Counting Calories

I still have no idea what to do with my hands

I'm going to preface this post by mentioning I never really counted my calories before. Minus my high school years where I would look to see how many calories was in something in the supermarket, I never really tallied them up at the end of the day. As I spend more time scrolling through social media than most (hi unemployment/freelance-and-temp-work-is-kinda-slow-at-the-moment) one thing I did see a lot of was Instagram banning photos of products that promote weight loss this past week. Instagram is an app I have a love/hate relationship with, but this was a massive step in the right direction. Something that I think that the media pushes into our point of view a lot in the form of advertisements is dieting and the idea that all calories are bad for you.

Most of my friends have in one way or another attempted to convince me to diet or I've seen several people on Instagram announce they are going on a diet. But the thing about diets is that it's not something long term technically speaking. If it was, the diet industry wouldn't be worth $72.7 billion in the US. 

This kind of reminds me of the movie Joy.

Joy created a mop that had the tag-line "The only mop you'll ever need".  Most companies didn't want to bring her mop to their customer base because if that's the only mop they'll ever need then the company itself will be decreasing their current profit. The companies thrived on people always buying new mops because the mops weren't meant to last - Joy's mop on the other hand was meant to last.

How does this relate to the diet industry?

Well, if diets truly worked wouldn't consumers (us) be the winners in the equation, not the diet industry? The only diet you'll ever need is a tagline to most diets. When people do one diet,  find that it's not working for them, then they try another, and another, and so on.  The diet industry profit increases because they are constantly telling consumers that they need to lose XYZ to be healthy and in order to lose XYZ you have to follow this strict diet that is so strict that you will give it up in a week or so but then pick up a different diet and the cycle continues. 

Personally, I've tried taking out an entire food group once. For one day. That lead to me feeling extremely weak and near the point of fainting while on public transportation. The food group I decided to take out? Sugar/Fruits.

Fruits are naturally high in sugar and surprisingly one year ago a lot of runners were preaching to take out fruits from your day-to-day because of their naturally high sugar. I don't think anyone is immune to falling for some sort of fitness/health fad diet, if it's all we are being shown we'll fall down the rabbit hole at least once. Even a lot of diets promote the idea of taking out fruits, and it's something that, although I fell into the fad for precisely less than 24 hours, never made much sense to me.

After that fainting scare one year ago, I began to think differently on what I decide to put in my body (and what I decide to not put in my body). Fruits are naturally high in sugar, not processed, N A T U R A L. The more I thought of the idea that nature's candy had to make its way out of my life because of what diet trend was on the rise, the more I began to wonder how we went from an apple a day keeps the doctor away to every fruit must be taken out of your diet. I love munching on grapes, apples, blueberries, strawberries raspberries, mangoes, cherries, watermelon - fruit salads are basically my go-to snack. 

So I decided to chuck every diet trend into the wind and eat.

Overall, I'd say since not paying attention to diet trends was perhaps the best step forward I could have ever taken. I focus on what I know my body needs: Eat my fruits and vegetables, and protein in the from of grains or meat. Generally speaking I don't eat processed foods, I was never the snacker of Doritos, Oreos or Potato chips*.

* = hi if you eat any of these or all three, I'm not a dietitian or certified nutritionist, I'm just a runner who likes fruits and feels more energized after munching on a fruit salad. Do I have the odd Oreo? Yes. Do I eat chocolate chip cookies? Yes - especially if they're homemade! This is just a disclaimer that I know what works for me and my body, and that I loosely live by the 80/20 rule. 80% good 20% freestyle. please live your best eating life not by following how everyone else approaches food but by what's best for you and your body.

Diet culture is pretty much everywhere on social media, especially the idea that you should be counting your calories.

