Yesterday I hit 10,000 steps for the first time in quite a while. I’m not sure how long it’s been, because I don’t track my steps, but that really doesn’t matter, does it?
My Noom Goal Specialist, Kyle, bumped me to set an exercise goal, so I chose a 30-minute daily walk. That’s good for starters, and should be workable, as I already walk a lot, and I enjoy it.
I prefer to have a destination when I walk, but yesterday I wandered aimlessly, circling the neighborhood, just trying to get in my 30 minutes. And that resulted in my eventually hitting 10k steps. But before that happened…
I was doing great with regard to food yesterday. Well, pretty good. Corn Chex, a Red food — Noom has Red, Yellow, and Green foods, based on caloric density, and Red foods have high caloric density, which make them the worst choices — was my breakfast, with unsweetened cashew milk (a GREEN FOOD!)
Lunch was an apple, spinach, lentils, brown rice (all Green except for the lentils, which are Yellow), and then some crystallized ginger, which I like to finish a meal, even if it’s Red.
All was going pretty well, and then I went out to dinner with my friend Tara, and I shot myself off the rails.
Now, my going off the rails is not a crazed eating frenzy. I’m usually a pretty restrained eater, so it feels weird when I’m not as controlled.
We went to an excellent Mexican restaurant, Adelante, that boasts more healthful choices. SIDE NOTE: Adelante accepts credit cards now. Yes! This was a sticking point between me and the restaurant, as I am not fond of using cash, when I can much more easily pay with a card, and get points.
I had the vegetable enchiladas with brown rice (their standard) and whole black beans. Not too shabby from a healthy meal perspective. But perhaps I should mention the bean-and-cheese nachos with guacamole I had as an appetizer? Or the additional corn chips and borracho beans? And the cheese in the borrachos?
Again, these are not terrible foods the way they do it at Adelante, but I was a little afraid to enter them into Noom, lest Kyle jump down my shit for overeating. I entered the meal anyway.
After dinner we went down to Southtown to enjoy a little of San Antonio’s First Friday activities. We had a short stroll to get there — parking close is not an option when arriving to First Friday as late as we did. We looked through some art and jewelry, observed a “rockin’ glassblower”, and, what to my wondering eyes did appear? My favorite gelato shop, South Alamode!
(I’m a bit embarrassed to admit that I only just noticed that it’s South “Alamo”de. In my defense, I’d never written it out properly before. For those of you unfamiliar, the shop is on South Alamo Street, so that’s pretty duh.)
(Also, I should state here for the record that once we decided we were going to Southtown, I knew we’d end up at South Alamode — I did not really have “wondering eyes” — because it’s probably my favorite thing right now.)
Okay, so even with my extra exercise, that delicious gelato — one scoop of goat cheese & caramel & cashew(?) plus one scoop of stracciatella — I was about 1,000 calories over my Noom limit.
Damn.
As I drove to drop Tara off at her place, I jokingly mentioned that I would not enter this gelato into Noom. These would be undocumented calories.
But I can’t do that, because there’s no way I’m on a program and not following instructions. If I don’t follow the rules, how can I properly evaluate whether it works?
You might say, “But you are not following the program. You busted your allotted calories by 1,000!”
You can look at it that way. But from my viewpoint, I’m a regular, everyday person when it comes to diet and fitness. I often fail. And that is the focus of my writing.
There are plenty of websites out there for people who are obsessed with working out and/or diet. I’m not that. The tagline of this website is, “Healthy eating and fitness for everyday people.”
So, anyway, when we arrived at Tara’s place, I stopped the car and got out to walk Sof — a lovely soul of a dog — with Tara, as I often do. During the walk Tara’s Fitbit signaled to her that she’d got her 10k steps in. Celebrate!
I looked at my Letsfit fitness tracker, and it stared back at me with the number 8,732. Way short of 10k.
If my friend had not hit 10k, I probably would not have worried about my step count. 8,732. That’s pretty good. However, she had 10k, so I had to get mine.
When we arrived back at Tara’s house, I let her and Sof know that I’d be back when I hit 10k. And I did, and I was.
This morning, even after eating all that food and gelato, I weighed in 1.2lbs lighter than yesterday morning.
Morals of the story?
- It’s okay to be at least a bit obsessed with getting all my steps in. As long as I’m not injuring myself and neglecting other areas of my life, I should feel free to get all the steps I want.
- It’s okay to have that gelato. It’s something I truly enjoy, and, especially at age 60, my life is too short to forego simple pleasures.
- Positive social influences — like, in this case, hanging with someone who is also counting steps — can help keep me on track.
- Dehydrate yourself and you can make yourself weigh less. (This is not a good idea, but it’s true, and I think I did inadvertently dehydrate myself.)
Day 5 of my Noom journey is in the books. Even going off the rails, so far, so good.