Friday, April 30, 2010

28 Days

Ryan and I are in the countdown to our little va-cay. Well, it's a conference for him, and a vacation for me. So I've been trying to eat healthier and do some exercising to try and fit into some of my summer clothes. It makes me think of that BNL song that goes, "She's like a baby, I'm like a cat, when we are happy we both get fat."

I've been using a website called Everyday Health to track my calorie intake as well as my exercise output. It's pretty cool. You can create a free online profile and then search their database for all different types of foods and then enter them into your Calorie Counter and it keeps track of your nutrition info and daily calorie balance. If you search for a food and they don't have it, then you can create your own "custom" food--I just made one for my GF Annie's Mac and Cheese.

You can also search for different types of exercise (i.e. running, walking, pilates) and it tells you how many calories you burn for a specific amount of time at your own current weight!

In your profile you enter your weight and measurements and your daily calorie goal, as well as your goals for the amounts of nutrition you'd like to get (ex. your goal is to get 15g protein every day). I read in a book once that if you want to weigh a certain amount, then you need to set your daily calorie goal at what it would be for that weight. I also think that though nutritional value is important, it doesn't matter what you're eating, as long as your obeying your calorie rules. Though I participate in (sometimes...) I do not condone "The Chip Diet." ;)

Something that was frustrating to me was having to add in individual ingredient amounts for any recipes I was preparing at home. So I found this Recipe Nutrition Calculator online and it's. awesome. Similarly to the Calorie Counter you enter in your ingredient amounts for the whole recipe, and how many servings it makes, and it tells you the nutrition info for each serving! People always talk about how much healthier it is to cook at home, but now you'll really know how healthy you are being!

Let me know if you use tools similar to this, I'd love to hear your opinions!

7 comments:

  1. I am definitely gonna start using the recipe nutrition counter... I have an entire closet of cute sundresses going to waste because of my "love fat". :(

    ReplyDelete
  2. "Love fat," "The Chip Diet."
    TISF!

    ReplyDelete
  3. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  4. sorry that was me who deleted the comment. Let's try again...

    The recipe nutrion counter is now on my bookmark bar! Thanks for the tip. In return, a tip from an oldie to a youngie: it is better to have never gained the weight than to have to diet and try to lose it." You can take that one to the bank!!

    ReplyDelete
  5. In rethinking my comment, I think I would like to add a little as way of explanation...

    First of all, in no way was my comment intended as flippant, in case anyone perceives it that way.

    My reality: Over the last 5 years, I have "magically" added 20 elbees to my weight (that's 1.428571428571429 stone if anyone is measuring weight the English way). Five years ago, the weight I WAS seemed like about 10 lbs. too much, and that was 20 lbs. more than the day I graduated from high school. When it slowly started creeping up a few years ago... a pound here, a couple of pounds there.... I found nothing I did seemed to control it. I am blaming it on hormones, but still, it is a reality.

    So now, I find myself up 30+ lbs. and not much I do seems to change that. I have recently drawn a line in the sand, and said I will go no further, but who knows?? It truly seems a little out of my control at this point, without draconian measures. And I, like you, love all things food.

    The advice I gave was the advice I also got as a younger woman, but I thought, "Well, that won't happen to me!" But indeed it did, and I have a feeling, INDEED IT DOES. I keep hoping God's plan is for pleasingly plump mature women...

    Erin and I had a discussion once about older women teaching/advising younger women, and this is (sadly??) at least one of my big truthes: "I... know for whom the [weight] bell tolls; it tolls for me."

    And while the "number" is not really a big deal in itself, it represents starting over with clothes, etc, etc and, in reality, I am really uncomfortable as I go about my normal life. It is harder to bend over and tie my shoes or squat down and weed my garden; it is hard to get up off the floor after playing legos with Owen and Liam. Add to that the normal aging process and well, you get the picture - and it's not that pretty.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Carole, I love reading your comments. :) I took your comment as the silly kind of true--the sort where we all laugh it off, but in our heads say, "she's so right!" Even with my little bit of weight I've gained, I do see how it is easier to have never gained it than to lose it.

    So here I am, using my blog as my accountability partner to work it off, and then make the life changes to keep it off. I'm thankful to women like you (and my own mother, of course) who speak the truth, and share their own stories to save their daughters from the same mistakes they've made.

    Thank you for commenting. :)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Carole, you are so wonderful.
    Lauren, I think you're beautiful no matter what, but I hear what you're saying here. And I say that as someone who recently just lost 40 pounds of "love fat," trying to figure out this new body. I'm getting there. Excercise starting soon...

    ReplyDelete