Eating right..
This one is in continuation to my previous blog post about the weight loss.. A few folks asked me if exercising regularly is all that is needed.. And though I mentioned this briefly in my previous post, more details may serve better.. In this post, I'll use my personal before/after eating habits to illustrate how important it is to watch your diet.. And yeah - these are all my own opinions, and will probably not hold for everyone..
Rewinding back to a year ago (early 2010):
I knew what calories meant.. but i never ever thought about the calorie content of any food item. Quite often, I used to have the snickers bars for lunch - it has roughly 280 calories (most of them from fat). Didn't know if it is more or less.. and didn't care either. Skipping meals (especially lunch) was not rare for me.
A foot-long subway was easy to finish - and my favorite one, the spicy italian, packs more than a 1000 calories. As a matter of fact, I thought eating subway (even if it was foot-long, 1000+ cals) for a meal was very "healthy" - and why not - Subway is mostly known as a healthy option - fresh veggies, bread, meat, etc.
And the Red Robin's Royal Red Burger was simply amazing. I once saw that this burger, along with the bottomless fries is worth 1600 calories! But I didn't know what that meant. I used to look forward to the all-your-can-eat lunch buffets at the Indian restaurants - and unless I come out overfull and uncomfortable from such a lunch, I didn't think that I had made a wise use of the $10-12 for the lunch ;).. and I did always make *good* use of the lunch cost ;).
Another favorite of mine was the Tropics Fried Rice (Chicken) from the Tropics restaurant in International District, Seattle, WA. The huge serving size for a mere $8 seemed totally worth it. And being fried, it was tasty too. Finishing the whole plate was not a big deal for me.
My best shot at watching my diet was skipping meals - sometimes even 2-3 days of the week. I sometimes wondered why that didn't help reduce my weight. But thoughts about weight-loss never stayed with me for long.
The main ingredients in my self-cooked meals - especially the non-veg ones - was oil and butter. Was super-important to make the dish tasty. Why should one need to find alternate ways to cook tasty dishes when all that is needed is a lot of oil/butter? I was actually surprised why everyone doesn't cook tasty food :).
So.. this was a rough outline of my eating habits.
Forward back to today, early 2011.
I count calories. Have been doing so since the past 8-10 months, and for me, counting calories consumed and burnt every day is the only way that works to keep a tab on my diet. I know my body requires roughly 2000 calories in a day, and when more than that go in, I have to spend extra time burning them away. About.com and several other sites are good resources for knowing the calorie content of various foods.
Subway's spicy italian 6-in sub has 520 cals, oven roasted has 320, sweet onion chicken teriyaki has 380. Subway is actually pretty awesome if you want to watch your calories - at least half a dozen options for you to get away with less than 400 calories (yeah - you have to be content with a 6-in sub). Quiznos doesn't have nearly as many options, and when I tried it last week, their "small" sub (which compares to the 6-in in subway in terms of calories) wasn't filling at all!
I have to say that my better half is exceptional and low-cal cooking. Eating subs or salads everyday is not a practical option, and I have the luxury of enjoying home-cooked food which is even better in terms of being "healthy" and tasty :).. I'm still working on convincing her to blog about her low-cal cooking tips.
I have learned to stay away from oily/cheesy/buttery or other types of high-calorie foods. Every once in a while is fine, but I don't (and in fact, can't anymore) eat a foot-long subway in one sitting. I also realized that the Tropics fried rice serving size is more than sufficient for 2 people. And again, I can no longer finish the entire plate by myself. I haven't visited a Red Robin restaurant since April 2010. But I will, soon - I don't have to finish the entire burger in one shot ;).. And moreover, I can balance it off by lighter meals in the rest of the day.
Luckily for me, I was never a soda person, and didn't have to fight the ~250 calories from a single can of coke or other sodas. But I hear that if you practice long enough ;), you can develop taste for the "diet" versions of these, which have 0 calories! The diet sodas are readily available - at least in the US (during our recent India trip, we never found a McDonalds, or Taco Bell, or other fast foods have the diet-coke in stock - though they had it on their menu!).
Not that I was crazy for sweets, but that's another thing I stay further away from now. Sugar has a lot of calories. Indian sweets can especially be very rich, and are better avoided (though some of them are so good that you can't completely avoid them ;). And if you have a sweet tooth, the 0-calorie sweetners do help (we use splenda, which apparently has a much better taste than some other such products). If you love ice-cream (luckily, I am not crazy for ice-creams ;), and eat a lot of it, find an alternative ;). But as long as you control your intake, there's no harm in continuing with your love affair ;).
