Friday, June 27, 2008

Doughnut Days at Work

On Fridays where I work someone will inevitably bring in doughnuts, kolaches, or tacos to share. This is always a challenge for me to resist. I know that they will have way more calories than I need for breakfast, but it smells awesome!

I have learned to resist these tempting treats though. At first it was pretty difficult and I gave in a few times. However, when I added up my calories for breakfast including the treat I would be shocked. Not only did I consume enough calories for breakfast but also for about half my lunch!

In order to salvage my calorie counting efforts for the rest of the day I would try to adjust what I ate. But every time I indulged I found that at the end of the day I was still hungry or had gone over my calorie goal. There are just too many calories packed into such a small piece of food.

It took a few times for this to sink in. So today while there were some Krispy Kreme donuts to enjoy, I opted not to. Some may say that you only live once and should enjoy those treats, but that is the same mentality that made me overweight to begin with.

This is not to say that I don't enjoy any sort of sweets or desserts. On the contrary I quite often will have dessert after dinner. However, I do make sure that it won't make me go over the calorie limit that I set for myself. Luckily, the doughnuts go pretty fast so the temptation is not there for long.

Thursday, June 26, 2008

How Counting Calories Works

To be successful counting calories you need only the following things:

1. A notebook to write down your calorie consumption

2. A scale to weigh yourself with

3. A calculator to add up your calorie intake for each day

For me it is easiest to weigh my self as soon as I get up. In my calorie journal I will record the date and my weight at the start of the entry. Then I write down what foods I consume and the calories contained in that serving size.

As I go through the day I will total up the calories I have consumed so far in order to see if I am on track to meet my goal for the day. At the end of the day I draw a line to signify that I have written everything down, then I write the total number of calories I consumed.

If I happen to exercise I will record the type of exercise, how long I exercised for, and how many calories I burned in the process. It is really that easy. The hard part is recording everything on a consistent basis.

For about a year and a half now this is what I have done to lose weight. Along the way I have adjusted my eating habits but the core of what I do is just counting calories.

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Making Calorie Counting Simpler

It can be tiresome and time consuming to log each and every food item that you eat. Here is a quick thing that I found can help make this a quicker process.

Group food items together that you normally eat at the same time. For instance, everyday for lunch I eat a similar sandwich. It contains bread, cheese, and sliced meat. To speed up my logging process I add up the number of calories for the sandwich and then record it under the item "sandwich".

In this way I don't have three items to record, just one. You can expand this into meals you normally consume, cereal and milk is another good example. Remember to recalculate the total if you change any of the ingredients by a significant amount of calories.

In order for this to work for most people, including myself, calorie counting needs to be as quick and painless as possible from day to day. The more complicated things get the less likely we are to follow it for long periods of time.

For me, I tend to have a pretty regimented diet from one day to the next, especially during the week. I have structured my breakfast and lunch to include around 1000 calories. By doing this I know approximately what I have consumed by the time I get home for dinner. So if I don't have time to add things up as I go through the day I will at least have a ballpark figure which will help me determine what portions I should eat for dinner.

Sunday, June 22, 2008

Perilous Plateaus in Weight Loss

During the weight loss process whether you count calories go by another diet there will be slow times where you don't seem to lose much weight. This can be very frustrating to go through. I have had two week stretches where my weight doesn't seem to change at all.

The important thing to remember here, that I have found, is that you are modifying your behavior with food. This takes a long term perspective. Every time my weight loss slowed down or plateaued I kept counting those calories and it paid off. After the plateau I would tend to lose a few pounds pretty quickly.

Make counting calories a habit and view it as a changing of perspective rather than a short term diet. After all, what are you supposed to do once you reach your goal weight? Keep Counting!

The reason we ended up weighing more than we should is because we consumed too many calories for too long. Once we lose the weight we have to keep it off by consuming approximately the same amount of calories that we burn in a day. So take a long term perspective and realize that this is a life changing process, not a temporary inconvenience.

Friday, June 20, 2008

Why should I count calories?

Losing weight comes down to balancing the energy you consume through eating and what your body burns in a day. Calories are merely a measurement of the amount of energy in a given amount of food.

To lose weight you must consume fewer calories than what your body burns. If you were to eat the same amount of calories that your body burns in a day you would maintain your current weight. And we all know that if you eat more calories than you need you will gain weight.

The key is finding the right balance. Once you establish a target amount of calories to consume in one day you can monitor your calorie intake throughout the day and adjust the foods you eat to meet your goal.

To find out how many calories you need to eat in a day to get to your target weight check out the calculator at Calorie-Count.com

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Eating Enough; Not too much!

Welcome to Eating Enough!


I am here to share with you how I lost sixty pounds by learning to eat enough. In today's world of super-sized meals we have lost track of how to eat the right amount of food. Restaurants serve enormous portions that we have become accustomed to eating.

Over the past year and a half I have managed to loose sixty pounds without very much exercise. No pills, no gimmicks, and no surgery. I lost this weight by simply learning to eat the correct amount of food for my body. My method was counting calories.

While counting calories is the easiest part of losing the weight, the hardest part was changing the way that I thought about food. I want help you change the way that you think about food. Changing our behavior is the most difficult part of losing weight.

Check back soon!