One of the happy outcomes of participating in #vDM30in30 was running into fellow VMUG leader's Mike Stanley's cool blog https://geekfoodcritic.com/
As you have learned in this blog, IT people are an easy prey to self sabotaging ideas and generally eating unhealthily. As you can read in this blog post where Mike turned around the focus of his blog (from food reviewer to healthy food advocate) the truth of the matter is that we can't sustain the hundreds of extra calories eating out gives you. You either exercise like an athlete or you have to come to grips with reality.
I especially appreciate how hard it is to do a log of everything you eat in a day, like he started doing for vDM30in30. His blog posts are really detailed and they show his thought process and how he counted everything that day.
https://geekfoodcritic.com/blog/2016/11/1/what-i-eat-in-a-day-001
It's imperative for anyone doing real weight loss to track what they eat. I use MyFitnessPal, and I've had some really long streaks - the longest was half a year. But invariably, I miss a few days and I have to start over again. It's difficult - and it's most difficult when you go out, because there isn't a nutritional label to scan in most restaurants (although several chains are in the app, which is the biggest plus it has).
If you are in the same boat as Mike and I, reach out on twitter and help keep us motivated. I know first hand how easy it is to get off the ideal path for days or even weeks. I see it in my blood sugars and my weight scale - every so often we need to remember that this marathon is still ahead of us and all we're run so far doesn't count for today. We have to earn a healthy status with a healthy lifestyle, every day, and make it a habit - a habit to not soften, dull, or self delude ourselves!