And be careful when counting the calories - there is no "standard" serving size and some brands will just document those in a very tiny serving ;). Also, calories mentioned on restaurant dishes often don't include those from dressings or cheese or other add-ons. And you have the option of having them serve you the fat-free or "lite" versions of the same. It is easy to find low/zero-fat options for cheese, and a variety of dressings. And that makes a huge difference. Consider this - "regular" ranch has 140 cals in a serving (which, I think, is as little as 1 or 2 tablespoons), while the fat-free one has just 30! Mayo/lite-Mayo are just as dramatically different in terms of calories content. A slice of fat-free cheese has only 30-35 cals. Even a slice of regular bread has somewhere close to 100 calories! So 2 slices of bread with 2 eggs (an egg has roughly 100 cals) is a heavy enough breakfast for me.
French fries are EVIL!
Oh.. one thing I have to mention is that some people count only the fat calories of a food item! I have a friend who did this, but I hope he's not doing it anymore ;). Calories, whether from fat or carbs or anything else, mean the same thing when talking about their impact on weight. When exercising, I think the carbs get burnt before the fat resources are utilized. But if you don't burn away the carb calories, they eventually get converted and stored as fat. If your focus is on reducing your body's fat % only, then it may make sense, but I found it easy to just look at the total calorie content.
Every now and then someone comes along to say that always counting calories, watching what you eat, not eating fried goodies, etc - all for maintaining weight - is not worth it, and doesn't stand up to "enjoying" life. Unless I find another way that would let me "enjoy" (as per their definition) life as well, this won't be a sustainable approach.
Well - to start with, the definition of "enjoying" life isn't right. I probably wouldn't have disagreed till about a year ago, but a lot has changed in the past year. To me, heavy eating isn't necessary for enjoying life. And yeah - if you are not used to it, always counting calories may look painful. But like I mentioned earlier, maintaining weight is all about keeping your consumed and burnt calories in balance. Counting in/out calories has worked for me over the past 8-10 months, and being regular at it makes it easier too ;). Though crazy workout sessions burning 1000+ calories were fun when I was doing them regularly, continuing with them all my life is a more un-sustainable approach for me, than to count calories and stick with more manageable 500-600 calories sessions.
There isn't a magic plan that will be easy and/or work universally for everyone. If you are serious, you'll be able to find one that works for you (may be with some trial and error).
Rewinding back to a year ago (early 2010):
I knew what calories meant.. but i never ever thought about the calorie content of any food item. Quite often, I used to have the snickers bars for lunch - it has roughly 280 calories (most of them from fat). Didn't know if it is more or less.. and didn't care either. Skipping meals (especially lunch) was not rare for me.
A foot-long subway was easy to finish - and my favorite one, the spicy italian, packs more than a 1000 calories. As a matter of fact, I thought eating subway (even if it was foot-long, 1000+ cals) for a meal was very "healthy" - and why not - Subway is mostly known as a healthy option - fresh veggies, bread, meat, etc.
And the Red Robin's Royal Red Burger was simply amazing. I once saw that this burger, along with the bottomless fries is worth 1600 calories! But I didn't know what that meant. I used to look forward to the all-your-can-eat lunch buffets at the Indian restaurants - and unless I come out overfull and uncomfortable from such a lunch, I didn't think that I had made a wise use of the $10-12 for the lunch ;).. and I did always make *good* use of the lunch cost ;).
Another favorite of mine was the Tropics Fried Rice (Chicken) from the Tropics restaurant in International District, Seattle, WA. The huge serving size for a mere $8 seemed totally worth it. And being fried, it was tasty too. Finishing the whole plate was not a big deal for me.
My best shot at watching my diet was skipping meals - sometimes even 2-3 days of the week. I sometimes wondered why that didn't help reduce my weight. But thoughts about weight-loss never stayed with me for long.
The main ingredients in my self-cooked meals - especially the non-veg ones - was oil and butter. Was super-important to make the dish tasty. Why should one need to find alternate ways to cook tasty dishes when all that is needed is a lot of oil/butter? I was actually surprised why everyone doesn't cook tasty food :).
So.. this was a rough outline of my eating habits.
Forward back to today, early 2011.
I count calories. Have been doing so since the past 8-10 months, and for me, counting calories consumed and burnt every day is the only way that works to keep a tab on my diet. I know my body requires roughly 2000 calories in a day, and when more than that go in, I have to spend extra time burning them away. About.com and several other sites are good resources for knowing the calorie content of various foods.
