I helped another family move today for about an hour and a half, so that was a bunch of calories burned. I have mixed feelings about how I feel with exercise on my new, restricted calorie plan. My weight loss and exercise have definitely helped me have more energy, but the low calorie diet also makes my muscles weaker, I believe. So I think the best way to put it would be that I have much better cardio endurance, but my muscles maybe don't last as long as they would if I got more calories. But overall, I am definitely more effective at loading boxes and furniture than I was before. I did get a very minor cramp or two, and I could feel my muscles starting to give out carrying the really heavy stuff. I believe I need to start taking a multivitamin since I don't eat a lot, that may get me minerals to help the cramping, and I think doing more exercise than just walking will help my muscles.
As for eating, I had a daddy-daughter date with one of my daughters, and she chose Panda Express, so that's where we went for dinner. I noticed there is a huge difference in calories between the "healthier" and "unhealthier" options. Most of the fried and sauced options (orange chicken, etc.) are around 500 Calories, the beef & broccolli is like 180 Calories, and the Kung Pow Chicken is 290 Calories. I had a bunch of calories, so I chose one high calorie and one moderate calorie one with Beijing Beef (my favorite) and Kung Pow Chicken. This was my first time having the Kung Pow (I usually get sweet fire chicken), and I really liked it. It was quite spicy, and it had lots of veggies and even peanuts in it. Really nice. I went for the steamed white rice to save about 200 Calories over the fried rice. Here it is:
So other than that, I had some chocolate w/ peanut butter later in the day and a protein shake. I was really feeling my muscles after moving people two days in a row, so I felt like I needed to feed my body so it can recover. And even though I'm a bit over today, I was way under yesterday so I feel like it averages out.
I also want to say that I still feel so good. Every day I feel even better, it is almost unbelievable. I can only imagine how I'll feel when I've finished this challenge and I'm down to 250lbs. I don't plan to stop there either, by any means! I can't decide if I want to do another 50lbs/90day challenge to get down to 200 or if I should slow down a bit. We'll see how I feel then and just how little I'd have to eat in order to keep losing at this rate when I am that much smaller.
On another note, it might be said by many that eating only 595 Calories a day is way too few. I'd say they are probably right, but keep in mind I almost never eat that few calories. Every day I strive to burn at least around 300 extra Calories, most days much more, so I end up eating at least around 900 Calories or more each day. That's about what you'd get from Medifast/Optavia, and I feel good about where I am. Again, most days it's even more. For instance, today I ate 1995 Calories because I burned 1333 Calories with the move I helped with.
I do want to be able to track my calories more closely. I don't really like just picking an activity on MFP and trusting the calories it tells me. So I might invest in a heart rate monitor watch, one that will accurately track my calorie expenditure based on my heart rate. I believe that is about the most accurate way apart from being hooked up to a VO2 sensor or something.
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