today's realization

Today, both boys were home again. I worked on reports all day, and once I finally caught up, both boys were laying in the living room asleep. I saw my window of opportunity, and ran into my room, lifted weights, stretched, and jumped on the treadmill. I ran 4 miles today. I was actually a little tight from yesterdays run, so it felt good to work that out. At about mile 2 I was feeling tired and really wanted to quit. But I told myself "today's training is to run 3 miles and do strength training. You can make it 3 miles". I just kept on running, and the next thing I knew I was feeling good and realized I was already over 3.5 miles, so I might as well just make it 4. LOL! It felt great.

Okay, as for my realization.....
At Christmas my mother in law gave me a gift card to walmart (Yea!!!!) so a few weeks back I went shopping and bought a bunch of girly things that I'd been wanting: sunless tanning lotion, teeth whitener, probiotics supplement, mascara, Jillian Michaels chocolate Whey protein powder (so yummy!!! Low in calories, and tastes like a chocolate milkshake..not gritty, even on the last sip. Love it!), a swim suit cover up, AND a digital kitchen scale! I've been wanting one of these for a long time, but never had the money to buy one. Well, let me tell you, it was soooooo worth the money!
I've been weighing things such as nuts to put into snack baggies (to know that I got the right amount), fruit, oatmeal, etc. But then a few nights ago, I downloaded a new food tracker/diary for my phone, and it converts/figures calories for you, and you can add your own favorite foods in there, etc. Tonight I made turkey whole wheat spaghetti. Now normally I'd just fill my plate about half full, and eat a salad with it. Tonight I decided to type in all the calories and nutrition information for these ingredients and put them in my phone/food diary. I then weighed my pasta, and weighed my meat/sauce. Was I in for a SURPRISE! A measly 2 oz of pasta is nothing! Yikes! But I measured it out, into one of my small Pampered Chef square plates. Then I filled the rest of the plate with salad. I was shocked by how small a serving of this "healthy" spaghetti was. But I stuck to it, and ate slow, and amazingly I was full when I finished eating.
This was a total revelation to me though. Normally I'd of ate about 3 or 4 X the amount of spaghetti I ate tonight. No wonder I've been running anywhere from 3-10 miles on any given day, and not losing any weight. I've been eating way to much! I've had to run that much just to maintain! Yikes! LOL! It was a total eye opener! I'm going to start weighing, measuring, and logging everything I eat. Maybe now I can actually get to my goal weight, and increase my running speed.