239.8 - 236.4 (The numbers add up, or down...)

So I've started tracking my calories and exercise on the site MyFittnessPal.  Damn handy site.  Very robust database of foods and ingredients, and very easy to use and configure to my own tastes and food habits.

I'll admit that I've resisted tracking/journaling my food and calorie counting.  I always knew why.  I never really wanted to know the truth of how I eat.  I knew it would illustrate my own shortcomings and weaknesses.  I was right.  But I have accepted it now, and I clearly see the utility and wisdom of it.

It also shows me what binging and over-indulging does.  I've promised myself that I'd even log those times, too, and for the most part, I have.

I'm still having trouble with night eating and binging/"treating" myself, but it is getting better.  The use of the site allows me to see into the future a bit as far as what I can expect to lose if I stick to it, and knowing that I won't see those projections on the scale just serves as a reminder to me to stay mindful and in control.  Weather or not I do is a different issue all together, but again, it's better.

The other thing the site is really good at is helping you get your head around what exercise/activity does for weight-loss.  Here the site isn't quite as comprehensive as the food side of things, but you have the ability to modify/customize that as well.  For example: walking as an exercise is primarily what I do.  "Walking" alone burns X amount of calories.  But I live on a rather major hill.  Add to that the fact that I generally walk to the grocery store every day, and lug between 10-20 pounds of stuff back at a time in my backpack.  Walking uphill with 20lbs on your back burns more calories than walking on the flat unencumbered.  Hunting around the web finds a number of useful kCal burning calculators for figuring out the burn of a given exercise, so I set up custom data in MFP for the exercise I do regularly.  And yes, that includes things like laundry, and, of course, sex!  I want credit for it all!

Good food day.  500 kCal under my daily goal, and had this completely epic bacon cheeseburger for dinner...

This is a 1/3lb 90/10 organic free-range ground chuck burger patty with onion soup mix and tamari in it, with mayo, brown mustard, Muir Glen organic ketchup, Maui onion, heirloom tomato, Tillamook CoJack cheese, thick-cut organic pepper bacon and romaine lettuce on a toasted onion bun. Srsly.  At the last gastrorgasmic bite, I nearly passed out.

Oh, and tots...

[added rant]

Seriously, though, it's times like these that make me ashamed of how many nasty-assed, nitrate- and filler-stuffed craptastic McCrap burgers I ate when I was younger.  Good lord, do you know what this tastes like?!  Why oh why on earth would anyone ever want to eat something passed to them through a window when this tastes like this?!  It took me all of 30min to make it, was made perfectly, and to my exact tastes and preferences, is mostly organic and ethically produced, costs a total of about $6 (including the tots), and reminds me of sitting in the back-yard grilling and drinking MGD with my old man and our dog.

Srsly.