What did I expect??

As I hopped on the scale this morning, I was optimistic that today would be the day that I entered the zone that I refer to as the Single Digit 200's. The Single Digit 200's can only be claimed by people weighting between 200 and 209 pounds. My weight has been hovering slightly over 210 pounds for the past few weeks, and I felt that I had done a fair job the past week with my healthy eating and exercise regime so I was sure that today would be the day. (Don't tell my body this, but I was secretly hoping to weigh in at 208 pounds).

Well, I got on the scale and was surprised to see the number 210.0 glaring back at me. I immediately thought that it must a mistake, so I quickly weighed in again. Nope, 210 pounds it was! I thought that it must be my PMS weight gain, or the fact that I didn't drink enough water yesterday, or the fact that I only exercised 5 days last week instead of my usual 6. (By the way, none of these are valid excuses for me because I don't usually put on PMS weight, I drank plenty of water, and I exercised harder in those 5 days that I usually do).

During the commute to work today, I was continuing to think of reasons that I maintained at 210 instead of lost. I started thinking about the times that I had dined in a restaurant last week, but surely a few insufficient trips to local dining establishments couldn't be the culprit, could it? I quickly started counting restaurant visits on my fingers (Yes, I'm 35 and still count on my fingers) and once the number reached 10, I quit counting. There was my problem! I had eaten out over 10 times last week (12 to be exact), and even though I thought I was making healthy choices, I was still consuming way too many calories. My exercise routine burned enough calories to prevent me from gaining weight, but not enough make me lose weight.

I definitely need to do a better job at tracking my calories and planning meals ahead of time. I'm working way too hard at this to sit and spin my wheels.