Calorie Counter

Pitter Patterson told me about www.sparkpeople.com as a place to track calories and exercise, etc. I have to say that I was skeptical at first. I was doing South Beach. I didn't need it.

Well, I registered. Just as I created a spreadsheet to track monthly spending and find patterns in it, I need to track what I ingest and look for patterns. Yesterday, for example, I consumed 3000 calories. Actually, that is a low estimate. It makes me slightly ill to think about, but half of those calories came from the "healthy" choice I made for lunch... Chinese food with BROWN rice instead of white. Ugh!

You know something, though? It would be wrong to 100% cut oneself off from all food favorites. It's the perceived deprivation that leads to downfall on any plan to improve your health and fitness. My problem yesterday was not that I ate a 1500 calorie lunch, but rather I came home and ate Cheetos, Taquitos, and handfulls of Golden Grahams instead of something a little better for me for dinner. No vegetables entered my system at all yesterday.

Come to think of it, the "Breakfast of Champions" was probably a better choice for breakfast than the one I made for lunch.

On the exercise front, I'm not necessarily seeing results from my 6-day all-out blitz, but I'm also not seeing the results of my aforementioned lunch, either. Must be a correllation there somewhere. What I am noticing in myself, though, is that I am starting to look forward to the workout. I'm looking forward to rolling my eyes as Chalene asks me if I'm having a good time. And when I'm done, I want to do more. And I feel so much more relaxed afterwards.