My roommate came back from the holidays with a brand new iPad and an app called “Lose It!” that she quickly got me into. Here’s how it works: You enter your height and current weight, and then set a “goal weight” for yourself; you also tell the app how many pounds you hope to lose per week. The app calculates the approximate amount of time it will take for you to reach your goal weight at that rate, and gives you a daily calorie allotment. I put down the last weight the doctor ever recorded for me, because I don’t make a habit of weighing myself and I don’t actually know or care how much I currently weigh, and then set the weight I was upon entering college as my “goal weight”, though I’m not going to bother weighing myself by the time April rolls around (that’s when I’m supposed to reach my goal), either.
Why the fuck am I using this app, then, you ask? Well, you see, I’ve always had a problem keeping track of what I eat. Some days I overeat, and other days I barely eat anything at all. I have no idea how many calories are in some of the things I consume (frozen pizzas, sandwiches, fresh pizzas, a shit-ton of pasta and beer, etc.), and I definitely don’t get the right percentage of carbs, fat, and protein from what I normally eat. Lose It! makes me more aware of what I’m putting in my body. And even if I periodically go over what seems to be the small amount of calories I’ve been allowed each day, having a list of everything I’ve eaten (with simple little cartoon images to accompany every item) is extremely useful; glancing at my list, I’m often reminded that I haven’t had any vegetables, and should drink some V8, or that the only calcium intake I’ve had that day was from the milk I put in my coffee, and I should perhaps have some yogurt. The app lets you categorize the items by meal, and has an option for you to record exercise as well. I alternate between two main exercises, walking and house cleaning. You’d be surprised what a difference even twenty minutes of walking (usually to a restaurant for dinner or to the store for more yogurt) or half an hour of cleaning can make. My more hard-core friends who actually exercise may scoff, but when you’ve just gone over by 100 calories and suddenly, you’re under by 20 again at bedtime because you remembered to add in the half-hour walk to and from the bar that night, a tiny amount of calories burned is still significant.
So far, I haven’t had a problem with keeping within my calorie limit. I never ate that much to begin with, and I discovered that most of my calorie intake is from desserts. I would be well within the limit, and then I’d scarf down a cupcake and a giant cup of frozen yogurt (with toppings, ’cause I gotta have those chocolate chips!) and be over it by 200 calories. The day nerdy bff visited, I went over by 600 calories… and merely went, “EH!” *dismisses* ’cause I’d been under almost every day before that. I haven’t given up dessert once, but I have stopped myself from having a second serving or polishing off a bag of chips or something after dinner, because I now know how much I’m actually eating. The only reason I’m even bringing all of this up today is because for the first time, it’s now around the time I have dinner, I have at least six hours to go before bed, and I have only 40 calories left before I go over my limit, again. I’ve gone over by 50-200 calories for the past three days. I’m getting hungry, but the only things I have to eat are leftovers. The options? Pasta and pizza. WAHAHAHAHAHAHA, the pizza’s probably out, ’cause 1) I had pizza yesterday, and 2) One slice will put me over by 600 calories for the second time. The pasta is also high in calories, if I recall correctly, but will be more filling. I refuse to eat something else instead, ’cause there are limits to the sacrifices I’m willing to make for the sake of calorie-counting. I suppose I could eat the pasta and then do aerobics or something for half an hour. Then I’d be over by 200 instead of 400 calories or whatever. Or I could say to hell with it and consider today a lost cause.
If you’re wondering how the hell I’m already almost at my calorie limit when all I’ve had is brunch, here’s your answer: 5 1/2 mimosas. 715 glorious calories. If I could go back to this afternoon and stop myself from getting the bottomless mimosas special, would I do it? Hell no— those mimosas were delicious and well worth the money. I guess I could have had one or two and been fine, but that would have cost almost as much as the bottomless mimosas special, so what alcohol-appreciating fool would drink one when they could have FIVE? Friend across the way had seven, so I ain’t feeling so bad. Though he is ten inches taller than I am and would probably be allowed 500 more calories if he were to decide to use Lose It! Even my roommate, who is only two and a half inches taller, gets 250 calories more per day than I do. But they probably also need to eat more to get by. I should just set Sunday as Bottomless Mimosas Day, where I binge-eat, binge-drink, and watch the calories pile on without a care. I’ll save the self-control for every other day of the week. Just saying “fuck it!” to the whole thing would feel like failure, and I’m not going to fail at something as easy as calorie-counting. Now, off to heat up my dinner. WAIT A MINUTE, I didn’t add on the time spent walking to the brunch place for mimosas! YES, strange, vague feeling of guilt is gone!
I wonder if what I’m doing counts as a diet of sorts? I’m not exercising and I’m still eating to my heart’s content on most days, but the fact that I’m watching how many calories I’m taking in would make this a semi-diet, wouldn’t it? I’ve been anti-dieting ever since that one time I got forced to go on my first (and only) diet by my pediatrician in my freshman year of high school (yes, I came back from vacation fat, and I was still seeing a pediatrician at age 14). Damn it, vague feeling of guilt is gone, only to be replaced by slight fear that I’m being a hypocrite. Then again, I’ve only been fiercely against my skinny/average/lusciously curvy friends dieting, ’cause I don’t think the majority of people I know who diet need to diet, but I’ve always supported people going to the gym and cutting calories if I believed losing weight would be good for their health (as long as they didn’t overdo it). Right now, I’m not visibly chubby, but I no longer fit half my wardrobe, and that’s a big problem; I’m broke and can’t afford to buy a new wardrobe in a bigger size! I’m also getting a bit big for my height. Oh, the disadvantages of being short.
lubabathegreat 