Calorie counting

All my life I ate without thinking and suddenly I was going to start counting calories...(sounds like lot of hard work)

Before jumping to counting calories and getting a heart attack by just seeing the numbers add up why not start small...I started off with just writing down everything I ate...it’s was not easy to write down every bite I took. So I took smaller steps. I made a note of everything I ate just before sleeping and marked all bad things in red so if I ate a slice of cake there was a red mark on my page. The first week I had lot of red marks but in my second week I was really trying my best to reduce all the red marks in my diary. At this point I did not focus on the serving size or calorie counting. I based everything on common sense like chocolates, ice creams, crisps, cakes, baked stuff all marked red

Once I got used to writing stuff at night the next thing I did was writing down how much I ate, so I started keeping track of my portions this way I got used to checking the serving size before putting anything in my mouth. Instead of writing bread and eggs for breakfast I started writing two slices of bread and 2 egg whites. I continued my red highlighting method but now I had more information to note down because I was including my portions so I had to start keeping track during the day. I also started marking a bigger portion in red. (if I ate two frozen yoghurts as a snack in the evening that was a red). Somehow all this made me eat a little healthier along with becoming more conscious about my serving size.

It was not practical for me to take out my diary in the middle of work and scribble things down so I moved to typing things on my phone. Finally I thought I needed experts. I went looking for mobile apps to add my food and count my calories. I use myfitnesspal and love it. It's easy to use and usually has calories listed for most of the things I eat. Sometimes I add things to my app even before I put it in my mouth so I know the exact calories I will eat. Through this app I could also set my daily calorie intake (the app does this based on your age, weight and fitness goal) and with time you usually know what to avoid and if you do eat something unhealthy you know how much you need to work out..(I will tell you all about my workout app in another post)

Step 5: Eat right and keep track of what goes in your mouth

• Start with just noting everything you ate just before sleeping 
• Highlight everything unhealthy in red 
• Add portions / serving 
• Highlight larger serving size in red 
• Look for a calorie counting app (I use ‘myfitnesspal’)

So do you count calories? Which apps do you use?

Keep Reading I will Keep Writing 

Tanvee