Calories Burned Junkie

Without a doubt, I am a calories in/calories out junkie. The high I get seeing the amount of calories I've burned during a ride or during a walk/jog makes me giddy. And this evening, when I pulled out the Garmin to check my mileage, I saw I'd already reached 900+ calories after only 2.28 miles (I think my Garmin was playing with me; I really don't think it was accurate). However, just for kicks, I'm going to go with it and say BAMM! lovin' the numbers. By the time I was finished with the 5.5 miles, the calories out showed 1674 (again, I think my HR monitor and Garmin were in cahoots over this one). Thinking over what I ate for the day, my calories in isn't much more than my calories out. As an athlete, I know this isn't a good way to go, but as a woman who has a fear of underarm flab, back fat, and a spare tire, the calories out equaling or surpassing the calories in brings me peace.

You'd think that with everything I've read about nutrition over the last couple of years I'd have this eating thing down. Truth is, I don't. I'm still struggling with eating on a regular schedule, eating healthful foods, and eating enough period. I'm definitely not wasting away; I've always leaned towards being on the muscular side, which I'm okay with, and more recently with all the cycling, the muscle tone is better than it has been for years. Seeing these positive results makes me slouch when it comes to the healthful eating. I allow myself to fall into the greasy pit of "I can eat anything I want--hey a double hamburger and fries sounds really good." With the easing up of cycling, though, which means less calories being left on the roads, the chance of developing underarm flab, back fat, and a spare tire is very real if I succumb often to the hamburger/fries temptation.

Somehow I need to nip that bud before it blooms. I'm not exactly sure how to do that, but with the settling into the classes routine beginning to happen, maybe I can give this a little more attention.