Endorsement

So I've been doing this Sparkpeople (www.sparkpeople.com) thing for three weeks now, and I'm really enjoying it. It appeals to my hyper-organized sensibilities. I thought for sure I'd have to stop tracking my eating once school started, but now that I'm in the habit I haven't stopped. It only takes about two minutes to log in after each meal and figure out how many calories I consumed, and since I have a computer in my office I can log anything I happen to eat at work, too. I suppose I won't be logging when I'm on vacation and away from all computers (even I'm not anal enough to keep a written record of everything I eat and log it in when I get back to a computer...I don't think...) but other than that I can log easily. The truth is I probably won't keep track of my progress when I'm on vacation anyway since that will be splurge time.

I didn't start doing this because I was worried about my weight (although, frankly, who wouldn't like to get a bit closer to her ideal body?) but because I was curious about how healthy I was. I think in general I have pretty healthy habits. I am lucky to not be an emotional eater (if anything I'm the opposite; when I get very sad or very stressed I get an upset stomach and have to force myself to eat) and my body generally makes relatively healthy choices for me (I've always preferred mustard to mayo, balsamic vinegar to ranch, I genuinely enjoy and get filled up by Lean Cuisine meals, etc.) I've also always been fairly active. I'm much less active now than I was when I was in high school and dancing for 2-3 hours most days, but I still do some form of physical activity most days, even if it's just leisurely walking the dog. I have a very strong mind-body connection and I literally feel not only physically but mentally "off" if I go more than 3 or 4 days without a workout. Apparently this is not the case with everyone. I have several friends here who have almost completely sedentary lifestyles, and I sometimes wonder how they keep from going insane under the pressure of our lives. Anyway, all of that is to say that I think I'm generally a pretty healthy person.

But this Sparkpeople thing has been pretty eye-opening. I realized that while I was doing okay, there are a lot of things I can do better food-wise. And in just three weeks I've found that my habits are changing a lot. I'm happy to report that it was pretty easy to up the protein content of my diet. I'm still not eating a ton of meat, but just little things have made a big difference. I love, love, love Laughing Cow cheese so I've been eating that pretty much every day, I've been putting chopped nuts on my salads and oatmeal...little things like that are now getting me to the proper protein range. The biggest challenge has been controlling the fat, but even that is not as hard as I thought.
The biggest thing that this is helping me to do is just think a bit more about my choices. For one thing, it has made me much more conscious of portion sizes. I'm also genetically lucky in that I don't need to eat a ton of food to feel full, so I was naturally doing good on portioning things like cereal, soup, etc. With some things, like pita chips or my beloved chalky conversation hearts (hooray for February!) I found that what I was considering a portion was actually smaller than the portion size listed on the bag. But with some things (cookies, salad dressing) I was eating two or more portions at a sitting. So it has been helpful to realize that, and it hasn't felt like a sacrifice at all to limit myself to proper-sized portions.
Here's the thing: I love food, and I am not into making any sacrifices at all when it comes to my eating. I take huge pleasure in eating good food. I have had meals that were better than sex. Seriously (well, better than some sex). So I've long claimed that I would never be able to diet. Now, though, I realize that's not entirely true. I could never limit the type of food I'm allowed to eat. I can, however, pay attention to how much I'm eating and what kinds of food I'm eating, and it turns out it's actually kind of...fun.
Since I'm not on a mission to lose any weight, I'm not super strict with myself. Some days I know I'm going to go over my recommended calorie limit and I just acknowledge that from the start so I don't feel disappointed about it. Usually, these are days when I know I'm going to be drinking. Nothing like thinking about all the empty calories in alcohol to make you think twice about having another beer! There was a day a couple of weeks ago where I had to acknowledge to myself as I entered my food totals for the night before that I'd had three beers and five vodka tonics. Uh, not exactly "everything in moderation." So, hey, added bonus: since I started tracking I've been drinking less when I go out. Anyway, I went way over on the day of the Super Bowl party and the night we went drinking in City A and when I went out for dinner for Mardi Gras (where the point was to be gluttonous) but other than that I've done really well.
The trick, I've discovered, is to put all the things I know I'm really going to want to eat that day onto the list early. Right now, for instance, I have Valentine's Day cookies that I absolutely love. My mom made some and sent them to me, and I also made a batch to take to my class on Tuesday night. They're pretty much nothing but butter and sugar and bleached flour. Am I going to eat them? Hell yeah I am! But if I know I'm going to eat two of them every day (and I am) then I put them on my food list at breakfast and then I know how many calories I have available for my actual meals that day. And it just helps me make better choices. If I know I'm gonna eat two cookies later, maybe I eat a Lean Cuisine for lunch instead of mac and cheese. Or I walk an extra mile to burn off the calories in one of those cookies. No biggie. It really is great. I guess I'm making a few sacrifices, but it doesn't feel like it at all.
One of the biggest things I've noticed is how much less soda I'm drinking. I used to drink at least two 12 oz. sodas a day. Then last year I cut myself back to just the 100 calorie cans and only allowed myself to have one a day. The only time I drank more than that was at restaurants, where I still tried to limit myself to just one (sometimes I was successful with that, sometimes I wasn't). Now with this new program, I'm making myself drink my full water bottle each day (32 oz.) and I realized today that I'm no longer feeling the need to drink a soda every day anymore. Part of it is the whole choice-making thing, because a lot of times I'd rather spend 100 calories on actual food than on soda, and part of it is just that I'm not craving it as much anymore.

Anyway, just thought I'd let you know how it's working out for me. I'm going to try to really stick to it for another few months, just until my body really knows what it needs and portioning becomes innate and not something I have to think about. If you're wanting to lose some weight, or if you're like me and you just think nutrition and fitness is interesting, you should try it out for a while. After all, it's free! I realize having to be organized enough to track your food doesn't appeal to everyone, but it's infinitely easier than trying to stick to some stupid diet plan, and you can be very flexible with it. Oh, and I don't use any of the message boards or motivational portions of the site, but I know some people really need the emotional motivation to get healthy, and the site seems to have plenty of that, too.