I’m about 2 weeks into doing something I’ve never done before: Counting my calories.
Early on I realized I eat about 2,500 calories a day and easily go over 3,000.
When I first poured 1 serving of cereal into a measuring cup to see what 1 cup was like, I realized I eat not just one but several servings of cereal in the morning.
Good thing I’m extremely active! If I wasn’t, I’d definitely be racking on the fat, especially for my age (nearly 30 baby!). I realized I’ve been eating A LOT, especially on the day following after an intense bike ride.
I’ve decided to curtail my intake of calories and see where that takes me. Calorie counting has opened my eyes into understanding that…
a) I do a considerable amount of snacking between meals and all that adds up.
b) Completely filling my plate puts on way more food than necessary.
b) I love dark chocolate covered almonds.
c) Eating less than you’re used to for the first few days makes you cranky and your extremities will feel cold. (Thankfully that was very temporary).
d) Eating less makes you poop a lot less. (Science!)
e) Eating slowly is very gratifying.
f) And last, we Americans, OVEREAT LIKE MOTHER FUCKERS.
So anyway, I’m about 2 weeks into this. MyFitnessPal has been the combination iPhone app/website I’ve been using to record everything. As tedious as calorie-counting is, that app makes everything super easy. If the food I’m eating is packaged, I just scan the bar code and enter the # o servings. If it’s home-made, I find something comparable and just enter it.
Protip: I often pack my lunch at home in the morning and I log it right then and there since I know I’ll be eventually eating it, so I don’t have to open the app later on. Also if I have something like… say, a candy bar or a sandwich and I only eat half of it, but I know I’m going to eat the other half later, I simply record that I ate the full thing from the get-go so I don’t have to enter it twice. This helps makes everything a lot more streamlined and efficient.
Since then, I’ve written more tips to help calorie counting become second nature
What are my goals? I don’t have any numerical weight-goal. Body measurements are more important to me than weight so I wrapped a cloth measuring tape around my thighs (24″), waist (34″) and hips (35.5″). I’ll see what it’s like every few weeks I suppose.
I’m just going to do this until I feel like I’m a little bit leaner and lighter.  Hopefully by then I’ll have a very good idea of what <2,000 calories really feels like because I sure as hell underestimate it at the moment. I will continue my yoga practice and hopefully with time my giant thighs won’t be as giant and inversions will be less tricky as well. 🙂
