The good side of calorie counting

I had an apple and a peanut butter Larabar on my way home from work last night.  Sorry – no photos.  My camera battery died.

Once I got home, I fed Rascal, and then it was time to pound out 3 miles on the treadmill, my first run of my new marathon training plan.  My first marathon was all about finishing, so I focused on slow and steady.  But by ignoring my speed work and tempo runs, I’ve become a much slower runner.  Stamina I gained.  Speed I did not.

So I decided to challenge myself to take it up a few notches.  After all, it was only three miles.   I started out at 6.0 miles per hour (10 minute mile) for three minutes as my warm up.  I set the treadmill on Hills Level 3 which maxes out at a 2.6% incline.  After my warm-up, I set the pace at 7.0 mph (just under 9 minute miles).  This used to not be a “fast” pace for me, but now it is.  I’m building my speed back up and I’ve decided to tackle this slowly.  Slow and steady wins the race even when you’re building speed.

I picked up the pace the last 0.3 miles running at a 7.5 mph speed (just over 8:30 minute miles).  My time was 25.59.  Not too shabby.

I returned upstairs from my condo’s gym to hit the shower, but couldn’t resist showing you my new way to wear my hair when working out.  Yes, I’m still excited that I have a ponytail again.  😉

My bangs have also grown enough to allow me to better pin them back.  My favorite way is to do a poof with a twist…literally.  Poof, then twist.  Works like a charm.

Side view.

Eeew, greasy hair. 😉

Front view.

Eeeew, greasy forehead.

While I was showering, Rascal waited patiently as usual outside the shower.

He’s been doing this since he was a puppy.  Since I don’t have a transparent shower curtain liner anymore, at least he doesn’t stare me down the whole time.

I whipped up a quick and random dinner once I got out of the shower: brussels sprouts, the perfect egg with avocado and Laughing Cow on toast, and white bean tofu soup with a bit of Greek yogurt.

I like my egg a little runny and my brussels a little charred.

I actually started off making a huge bowl of soup, but then once I added all the other food components I wanted in my meal,  I realized I couldn’t eat all of the soup. So, I put half of the soup back and transferred it to a smaller bowl.  ‘My eyes were bigger than my stomach.’ But luckily I put the breaks on overeating or wasting food once I noticed that I had started to fix more than I could eat.

Knowing how much is enough is something I have just picked up overtime. I make sure usually to not eat more than a serving, but if you eat multiple foods, even one serving of each can be too much.

If anything good came from my experience calorie counting, this is it.  Counting calories for a really long time gave me a good idea of how much food to put on my plate based on my typical hunger level.

What are you thoughts on calorie counting?  There’s no judgement here.  Please feel free to share your honest thoughts.