2500 Calories Per Day
Weigh-In
This week: -3.1 pounds
Total loss:
33.8 pounds
Non-Scale Victory
Sticking with the Pounds Off Playoff through 16 eating
plans.
Here’s something I haven’t shared. I “tried” three eating plans in the first two
weeks of January. Same story as
everyone, I was trying to start the year anew.
But the plans – which I don’t even remember – weren’t structured and
they lasted four days on average.
Fortunately, I had recently read about Scott Cutshall in
Bicycling Magazine and read his blog start to finish. (I had also sacrificed two hours of New
Year’s Day football to watch “Julie and Julia” with my wife...) One
day in mid-January, I took a walk, had a flash of inspiration to try eating plans
like the NCAA basketball tournament and blog about it. The P.O.P. started on January 17th. My first post was a week later, after I had
lost 6 pounds and gained just enough confidence that this might amount to
something. I posted anonymously for a few
more weeks before feeling comfortable that this would stick, long-term.
Here’s the Deal
Calories don’t lie.
Counting calories is the best of both worlds – technical and
intuitive. Technically, we know with
precision how many calories a person needs to lose or maintain weight. But the act of counting calories keeps my
intuition from crashing.
How? Here’s an
example. I sometimes will make a
sandwich for lunch. Here’s the process I
used to use with just one ingredient: cheese.
1.
Put one slice of cheese on the sandwich.
2.
Notice that the cheese doesn’t cover every
square millimeter of the sandwich.
3.
Snap a second piece of cheese into the shapes
necessary to cover the remainder of the sandwich. (I call this Sandwich Cheese Tetris)
4.
Eat one slice of cheese, because, well, it’s
only one slice of cheese, right?
So if you took arithmetic in school like I did, you’ve
counted THREE slices of cheese in the above example.
Fast forward to sandwich making while counting
calories...
1.
Get pre-sliced Tillamook Cheddar out of the refrigerator.
2.
Look at label.
3.
Notice that EACH slice is 90 calories.
4.
Do a little math (90 X 1 = 90 ... 90 X 2 = 180
... 90 X 3 = 270...)
5.
Think to self, “What the $*%&#(@$!”
6.
Put one slice on sandwich, ziplock the remaining
cheese, and put it back into the refrigerator before it jumps into my
mouth.
7.
Whew, dodge 180 extra calories.
This Week’s Plan
7 comments:
Good luck this week! Counting calories certainly works for me, but we're all motivated by different methods.
Also, I want to thank you for the comments and e-mail to my son. Very cool and it is inspiring him to really do this.
My best weeks are those that involve counting calories. Note to self: count calories this week!! ;)
Congrats on your success, and here's to the week ahead!
Sandwich cheese tetris! Hee hee!
I don't have the patience to count calories. I look at the nutrition info and avoid high calorie things, but don't count them. I don't even count the points in my WW plan. I pretty much know by now what I should eat in a day and that's what I do. But I didn't lost THREE POINT ONE pounds this week, either . . . . Congratulations!
I think many of us just lose track of portion size or don't pay attention for whatever reason. Cheese is especially hard because it is pretty highly caloric for what would be a decent size serving. I watch my husband fill his plate with slices of Gouda for a snack and cringe thinking about what he is probably unknowingly ingesting. My biggest cheese downfall was the 100-calorie packs. I liked them too much. Sigh.
Hah, I do luuurve me some cheese, too.
Counting can be tough for me-like when I grab a grape tomato from the fridge when I get a water-but lots of diligent people are super successful at it.
Will you post what you eat for your 1800 cals each day?
Polar's Mom
www.polarspage.blogspot.com
PS-Loving the Redskins right now
I hear ya! Knowing how many calories your body is key... now to have the will power to agree with that fact.
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