Tracking your calorie intake is best done right away, or as soon as possible after eating. It’s a way of paying attention. You also get used to the act of entering the calories as the last thing you do when eating. Like Pavlov’s dog, only in reverse, when you open your spreadsheet you stop salivating and remind yourself that you are eating as part of a weight control lifestyle. You can connect the individual meal to the larger purpose of goal-oriented eating, and see eating a measured portion as an expression of your values. That all makes it more satisfying.
My food intake and calorie count
Breakfast – BLT (400)
- 400 calories
Lunch – Costco pepperoni pizza (710)
- 710 calories
Dinner – 11 ounces Shepherd’s pie (550); ccc (00)
- 550 calories
Snacking – tea with half and half (80); chicken (100); hummus (70)
- 250 calories
Total for the day: 1910 calories (limit 1800)
Overcaloried!
I had a bad diet day Saturday – nearly 3000 calories. That’s put me over the top for the week, as I have found I can’t make up for overeating one day with starvation the next. No, it’s slow and steady achievement, day by day, for a week, that makes progress. While I like losing weight, my goal is to have each day go well. So if the week is shot in terms of calories and losing weight (I might lose a little, yet), I can still have 6 good days in the week, which at least feels good and sets me up for a perfect week next time. Enough perfect weeks together means good and sustained weight loss (someday, weight maintenance).
So I don’t get too discouraged about a bad day, even if it has a bad effect on the week’s weight loss or calorie total. As it happens, this time my overeating day was the first day of the week, so the extra food has had a good chance to work through my system. That’s what I’m telling myself! The truth will come out Saturday. In the weight control lifestyle, that’s what Saturday is for.
-The Doctor