Not me.

At my house, today is a free-for-all….it’s as though calories don’t even count today!  I mean, if thousands of people in New Orleans are going to chug sugar-laden hurricane drinks until they can’t see straight, a chocolate covered snack or two today won’t kill me, right?

Bourbon Street Circus

Of course, the fact that Fat Tuesday is occurring smack in the middle of our Girl Scout Cookie season can’t be a mere coincidence, can it?  Sometimes you just gotta go with fate….and have a few cookies.

Thin mint, anyone?

Tags: Fat Tuesday, Girl Scout Cookies, Mardi Gras, thin mints

Ever tried counting calories? 

What’d you like best about it:

a) Becoming an annoying freak to your friends, family & co-workers, as you obsessively kept meticulous notes on everything you ate for the first 2 days? 

b) Racking your brain on days 3+ trying to remember everything you consumed so you could record it in your notebook each night?

c) Conveniently forgetting to log the chocolate chip cookies you snacked on while racing around running errands after work?

d) Wondering why you haven’t lost any weight when your daily totals show you’re only consuming about 500 calories a day?

Sure, tracking what you eat makes sense in a lot of ways.  For example, it requires that you acknowledge that the “healthy” smoothie you downed between breakfast and lunch is actually a meal in itself.  It keeps you focused on your committment to healthy eating because you know you’re going to have to write it down.  And logging what you eat can also serve as a journal for your fitness transformation (”Did I really used to eat like that?!”).

But it can also be extremely tedious.  And don’t forget the lovely side effects A through D listed above.

Well, there’s a new method to calorie counting, that might just alleviate some of the headaches involved with the traditional approach. 

New services such as MyFoodPhone.com allow you to take a photo of your meal using your cell phone and transmit it to your online profile.  They will compile the data for you, track & review your habits, provide personalized feedback, and direct you to their online resources.

I’m naturally skeptical, and I wondered if this approach would work for me.  I mean, I can pay them a small monthly fee for tracking this data and providing advice, or I could do this on my own with just a little time and focus, right? 

So I decided to run a comparison test.  Written notes vs. a photo journal of my meals for a day. 

Using the online calorie counter at LiveStrong.com, I transcribed my notes into this list:

• Breakfast: Atkins Protein shake, 160 calories
• Morning snack: small banana, 60 calories
• Lunch: Turkey sandwich and cheese stick, 248 calories
• Afternoon snack: fresh raspberries and blueberries, 58 calories
• Dinner: chicken breast & salad, 265 calories
• Total: 791 calories

Fantastic!

Here’s the photo version:

Breakfast & morning snack   

Lunch

Afternoon snack

Dinner

After doing this little experience, it’s obvious that tracking calories on my own will work out just fine.  Sure, it may take a little effort on my part, but who really needs those pesky nazis nutritional experts reviewing my meals for me?

Admittedly, my calorie total could be off a little bit here or there. So let’s be generous and say I was at 1,000 calories for the day, shall we?  At this rate, that extra 20 pounds should be gone in no time!

Tags: Atkins, calorie counting, MyFoodPhone.com

Thanks to Lance Armstrong, I’m now faced with a huge dilemma:

Stop buying the Cheetos, or hide in the closet to eat them?

Seems the folks at LiveStrong.com recently commissioned a survey, and they reported the results this week.   

The vast majority of young Americans (66%) report that their parents or other family members have the most influence over the choices they make regarding their overall health. Similarly, two-thirds (67%) of the respondents also indicated that their parents or other family members influence their food choices a great deal or a lot.

Sure, I already knew that part of my job as an effective parent is to model good eating habits for my daughter.  But this really puts the pressure on!

It was way easier to believe that my efforts at decent nutrition were falling on deaf ears.  I had presumed that television commercials, her friends, and even celebrities carried more weight in this area than her parents.  Who knew?

Of course, the next time she asks if we can go for ice cream, someone is going to be disappointed. 

Me.   

Thanks a lot, Lance!  

Tags: cheetos, ice cream, Lance Armstrong, LiveStrong

It doesn’t matter which device you’re using - elliptical, treadmill, stairclimber, whatever.  They all have it.  And it is the enemy.

Don’t pretend otherwise:  You know exactly what I’m talking about.

Right there, on the LCD screen, the calorie tracker.

You’re likely thinking, “What!? How could that innocent little calorie tracker be the enemy?  It’s so useful!”

And that’s how it gets ya.

Sure, while you’re working out, it gives you warm fuzzy feelings of accomplishment.  Some days you might exclaim, “Wow!  I beat yesterday’s caloric output - woo-hoo!”  Granted, there’s nothing evil about that.

But….later on in the day, you’re feeling a little snacky.  As you head for the break room to grab the the yogurt & banana you brought to work, you pass a table of leftovers from a lunch meeting, complete with raisin oatmeal cookies.

“What could it hurt?” you think.  “After all, I burned off 300 calories on the elliptical today!”  And then  I  you devour the cookie.

Does anyone else fall prey to this evil device?  Or is it just me?

Tags: calorie tracker, evil, LCD