The Monotony Of Counting Calories and What I Ate Today – July 12 2022

Disclaimer. I am not a medical professional, nutritionist, or anyone with any business giving diet/nutritional advice. This is my own personal journey. When it comes to yourself, seek the advice of a medical professional.

I’ve tried tons of diets. If they include a vegetarian lifestyle (even if they don’t I can usually adapt it to one), I’ve probably tried it. I’ve even tried Keto, which I did notice increased my libido. I’m taking a guess here and assuming that means my everyday diet includes too much sugar/carbs. Keto was not a diet I was able to stick with, even with the unexpected benefits. Like every other diet I’ve tried, it was quickly cast aside and any benefits I gained were quickly lost, or it just didn’t work. I’m sad to say, there is no miracle solution to weight loss for me.

I really dislike counting calories. It’s monotonous, tedious, and annoying, but I need to do it. For the last few weeks, I assumed I was eating pretty well with fewer calories, but I didn’t lose any weight. It was time to figure out where I was going wrong and have a better understanding of how much I was eating. I knew I was doing a couple things wrong. I was eating too much junk food and portioning out the same amount of food as my spouse, who is a male. I do not require the same amount of calories as a grown man, therefore I really shouldn’t be eating the same portion sizes as one. I cut my portion size down to about 75% of what he was eating, yet still didn’t notice any weight loss.

I started a spreadsheet chart and am aiming to eat around 1800 calories a day. Sundays I’ll be a little more lax. I’ll post the results of what I ate on July 11/2022.

Monday	Calories
Avocado eggs benny	563
coffee	0
tea	0
chilli	400
m&ms	100
granola bar	160
apple sauce	45
strawberries	18
cola – a couple sips from my spouse	10
curry	680
Totals	1976

As you can see I went over my 1800-calorie goal on my first day.

Tuesday I had an egg sandwich with avocado for breakfast.

For lunch, I had a can of vegetarian chili I got at Costco: Sprague. They are great for lunch – heat and eat. Although this photo does NOT look appetizing, the chili is actually really good, with a slight hint of heat. I really like it and plan on having it for lunch during the work week, until I eventually want something else.

Dinner I have been making Hello Fresh for a couple weeks now and I LOVE IT!!! They have about 6 vegetarian meals to choose from every week. I just noticed that they have the calories for each meal listed on the bag. SUPER helpful. Even though it’s pretty expensive it keeps me from getting takeout on the commute home. That was a huge problem for me. I have been having granola bars on the ride home which isn’t great, but I notice the dogs get a better walk when we get home if I’m not starving, as they are always walked before dinner. I tend to become a homebody after dinner and prefer to walk them beforehand. That usually means we eat really late at night, but so far that’s how it’s going for us.

Last night was fatoush salad from Hello Fresh and was one of the lower calorie items: only 480 calories per serving! I usually divide the dinner into three as Hello Fresh usually has generous portion sizes, giving my spouse lunch to take to work the next day, but because the calories were so low, I only divided it in two (I did not dole out a smaller portion size than my spouse this time lol). It was really good. I loved it. I’ll post the results of the calories I ate for the whole day:

Tuesday	Calories
english muffin	140
egg	78
Avocado 1/2	160
black coffee	0
Lemondade 1 cup	100
bite of a scone	30
tea	0
Chilli 1 can	400
m&ms 1/8 cup	100
tea	0
apple sauce	45
granola	160
raspberries	65
fatoush salad	480
chocolate cracker	30
Total	1788

That chocolate cracker was had late at night and right before bed. It wasn’t necessary, but since I would stay within my allotted calorie count for the day, I ate it. Not exactly the precedence I want to set. These little things add up and could interfere with my goals.

Overall I think I did really good yesterday and hope to keep it up. My intentions usually fall apart and instead of picking myself up and continuing, I scrap the whole process. I’d like to stop doing that and figure out a way to stick with it carrying on with my goals. It’s something I need to work on in myself and learn to figure out.