surprisingly fun

I am a monster when it comes to food. In my whole life I've never been a portions girl, or a limit girl.My husband one time jokingly but sweetly said at a restaurant "she's my little eater" in a give-your-little-brother-a-noogie-because-you're-proud-of-him sort of way. It doesn't bother me at all that he said that - he's a funny boy, and I was eating a ton that night, and he was right. I can put it away!

Anyway, I feel lucky in that I feel like I have a good metabolism. I don't even really know all that much about metabolii, but I feel like mine is good, because after recently joining http://www.myfitnesspal.com/ , my eyes were opened to how much I USED to eat, and what that looked like in terms of calories, carbs, fat, SUGAR (my weakness) and protein. And I still cannot understand how, with what I was eating, I don't weigh a hundred more pounds at least!

If I had logged a day in the life of my eating just two months ago, let's say around Aprilish, no joke my caloric intake would have registered around
2600 - 3000.
I'm not kidding. My biggest calorie killers - sugary foods, LOTS of milk, LOTS of bread and butter (toast was probably my favorite food), and FAST FOOD - and just having no limits. Easting it all up. Yup - good old Fish Tacos from Del Taco, or Chalupas from Taco Bell. Let's just take a look....a Fish Taco from Del Taco has a total of  300 calories, and I rarely ate just one - it was usually two fish tacos if I stopped there, OR it was a fish taco and a bean and cheese burrito (490). Chalupas were my food of choice when I was pregnant with my third...I craved them. A Beef Supreme Chalupa (because that's the ONLY kind worth getting, in my opinion) is 350, and a double decker taco is 320. Those are the things I'd eat together, becuase I believe in ordering two things from a drive thru, one is not enough for one person. WHAT WAS I TEACHING MY KIDS? So we're talking about me having lunches that were at least 500 - 600 calories, along with all the other grazing I was doing all day. Not to mention the bars of butter I'd go through because everything tasted better with butter! In the past month, an average lunch for me is about 350 calories total, and made up of completely different substance.

I am NOT one of those girls who thinks they're fat when they're not. I do think I have a very realistic view of me. I hide things well. I have horrible stretch marks from three pregnancies, I have some areas where fat likes to camp out and never leave, and I just don't like the overall feel of how my pants fit or the jiggle in places I don't want it. I know what I'm supposed to feel like and this isn't it. I'm 5 foot 6 or 7 and I've been in the mid-high 140s for the past four years, and I know that's not where I'm supposed to be. I just know I'll feel it when I'm there, there isn't a certain number goal for me, and I also know I won't be wearing a bikini ever again in my life because there is nothing I can do with the thousands of marks.

Lots of friends and loved ones are members on myfitnesspal, which also has an app we use on our phones - mine even SCANS foods and inputs them (as shown above), and it's become our "fitness facebook." I now check in on myfitnesspal before ever even thinking to check my facebook. I LOVE it. It's become a little addiction, and with the addition of ACCOUNTABILITY through your friends being on the site with you, it has been TREMENDOUS over the past few weeks seeing the change in my diet.

#1 I am NOT a water drinker. I'm a milk drinker. I've always wondered, since I would pound about 3 - 4 cups of milk a day (yes, seriously - at least it was skim) did that mean I could somewhat COUNT that as water??? I mean, milk seems to have an awful lot of water in it, and breastfeeding infants don't get any plain water, just milk. So it must be fine. STILL, I was lucky if I drank one 8 oz glass of water a day, and that is NO exaggeration. The cool thing about Myfitnesspal is that i don't exaggerate on it, whereas I do exaggerate everywhere else.

#2 I did not care about the balance and makeup of the food I was eating. Sure, I cut out about 90% of our red dye intake in the past two or three years because of things I'd read, but nothing affected my other eating choices like high fat, calorie and carbohydrate foods. OR HIGH SUGAR foods! Now trying to make the numbers right, and eat things at the right time, it's all like a new game to me. I want my food to fit together in a way that compliments each other and gives me energy and doesn't leave me hungry. It takes thought and planning and preparation, and I am LOVING that part!

#3 Sugar is my weakness - I'm aware of that. I'm that stereotypical "i need a piece of chocolate" girl. People have bought me the "give me some chocolate and no one gets hurt" aprons, the "chocolate makes everything better" mugs, etc. and on and on. I'm that girl. I'm a chocolate giver, too. If I find a chocolate I like, look out world, I will shove it down your throat and try to make you like it, too. It will top your birthday gift, or it will just be a "just because" present. Maybe I try to make others join in my addiction. I don't know. But in the past month, I have passed by chocolate bars with NO feeling of wanting it. Honestly. To hear myself say it, I have to ask myself if I'm lying, but I said I'm not lying, so I'm believing me.

#4 I am not a good runner or worker outer. I don't belong to a gym. I can't run a half mile without stopping to spit a bit loogie or say the following chant "I will not die, I will not die, I will not die, just keep going, make sure you get into the front door."

But after almost a month of just TRACKING what I'm eating, and seeing it in front of my face, and having the addition happening before my eyes, and knowing how much more protein I need, calories I'm "allowed" and things like that, I have lost four pounds. For me, four pounds in a month is huge. Because I don't stick to things, and I make excuses, and I get sick. When I get sick, all bets are off. I become the sickly little center of the universe and my plans just halt.

Here's what today looked like logged on http://www.myfitnesspal.com/ :

Obviously that picture is just showing from lunch on because it was too big to put the entire screen on. Before lunch, there's breakfast and morning moody snacks. Those are just little names I PUT IN THERE myself to differentiate from the typical breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks, because I'm a grazer and I needed more slots than that. I notice the cranky comes out when I skip those little "moody snacks."
(funny sidenote, when anyone seems a little cranky these days, among my fitness pal friends, the first question is "do you think they didn't have enough carbs today?")

Those little notes I wrote on there about the protein and carbs - those are just the guidelines I'm trying to keep myself within.. WHY? Because Michelle told me to. She is that friend who is the researcher - the looker upper - the buyer - the tester - the guinea pig. From all her research on fat loss and muscle and all things healthy, she let me know that for optimum weight loss, those numbers for me should be around the 150 rule - more than 150 grams of protein per day and less than 150 of carbs per day. I gotta say, trying to figure out a way to get those protein grams without the carbs is a challenge, a challenge I like. And there is a group of about 8 of us who are very die hard about getting it right every day, with our diets public to each other and it's SO MUCH MORE FUN than I would have ever thought!!!!

I know, like so many other things, my interest in this will die down, my weight will fluctuate, and I'll feel sometimes like I failed. But if anything, the most important thing I'm getting out of being a daily logger on myfitnesspal is just KEEPING AN EYE on myself.

Even if you have no weight to lose, sign up  on http://www.myfitnesspal.com/ and SEE what you eat and how it all adds up. You will be surprised. For my husband, his sodium is above his limit every day and now he's working on that. For me, his sodium is my sugar! Sugar is something I need to get under control, and the challenge feels great.I'll share more as time goes on, about separate parts of what I've changed and if it's working, because I'm still new at it, but for now, please if you are not a member of http://www.myfitnesspal.com/, go sign up.