Laura: Rolling and walking along (week 2)

After breaking even last week due to an exciting weekend in Gatlinburg, I decided to get serious and really come up with a strategy I could live with as I try to get wedding dress ready. It's less than a month to go until the big day, and the pressure is certainly on.

One thing I've definitely learned about myself over the years is that my key to success is completely tied to exercise, for a couple reasons. First, I suffer from pretty severe reactive hypoglycemia that's given me problems for years. I actually have a food drawer at work to help me deal with the problem. It's best if I eat every 3 hours or so, and preferably items that are high in fiber and low in refined sugars. I'm also supposed to avoid caffeine, which I've been trying to do lately because it definitely causes my blood sugar to dive and me to snack more than I should. It's hard for me to go under my daily recommended caloric intake of 1750 calories when I'm eating so often. I can do 1500 most days, but 1200 is pretty near impossible. Exercise definitely helps with the blood sugar thing too. I don't know why, but it works.

The other reason exercise is so important to my success is that I generally eat out 3 or 4 times each week. It's completely tied to convenience most of time, but sometimes, as my fiance says, "I just need to feed my tasty."

So, here's the new strategy, and it's working so far, because I've lost 2 pounds this week:

• I'm going to exercise 5 days a week for at least 30 minutes. Some days it's just getting a long walk in. Sometimes it's riding my bike (my preferred form of exercise as I typically burn about 500-600 calories per hour). And, if all else fails, and the weather is miserable, I'll go to the gym.

• I'm running most of my errands on foot or by bike. This has been more interesting than expected, as I'm really having to plan out my trips so I don't have to carry too much back or so I don't forget something and have to turn around. I bet I walked 4 miles this week just running errands.

• I'm going to make smart eating choices -- salad over fries, fruit instead of chips, water instead of soda, etc -- but I'm not counting calories or measuring anything, since it makes me crazy.

So, that's the plan. Here's hoping I can stick to it. I really feel great when I exercise, but sometimes getting the motivation to get started can be tough. I just need to visualize myself putting on the wedding dress and how nice and toned I look and how much energy I have.

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