GH - Less Calories In, More Calories Out

Sorry.  I know I said the next post would be about exercise, but last night it occurred to me that I skipped a step in this whole Getting Healthy epic adventure.  Before the exercise and even before deciding what you're going to eat, you need to know how your body in particular works so you can do this more efficiently.  That was the first step in my adventure.

Last year when I was still trying to lose weight by eating less and sitting on my butt, I found this awesome site: Calorie Count at About.com.  They have a tremendous food database where you can find out the nutritional value of just about any food.  They also have a great section where you can figure out how many calories you burn doing just about anything - including chores.  I just hadn't put the two things together to work toward my success.

After I signed up, I got this awesome 'home page' where it showed me how many calories I burn just every day by just existing.  Sedentary me, at my starting weight, burns about 1800 calories a day.  1800 calories a day just lying around breathing.  Add in a little exercise, and I burn 200 more calories.  It wasn't until this past January that the little light went off over my head.  I really do have to exercise if I want to lose weight.

Huzzah.

Anyway, if you're putting together a plan to get healthier and losing weight is a part of that, you really need to know where you are when you start and where you need to be to reach your goal.  My goal?  To reach 140 pounds.  According to the personalized goal thingie, if I eat around 1500 calories a day and continue with light exercise, I should be 140 by mid-September.  :shrug:  Works for me.

Less calories in, more calories out.  According to everything I've read - from health professionals - that's the best way to lose weight and keep it off.  And as anyone who's tried dieting knows, keeping it off is the hardest part.

Now, you might think to yourself - "I can't wait that long.  Swimsuit season is coming up."  Well... Sorry.  I look like I'm pregnant in a bathing suit (my niece's baby-bump is smaller than my belly and she's due in July), and I guess this summer isn't going to be any different.  I used to have an hourglass figure, and now it's like my hourglass had angioplasty.  :sigh:  I'd like to fit back into that velvet sheath dress I have without looking like a snake after a large meal - if ya know what I mean.


Sorry to tell you (and almost as sorry to hear it myself), there's no quick way to health.  Sure, you could eat next to nothing, exercise like a freak, and drop the pounds - but they'll come slithering back.  And if you're really unlucky, you'll shoot right past your original weight toward a new high in poundage.  None of us wants that.  Eat less than you burn - but keep it safe.  For us gals, that means eating more than 1200 calories a day.  Personally, I've been trying to keep my intake between 1300-1400 a day and no more than 1500 on a oops day.

Eight pounds lighter as of this morning.  That's since the beginning of the year, but slow and steady does win the race.

Next up on the GH schedule, Exercise.  (Really.  I mean it this time.)

Disclaimer: I am not a health professional.  I don't do this for a living.  I don't have any medical training or experience - except what life has made me experience and what I've learned from being around the dieting world for... god, 27 years now.  (When my older sister first started dieting.)  I'm just talking and passing along what seems to be working for me - at this point in my life.  Please check with a health professional before starting any rigorous diet program.  Knowledge is power.  Get powerful and then get healthy.

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