The food and calorie counters recommended by the High Energy Diet are:
1) For a great list of calorie burned calculators; Martindale’s Calculators On-Line Center: Part I:I-N – Nutrition. It also includes energy calculators including one site that estimates the energy expended in over 600 different activities. The KCAL-CULATOR is in the runner’s web and allows you to estimate your energy needs.
2) For nutrition tips for being athletic in helping to gauge your energy needs: Nutrition on the Move – Nutrition Tips.
3) Calorie Counter helps you calculate your BMI (Body Mass Index) and has many tips about diets available and the foods to eat.
4) “If you’ve looking for information on cutting calories and fat in your diet, achieving a healthy weight, or favorite low-calories, reduced-fat foods and beverages (and the ingredients that make them possible)…you’ve come to the right place!” The Calorie Control Council – Information on cutting calories and fat and achieving a healthy weight.
5) From the Food Network online, explains how to manage your weight in three simple equations: Get Healthy : Low Calorie : What are Low Calorie Diets? : Food Network.
6) Quick Guide to Calorie Needs When Losing Weight has many resources explained such as good protein, good fat, how to reduce calories, general diet nutrition, healthy vegetarianism, etc.
7) Self magazine has fitness calculators divided into three sections: get your best body, eat right, and burning calories. Caloric Needs Calculator in Fitness on SELF.com.
For another BMI (Body Mass Index), Basal Metabolic Rate calculator use, lifestyle activity, and other weight loss help, use How Many Calories Do I Need? – basal metabolic rate calculator.
I dislike the word “diet” because it sounds like deprivation to me. Food is one of God’s greatest gifts and is meant to be enjoyed. Food is the basic reward for many people. So begin noticing when you are eating emotionally and drink more water before the food.
When you are feeling emotional, you need to drink as much water or other liquids as you can to delay the eating. If you aren’t hungry anymore which is what will happen, give yourself permission to eat the food later when you are hungry.
I quit smoking 15 years ago by never saying I couldn’t have a cigarette. Instead I learned to delay the decision to smoke or not until a later time. By delaying smoking, I generally forgot to smoke. After the time of not smoking grows, returning to smoking never seemed like a good idea when I was rational and not emotional.
Measurement will be today’s focus for how I lost weight. Measuring your food every time that you eat will be a huge key to your losing weight and keeping it off. When I don’t measure for a few days, I get on the scale to see if I’ve gained weight. If I have, I return to my modified fast.
My modified fast is drinking liquids for as long as I can before I begin eating solids for that day. Remember to always have an assortment of liquids available with no calories. The choices are: (1) water with Real Lemon added will be the liquid that helps you the most-make the water with more or less lemon depending on your taste, (2) always have flavored waters with no calories in your refrigerator, (3) no calorie sodas for when all else fails, and (4) I keep a 2 quart pitcher half frozen from the night before so that regular, cold water can be a choice.
Water is one of your best friends in weight management. Your second best friend is the cup measurements that you have available. Use these equivalents for measure: 1 pound=16 ounces, 1 ounce=28.35 grams, 3 teaspoons=1 tablespoon, 4 tablespoons=1/4 cup, 8 tablespoons=1/2 cup, 16 tablespoons=1 cup, 1 cup=1/2 pint, 4 cups=quart, 1 pound=500 grams, and ¼ pound=125 grams.
For food and/or calories, we use the following sites:
Calories expended during exercise:
http://www.calorie-counter.net/calories-burned-by-exercise.htm
Nutritional value:
http://whatscookingamerica.net/NutritionalChart.htm
Food charts:
Day 3—Daily Salad
I began the slow process to find out what I liked among the lower-calorie dressing. Imagine my surprise that I could make my own dressing of 16 ounces for 180 calories for the whole thing. That averages out to about 12 calories per tablespoon.
Quite a difference! At the same time, I realized that the lettuce salads weren’t giving me much in nutrition. So I researched the salads online and came upon a Greek salad with no lettuce that I modified.
