Calories

Day 29 - Monday morning.  Yesterday, I finally got my ever-elusive period.  Please know I only share this because it is relevant to my experiment (and the entire female population), not because I am "period-centric".  Our periods affect our weight.  Our hormones affect our periods and our weight.  It is all connected.  I haven't had a period since April 15th, but rather been stuck in a weird limbo with my cycle.  Normal cycles are 28 days, give or take, so essentially I have been late and stuck in premenstrual syndrome for 24 days.  Yes, I did say a quick hallelujah!

As predicted, when I got on the scale this morning, my weight had gone up to 174 lbs.  However, I don't care one bit about that because I know my entire system is going to be more balanced and healthy in few short days and hopefully then my weight loss efforts will be more productive.

Yesterday, I mentioned considering doing Weight Watchers and my reluctance to make that commitment to all of that counting, weighing, measuring and tracking.  Please note, I think that is a fantastic program all the way around!  I really do.  But, I have ocd and so for me, sometimes, doing all of that tracking can trigger my anxiety.  Also, I am an accountant, as well as a writer, and I do enough tracking each week (trust me!).

However, this is an experiment and objectively speaking, I do need to make some adjustments in my diet in order to become more successful with my weight loss efforts.  The simplest place I could think to start is with calories.  I am willing to dip my toe in that pond of knowledge.  Knowledge is power!  Calories alone seem pretty straight-forward and perhaps not too intimidating.

I decided to track the calories of my breakfast today.  I have to say, just seeing the numbers on my sticky notes did have me cut my banana in half (so maybe already a small improvement?).  A regular medium banana has 105 calories.  I opted for half, so about 52 calories added to my 150 calorie oatmeal with 110 calories for 2 tbsps of chopped walnuts and 10 calories for 2 splashes of unsweetened vanilla almond mild.  That equals 322 calories for my prepared oatmeal.  Add another 120 calories for my yogurt, 55 calories for 4 oz of orange juice and 5 calories for my splash of almond milk in my cup of hot tea.  That totals 502 calories for my breakfast.

That sounds like a lot, but if I only eat 3 meals a day with a few small snacks, that might actually be a good amount of calories for breakfast?  I didn't eat all of the oatmeal or the yogurt, because I got full, but having the variety of both and all of the nutrients that varied between them feels smart.

So what is a calorie anyway?

Wikipedia says:

 Calories are units of energy. Various definitions exist but fall into two broad categories.

• The small calorie or gram calorie (symbol: cal) is the approximate amount of energy needed to raise the temperature of one gram of water by one degree Celsius at a pressure of one atmosphere.^[1]
• The large calorie or kilogram calorie (symbol: Cal), also known as the food calorie and similar names,^[2] is defined in terms of the kilogram rather than the gram. It is equal to 1000 small calories or 1 kilocalorie (symbol: kcal).^[1]

Seriously?  What?  I love science, but this makes no real sense to me.

Let's try this again:

authoritynutrition.com/how-many-calories-per-day/ says:

A calorie is a unit that measures energy. Calories are usually used to measure the energy content of foods and beverages. In order to lose weight, you need to eat fewer calories than your body burns each day.

Using their free calculator (no need to give email address or sign up for anything, which I love) - it says that based on my age, height, weight and activity level I need to eat 2175 calories a day to maintain my current weight, 1740 calories a day to lose weight and 1305 calories to lose weight fast.

I think I am going to try to aim for 1500 calories a day, but a range of between 1400 and 1600.  I know this sounds tough, especially if you are someone who eats a lot of processed foods.  For me, this seems more like a natural evolution.

I've already given up all (added) sugar and (most) while flours.  I eat whole wheat pasta and breads and brown rice.  There is a slight chance that I won't notice much difference with this - with the exception of being extremely mindful about my olive oil, cheese and nut intake.

I am going to try this for a week or so: experimenting!  I will keep a running calorie count for the day and then pitch my "score" each day after dinner when I'm done eating for the day.  I don't want to commit to a tracker book or make this too regimented and serious.  I just want to know the amount of calories I am eating each day (to a degree of accuracy).  Otherwise, I might get all pinched-faced and stressed about food.  Trust me, no one wants to see that!

If you are someone who loves your tracker - wonderful!  There have been times when I did!  This is all about individualizing our approaches to things.  Getting to know what works for us (long term) and working with (not against) our personalities and preferences.  And experimenting!  Experimenting feels whimsical and light-hearted.  I don't know about you, but I NEED more whimsical and light-hearted in my life! 

Until next time...  Be well!
~Tracy