Calories count, but people can’t count calories

 

…and I can’t blame them. I counted calories for years, and it was hard without special tools (a scale, good measuring cups and spoons, a program to log all my meals, the will to plan ahead, and the desire to actually do all this work to lose weight).

Eventually, while I lost weight, it also made me anal and OCD about my food OR at least brought that side of me out.

 

“Math class is tough!” – Teen Talk Barbie

Counting calories requires math and project management skills, and when people who have trouble with their spouse’s ‘honey do list’ are asked to figure out how many pats of butter they can have on how their 6oz baked potato, or how many 1/3 cups of pasta sauce are cool with how many cups of dry spaghetti, it’s a recipe for failure.

Butter doesn’t come in pats at home, and it’s hard to measure a tablespoon of butter from the fridge. What do you do with the other 3oz of potato? Can I buy a 6oz one? Can I buy a 12oz one and split it with my husband? But he’s supposed to eat an 8oz tater!

Crap, I added meat to my pasta sauce, how many 1/3 cups of pasta sauce with my share of the pound of ground beef (drained just how carefully?) added do I get, and how they hell do you fit dry spaghetti in a measuring cup, anyway?

It doesn’t matter, because while breakfast was perfect, you got hungry in that meeting and had half of what fitday.com calls a small bagel (yeah right), but it wasn’t cut exactly evenly… How much cream cheese in on a schmeer from the a plastic knife?

You regroup at lunch, and it’s just a salad, but who forgot to ask for dressing on the side? You did, and you have to guestimate that it’s 600 calories, although it tastes good enough to be 1200. What can you do?

Dinner time, and your ‘chef’ knows exactly how much to serve you, right? You told him/her that morning, because you know the calorie counts you were planning for breakfast, snack, lunch, and that other snack that you didn’t actually plan to eat, but did.

You sit down at dinner, and looking back at the day, you realize that you have no idea how many calories you ate. You dig in, and eat what you eat, vowing to be better tomorrow.

 

Aren’t there better ways? I think so.

Yes, there are diets that work to help many people lose weight without counting, but in the end, the good ones have really found a way to help you eat less, more instinctively.

Good low carb diets work wonders for many people, but in the end, you’ve eaten fewer calories. Some people lose weight going vegan, but it’s usually because good vegans exclude vegan processed foods right along with the animal products. It’s hard to overeat foods that are satisfying to your system, yet don’t trigger that urge to keep eating until you’re overfull. When they aren’t filled with chemicals and flavor enhancers designed to get you to eat (and therefore buy) more of them, you won’t.

The same things go for the foods and eating strategies we talk about here at TheFitInk; eating real food. Veggies, protein, healthy fats from whole nuts, seeds, and animal products, plus sweets like fruit, all eaten fresh and/or cooked simply, and not processed by food manufacturers into products that you can and will too easily overeat.

I’ll be honest, our Real Food Reset can help you lose weight because it helps you keep calories low without counting calories, weighing foods, and measuring portions. It’s not magic, but the focus on real foods is more satiating, more nutritious, and less addictive.

In short, eating this way tends to naturally make you eat less, leading to weight loss, better health, and overcoming certain food addictions.

People go on extreme fasts and cleanses, which are not healthy, but refuse to merely try a real food diet for a few weeks? No one is saying you have to go without a sandwich forever…

 

Who’s kidding whom?

I know, you can’t give up bread.

I know, you can’t give up your free donuts.

I know, you love rice soooo much.

I know, you need your mocha.

I also know you’re addicted to foods.

I also know you’re not making any progress.

I also see your kids watching how you eat.

I also know you’re getting sicker.

I also know the longer you put if off, the worse you’ll get.

I know.

Do you want it?

Think about it.

 

Meditate on it.

Pray on it.