Calories!

This calorie thing is hard!  I had no idea when I started to learn how to eat again (forgetting all that I was taught in kindergarten about cleaning your plate and going back for seconds), that this would be so hard.  My wife and I talk about how much we use to eat and we are amazed that we hadn't gained more weight than we did.  Take today for instance, we were out shopping and we stopped at Bruegger's Bagels for lunch.  I thought I was going to be good.  According to my LoseIt.com calorie budget, I have a budget of 1,619 calories for today - PLENTY, RIGHT?  So I ordered what I thought was going to be a good (that is low calorie) lunch.  I ordered:

• A Wheat Bagel
• Light Cream Cheese
• Green Pepper
• Bacon (ok, so maybe that wasn't the best idea)
• Baked Potato Chips
• Diet Coke

Sounds good - RIGHT?  Wheat Bagel, Light Cream Cheese, Baked Chips? Well, after I finished I decided to record my meal calories.  To my astonishment that meal was 607 calories!  This Calorie Thing Is Hard!  Who new?  Not me!

So what are you suppose to do?  I had already had 447 calories from breakfast and a mid-morning snack!  Should I not eat the rest of the day? No, that would be just as bad.  Walk 10 miles?  Yeah right!  Plus, my wife's cousin and his family were coming over for Zoey's pizza tonight!  This was not going to be a good calorie day!  I was defiantly going to go over my calorie budget for today.

In general, what I try to do is make up for my calorie overages over the coarse of the week.  If I go over by 500 calories on a particular day, I will try to shave off 100 calories a day for the next 5 days.  That way it all works out in the end.  

So, the next time you find yourself in line at Bruegger's, be careful, you may think you are ordering the right stuff, and instead you're ordering almost half of your day's calories!  

Also, many restaurants will give you a nutrition guide that explains the calories in their foods.  Just ask if they have a Nutrition Guide.  I have read that this will eventually become mandatory for all restaurants to provide this on the menu.  Some restaurants are already doing this (i.e. Panera Bread).  

P.S. Weight Loss Since Jan 6th, 2011 = 26.2 POUNDS! (See My Weight Chart)

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