Lovin' the New Math

5 days does not a success make ... but in the 5 days that I've been tracking my calorie intake and calories burned, I am feeling confident that I'm on the right track. It is like I'm on a food budget.

I have had a mini calculator running inside of my head ever since I started saving up for the tape recorder that I bought when I was 12 years old. How long will it take to save 'this much', if I get 'that much' allowance?

I graduated from saving, to budgeting real life costs when I married at 17. I vividly remember sitting in the truck (as I waited for my husband-to-be as he checked into completing his grade 12), adding up our upcoming living expenses verses income. I was in desperate need of validation in those days and I begged my new husband to tell me why he loved me. He thought for a millisecond and said "Because you are good with money." Not the answer a newlywed is looking for, but it is something that I lived up to throughout the decades that followed.

Managing debts, managing money, financial planning courses, learning to adapt to whatever it was that I was earning at the time ... it was all a mathematical problem. You shouldn't spend what you don't have. Otherwise you end up in debt.

Managing calories is much the same. If you keep eating more than you burn off in a day ... you will gain weight (especially after you turn 40).

I don't know when I went from an 'eating to live' mentality, to a 'living to eat' one. At pivotal points in my life, I always seemed to turn away from or turn to food. One particular formula that worked wonders for keeping me slim and trim was:
High stress levels + Forgetting to eat + Nervous energy = A very lean body.

Lately, the formulas have been more like:
Lonely + potato chips = a pound here
Needing a reward + ice cream = a pound there
Crave adult company + 8 cookies = a pound in places I didn't know I had
Watching TV + candy = a pound to sleep on
Reading + any kind of food = an extra pound in case of emergency
Habit + food = pounds everywhere

My food consumption was emotional. Hunger had nothing to do with it.

By counting calories, I have automatically become motivated to 'spend' them wisely. Choosing foods that are low in calories at several points in my day allow me some room to indulge in my comfort foods. Nothing is taboo. I can eat whatever I want to, but if I want to stay within my budget I have to find low calorie, sustaining meals that allow me my favorite snacks.

I have been listing my snack option calorie count, so when I'm looking for something to nibble on I tend to check my list first. Maybe if I combine a few low cal options, I can have 2 snacks instead of one. I can still have ice cream if I want to ... but I need to 'spend' less on lunch if I want dessert.

This is not rocket science. People have been counting calories forever. I'm just new to the game. I needed to make my food habit into a game - not something where I felt like I was depriving myself of my favorite foods. Juggling the books is something I have always been able to manage when it comes to budgeting. Juggling calories is very similar.

I'm on a new path that is comfortable. I'm in competition with myself. As I track and graph my calorie intake, calories burned and weight I am motivated to keep the numbers going in the direction I choose.

Yesterday, I finally managed to consume close to the amount of calories that I would need to, to start the process of losing weight. That, combined with burning extra calories as I added exercise and a short walk to my day made me feel like I was back in control.

I jumped on the scale this morning to see the impact of one day. It isn't going to happen over night, but at least this is one day that the number on the scale didn't increase.

As I look at my graph where I have a visual picture of my success (even if the scale is planning to hold out on me for a while), I am excited. The calorie intake line has been on an (almost) steady decline ever since I started tracking my food intake.

I am finally headed in a direction that feels right. Budgeting and math are my strong suits. Turning this into a competition within myself is motivating me. This is no longer about depriving myself of my favorite comfort foods. It is about trying to find a way to 'juggle the budget' so that I can have it all.