Day One Hundred and Seventy-Nine - I'm Sorry, the Doritos Diet Just Won't Work

Last summer we bought E her first two wheel bicycle.  She received a tricycle a few years ago from my parents for Christmas and has outgrown it.  The problem was that she wasn't (and still isn't) quite tall enough to touch the ground while on the seat.  The bike also doesn't have training wheels, so she is struggling to learn to balance.  When I was little I learned to ride a bicycle by touching my toes on the ground, and teetering back and forth until I had my balance.  Then I put my feet on the pedals and rode.  So for E we tried multiple methods to help her learn to balance.  First I tried the old school method of holding the back of the seat.  That was probably a lot easier on the old banana seat bicycles.  It just didn't provide the stability she needed.  The next method was Bekah holding the handle bars and walking behind E while straddling the back tire.  This worked, but it didn't give E the opportunity to learn to balance for herself.  The seemingly best method was with me walking backwards in front of her with my hands on either side of the handle bars and barely pushing back just when she started to tip.  She really did great.  I'm sure it won't be long before she'll be riding that bike on her own.

Balance is critical when learning to ride a bike.  It's the same when seeking to meet a goal.  Bekah and I were just talking about having balance in a diet when trying to lose weight.  It's really tempting to just eat an insanely strict diet and completely cut out certain foods.  The problem is unless you are going to keep that up after you lose weight, you will have trouble maintaining your weight loss.  It is also tempting to simply fill all of your calories with one food you really like.  Sure, if you limited your calories, and only ate Doritos (I know, I know, a Doritos diet does sound absolutely amazing!) to meet that calorie intake you would still lose weight.  The problem is that you would also be lacking nutrients you need.  I mean we all had that friend that ate chips and drank Diet Mountain Dew for each meal while staying a skinny as a pole.  They probably weren't very healthy and if it continued they would eventually get really sick.  My goal has been to find the balance of eating nutritious, tasty food, while limiting calories to lose weight.  I really like food.  I wanted to learn how to balance enjoying the foods I eat while monitoring my intake.  I also wanted to find the discipline to avoid overeating and to work out each day.  So I've balanced my calorie intake with a regular workout, and if you look at my tracker each day you'll see that I'm not just eating celery and carrot sticks.  I still eat pizza and other tasty foods, I just limit the amount and frequency that I have them.  I am learning to have balance in my diet, and it's helping me lose my butter half.

My intake was great today.  Bekah made a really good breakfast, we had left over grilled food for lunch, and then finished the day off with a salad.  I did have a few sweet things, but really limited the amount.  I got a full workout in before church this morning, and really felt great all day.  I think I need to start working out each morning.