Day One - Part 2

As this blog is primarily to keep myself focused, I'll be adding what I've eaten, when I've been tempted to cave or throw in the towel, any small victories the Lord enables me to attain, as well as various random thoughts and ideas as they come to mind.

I do believe calories in and calories out matter.  A 5' 2", relatively sedentary gal simply can't consume 5000 calories a day and not gain weight. On the other hand, too few calories will cause my metabolism to slow down, causing the old belly and hips to cling to that stored fat for self preservation.  So, while I'm not going to do one particular or another well known diet, I am going to try to implement some of the principles I've learned from various ones throughout the years.

I've decided to try to keep my daily calorie count between 1200 and 1400.  I think that's reasonable.  While some suggest it's best not to count calories, I think when someone has gotten into the habit of overeating, they underestimate how many calories they may be consuming in any given meal or day.  So until I get a much better handle of what moderation looks like, I'd better set some clearly defined parameters.

For breakfast today I enjoyed an over-easy fried egg, a slice of toast, and a cup of mint julep tea.  That 245 calorie breakfast was satisfying enough.  And there's the key, I think, that word "enough".  Certainly I'd have enjoyed bacon and hash browns with it, and I may just include them another day, but what I ate today was quite "enough" and "enough" will do.

We normally have our big meal at noon-ish, but as today is our first official day back to school (we home school), things are a little off keester, so we'll have to have our main meal later.  For lunch I enjoyed 4 Triscuit crackers with 2 wedges of light Laughing Cow cheese, along with a mango/protein smoothie, for a total of 285 calories.  I'm well satisfied.  And there's another good word, "satisfied".  I really must learn to recognize what it feels like to be "satisfied", as opposed to "stuffed", and stop at the former.

"Lord, thank You for the variety you've created.  Please help me to enjoy it in moderation."