Thanks to both of you for the welcome. I try to log my snacks, and I do know the portion sizes by now, but lately I have gotten lazy and will have a few things extra that I don't track. Even with that, I would bet I'm under 2000 calories a day, so I am surprised at the amount of weight I've gained. Throughout Stage 1 I decided not to worry and just keep eating, but it seems like from what I read here, I am just eating too much. I would love to think that I could continue on 1800 calories and everything would turn out ok. I guess today I am second guessing my decision not to cut calories and began to worry that I've been fooling myself. My original goal was to gain back the muscle I've lost in the last 8 months. Before my marathon training I was 120 pounds with 24% body fat. I was doing running-specific strength training and some body pump type classes at the gym. This is my first time lifting heavy free weights. I thought the fat loss would slowly happen on its own if I got my muscle back and continued to eat at maintenance level. So if 1500 is going to be too little, what is the right amount? Should I continue with 1800 but eliminate all junk and alcohol? Is quality really that much more important than quantity? My normal day is 4 oz. of protein juice smoothie pre-workout, protein shake for breakfast after workout, cottage cheese or yogurt with fruit for snack, salad and leftovers for lunch, Cooking Light recipe for dinner. Non-workout days I eat whole grain cereal for breakfast. I try to have several servings of fruits and veggies. I log on Sparkpeople:
OUTOFCONTROL's Shared Food Tracker - Saturday, July 05, 2008. I haven't been tracking the last few days.
Oh, and my avatar pic is a couple of weeks before I started NROLFW. That was the day after my ill-fated half marathon. I think my waist is a tiny bit thicker now, and my arms and back more defined, but otherwise no difference.