Over the past few days calorie counting has taken over my mind, almost to the point of obsession. It started Friday. While looking for a low-calorie lunch idea I decided to cook up some Ramen Noodles. On the package I discovered that one package of Ramen Noodles contains 400 calories, and I usually eat two. I put the noodles back in the cabinet and had a ham sandwich instead.
By checking the nutrition charts of restaurants, I’ve found that many “diet” items are anything but. Take for example Taco Bell’s Chicken Taco Salads. At Taco Bell I used to get 3 items (I’ve dropped back to 2). Taco Bell’s Chicken Taco Salad contains 850 calories. Compare that to their chicken soft tacos, which only contain 200 calories! And an order of their cinnamon twists only has 180 — therefore, you could have 3 chicken soft tacos and an order of cinnamon twists and still have LESS calories than if you had eaten their salad! Weird.
Sunday was Jack’s birthday lunch and I made some pretty bad lunch choices at Texas Roadhouse. I had a 12oz ribeye with a side of rice, a side salad, and a couple of rolls. After checking online, I determined that I had about 1,200 calories. Oof. To repent, I walked two miles yesterday — once just after lunch and once in the evening. I cut 4 minutes off my normal time, finishing the mile lap in 26 minutes instead of 30. For dinner I had a salad from Wendy’s. I checked online and their Chicken Mango salad contains 650 calories, but the line below that says it’s only 150 calories if you leave off the dressing, almonds, and crispy noodles. So, that’s what I did — for dinner I had a 150-calorie bowl of lettuce, chicken and mangos. Not the best dinner I ever had, but it sufficed.
I know the key to doing this is not to eat so few calories that I kick my body into starvation mode, but the whole thing has almost become a big mind game between my brain and my belly. I’m not sure who’s going to win yet. I’m not going to starve myself to death (not that there’s a remote chance of that happening anytime soon), but I do plan on eating less and better and sticking with the exercise.
Oh, and by the way, I checked the calories of Chinese Food online and uh yeah, that’s pretty much off the diet. I have been deceiving myself apparently into thinking that by eating chicken and noodles at the Chinese buffets that I was making good choices. Unless you’re sticking to only eating white rice and and steamed vegetables (which I don’t and wouldn’t) then the calorie count on that stuff is amazing. I think a two-cup serving of General Tso’s Chicken was like 1,400 calories. General Tso must’ve been quite large.
Try eating more small healthy meals a day, and get regular exercise (3-5 times a week). The exercise is the most important thing for a healthy body. And avoid the white rice too. It is a carb, so your body just goes and turns it into fat. It’s also enriched bleached flour, which is not good for you. Try to get as much 100% whole wheat as you can. When you go to the grocery store buy from the outside aisles and not the inside. I.e. Fresh fruits and vegetables and lots of fish.
Sounds good to me — the outside aisle of every supermarket here is the cake bakery! I think I’ve pretty much ruled out any rice at this point. We’ve been eating some wheat stuff, I’ve adapted to wheat bread okay and actually wheat spaghetti and wheat tortillas aren’t as bad as they sound (they are better than nothing). We’re prettt good at fruits, but don’t do many veggies other than salads and corn. Susan hates fish so I can’t ever see her preparing that. Do fishsticks count?
Well, obviously within reason. We shouldn’t eat anything fried at all. That’s hard, because everything tastes good deep fried. She doesn’t even like blackened Salmon or Tuna steaks?