July has to be about food

Exercise update: I hadn't planned on any sort of official workout today, but I did one for a couple reasons. The first reason is that I'm a little nervous about getting my bike/run brick in tomorrow since my wife works all weekend and the kids and I are running the Chileda Classic in the morning. The other more pertinent reason is that I decided to take my daughter out to lunch (Oriental Chicken wrap and French Fries at Applebee's) and I knew I had clearly exceeded my allowances for a non-workout day.

So, it is a best of times/worst of times scenario. On the best side, I am one fit fat guy. I can jump on a stationary bike and bang out 20+ miles in under and hour, and remember it was just a few months ago I talked about 30 "aggressive" minutes on an elliptical. That is definite progress.
But... I have clearly proved that my fundamental instinct is to cover up questionable diet choices with exercise. This is a great weight maintenance strategy but I'm 20 pounds from a weight worth maintaining...

Think good thoughts for me dragging my 9 and 6 year olds through a 5K at 8:00 tomorrow morning. It should be slightly cooler, so that will help.

Nutrition Update: As noted, I probably stayed within the calorie limit today thanks to 50 minutes on the stationary bike at the Y. But I did not make workthe plan I had of simply tracking a no exercise day and seeing if I could stay within the guidelines.

At this point, I think I can confirm that half of my goals are being met. I am much fitter than I was in mid-April when I began and I am exercising very regularly 4-5 days a week. However, while my diet has improved (rarely eat McDeath anymore), I can't say my nutrition is supporting my weight loss and health goals overall. There are 30 days left in July starting tomorrow and I'm going to try to really dial in on nutrition for those 30 days. I'll need to work on specifics, but I feel like cardio exercise was my priority for 2 months and now I need a month of putting diet at the top of the list.

I can use the tracker and any other tool, but I'm feeling pretty good about just trying to add more healthy choices to each day. I'm not sure it will be reflected on the scale, but I can assure you I simply feel better on the days I've eaten better. Maybe August can be a focus on strength training, which is another missing element from my transformation. I'll certainly need to put the whole package together to have a successful Urbanathlon.

Random Musings: I am enjoying the extended days before the weekend as a break from the office. I do enjoy not working:)
Lots of work stuff going on next week that might mean a lot or very little depending on how it turns out, I'll keep you up to date if it matters.
Today's fantasy was to be a licensed counselor and then spend an early retirement working around the country as a traveling therapist. It looks on the web like those opportunities exist. Of course, I'd have to actually go to school for counseling and acquire the hours for licensure etc. but as a fantasy it sounded pretty good.