One hundred days ago I decided to consider, measure, and record everything I ate. I have pretty much kept that commitment the entire time. I have used an app on my phone to track the food, and I force myself to take a pause and just think about what I am eating for a few moments. I think measure the food, or at least I think about how I could guestimate accurately what the food quantity is and then I record the food intake on my phone. There are some cool things I could probably evaluate with 100 days of data on what I am eating – perhaps I will spend some time on that one day.
However the real value has come from a simple fact. Writing down what I eat has caused me to think twice about what I am consuming. Slowly and gradually over this 100 days, I have been training myself to realize the caloric impact of foods that I am ingesting. I am also realizing the impact to other vital macro nutrients.
I have been making decisions to eat or not eat things based on this simple concept of writing it down. I started out eating really good, because I only wanted to record good things. However, I had some times when I ate a piece of cake, or a handful of chocolate covered candies. Now I know that those candies cost me approximately 260 calories all in pure sugar. My body digests that very rapidly and then I am left searching for more food in an hour.
The value of something complex has been realized. I eat a bowl of oatmeal, some walnuts and for an extra treat a sprinkle of raisins. That is 500 to 600 calories – but lasts a much longer period of time. The quality of the fuel really does matter, and the type of food that causes calorie count to skyrocket is something you need to train yourself to understand.
Different foods impact mood. I can honestly tell you what a couple of donuts will make me feel like in 30 minutes. Actually pretty good, but I do not like what I feel like in 2 hours. Better to stick with the apple and if I am hungry eat two of them.
I did not really set out with a diet plan, or even a nutritional plan. I just basically started writing down everything I eat and 100 days from then, I am eating much better. I still can eat bad occasionally and do, but I know the impacts and at the end of the day – recording what I eat has caused me to eat far less then I was before.
Simple concept. Eating less is actually the secret. I have lost a lot of weight, but that is not the point. This is my new life style, this is my new way of handling food. I just write it down. Problem solved. I can take that stressful part of worrying about my weight, my diet, my nutrition plan off the list of things to worry about.
Guy Reams (233)
365 Member
