One of the biggest eye openers as I started this journey to being healthy is how many calories I normally consume in a day! I think I fell asleep in my high school health class on the nutrition day. I had a very skewed view about how many calories I should eat in one day. I understood that by looking at a nutrition label that 2000 calories are recommended per day. Well, I figured that must be the low end. The number you have to hit if you're trying to be uber-healthy! So if I saw an 800 calorie serving, I shrugged and ate it anyways, figuring that it was only 800 calories. A few of those a day won't kill me!
And then I saw the results of a couple fitness calculators online. Based on my 50 hours-a-week desk job, in order to start losing weight I need to be under 1350 calories a day! 1350! I easily consumed more than that within a couple hours at a Friday night party with beer, chips and pizza! No wonder I've been steadily gaining weight!
I went on a mini-researching spree online, looking at how many calories some of my favorite meals and snacks were. Are you ready?
1 bag of Smartfood Popcorn - 160
1 serving Easy Mac - 230
12-count chicken nuggets with Ranch dressing from Chick-fil-a - 550
1 full Tortinos Pizza - 728
6 oz Baskin Robin's Mint Chocolate Chip Ice cream Milkshake - 760
Qdoba 3-cheese nachos with chicken - 1125
Whiskey River Burger from Red Robin (just the burger, no sides!) - 1129
And those were just the calories! I won't add to my embarrassment by including the fat and sodium levels! By looking at how much I was eating, I knew I had to start tracking my calories STAT!
I downloaded an app on my smartphone called My Fitness Pal, which is one of the highest rated and downloaded apps currently, besides Calorie Tracker. (My husband downloaded Calorie Tracker so we could compare, and they both are equally useful - so no need for a comparison!). Throughout the day I can either search for the food I'm eating, or actually scan the barcode to easily locate the nutritional value. There are also areas within the app for me to record my weight and measurements, or to add notes about the day.
Not my screen - but a good example of how it works!
This calorie tracker app is essentially a food journal, and that's how programs like Weight Watchers work so well. Instead of assigning points, I just check out how many calories I've consumed so far, and how many calories are left. If I work out and add that activity to the journal, my calorie 'allowance' for the day goes up. I understand now why programs that make you keep a journal have such a high success rate. I can see what I'm putting in my body and see the mistakes I make. If I eat a spinach and cucumber salad with light raspberry vinaigrette, (like I did for lunch today), I can see that I consumed UNDER 200 calories for that meal, which leaves room for more options at dinner. And if I decide to eat a smothered burrito for lunch instead like I did last week, I see that number staring up at me, and I hate to say it, but the guilt trip works! I know that I've failed for the day. But in that failure, I can learn and not make the same mistake again! At least not with the same burrito...
Tracking your calories may not be what works for you, but I recommend it for anyone who considered a whole box of Kraft Mac and Cheese okay to eat as a snack. Not the single serving Easy Mac packets that I mentioned above, but a full prepared box, mind you. Give it a try and let me know what you think!
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