Choose Your Calories Wisely

I have tried every diet there is.  None have worked, because frankly, I LOVE food.  There is no way I can ever exclude any particular foods from my diet and manage to stay on task and not end up binging and un-doing everything.

The only way to lose weight is to watch the calories.  And to choose them wisely.

You can eat Twinkies.  You just have to count them in your calorie intake and adjust somewhere else.

I have found that the easiest way to get rid of extra calories, is to drink water.  No diet sodas, no regular sodas, no sweet tea, no juices.  Just water.  Ice cold water.  Our bodies need it anyway, right?

Now I do have to have milk.  I'm a milk fiend.  So if I have cereal in the morning, I'll have it with skim milk.  But other than milk, I drink water. 

So, just keep in mind (and track) what you are eating, so you know what calories you have left in the day.  It's simple, really.  My hubby did this just the other day.  He made a better choice at lunch so he could have an extra helping of something at dinner.  He planned it out and was able to enjoy the dinner without guilt or worrying about the extra calories.

For me, I'm not a big bread eater, so it's easy for me to pass up on breads and even buns or tortillas.  If it doesn't make me feel really happy, than I can do without it and it doesn't bother me. 

The other half of this equation is that you can also increase the calories burned to compensate for a less than good choice of food. 

I've never found it easier to be on a "diet" in my life.  Which, I guess is because I'm not really on a "diet."  And it's weird.  When I do eat fatty stuff, I find that I don't feel well afterwards.  And that it really didn't taste as good as I remembered it tasting. 

Well, except for steak.  I can eat a WHOLE lot more than the 3 - 4 oz serving size.

And, of course, eating just Twinkies is not a good idea, even if you do stay in the calorie range to lose weight.  We are on this journey for our health and a Twinkie diet is in no way healthy.  So, you still have to consider WHAT you are eating in addition to the calories you eat.

I was reading a friend's blog the other day and she had said that calorie counting didn't work for her.  And when I looked at her stats, she weighs a bit more now than she did last year.  And she had tried several "diets" during that time.  It brought home to me that you really do have to watch your calories.

Then again, you can't be maniacal about it, though.  If you get too tied up in numbers, you can forget that food is fun and tasty - even the lower calorie ones.  And with today's tools, it's so much easier to keep track than it used to be.  I use the WebMD tracker, but there is the Livestrong one as well as the Sparkpeople one - all are fantastic and have great databases that make it a snap to keep up with how much you eat.  And Sparkpeople has a whole bunch of recipes that are low calorie and quite good, so you don't have to spend a lot of time researching or experimenting (time that most people don't have) to come up with food that you actually like and want to eat.



So, start tracking those calories.  Plan around your choices and I think you'll find this is doable forever.  'Cause, it's not a diet.