Just today, I’m not going to eat between meals and I’m not going to take seconds. And I’ll use the Tools of The Hacker’s Diet to help me stay focused and successful.
I’ve been thinking about the importance of tiny decisions. How at various times during the day I might think I’d like to eat something. And it’s not a big thing, or even very much — 10 saltines, maybe. But it’s an unnecessary addition to my rubber bag and it doesn’t help advance me toward my goal (I want to lose 30-35 pounds by the first of the year.) — if anything, it derails it.
According to The Diet Calculator (one of the tools) I have to cut back 744 calories a day. That doesn’t give me a lot of room for empty calories. While I might be able to sneak a treat in here or there, I’d better make sure that it’s memorable. Those saltines I mentioned in the previous paragraph had a 130 calories, not a killer amount. But if I had 10 saltines every day for a week, that would be just about exactly 900 calories worth of saltines — 150 calories more than the number of I need to cut back everyday to make my goal.
Eating that extra 120 calories a day is like taking a day off from my commitment every week.
120 calories is nothing — 10 saltines, a half a candy bar, half a Subway cookie, a couple of sips from a milkshake. When I eat a 120 calorie snack, I feel almost virtuous. I think, this is saving me from eating something dangerous. And (sometimes) that might be true. But, there’s a cost if you’re doing it everyday without balancing it against something else.
And that’s why #4 in 6 things you can do to avoid snacking for the rest of the day is
Make a list of what you’ve already eaten today and what you plan to eat later. Estimate the calories that youoll be eating today.
I’ve got to remember to make sure that the harmless treat is actually harmless. I’m not going to derail my goal with unmemorable snacks.
One Comment
Hi katiebird! Been busy. Was at the BlogHer conference this week. Good stuff. I realized I know more than I thought….Interesting you brought up that even small caloric snacks can add up. At BlogHer, for example, they had popcorm and chips for snacks. The bag said only 120-140 calories and with a Diet pepsi it doesn’tsound much, but over time it adds up. I don’t miss having to go to conferences or business trips any more (deep snack temptations.)
One Trackback
[...] I can see why this obesity thing is so hard to cure control. It seems like most days I struggle to stay on track — and my goal isn’t even that difficult. I’m just trying to cut back a few hundred calories a day. The problem is that a few hundred calories a day are so powerful. Eat a few hundred less and we can lose a pound a day. But absentmindedly eat a few hundred calories more and suddenly we’re gaining a pound a week. [...]