Subway's spicy italian 6-in sub has 520 cals, oven roasted has 320, sweet onion chicken teriyaki has 380. Subway is actually pretty awesome if you want to watch your calories - at least half a dozen options for you to get away with less than 400 calories (yeah - you have to be content with a 6-in sub). Quiznos doesn't have nearly as many options, and when I tried it last week, their "small" sub (which compares to the 6-in in subway in terms of calories) wasn't filling at all!
I have to say that my better half is exceptional and low-cal cooking. Eating subs or salads everyday is not a practical option, and I have the luxury of enjoying home-cooked food which is even better in terms of being "healthy" and tasty :).. I'm still working on convincing her to blog about her low-cal cooking tips.
I have learned to stay away from oily/cheesy/buttery or other types of high-calorie foods. Every once in a while is fine, but I don't (and in fact, can't anymore) eat a foot-long subway in one sitting. I also realized that the Tropics fried rice serving size is more than sufficient for 2 people. And again, I can no longer finish the entire plate by myself. I haven't visited a Red Robin restaurant since April 2010. But I will, soon - I don't have to finish the entire burger in one shot ;).. And moreover, I can balance it off by lighter meals in the rest of the day.
Luckily for me, I was never a soda person, and didn't have to fight the ~250 calories from a single can of coke or other sodas. But I hear that if you practice long enough ;), you can develop taste for the "diet" versions of these, which have 0 calories! The diet sodas are readily available - at least in the US (during our recent India trip, we never found a McDonalds, or Taco Bell, or other fast foods have the diet-coke in stock - though they had it on their menu!).
Not that I was crazy for sweets, but that's another thing I stay further away from now. Sugar has a lot of calories. Indian sweets can especially be very rich, and are better avoided (though some of them are so good that you can't completely avoid them ;). And if you have a sweet tooth, the 0-calorie sweetners do help (we use splenda, which apparently has a much better taste than some other such products). If you love ice-cream (luckily, I am not crazy for ice-creams ;), and eat a lot of it, find an alternative ;). But as long as you control your intake, there's no harm in continuing with your love affair ;).
And be careful when counting the calories - there is no "standard" serving size and some brands will just document those in a very tiny serving ;). Also, calories mentioned on restaurant dishes often don't include those from dressings or cheese or other add-ons. And you have the option of having them serve you the fat-free or "lite" versions of the same. It is easy to find low/zero-fat options for cheese, and a variety of dressings. And that makes a huge difference. Consider this - "regular" ranch has 140 cals in a serving (which, I think, is as little as 1 or 2 tablespoons), while the fat-free one has just 30! Mayo/lite-Mayo are just as dramatically different in terms of calories content. A slice of fat-free cheese has only 30-35 cals. Even a slice of regular bread has somewhere close to 100 calories! So 2 slices of bread with 2 eggs (an egg has roughly 100 cals) is a heavy enough breakfast for me.
French fries are EVIL!
Oh.. one thing I have to mention is that some people count only the fat calories of a food item! I have a friend who did this, but I hope he's not doing it anymore ;). Calories, whether from fat or carbs or anything else, mean the same thing when talking about their impact on weight. When exercising, I think the carbs get burnt before the fat resources are utilized. But if you don't burn away the carb calories, they eventually get converted and stored as fat. If your focus is on reducing your body's fat % only, then it may make sense, but I found it easy to just look at the total calorie content.
Every now and then someone comes along to say that always counting calories, watching what you eat, not eating fried goodies, etc - all for maintaining weight - is not worth it, and doesn't stand up to "enjoying" life. Unless I find another way that would let me "enjoy" (as per their definition) life as well, this won't be a sustainable approach.
Well - to start with, the definition of "enjoying" life isn't right. I probably wouldn't have disagreed till about a year ago, but a lot has changed in the past year. To me, heavy eating isn't necessary for enjoying life. And yeah - if you are not used to it, always counting calories may look painful. But like I mentioned earlier, maintaining weight is all about keeping your consumed and burnt calories in balance. Counting in/out calories has worked for me over the past 8-10 months, and being regular at it makes it easier too ;). Though crazy workout sessions burning 1000+ calories were fun when I was doing them regularly, continuing with them all my life is a more un-sustainable approach for me, than to count calories and stick with more manageable 500-600 calories sessions.
There isn't a magic plan that will be easy and/or work universally for everyone. If you are serious, you'll be able to find one that works for you (may be with some trial and error).
posted by bhosle at 1:03 PM
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