Calories

Last week I stumbled upon an article on America’s most calorie-stuffed drink, the Cold Stone PB&C. I would normally gracefully have skipped it as my mother learned me calorie counting were for obsessed Jane Fonda’s. Yet, I was curious about this mysterious math piece (never thought that was going to happen) and decided to do the only logic thing whenever in doubt. I googled it.

Women’s logic #3: Google always has the right answer and you can choose the one you like best.

After much searching through several web pages I found a simple set up, where you should enter your age, sex, height, weight and level of daily activity. Then it would automatically give you an estimated number on just how many calories you were burning. “Hm… looks good” (read “I have no idea if that number is high or low”), but even I could come to the conclusion that consuming less calories than you burn will result in weight loss.

That afternoon I ventured out to the supermarket for a few necessities (pickles, crackers and cotton pads, exiting hah?), but the freezer desk was lurking for me. Yeah, I know what you are thinking… no, I did not expect to find pickles in the freezer. Turning the Häagen-Dazs cup around though revealed a calorie number.

Now, as I studied the web earlier, I found that a 1200 calorie diet was a good starter to kick things off. But apparently 1200 is not a lot when we are talking about the nasty little buggers. The cup consisted of 1000 of them, which would leave me with just a couple of carrots for the rest of the day. But since I already had breakfast and lunch, I would break it on the very first day. I don’t have much spine when it comes to ice cream, but I won’t break a rule the same day it is made. With a trembling hand I put the cup back in the desk and started an Indiana Jones search around the store for my favorite products. A snake was hiding in paradise and I’m sure Dr Jones would have made a smock comment about this, even though I changed it slightly to "why did it have to be [insert any good tasting product]". The ‘adding-invisible-sugar-to-your-product-conspiracy’ suddenly made sense, the products I buy over and over again which seems healthy, are actually filled with sugar or other addictives.

The next day I used most of my morning looking up calorie amounts in different products on my computer. Except for a couple of times when people rang and disturbed me for the job I’m actually paid for, I covered most of the contents of my fridge and what might replace it. So today my fridge is now calorie low except for half a jar of pesto… one must have some fun and pesto makes me feel sophisticated… yeah.

Have you ever tried counting calories and what is your best low calorie snack?

But it all comes with benefits. Whenever I have a craving I can simple turn over the box, cart, bag or whatever and read the number of nasty buggers, it makes it a lot easier to resist. Although my colleague today, who tried to convince me his chips was healthy as the label read 70% less fat, presented me with a new logic. “It might be 500 calories, but it’s much less than a normal bag of chips, so you are making the healthier choice”.

I often tell him he’s a girl.