As I mentioned above, I have several friends who did try to get me to either go on Keto or Military Diet. Both of those diets promote cutting out entire food groups. The Keto diet basically kung-fu's its way through carbs - by that I mean the idea is to minimize any carbs you eat: Cut out fruits and smoothies, regular potatoes, sweet potatoes, lentils, pasta, beans, bread etc. I can't be the only one wondering what's left for there to shop for for food? A friend of mine tried to get me into it but my issue always came down to: sweet potatoes are great for you, what did lentils ever do to deserve this treatment, you do know that beans are high in protein, and that fruits are from the literal soil.

Okay while we're on the topic of sweet potatoes: Did you know sweet potatoes have a lot of nutrients that are good for your body, such as vitamin B6, potassium, and IRON which your body NEEDS to help you grow strong?

Anyways - I've pretty much been solid on never cutting out foods out if we don't count my short lived one day of cutting out fruits.

me as I have no idea what to do with my right hand so I guess I'll just hold the bag

A few months back, a friend of mine was trying to get me to count my calories using the MyFitnessPal app. In the beginning, my initial reaction was to mention I wasn't interested in counting my calories because I didn't want to become calorie obsessed. As long as I am eating all nutritious foods, why should I be counting my calories?

And then I kept getting advertisements for supplements for athletes on every. social. media. platform.

At the moment, I'm not deficient in anything and I'm a-okay health wise so I tend to rely only on nutritional benefits from foods that I eat. As an athlete, one thing I see a lot of are supplements and how I should be taking them. At the moment, I don't take any supplements mainly because I personally try to get as much nutritional benefits from the foods + snacks that I eat. I try to eat as much protein. Drink Fresh juice. Literally anything and everything except taking supplements is my life. As the promotion of supplements on every platform I scrolled through increased, I began to wonder: Am I eating enough? Am I eating the calories someone my height, weight, training should be? Should I be taking supplements?

One month ago, I decided to try the MyFitnessPal app for 2 days.

How did the short-lived calorie count go?

Well, it turns out I'm not eating enough. On the MyFitnessPal, it said that I should be having 1990 calories a day (technically speaking based on Calorie Calculator I should be having 2,321 calories a day) On two of those days, I didn't even reach it. On day one, I fell short by 283 calories and on Day 2 I fell short by 1,000 calories. What I noticed was that although I say I get all I need from the foods that I eat, I'm not eating enough to match my height, weight and training at all which means my workouts (although going great!) could be better if I ate more. 

I don't plan to count my calories (at the time of writing this) in the very near future.

My life isn't about calories, it's about am I eating enough to feel energized, feel good, and put in the work needed in my workouts. I personally don't like the idea of counting calories (I don't have anything against anyone who does) I just prefer to focus on is this something that has nutritional benefit or not. Although I don't plan to count my calories in the near future, I do think 6 months from now it'd be a good idea to see if I've changed at all.

What are my thoughts on taking supplements?

Long term athletic wise not health-am-I-deficient-in-this-wise? I have to do a lot more research to make a well-informed decision. Yes I see the benefit of having supplements for athletes, but there's always the nagging thought of natural natural natural. 

Before even thinking of supplements though (athletic wise not health-am-I-deficient-in-this-wise) I think the most important thing is to make sure you are eating enough on your own which is the step I'm currently at.

Calories aren't all that bad for you, and bread really isn't the end of the world. I almost talked myself out of making an avocado bagel one day for lunch because oh no bread but then I was watching a video of a day in the life of an olympian and she was having an avocado bagel and you can best believe I paused the video to make one myself. Also, pasta is not the end of the world, eat a full bowl. 

There's so many foods that we either subconsciously cancel out or intentionally avoid and I think a lot of that comes from misinformation being spread. The best advice I can give is do your own research from non-biased verified™ sources to come to your own conclusions.  Also, take everything an Instagram "Nutritionist" says with a massive grain of salt. Unless they have a degree and or are certified: Run, and run far.

Have you ever gone on a diet and then gave up soon after? Do you count your calories or live semi-free-style like I do?

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