Stop calorie counting
I need to stop calorie counting. There I said it. My calorie counting has gotten out of control, more in a I'm far too neurotic for my own good than an eating disorder way but still. I've been getting more health conscious for a while now but last summer I downloaded my fitness pal onto my phone and I've been logging what I eat every day for almost eight months now.
Originally I had gotten the app because It has useful feature where it breaks your intake of protein, fats and carbs into a handy pie chart to give you a daily or weekly view of how you're doing and I knew I wasn't getting enough protein. The way it works is you put in all your meals every day , you can scan foods, look them up by name or even add your own recipes. Based on your weight, lifestyle and how much you want to lose on a weekly basis it will set you a calorie limit per day and you can offset that with any exercise you do.
So that's where my problem began.
I know that a calorie is not a calorie, in that all calories are not created equal and that if a handful of almonds has the same calories as
a cookie that the almonds are much better but when you find yourself asking how many calories are in that just before you take a bite, you'll find that logic be damned and you're not counting the intrinsic value of the calorie but only counting numbers. That's where I've found myself stuck and I can see its a problem so the time has come to stop or take a break or just chill the fuck out (apologies for the language) I spend far too much time worrying I'm over my calorie limit for the day, week, or month and and when you find yourself counting pistachios before you eat them (25 = 100 calories, in case you were wondering) you know you might have gone too far.
I'm now in a place where I don't need to check my fitness pal to know the calorie count of most things which probably says a lot more for my limited range of foods in my diet than any really impressive memory capacity.
I know better than to say it out loud but when you monitor all your food intake like that it turns you into the food police and you see someone eating McDonalds and inwardly gasp, that's my entire calorie intake for the day (1,400) or a friend mentions having two bottles of wine and you know it's over a 1000 calories which horrifies you more than the alcoholic content.
And then you find yourself sometimes deliberately omitting foods entirely from your food log just because you know you've eaten too much and even though you're a smart girl who's aware that your body keeps a more accurate log of what you're eating than any smart phone app, you feel better.
So here goes, this week I'm putting my fitness pal on hold. Admittedly I'll still be making note of what eat in a super cute diet doodle notebook I recently purchased but only to prevent me completely losing the run of myself. And it will definitely be recorded with less obsessive zeal and hopefully with the weeks holiday my brain will stop telling me that 1 tablespoon of almond butter is 87 calories and maybe start doing something a little more useful like shouting at me 'put down the spoon, Laura. you're bored, not hungry'
Originally I had gotten the app because It has useful feature where it breaks your intake of protein, fats and carbs into a handy pie chart to give you a daily or weekly view of how you're doing and I knew I wasn't getting enough protein. The way it works is you put in all your meals every day , you can scan foods, look them up by name or even add your own recipes. Based on your weight, lifestyle and how much you want to lose on a weekly basis it will set you a calorie limit per day and you can offset that with any exercise you do.
So that's where my problem began.
I know that a calorie is not a calorie, in that all calories are not created equal and that if a handful of almonds has the same calories as
a cookie that the almonds are much better but when you find yourself asking how many calories are in that just before you take a bite, you'll find that logic be damned and you're not counting the intrinsic value of the calorie but only counting numbers. That's where I've found myself stuck and I can see its a problem so the time has come to stop or take a break or just chill the fuck out (apologies for the language) I spend far too much time worrying I'm over my calorie limit for the day, week, or month and and when you find yourself counting pistachios before you eat them (25 = 100 calories, in case you were wondering) you know you might have gone too far.
I'm now in a place where I don't need to check my fitness pal to know the calorie count of most things which probably says a lot more for my limited range of foods in my diet than any really impressive memory capacity.
I know better than to say it out loud but when you monitor all your food intake like that it turns you into the food police and you see someone eating McDonalds and inwardly gasp, that's my entire calorie intake for the day (1,400) or a friend mentions having two bottles of wine and you know it's over a 1000 calories which horrifies you more than the alcoholic content.
And then you find yourself sometimes deliberately omitting foods entirely from your food log just because you know you've eaten too much and even though you're a smart girl who's aware that your body keeps a more accurate log of what you're eating than any smart phone app, you feel better.
So here goes, this week I'm putting my fitness pal on hold. Admittedly I'll still be making note of what eat in a super cute diet doodle notebook I recently purchased but only to prevent me completely losing the run of myself. And it will definitely be recorded with less obsessive zeal and hopefully with the weeks holiday my brain will stop telling me that 1 tablespoon of almond butter is 87 calories and maybe start doing something a little more useful like shouting at me 'put down the spoon, Laura. you're bored, not hungry'
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