Greetings all – it’s been lovely to have a little time off the daily grind of work (I’m doing 3 days a week at the moment as it’s non football season and LOVING a bit of time off) but that has included a bit of a break from blogging which makes me feel guilty as hell!
Having spent a little time at boot camp in June – I then had to take it very easy in July – I had a little medical procedure that meant NO exercise for a whole month which I found really difficult. Funny how when you can’t go to the gym it suddenly becomes something you miss!
No exercise, and not even cycling around london on a Boris bike meant I really took my nutrition seriously last month. As I blogged back in June, I had put on a fair amount of weight at the end of the football season so was determined not to put any boot camp weight back on. It was back to the calorie tracker for me to ensure I kept it clean for the month!
It’s amazing when you start working out how much you eat and itemising it, how easy it is to eat too much. I know there are many many weight loss gurus who massively frown on calorie counting but if it works for you, then why is it such a bad thing?
My view on it is this. If you eat too much by more then half your daily intake – so if you eat 3000 plus calories a day when you should be eating 2000 maximum for example - if you have a lot of weight to lose and are classified as obese, then the formula to losing weight is pretty simple. You can cut out carbs in the evening. You can cut your portions sizes by a third. You can stop snacking. You can start making your own food instead of eating processed, salty, fatty shit. You can do one or ALL of the above and you will drop weight. Add exercise to the above and you can’t fail. The formula to weight loss is simple.
BUT when it comes down to the people who are a healthy weight, have a stone to lose or just need to maintain their weight then a few extra mouthfuls a DAY or resisting going a little over your daily intake is really important – that’s when calorie counting does work!
I count calories but I also work hard to get the percentages of fat, carbs and protein in my diet at an equal spread. I know how much better my body works when I get the right dietary balance. It can be the difference between a constructive day with good concentration and a snoozy, carb coma session! It’s actually incredibly hard to keep the carb levels down – even if the only processed carb I eat is toast or muesli for breakfast or ryvita for lunch, even if I don’t eat pasta, potatoes, rice etc – the amount of carbs in pulses and healthy veggies and the amount of carbs that come naturally in sugar from fruit for example is enough to easily fill half my daily intake with carbs alone. I have to make the effort to eat enough protein as it’s easy to eat fat and carbs alone! Balancing the odds is all part of calorie counting for me.
I find calorie counting helpful. As I am heading to the latter stages of the day, it tells me how much I should or SHOULDN’T be eating for dinner. It tells me whether I have room for a little G and slimline T or a glass of wine. It also tells me what the scale will say when I weigh myself. If I am absolutely honest with myself about how much I consume, and it’s around the amount I SHOULD consume to maintain or lose weight then the scale is my friend. It isn’t rocket science – and with mobile apps and websites that do the whole thing for you it’s been my friend this July and will continue to be my friend on the lead up to the Paralympic Games later this month!
But for now – back to the gym for me!!
Hoorah!!
