Step-Wise Process of Losing Weight

The pursuit of weight loss is such an individual pursuit- not only in the individual-motivation sense, but also in the unique physiological response-sense.  What I mean is- equal and sufficient assuming motivation between two people, the same approach may work very well for one person while having no effect on the other.  Of course, there are factors that undoubtedly affect each person's physical response, including age, stress-level, diet history, medical condition, and so forth.  It can be so easy to become frustrated because these are not factors you can readily control or change. Moreover, weight loss takes time and that means patience- which can be the biggest hurdle in this pursuit.

I've been hitting the gym everyday, burning at least 500 calories every trip, and consuming on average ~1500-1600 calories per day (which is terrific for the holiday season!), for the past 12 days and I haven't seen the number on the scale budge. Not one bit.  Frustrating!

So, I did a realistic self-assessment this morning, and I came to admit to myself that I have been undercounting some of my more caloric indulgences and I've certainly been pretty stressed.  Both unhelpful to weight loss!  On the other hand, the good thing is I've noticed some trimming down with my body toning up and become less soft.

Now that the holiday season is over and work is back on the table, I have fewer holiday indulgence excuses and it's time to cut the empty calories.  Stress is hard to banish but the exercise has definitely alleviated it to a good degree.  Since I have a diet-roller-coaster history, I don't want to severely restrict my calories, only to pig out later on.  I'm aiming for a 4 pound per month weight loss which is very realistic as far as weight loss goes.  Moreover, I'm only 5'2" so my RMR (Resting Metabolic Rate) is only 1288 calories/day.  Even though I exercise off 500 calories/day, if I consume 1288 calories, then I will only lose 1 lb/week, since 3500 calories burnt = 1 lb lost.  (Btw you can calculate your RMR too at http://www.caloriesperhour.com/index_burn.php)  1288 calories isn't a lot to work with but definitely not impossible.  The distribution looks something like:

Breakfast ~300 calories
AM Snack ~150 calories
Lunch ~300 calories
PM Snack ~150 calories
Dinner ~300 calories
Dessert ~ 88 calories

So I'm going to try to keep myself accountable by logging my progress here (per the expert advice by Tina of Carrots' N' Cake), starting today and as far as I can through my holiday in Israel and Paris in a few weeks.

Starting today:

5am 1 Fiber One English muffin with sugar free jam and a mug of coffee ~150 cal
(Workout)
7:30am Green smoothie: 1 frozen banana, 2/3 bag spinach, 1 cup almond milk ~200 cal
9am 1 Sweet potato ~100 cal
12pm 1 Wrap with cheese, spinach, shredded carrots, cucumbers, black bean salsa ~300 cal
3pm 1 Yogurt with 1/2 cup Fiber cereal ~150 cal
6pm Salad with tuna, cheese, black bean salsa, tomatoes ~300 cal &
Dessert: Yogurt with sugar free jam ~88 cal

It's not a small amount of food.  Although the menu is much less greesy-delicious than the holiday foods I've been enjoying the past few weeks, it will be a lot more helpful for my energy levels and weight loss goals!