Switching around exercise to accommodate drinks

A good friend of mine is in town and she suggested getting drinks after work. I've been trying to stay under my calorie allotments more consistently so I've limited myself to drinks only on days I go for a bike ride (I "earn" at least 700 extra calories that way). But today was a scheduled run day and since I'd gotten up late, daylight hours were in short supply and the wind had begun to pick up. I just didn't want to go ride.

After much internal debate, I decided to stick with the run and go for the bike ride tomorrow, as scheduled. Because whether I run today and bike tomorrow or vice versa, the calorie totals for those two days will come out the same ultimately. And this way I get in the running that I have to force myself to do and don't have to make bike riding an unpleasant experience*.

I'm kind of proud for requiring myself to get some exercise before going out drinking this evening. On non-booze days, it's pretty easy to stay under my calorie goal but beer and the inevitable fries and mac & cheese bites screw me over. With running or biking on the alcohol days, I feel like the damage is mitigated just a little bit.

I'm also impressed that I've kept up with my calorie counting as long as I have because it used to drive me crazy. It hasn't gotten to the annoying stage yet where I am bugged by having to log everything that goes into my mouth. Part of this is because I approximate a lot of things (much more than I used to) which means my calorie-counting is not as accurate as it needs to be. But the major reason behind the change in attitude is the HUGE database of foods that myfitnesspal carries. They seem to have practically everything in there (including the Costco food court hot dog I recently ate) and when they don't, I have the option of scanning the bar code, which is much easier than inputting all the ingredients and adding it to your food list.

Lastly, I haven't put up any progress graphs lately so here is my weight-loss for 2012 - 2013. Notice my all-time greatest weight at the end of February 2012, as well as the steady albeit bumpy decrease since then:

And here is my most recent goal to reach Onederland! by March 13th. I had planned not to lose or gain during the holidays but alas, cakes and wine got the best of me. I'm still on track to get there by March, though:

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*I love to ride my bike so I try not to force myself to do it when I don't want to because that would make this fun form of exercise not so fun anymore. Usually if I don't want to do it just a little bit, I'll still go out because I love being on the open road. But with construction on my usual route, the wind factor, and the general brownness of the surroundings, I had absolutely no desire to go today. So I didn't.

On the other hand, I hate running but everything I enjoy doing requires me to have run fitness so it's a necessary evil. I've been putting off Couch to 10k for way too long so I really didn't need any more excuses to prevent me from advancing in the program.