Adventures in Health (Volume 1)

Anyone who has known me for any amount of time knows that I am not a healthy eater. I will take the junk food over the healthy stuff any day of the week and twice on Sunday. It was just this past summer that I tried a cucumber for the very first time and I really liked it. I guess there is hope for me after all.

If you remember a week or so back to my New Year’s Goals, one of them was to eat better. I figure I’ve got to try since this body isn’t going to keep taking care of itself.

My intentions aren’t entirely pure though, I’m also hoping that by eating better and exercising more regularly (also a New Year Goal) that I’ll lose those pesky few pounds that have been holding on. I would like 2012 to be the year I reach my BC weight…That’s Before Cameron. I don’t have much to lose, only ten to fifteen tops.

I have a few gadgets (big surprise there) that are helping me along with those ten pounds. I want to tell you about the one that I think has made the biggest difference when it comes to taking off the pounds and that’s my food scale.

I measure every morsel that goes into my mouth. It might sound like a daunting task, but it’s kind of become part of my life and I don’t even think much about it anymore. I have to be honest, I do take a break from it every so often, but when I do it doesn’t take long for my portions to get out of control again. I’ve heard that people hate having to measure out their food, but for me it’s kind of relaxing. I enjoy knowing exactly what I’m eating.

Portions, that’s why I do it. When I first started measuring my food I was shocked at just how small a portion really is. No wonder I was gaining weight, I was eating sometimes as much as three times what I should have been. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that if you’re eating three times what you should be, even of the healthy stuff, it’s not a good thing.

I don’t just weigh my food and then forget about it, I enter everything into a tracker. Right now I’m using the tracker from Fitbit since I religiously wear my Fitbit Ultra (more on that some other day).

Anyway, today I had a healthy eating success. I managed to concoct a salad that was under 200 calories AND filled me up. I think I might have even made a few little “mmmm” sounds while I was eating it. The crunchiness of all those veggies. The explosion of flavor with every bite. OK, I think I might have a fever or something if I’m going on about how good a salad was. Did I bump my head and don’t remember?

I think I’m getting there. Sure I have a hankering for chocolate mint chip cookies every so often and I’ve been known to go on an emotionally fueled binge once and a while but I’m taking baby steps here.

Have you ever tried using a food scale? Were you like most people and hated it, or were you a weirdo like me and actually found it liberating?