What a difference 300 calories makes
Dec 8, 2009 Weight Loss
An extra meal
A couple of weeks ago I finally threw in the towel on 1,200 calories a day. I’m stubborn, and since that had worked the last time I lost weight, I didn’t want to give up. But I was giving up, all too often, bouncing from a 1,200 calorie day to a 3,000 calorie day and back again. So, I finally said OK to 1,500 calories a day, and it’s been working much better. I haven’t been weighing myself, but I can tell things are just a tad looser.
300 calories a day may not seem like much, but it’s a whole extra meal! Today I even had a huge peanut butter sandwich for lunch and a big broccoli quesadilla with guacamole for dinner. Just 300 extra calories gave me a little breathing room.
The last two weeks haven’t been perfect, but that’s exactly what I’m trying to work on: being OK with things that aren’t perfect. Now, anyone who’s seen my house or my desk or my car will say “What the hell? Nothing in Amy’s life is perfect! Who’s she kidding?” But the problem with perfectionism is that most likely things will never be perfect, so a perfectionist just gives up. If the house can’t be immaculate then it will just have to be a pig sty. If the laundry isn’t all perfectly folded then I’m not going to bother folding it at all. And if I can’t stick with 1,200 calories then I’m just going to pig out. I don’t like moderation, I don’t like middle ground. But it’s really the only reasonable way to live, and I’m trying.
Patterns: what’s working and what’s throwing me off course
Looking over my food diary for the past few months, there are a few patterns that are obvious to me.
- I’m almost guaranteed to have a successful day calorie-wise if I start my day with some kind of egg. Sometimes it’s a scrambled egg on an English Muffin with a slice of American cheese (280 calories) or just a large hard-boiled egg (74 calories) – it doesn’t seem to matter, as long as I start with an egg. They fill me up and I’m not hungry for a while, but more importantly, I’m satisfied.
- If I save at least half of my calories until dinner and dessert I’m much less likely to say “screw it” at the end of the day and start pigging out. And the reverse is also true: If I eat more than half of my calories in the early part of the day (a breakfast meeting, a really big lunch) then I’m almost guaranteed to go crazy with food at dinner-time. I can get away with not eating much early, but not later, so I’ve got to make sure I have enough calories left.
- I’m way more likely to totally blow my calories if I eat any food outside of my house and have to estimate the calories. This is part of the perfectionism thing. I need to work on that, because there are many times each week when I have to eat something that can’t be analyzed and weighed and counted.
- Days when I eat fatty, filling but not unhealthy foods tend to go a lot better than days when I try to fill up on a ton of vegetables. Peanut butter and avocados are two of my favorite foods. They make me happy, and in moderation (I hate that word) they won’t kill me.
- Meals that consist entirely of vegetables don’t fill me up at all and absolutely don’t satisfy me. But if I add croutons and Feta to a salad, or an ounce of pasta and some Parmesan to some steamed vegetables, I still have a very healthy meal and my cravings for carbs are satisfied.
- Fitting in dessert, even if it’s just a few Hershey’s Kisses, is always a good way to end the day.
Guacamole Recipe
Guacamole gets a bad rap, but it’s not the guacamole that’s bad for you, it’s the basket of chips you eat with it. The avocados I buy usually have around five-and-a-half ounces of “flesh” on them, which is about 240 calories. The veggies and lime juice hardly add any calories. Eat the guacamole with some Baked Tostitos, and you won’t do much damage.
I buy my avocados when they’re still very green and firm, and put them in the fridge to slow down the ripening process. When I want an avocado I put one in a paper bag and leave it in there at room temperature for about a day. Obviously this takes a little planning, but since I could easily eat an avocado a day I tend to always have one in a bag on the counter.
When I have a few extra calories to play with, I add a tablespoon of sour cream to the guac, for extra creaminess.
- Halve an avocado, pry out the pit with a spoon, and pry the flesh out of the skin. It should come out easily, almost in one big piece.
- Smash the avocado with a fork.
- Mix in about half an ounce of finely diced onion and an ounce of diced fresh tomatoes.
- Start with a squirt of lime juice and a pinch of salt, and adjust to taste.
- As Fiona would say, Wa-la!
That whole recipe will end up being about 260 calories. Enjoy!
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
Try adding pomegranate seeds to the guacamole. It is outrageously good!
@Jessica L. – OK, I’m going to sound like the dumbest person in the world, but…do you buy a pomegranate and take out the seeds? Or is this something you can buy on its own?
Good for you! I think you are taking a sensible approach and are much more likely to be successful. Unfortunatley moderation is the only way to keep weight off…..I don’t think anyone really likes it :) who wants to stop at one brownie when it’s so much more fun to eat 3 or 4!!
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