Nothing Weekend + My Fitness Pal

Ah, the weekend. It's so funny how life changes. When you're young and you have an uneventful weekend, you're all "ugh, we didn't do ANYTHING this weekend."

When you're almost 30 and you have an uneventful weekend it's "I didn't do ANYTHING!"

Here's a better picture of the bed!

That's sort of how my weekend went! It's the first weekend since Scott's been gone that I haven't booked myself solid. I went to two spin classes, took Gunner to the dog park, picked up a STEAL at the thrift store, went grocery shopping, made our parent wedding albums, vacuumed out the car and had lunches and dinners with some long lost lady friends! I had a bit of a depression slump Sunday where I watched Disney movies and cried on the phone to the hubs (he took it like a champ), but otherwise it was so nice to be able to watch Law & Order and Sex and the City marathons and sit around in my PJs.

I did make one big change this weekend. Usually, I try to track my activity and food via Weight Watchers. I calculate points for food and exercise and generally try not to live like a jackass. Sometimes I track, sometimes I don't. I'm generally unenthusiastic about it. Apparently you have to actively participate in tracking to lose any weight. I know...who knew?

Here's the whole headboard!

On Friday my friend Aimee came over for dinner. (Stick with me. I know it's a random segue, but I do have a point.) And when I saw her my jaw dropped. She's melting away before my eyes! Every time I see her she's lost more weight. I finally asked her what she had been doing this weekend and she told me she just tracks her calories.

She said it so nonchalantly like she was commenting on the weather. Like, "Oh, it's raining."

So of COURSE I pelted her with questions. What app? How do you do it? Is it hard? How much does it cost?

Aimee told me she uses My Fitness Pal (MFP), a free app. She tracks what she eats, and her activity, and it calculates her daily allowance, etc.

I decided to give it a try. Saturday I downloaded MFP and started tracking calories. I added in what I ate, and calculated the calories I burned at spin (which was a LOT).

Thrift store find. I scored it for $12, marked down from
$36. This crate is usually upwards of $200. We need
it for Gunner's flight to Hawaii. I'm already giving him
treats when he goes in it to get him acclimated.

And it was so fun! For some reason, tracking calories just makes more sense to my brain than tracking points does. Usually I have to check labels for carbs, fiber, protein, etc. But calories is so much more simple. One number. Entered in. Boom.

Also, I've always been suspicious of how much WW penalizes you for certain things. Like alcohol. Or cereal. A 60 calorie beer is roughly the same amount as a regular beer. It's cray. And a non-fat bowl of cereal is as much as some higher-fat breakfasts. 

I canceled my WW account and am now using MFP. I put myself on a faster track, so I'm allotted 1,200 calories a day - and then whatever I burn when working out gets added to that number. It definitely inspires me to get my rear to the gym so I can earn some cals. :)

Also, as a side note, it's official: I'm obsessed with spin. I went to class Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Friday was a 30 minute ride, Saturday was 60 (which is insanity) and Sunday was 45. I tried to go this morning, but I was too late with the call-in and the class was already full. Boo!

Here's hoping I can get into kickboxing this evening!