Diet secrets - Part Three

Tools, Tools, Tools

Last week, we went with the expensive tools (futurist scale), now, we can go with the cheap ones. A calculator. A math book. Or Internet. Any website that allows you to count calories. (I am using my self 

calories count - but hopefully, you can find something better. At least this one is free at the time I am writing this). 

Fancy one. It is solar powered. Oh yeah.

Ok, Counting calories. Yes, it is cumbersome and will take some of your precious time. But I do believe you need to get a basic understanding of the nutritional value of what you are eating and the energy contained. First, you could you change your diet if you do not analyse your actual diet. We need to start from somewhere. Forget for now the complicated stuff, just focus on the global calorie of a SERVING. A serving is , as you can imagine, how much you should eat from the box. A box is NOT a serving. Usually, they keep servings reasonable (around 100-150 calories for snacks and candies, 300 for lunch or diner food), except for chocolate which they keep pushing for you to eat half of the package.

You will need the ability to read.

Obviously, you should never eat more than a serving in one lunch/diner/snack. Yeah, a can of beer is one serving. Annoying, isn't it ? But, overall, you should not mix too many servings too ;)

Remember your overall count would have to be around 2000 (for a male). This add fast.

For the first couple of weeks, just try to get in the habit to count and define what you are eating. What is your actual diet? We will see how we can reduce this to a reasonable calorific amount within a reasonable suffering amount  (Did you think it will be easy ?). 

This where eating outside is tricky. They do not put the amount on the box. Those website will give you an approximation and eventually you will be able to figure it out just looking at your plate. Some kind of Sixth sense. Not that tricky. But, Yes, the more you are eating at home, meals you can weight and quantify, the better you will get in control of -your calories count. - your money.

Measure..Measure ...

If you are cooking a lot of your own food, this is tricky too, as you may have to weight or measure your food. Yes, that takes even more time. However, you will quickly realize that you do not cook so many different meals. Be realistic, how much to you change your meals through the week ? What is your "real" meal rotation ? a dozen ? twice this ? Once you weight one meal, use it as a reference. Again, those website allows usually the meal creation etc.. Even better, you can compare your own meal to the equivalent in a restaurant.

Weight... weight....

But really, Why do we have to weight our food ? What happened to us ? What about the measuring capacity of our body - stomach ? appetite ?

Well, here is the catch. While some part of the planet is still suffering of malnutrition, in the West, food is cheap. Too cheap. Too rich. Meat was exceptional 30 years ago. Now, you consider to eat at least one serving per meal (It could be per week) as normal. Processed food, with all sugar added, are extremely rich compared to their size or weight. Already pre-made, it goes too fast to prepare - usually none needed - , to cook (barely needed - microwave rules), and give you no time to breath between meals. Too easy, too accessible, too cheap , too rich. What about a 5$ hamburger at any junk food retailer ? How can you pack so much calories in such a small time to buy and eat all together. I will not go on the lack of family values and the fact that Dinner or Lunch time are no more a paced family reunion but a race to gulp down pizzas.

This pacing, our body is not made to respond for. Our appetite, as most of our body reactions, is slow. Takes minutes, or hours, to react. The time that the body signal you that the first meal was enough, you could be already at your second snack in the afternoon. Body adapts. Stomach grows bigger. Generate artificial hunger. The marvelous body adaptation system now works against you, and generate the need to additional food. I guess you get the point : You cannot trust your appetite anymore. At least , not now.

You can reeducate it. Eventually. But first, you need to reeducate yourself. Another tricky part, once you know what you are eating, and want to change, you will have to fight your body inertia. Nothing too bad, you will see. And not forever, too. 

Like calories counting, all the good things come to an end. (that was the joke for the week).