New Tool

Weight: 237.0 pounds

Man, counting calories yesterday was a HUGE pain in the tushie. You may see me eating the same thing over and over and over, just so I don't have to figure out the math on everything. I can just copy what I did the day before.

I have joined MyFoodDiary.com because their calorie tracker is a LOT more detailed and easier to use than the USDA's My Pyramid, and it, too, has the exercise log. And, as if that wasn't awesome enough, it has a Recipe Builder, which you can use to enter ingredients, and it will calculate detailed nutrition information for you. Sweet! My Food Diary has a 7-day free trial, then costs $9 a month. I can live with that, especially because it helps me save time, and should help me to stay motivated with all the cool info. I need goals and accountability, and I LOVE crunching numbers. It makes the whole thing more real. If anybody (hello, Sue?) needs me to look up calories for them, just text or call me.

But MyPyramid says I can eat 3300 cal to maintain weight, and MyFoodDiary says I can only eat 2100. What's the deal? Oh, I just went and figured it out. I logged all these physical activities on MyPyramid, like walking up and down the stairs throughout the day, and holding Sammy while I feed him, etc. Tiny little things. It allowed me to rack up the calorie expenditure. MyFoodDiary works the same, I just hadn't gotten that detailed. If I do absolutely nothing, I only get 1833 cal to maintain my weight, but if I exercise, and add in the calorie expenditures for "extra" things like putting away groceries, then I get to eat more and still lose weight. Makes me want to get out and be more active with the kids. I can see already that I will have fun playing with numbers like crazy, like it's a challenge to see how I can keep the calories at weight-loss level, and really increase my activity. If I exercise 30 min. every day, throw in some extra little activities (lifting kids, moderate housework, etc.), I can eat about 1700 calories, and lose 1.5 pounds a week. That would be awesome!!!

I might ask Sue if I can join her blog group, Healthy Wife Happy Life. But I don't know how much stuff I can keep up with. Gotta get that Medical Transcription done!!!!! On the other hand, I like the idea of winning challenges. That would be sweet! Another good motivator. Speaking of which, I need a challenge like crazy in order to get my rear in gear on this Medical Transcription course. My goal is to complete 1 lesson a day. I'd like to earn rewards for that, but I need somebody to volunteer to keep tabs on me. I can provide the rewards. Any suggestions?

Exercise - PRECOR Elliptical EFX576i, 25 minutes (ran out of time), 1.70 miles, 264.5 calories, crossramp 1, resistance 1

What I ate -

Breakfast - 16 oz. water, 1/3 cup dry Malt-o-Meal wheat cereal cooked with 1-1/2 cups water about 1/4 tsp salt, 1 Tabl sliced almonds, 1 cups frozen strawberries, 8 oz. 1% milk, 1 med. banana. Total calories - 567

Lunch - 1 slice whole wheat bread, 1 slice Oscar Mayer smoked turkey, 1 slice white american cheese, 1 tsp. Miracle Whip Light, large leaf of romaine lettuce, 1/2 cup of red grapes. Total calories - 291

Snack - 38 oz. water, 4 oz. baby carrots. Total calories - 47

Dinner - 3 tacos (white taco shells, lean hamburger, chicken breast, chedder jack cheese, fat free sour cream, romaine lettuce, tomatoes, salsa), 16 oz. Crystal Light drink, 8 oz. water. Total calories - 460

TOTAL calories consumed for the day - 1365 WOW!! I can't believe that's all I ate!! And I don't feel as starving to death as I did last night. I felt like I could have eaten a big box of donuts, I was so craving some sugar. Maybe I just have to wean my body of all the heavy sugar I've been eating lately, and it won't kick me so hard to give it some junk food. Substitutes I want to make next time: skim milk instead of 1%, some kind of whole-grain tortilla or flatbread instead of taco shells, and skip the shredded cheese in the tacos, just add more fat free sour cream and veggies. It would have saved me about 150 to 210 calories, and about 15 grams of fat! Sheesh!!
TOTAL exercise calories - 1368. It wasn't just the elliptical, it was all the running around, picking up toys, cleaning, chasing Emma around the neighborhood, and bit of stairs that earned me this many exercise calories. Add the input and output together, and I am at the 2 lb/week weight loss rate today. Yahoo!

P.S. For this health blog, I will usually post after breakfast, and just add to it throughout the day, so a blog post isn't really done until late at night.