about nutrition, exercise, habits, recipes, types of foods, different philosophies, etc... My first aim is to get down to a decent goal weight. My second aim is to make sure these exercise habits start sticking. Third, once the basal goal weight is achieved (thereby proving to myself that I do in fact have willpower and can make myself do anything), I'm going to start recomp and work on increasing muscle mass and reducing body fat %.
Around mid-June, I was on the verge of 23 BMI (150 lb), and now I'm 21.6 (142 lb) and aiming for 21 (138 lb). Goal #1 is not too far at this point, and I have about a month to go in order to reach it. Reason for that deadline is, I know once I go home I'll be eating with my family, and I'll want to be eating at maintenance by then so I can enjoy all my mom's delicious cooking (within reason of course). I know I'll also be more active then because I'll be frequenting all my favorite hiking spots and running around in the forests and doing more advanced bodyweight exercises. And rescuing my pull-up bar from my parents, who have been using it to hang their clothes...
So many plans. I'm stoked.
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