New Plan

Ok...so obviously I don't enjoy working out. We've established that. I really wish I had a new bike that I could ride around on, but since I'm not about to spend that sort of money right now...new plan. I've decided to try something interesting, and we'll see how long I stick with it....

Counting my calories!

I've done some research, and I found a website that took my personal info (body weight, height, age), and calculated how many calories I should have per day. The guidelines are:
Maintenance- 1710 calories/day
Fat Loss - 1368 calories/day
Extreme Fat Loss - 1280 calories/day

Every day I'm going to shoot for in the Extreme Fat Loss category. So far today it's been a big success. I've had breakfast, a snack, and lunch....and there's still plenty of room for dinner and another snack. I have a small notebook that I'm going to throw in my purse to carry with me, and it has all the above info in it. Here's what my first page looks like :

Monday August 17, 2009
Breakfast:
1 c. Go Lean Kashi Cereal: 140
1/4 c. TVP (for cereal): 80
1/2 c. blueberries: 30
1 c. vanilla soy milk: 100
Total: 350

(what I did here was just doctor up my cereal. I already like how it tastes, but adding the TVP gives me like 12 more grams of protein. I love blueberries, so I just threw them in my cereal too.)

Snack:
String Cheese: 80
New Total: 430

Lunch:
2 stalks of celery: 25
1 oz of hummus: 90
1 c. cantaloupe: 54
1 activia yogurt: 110
1/4 c. tuna fish: 70
Total: 349

New Total: 779

If I'm going with the extreme fat loss guideline, this leaves me with 501 calories left for the day. I'm going to have another stick of string cheese, and then go to Paneras for a delicious salad. I'm good to go.

One thing that I thought would be especially difficult about this, was figuring out how much was in certain things that maybe weren't marked. The cantaloupe for instance. Like I said though, I've been researching everything, and it's so easy to find stuff online. I even found an easy converter for not so bright people like me, who can't remember things like how many teaspoons are in an ounce.

Realistically I know there will be a lot of days that I go over. There will also probably be many days I don't write everything down; partly due to maybe not wanting to research. Overall I think I'll do better than I won't though, because knowing how many calories I am from my limit will help me to say to myself, "no Maureen, you do not need popcorn at the movies tonight...you only have 350 calories to spare." I'll then be forced to hopefully find a healthy alternative. Plus, let's be honest - I do love making lists.

So there we go. Let's see how this works. I'll be attempting to drink my 80 ounces of water a day as well (80 because you're supposed to have half your body weight in ounces). If I do this, and maybe hop on the elliptical every so often, maybe I'll finally start to see changes!!