Tuesday, January 18, 2011

School days make me happy

I am so excited to go to school today. Mainly, I'm excited to get back into my usual routine. Spending time at home for weeks on end is nice - don't get me wrong. But it's been a constant battle for me - to snack or not to snack.

Don't get me wrong - I wasn't just sitting around doing nothing for the past 3 weeks. Besides work, I have done a lot around the house getting ready for this new semester. In fact, it was on the two days that I gave myself permission to just stay in bed and read and watch movies that I snacked less! Since I knew I would be sitting at home for days on end, I altered my eating style a bit. I focused on smaller meals to compensate for more snacking.

Also, as an experiment in maintenance, I stopped counting my calories at the beginning of December. Yes, you read that correctly. I decided to see if I could "do it" without counting every calorie I consumed. Silly me, it was a bad idea to do this during the holidays because there were so many different dishes crossing my plate. Since the start of the new year, however, I have managed to maintain my weight and even start back on the losing track over the past week or so.

But I feel a little out of touch with the nutritional information of what I'm eating. Perhaps this is one reason I've read articles advocating counting calories forever. Of course, the idea of that sounds a bit tedious to me. I certainly didn't miss writing everything down in December and January. Plus, I feel pretty comfortable with my ability to stick to my calorie allowance - holiday foods notwithstanding. But, I miss knowing some important information: How much calcium, protein, fiber and iron I'm consuming.

Sure, I read labels, but they don't add it all up for me. And you'd be surprised how hard it can be to get the recommended iron or calcium you need in a day! I might pop back onto Sparkpeople.com every few days and input that day's food to see how I'm doing.

No comments:

Post a Comment

LinkWithin

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...