I’m embarking on an experiment this month — well, actually, I started yesterday as a test — in which I’m going to try to stick to a restricted number of calories every day. You see, here’s the thing: for the last two years I have been watching my fat and cholesterol, and at this point my cholesterol numbers are better than they’ve ever been. But it has been very difficult and I’ve been taking meds and supplements like niacin all along to help.
But my weight has barely budged. I’ve lost and gained the same 10 pounds over and over and over. After yesterday’s test, I see the flaw in all this: calories.
Did you ever look at the number of calories in everyday food? And when you go fat- and cholesterol-free, the calories always seem to go up. Take away salt and the sugar goes up. Take away sugar and the salt goes up. It’s pretty much impossible to go low-calorie, low-fat, no cholesterol, low-salt unless you’re eating nothing but lettuce all day.
And of course, the nutrition labels are only of marginal help. Manufacturers forced to disclose the nutrition facts about their products artificially reduce their toll by making, say, a single can of soda equal more than a single serving. This morning I used some fat-free Coffee Mate in my coffee, and dutifully put in one serving: a single tablespoon. It didn’t even change the shade of the coffee. 35 calories. I put in two, 70 calories. I can’t even taste it.
It’s really shocking how many calories I must take in every day without even thinking about it. Sometimes it is very difficult to figure out how much is a serving; I mean, if I’m making a martini and the pomegranate mixer is a single serving at 3 fluid ounces, well… how much is that? Is that half a martini glass?
Often I’ll make a quick meal of jasmine rice, chicken, and spicy ginger sauce. Yesterday I did the math and discovered that what I thought was a healthy meal, low in fat and cholesterol, turns out to be 1,200 calories. Well, if you’re on, say, a 1,700 calorie a day regimen, you suddenly ask yourself if that’s what you want to blow it all on. Jasmine rice has 200 calories per quarter cup. Quarter cup?! My rice cooker doesn’t do less than a whole cup, so that’s four servings? Yikes. I usually eat half a cup, so I’m taking in 400 calories every time.
Nuts. High in beneficial fats, heart healthy. But loaded with calories. And my problem is that I can’t just have a single serving of 23 nuts, I have to have half a can.
I think that maybe that’s the problem we all have. Portion sizes are incredible these days, and if one goes out somewhere for dinner it is likely that meal contains more than a whole day’s calories. Years ago I would eat those cheese fries at Outback Steakhouse, completely unaware that I was not only killing myself with the fat and cholesterol, but that I was eating two day’s worth of calories at a single sitting.
So, yesterday was a test (I managed to get by on 1,400 calories, which was a little low) and today begins the experiment in earnest. So far, oatmeal and coffee – 240 calories. Day one. It’s me against Safeway.
