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Fringe is over and I've (mostly) recovered. I didn't have a chance to log anything here, but I kept an eye on my weight and paid some attention to my body, and came away with some interesting conclusions.
A) I can eat anything if I am sufficiently active without gaining weight. Now the bar is set pretty high for this, but on the day I walked/ran 17 miles, I ate a 2 pound ice cream sundae that my cast surprised me with, a large poutine, two chocolate bars, a footlong sub, two slices of pizza, a pitcher of sangria and about a dozen beers. I lost two pounds that day.
B) Despite the fact that I don't gain when eating crap, I still feel like crap. Another day I walked/ran 18 miles, and ate salads, veggies, shwarma and rice, a breakfast shake and Gin and (diet) tonics instead of beer and wine. I felt a LOT better the next day, unlike the day I listed in the last point.
C) Any day I sleep more than 14 hours a day, I will gain, no matter how much I exercise and how little I eat that day. I was actually at 185lbs when the fest was over Monday, a net loss of 2 lbs, but I've slept most of this week, and I'm back up to 190 by today.
D) I can do twice as much exercise before collapsing if I break it up into bursts instead of one, long, intensive stretch. Running from show to show was 15-30 minutes of activity followed by 30-60 minutes of sitting and watching the play, followed by another burst. I had no real issues sustaining that level of activity. The day of our first performance I was running last-second errands all afternoon, and on my feet a total of 1.5 hours before I felt like I was going to fall over. The pedometer showed about 4 miles that day, but it was all at once, so a lot harder on me than the day I did 18 miles.
So, conclusions: when I'm really that busy/active (and tracking to make sure I'm not fooling myself) it's not worth the added stress to be strict on diet. That said, smarter choices will make me feel better and more capable and energetic. So don't search for something that's perfect, just take the best option from what's in front of you. When I'm not that busy and planning my workouts into my day, many short bursts are better than one long session. I'll be able to do twice as much overall by breaking it up, and feel better at the end of it. And days I need to sleep that much and recover (please note, I'm semi-disabled, so this really is a medical need, not laziness) don't sweat what the scale says. Trying to push through and ending in the hospital is NOT worth it.
So, next steps: I'm going to get back on Atkins, as it's easiest for me to lose that way, and look into some options for adding more, short, workouts to my days. But I've proven to myself that even at my most hectic, I have this maintenance thing down. The minor changes to my lifestyle are really making that difference, and they are sustainable through my highest stress periods, when I'm most likely to revert to old, bad habits. Go me!
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190.0 lb
Lost so far: 12.0 lb.
Still to go: 40.0 lb.
Diet followed reasonably well.
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gaining 0.8 lb a week
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