Calories Schmalories

RealAge says I should stop counting calories....

Here's the key: Stop counting calories. Instead, pack your diet with nutrient-dense foods. Research shows that jamming your diet full of nutritious edibles may be one of the most important steps to weight loss.

Food Withdrawal
In a study, when people switched to a diet full of healthy foods, they experienced hunger far less often and found their hunger much easier to tolerate. Researchers think that when people don't eat enough nutritious foods, it causes a sort of "food withdrawal" phenomenon in the body, characterized by inflammation and the release of toxic metabolic waste products.

Quality, Not Quantity
Take-home message: Don't obsess about how much you should be eating. Instead, spend your energy thinking about what you should be eating. If nutrient-rich fruit, vegetables, and whole grains aren't making frequent appearances in your diet, your body is going to miss them and loudly ask for more fuel. Same goes for lean proteins and healthful fats. Once you feed yourself better, and your body gets past the initial junk-food withdrawal, your taste buds will start to crave the healthy stuff instead.

I am still going to keep counting calories because I often forget just how bad for me certain foods are. And if I am mindful of what is going in then I can make better decisions. Besides, it is easy to do with the little app on my phone. BUT....I am definitely going to be more mindful of making those calories count.

Yesterday I was fasting for religious purposes and at dinner time I used up my whole 1457 calorie budget with one meal plus dessert. Result: Gained a pound! Most of what I ate was good, but those last 400 or 500 calories went to candy bars! Yeah, not good. So the calories have to be good ones to see the results. These are all things I know, but try to deny on a daily basis!

Today will be better~