Every day, I control my food intake. Part of that is keeping track of the food I eat (and calories therein). It’s an online food journal, really. I mostly use nutrition information on the food packages to figure out how many calories I am having. My other tools include the internet, measuring cups and spoons, and my kitchen scale.
Whatever I am doing, it is starting to have an effect. I was reading on Reddit /loseit the idea of the person as a roll of paper towels. If you have a full roll of paper towels and take 10 off, you hardly notice. But if you have a roll that is mostly empty, taking off 10 sheets really makes it shrink. I am at the full roll side of things right now. But my pants and belts don’t fit any more. Things may start changing faster as my roll gets unwound.
My food intake and calorie count
Breakfast – 2 x pre-cooked bacon BLT wraps (200); Aldi mini apple pie (210)
- 610 calories
Lunch – Homemade sausage chili and noodles (500); 26 grams of chocolate (140)
- 640 calories
Dinner – 3 x pizza slices (170); baked chicken piece (200)
- 700 calories
Snacking – tea with half and half (80); cookies (130)
- 210 calories
Total for the day: 2080 calories (limit 1800 + 500 bonus from swimming, total 2300)
Keep on a diet by eating what you really, really want (when you most need it)
On the subject of bacon, I am getting some important research done. I have been oven frying bacon, which is a great way to cook it, but as the weather gets warmer it will become impractical. But they do sell pre cooked bacon, so I decided to try it. I bought three kinds so far – Oscar Mayer (which makes a decent regular bacon); Boar’s Head (which makes very good regular bacon), and Costco (which makes fabulous regular bacon). If pre-cooked bacon is going to work out, I want to figure out my favorites now, before the summer heat comes. Today when I got hungry for breakfast I pulled out the Oscar Mayer and gave it a try.
It was disappointing; too mild and lacked flavor. My BLT wraps were way out of balance, even though I used 4 slices of bacon per wrap. They were more lettuce and tomato wraps. That can’t be my regular bacon. I have been putting myself in calorie deficit and trying to encourage hunger at appropriate times. The last thing I want after that effort and sacrifice is to have disappointing bacon. But no worries. I still have two others to try, and from the better bacon makers.
People may ask how I can eat bacon while trying to lose weight. The answer is, I can fit it into my calorie plan. But it has to be really, really good bacon. It has to be worth getting hungry for and really satisfying to eat a few slices of it. Each slice of my favorite bacon is 70 calories. I am allowing myself 1800 calories per day (more if I exercise). Expressed in bacon, that’s nearly 26 slices. That would be a bacon bacon bacon day. I may try it some day, but for right now I like my BLT wrap. It is satisfying and very tasty and keeps me happy until lunchtime. Today, it was sad and disappointing and I needed apple pie. Tomorrow may be a better bacon day.
-The Doctor