The Funny Thing About Calorie Tracking…
I’ve been reading this book called Intuitive Eating, which, if you’ve read other “healthy living” blogs, you’ve probably heard of. It’s a great book about why dieting doesn’t work, and has tips and encouragement on listening to your body. It’s about allowing yourself to eat anything you want when you want it, and not restricting your diet.
And that’s such a cool concept… except when it doesn’t work.
I was surprised with all the comments on Wednesday’s post, to hear how many other people track their calories/food. Honestly, it made me feel a little less crazy for being so into this calorie tracking thing. It’s something I’ve done on and off. I’ve tried the whole “intuitive eating” thing… and I love the concept. I think it can work for a lot of people. But some of us just love food a little too much, healthy food or not.
So now that I’m back on the calorie tracking, I can already identify where some not-so-great-habits slipped in. Those multiple glasses of wine while watching tv, the endless handfuls of granola as I walked into the kitchen, the extra snacks I eat at my desk, because they’re there, not because I’m hungry… it all starts to add up.
Maybe one day I’ll fall into that intuitive eating thing. I honestly do think it’s a great idea, and I think it’s fantastic that there are so many people that can actually be trusted around a giant bag of granola, I just have to accept that I’m not one of them. And that’s ok.
As part of the Get Well Challenge, we had a “Goal Setting” session last night, and I outlined a few goals.
Get Well Challenge Goals
- Get back to my “fighting weight” 😉 (I’d rather not talk numbers on here!)
- Take at least one group fitness class each week (I push myself way more in those classes!)
- Track my calories/protein/etc. every day and learn what foods give me the most energy
We have weekly weigh-ins at the Advanced Wellness Center, so that should help keep me motivated! I plan on using the Livestrong/Daily Plate App to track my calories. I’ve played around with SparkPeople and MyFitnessPal (which I know a lot of you love!) but for some reason, I always end up going back to The Daily Plate!
Phew. Now enough of that heavy stuff. What are some of the calories I’ve been counting loving?
These pickles that I picked up at the Carytown Farmer’s Market on Sunday. Not only were the guys selling them super nice, these pickles are freaking amazing. Maybe as good as the ones I had from the Magna Carta Food Truck. Maybe.
Oh yeah and this pizza was amazing. Be proud that I stopped myself after one slice.
Flames 231 deserves a whole restaurant review. But I’ll save that for another time…
Intuitive eating is a great concept but much harder to practice. I’m with you; I don’t believe in diets and feel they aren’t sustainable. My goal is to build some muscle so I need to do more strength training. By the way, Your pizza looks amazing.
The pizza was amazing indeed 😉 I’m hoping to work on strength training after I finish the half marathon training stuff. Right now, running seems to be my focus! 🙂
Intuitive eating is great concept but much harder to practice. I’m with you; I don’t believe in diets and feel they aren’t sustainable. My goal is to build some muscle so I need to do more strength training. By the way, Your pizza looks amazing.
I’m trying to find an approach that’s somewhere between intuitive eating and calorie counting. Basically, I’ve moved away from obsessively planning and logging all of my meals/snacks and just eating what I feel like, when I’m hungry… but within that framework, I try to keep within my calorie budget for the day, which prevents mindless snacking and overeating. So far it’s been working pretty well – I like the more relaxed approach but I do need some measure of structure/accountability because I’m the kind of person who will always want to eat more than what I need. I just love food a little too much.
My major goal this week is to keep tracking. My tracking obsession last week led me to a good loss at WW on Saturday…2 and 1/4 pounds. I was happy and it’s motivating me to continue!
Fran that’s awesome!!! Congrats!
I honestly didn’t even know there was a name for it, and I literally fell upon it by accident. I always thought I would be counting calories until the day I died, but it seems I am MORE successful, NOT tracking calories. Crazy, I know.
I don’t actually write my calories down, but I keep an informal count in my head. I tend to get hunt up on numbers, so I can’t keep a firm count. You should totally get involved with more classes, though. They are great #beastmode tools!
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I can definitely understand what you are saying and agree on all levels..sometimes I am good w/ intuitive and sometimes I am not. I now basically just do a mix of both now.. when I make my own food, I eat and eat and eat..but if I am out, I pay attention to how I feel and stop when I get full… etc. Great post!
I love intuitive eating as a concept, but it’s soooo hard to do in practice. I think it’s mainly because there are so many factors that influence our desire to eat, that it’s hard to sort through them and figure out what’s really going on. That being said, I moved away from tracking calories in favor of a more intuitive approach and find that it’s actually working really great for me. My calorie counting was just too obsessive, and I love the freedom that intuitive eating gives me.
That’s so awesome! My goal is to get somewhere in between… I can’t quite trust my “intuition” yet 😉 But that’s awesome that you’re able to relax on the calorie counting! It’s easy to get it get obsessive!
I’m with ya–I can see the benefits of intuitive eating and why some people have trouble with counting calories, but if I don’t keep track somewhat? I will intuitively eat that entire jar of peanut butter in one sitting.
Hahaha me too!!! Me + PB + Spoon = trouble.
HAHA! Those pickles have changed my life. I’m not even kidding. I was at the Carytown Farmer’s market 3 weeks ago and they tried to get me to sample. I said…no way, I do not like pickles at all. Usually I freak out if pickle juice even gets near my sandwich. For some reason I obliged…and then proceeeded to happily hand over 7 bucks for a jar. I’m already out.
Hahaha aren’t they amazing?! I literally keep eating them straight from the jar. If you like those, you should definitely try the pickles from the MagnaCarta food truck! They’re also super good!