Tuesday, April 10, 2012

numbers aren't my thing.

I started counting calories.

No, for real this time!

I've been complaining about losing 10 pounds forever. And everything I've tried to do seems to take me in the opposite direction. And with summer approaching, and all of my favorite warm-weather clothes taunting me because they don't fit*, I had to get serious.

I joined a gym in January.

I signed up for this kick-your-ass strength-training class. After my first class last week, my arms hurt so much I could barely lift them to wash my face in the shower. They were like jello. It took 5 days before I could pull up my pants without wincing. If it hurts that much, it must be working. Right???

And I started counting my calories with this app, or, how I like to refer to it, the Best App In America.

I'm not an unhealthy eater**, but manually entering everything you eat into a counter, well that's rather eye-opening. I'm sure this is what it's like with the Weight Watchers app. It's just so cool. And telling.

You set up a profile,  heights, weights, how much you want to lose and by when. Then you can enter any exercise you do each day. Then you enter your daily food intake.

It searches foods, and just about everything I've entered is in there in some way, shape or form. So you can see how many calories you have left for each meal and snacks. 45 calories left for dinner? You might need some adjustment.

Yesterday was my first day with the app. It allowed me to finagle what I was putting in/on my salad until I got the calorie combination correct. And I even had enough calories left to enjoy ONE Cadbury Mini Egg. (that was ONE egg, not ONE handful).

So we'll see how long this lasts. To get to my targeted weight by August 1, I can only eat about 1400 calories a day. Or 87.5 Mini Eggs.


*How is this possible? I slimmed down training for my 5k. I'm still running, and I have a 5K this weekend, but the clothes don't fit. WTF?
**Except on the weekends, when calories don't count.

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