Small victories and water retention

I did, over the last days, manage to take in less calories than I expended.

Barely. 

And after eating a single Texas Double Burger at Burger King yesterday, only to be flabbergasted to see that was well over 900 calories, without fries and coke, I can tell what the next lesson is. Look before you bite. 

Add to that the fact that in spite of being under my calories, I have gained over two pounds from yesterday to today,which means retaining over a liter of water, and you get one frustrated bunny. 

Today, the afternoon slump clamored for something cakey, so I bought a muffin. 

Instead of wolfing down the whole thing on the way back from the bakery, I kept it intact and put it on the food scale that now lives in my office. A good thing I did, too. Running the weight of that- not even big-looking- muffin through the calorie counter I found that it would have hit me almost as hard as that burger yesterday. So what I did is cut the thing in half and keep the second half for tomorrow. 

On the confession front, if I got a yen for bakery goods, in the past that meant buying at least two, most often three pieces, and eating all of them in one go, on top, of course, of a full day`s meals, thereby bringing myself at least by a thousand calories into the zone of too much. 

Reading the last days´ entries in my food log is actually quite instructive, in that what keeps popping up ist the fact that I have a serious tendency towards calorie-dense stuff, thereby creating major caloric havoc with diminutive-looking portions of food. Barely eating anything, indeed, if one looks only at the volume or number of items consumed. Still, with my low TDEE, that barely anything is already much too much. 

The only way to go is switching to less calorie-dense foods. In other words, vegetables, fruit and low-fat dairy. Pickles, too. And lean meat. 

And keeping my daily step count up. I have set myself a 7500 steps goal for now, which I have regularly met the last days, in spite of the heat. 

Which still just prevented a caloric plus from being eaten. Instead of the 450 calorie deficit I would have needed to be on plan. 

My eating habits don´t need finetuning, they need a complete revamp. 

I do not want to go to that family affair any heavier than I was for the last one.