Tally It Thursday

Here's something to consider next time you reach for a snack!  Let's say you grab a bag of pretzels that are 200 calories. It's not high in fat, you think it's relatively low in calories for a snack.  Okay, both true.  However, consider that if you ate an extra 200 calories a day for a year - at the end of that year you would be almost 21 pounds heavier!  Yup, read it and weep... 200 calories a day times 365 days a year = 73,000 calories.  Divide that by 3,500, the number of calories in one pound.  You come up with 20.85 pounds.  

Now even if you grab a 50 calorie snack (that little mini-brownie on the conference table, a tasting as you cook, etc.) four times during the course of a day, you're still bringing in that same 200 calories a day. Far too often we are unintentional when we eat -- we grab a bite here, taste a little there, steal a morstle there, pop a piece of chocolate there.  In and of themselves, there's nothing wrong with any of those things. The problem begins when we mindlessly eat and aren't aware of our caloric intake.  This is one of the reasons people who keep food journals have double the success rate in weight loss as those who don't track their calories.  It's about becoming mindful and intentional about what we are eating each day.  Not obsessive, but just knowing  what we're taking in to ensure that it's less than what we're burning.

While surfing Pinterest I found this interesting photo of some things that are 200 calories that is a great visual aid.  By the way, one gram = 0.035274 oz, so for example, 73 grams of french fries = 2.57 oz, which is a small fries. 

On the bright side, if you eliminate 200 calories a day through both eliminating some calories AND burning some calories (say you drop 100 calories a day from your food and burn 100 calories a day from exercise), you can lose 20 pounds in a year!!!

So, I hope this will help you make some more deliberate and premeditated choices when reaching for that next snack or meal.  It's the little things in life!  Exercise your "on purpose" eating muscle today.

Blessings,

Coach Linda