Day 28

Flipping back through my daily food diaries, it's surprising to see the amount, or lack of food, one can eat for 1500 calories. Just glancing over my carefully portioned and counted dinner from last night makes me realize HOW much I was eating before I started counting and HOW little grasp I had of the calories involved. No wonder I was tracking to gain a pound, or two, a month and had, in fact. After twenty eight days I'm much more aware of every Junior Mint I put into my mouth.
Funnel cakes, spare ribs, movie popcorn, eggnog lattes, Mountain Dew, Cheesecake Factory's Kahlua Coffee Cheesecake, even Nicoise salad has taken on whole new meanings. It's not entirely about the WOW factor anymore, it's more about How many calories does it have?" Is it worth skipping dinner for? Will it really fill me up? Is eating it worth the feeling I felt in the doctor's office a month ago?
In the deli line today I noticed a basket with wrapped shortbread cookies on the counter. I was preparing to fit one into my calorie budget before I even had it in hand. In the day, I would've just grabbed it, opened it and devoured it. I checked the nutritional info on the package--one serving was 112 calories. The cookie was fairly large so that seemed like a good caloric bargain. Wouldn't you think an individually packaged cookie would be portioned as one serving. Look again. The servings per one cookie was four! That cookie had 448 calories. Those dirty rats.
Approach what you place into your mouth like you approach shopping for clothes. I would no sooner saunter into a store, grab hangers of clothes, plop 'em down on the counter and say "ring 'em up". I always check the tag. Don't you? If you're anything like me when it comes to shopping, you check out the price before even taking it to the dressing room. That way you can decide if it's a good value or worth the money? Look at the foods we put into our mouths in the same way. You see something you would like to eat, you get a good idea what it will cost you in terms of calories and then you decide if it's a good value, if it has enough bang for the buck. I realize that it is not always simple to get the caloric total before the food passes our lips and we don't always have the luxury of making an informed decision on the spot, but they more we educate ourselves, double check, and measure, the more prepared we are to make decisions that pay off. Knowledge certainly is power. Keep reading labels and Googling websites. Take control. Be informed.
This past month has been work, sacrifice, compromise and pushing through. You've worked very hard, but you're only one third of the way to goal. Don't fumble now.
Day 28 Calorie Count: 1430 and 50 minutes of walking