Like I mentioned here, I’m not super jazzed with my numbers on the scale so I decided to count every single calorie I consumed yesterday to get a better idea of where I stand.
Breakfast
Blueberry Protein Shake: 213 Calories
Black coffee with a splash of almond milk:15 calories
Pre-Gym Snack
Strawberries and greek yogurt: 159 calories
Lunch
Quinoa & roasted veggies: 322 calories
(Quinoa, asparagus, brussels sprouts, broccoli with olive oil, garlic & red pepper flakes – roasted for 30 min @ 400F)
Afternoon Snack
Apple: 72 calories
Dinner
Strawberry Salad (minus chicken): 110 calories (I made my own dressing but used a TJ version as a calorie estimate)
BBQ Pizza: 578 calories (side note – this is an estimate. We didn’t measure most of the pizza ingredients and I couldn’t find some of the ones we used from the site list but looking at this I’m thinking we need to eat less cheese.)
Words cannot describe how good this was
Night snack
Popcorn: 140 calories
Daily Total: 1609 calories. Per Myfitnesspal my daily caloric total if I want to lose a few pounds should be 1200 calories. So if I ate like this without working out I’d be in trouble. However, yesterday at the gym I did an hour of pilates which is around 150 calories and 25 min on the treadmill (walk/run at an incline) for around 250 calories for a total of 400 calories exerted at the gym. If I did all my math correctly, I’m looking at a net of 1209 calories. Great, if I really did eat/exercise like this every day. But the weekends come along and things fall apart. Imagine a day like the one above plus 4 drinks? Those sneaky liquid calories. No wonder the scale was not my friend.
Thoughts on this? Do you guys track your calories? It took a lot of work to log everything and it wouldn’t be realistic to commit to doing this every day but it does serve as a good reminder that I want to have drinks then I need to balance out those calories with my daily eats and workouts which is so obvious but sometimes gets lost in the mix of fun social events.
Life - Love, Whit 
I know just what you mean about the weekends… they get the best of me far too often. I try to keep track on My Fitness Pal, but it is a time-commitment that I occasionally get lazy about. Good luck!
Yeah, I wish I could just take a picture of my meal and somehow it could spit out all the calories haha.
If only. It would surely change some of my restaurant choices.
I used caloriecount.com for a few months and it was an eye opener because it not only tracks calories but nutrients as well. I found out I was not eating a very balanced diet. I now use the weight watchers site using the point system. caloriecount,com is a free site and easy to use. Good luck! Chuck and I are completing an alcohol free week so I’m hoping that will help drop a couple of pounds this week. At my age it is a constant battle. By the way-I think with your workout plan 1200 calories is a bit low. Good luck!
I’ll need to check out caloriecount.com. I’m not a big fan of myfitnesspal. It gave me the 1200 calories when I put all my weight/height/workouts in. It seems really low to me too which is good because I rarely hit that. I think 1500 – 1800 is more realistic with how much I workout. When we get back from mexico I’m instituting a 4 drink per week limit. We’ll see how it goes.
I started tracking with my Fitness Pal…but I think that sometimes I THINK I can eat more so I do…and that isn’t good. I’m pretty sure I do the best when I eat what I want…but ONLY eat when I’m hungry. I haven’t been drinking ANY water…and I know that’s part of the reason I’m snacking. I’m actually NOT hungry…I’m just thirsty. The thing about all this is…you want to enjoy your life and do fun stuff like have a few extra drinks on Sunday afternoon (or whatever it is) and sometimes I can’t find a good balance, you know? Anyway…just thinking out loud…this is my daily struggle.
I hear you! I am not very good about drinking water on the weekends. Great during the week – like 90-120 oz but on the weekend sometimes I only drink 30 or so. I also need to eat only when I’m hungry…I’m like a snack machine on the weekends. If I just stuck to my normal routine on the weekends I wouldn’t be worried at all about enjoying a few cocktails but without fail, every weekend becomes a crazy free for all.
I think I would go crazy if I had to track my calories!! I honestly think it would make me feel deprived and hungrier!! If I want to tighten up I focus on 3 main things. 1- Stress- You can to LOVE yourself and be gentle. The day before I read your post about wanting to lose a little I had seen a bikini picture of you and thought, man! I want to look like that. We are our own worst critics. 2- Drink more water- 3 L a day!! It’ll flush out some water weight. 3. Be mindful of your carb intake. This is something that works for me. Just stick with 1 serving at earlier meals and snack time. You look great and I want that pizza!
Somehow this comment got stuck in my spam! Thanks for the post. It’s super refreshing to see this today, just getting home from a week vacation where I definitely was stress free :) I got on the scale and even though it was higher than I wanted I’d had such a great past few days that I didn’t even care. After having a break it’s actually exciting to get back into a good routine tomorrow. And I totally agree about carbs. They’re my biggest weakness.
I track on My Fitness Pal and have lost 30 lbs. Love it! Good luck with it :)
That is awesome! Congrats!!