My Greek Salad (that I have every day): small sweet tomatoes, crumbled Feta cheese, sliced black olives, cucumbers, red peppers, and pepperoni. I make sure to have all the ingredients on hand so I don’t run out. I need to chew everyday in order to enjoy food. The dressing that I created is 32 oz. of balsamic vinegar, 2 tsp. of Dijon mustard, 3-4 oz. of lemon juice, and 3-5 tablespoons of Splenda. The whole recipe makes over a pint and is 200 calories for the whole recipe. So 2 tablespoons of my dressing is 12 calories. My dressing is so strong that I don’t need much. But if I used 8 tablespoons as I did in February I would still be using 50 calories instead of 500. Some of the current salad dressings I use are any dressings with 50-60 calories per tablespoon.
My favorite cook who has a television show is Sam, the cooking guy, and his show called Just Cook It! Is on the Discovery Health Channel. He teaches how to cook and eat healthy food quickly. I have downloaded most of his recipes into a three-ring notebook. Tip: When you are downloading material you want to keep, buy 3 ring copy paper.
Day 2: Water
After I decided to see how long it took for my body to tell me I was hungry, I started a modified fast. I call it modified because I ate some food. At the beginning I chose to add more water to my diet. Plain water is boring to me after the first day, so I added 1/3 cup or ¼ cup of Real Lemon to my 2 quart pitchers. I bought the pitchers at Target and they are narrow and fit in my freezer. I was filling them half full and freezing them for the next day. After awhile, I changed from the pitchers to freezing half bottles of the Real Lemon mix.
The last thing I do in the evening is to make sure that my pitcher is in the refrigerator to get cold for the next day. In the morning I add Real Lemon to the pitcher and begin drinking my lemon water. I save the flavored water for the evening as the evenings are the time I do my emotional eating. The Diet sparkling water has natural fruit flavors and is O calories. You can buy it at WalMart, Winn Dixie or Publix grocery stores. I vary the store and the flavor to keep from getting bored with the flavor.
On the second day through the next five days, I focused on keeping an exact count of the calories I was consuming. I found one of my downfalls was the calorie count in my dressing. When I began my food program in February, I was eating a lot of those lettuce blends and cutting up celery, onions, and carrots to add to the salad. I was using a balsamic vinaigrette loaded with olive oil. I had been using as much as I wanted because I thought the calories in the dressing couldn’t be that important. So by eating my healthy, good-for-me salad, I was using about 8 tablespoons after I started measuring it for a whopping 500 calories!
So I began a search for a salad that I would want to eat everyday.
The High Energy Plan that I created in February, 2006, is the result of 15 years of studying and applying good nutritional habits. I have eaten basically the healthiest foods since I moved to Florida in 1983. But I ate too much of the right foods.
Having quit drinking in 1976 and smoking in 1989, I have been thinking about losing weight for 10 years. Obviously, I haven’t been working at it too hard. The hardest part of giving up an addiction is making the decision to give it up. Years ago, I learned that you leave an addiction when the pain outweighs the pleasure. I don’t know what made me decide in February to lose weight.
I started working around the foods that I don’t want to live without. These include any kind of pasta, any kind of hard bread, and any Italian dish. My husband and I almost always eat at home. He hasn’t weighted more that 157 pounds in the thirteen years we’ve been together. At 6’2”, he has the exact frame that I would like. I, on the other hand, was 40 pounds overweight.
Many of the books that helped me to formulate my weight loss plan are in the Changemaker Library. One of the first to help me to get my thinking about food off quantity and on to portions was The 7 Secrets of Slim People. The main idea I kept from that book was to not eat unless I was physically hungry. I couldn’t remember the last time my body and not my mind told me I “wanted something”. My mind is so devious that I told myself I would faint if I went without food for any period of time. I decided to change what and when I ate so I started a food journal. Armed with Barbara Kraus’s Carbohydrates and Calories, I wrote down everything I ate for five days.
