What Did You Eat Today?

For the last couple of weeks I've been trying to track the food I eat each day. Weight loss is basically a simple calculation - calories eaten vs. calories burned. Of course I *know* this, but doing anything about it is my problem! It's really interesting to find out how many calories I am eating vs. how many calories I think I'm eating.

I always seem to fall off the healthy eating wagon on weekends, so I thought I'd show you my food for today in hopes that I am more accountable. Here goes...

Since I have time on weekends I try to make a nicer breakfast, rather than the green monster I have on weekdays. Today I made an onion and ham egg white omelette, some of it in a whole wheat wrap, with OJ.

All of the calorie totals are from fitday.com and this breakfast was approximately 354 calories (38g carbs, 5g fat, 37g protein).

For a morning snack I had a piece of homemade banana bread which is about 130 calories (30g carbs, 5.4g fat, 3g protein).

For lunch I was really craving a salad. I used romaine lettuce, red pepper, mushroom, cucumber, half an avocado, broccoli, chickpeas, and light feta. I topped it with a homemade dressing of balsamic, EVOO, and dijon mustard. This salad was MAMMOTH, I could barely finish it.

It totalled about 375 calories (46g carbs, 17g fat, 17g protein).

In the afternoon I had two squares of dark chocolate, which is 75 calories (4.5g carbs, 6g fat, 1.5g protein).

When I was out and about I bought a tall nonfat chai tea from Starbucks, which is about 150 calories (33g carbs, 0g fat, 6g protein).

For dinner I made lettuce rollups. I used chicken, carrots, ginger, lime juice, garlic, and soya sauce to make the filling for the romain lettuce wraps.

Dinner totalled only 150 calories (16g carbs, 2g carbs, 20g protein). This is a tiny dinner, calorie wise, and that is probably why I was hungry 20 minutes later!

My after dinner snack was plain yogurt with apple butter, which is just apples and apple juice. This equalled about 110 calories (10g carbs, 2g fat, 7g protein).

And that is the end of my eating for the day! In total, this is about 1400-1500 calories, with 55% carbs, 20% fat, and 25% protein. I would consider this an okay eating day, but I should have had more protein and less carbs. A piece of fruit or two wouldn't have hurt either!

My goal is to eat more natural, wholesome food and be more mindful in my eating. I was actually reading today that I should be eating upwards of 1700-1800 calories a day, where I have been aiming for 1400-1500 the last couple of weeks. I am not hungry for more food though, so I'm not sure what to do about that. I obviously know that counting calories is not a permanent solution, but it is a really good way (for me) to start the weight loss.

So, what do you think? Would you ever consider counting calories, even for one day, just for interest sake?

*PS: I am in no way an expert and all of these nutrition facts are approximations. If you have any suggestions, comments, or concerns, let me know!