I painstakingly counted the calories of everything I ate for a week
Dieting but still eating cookies doesn’t sound right…
Eating healthy sucks. Dieting is extremely hard in college no matter where you go. Thinking I want to be skinny, or I need to get rid of this freshman 15 ASAP doesn’t always work well when you have an ice cream machine begging you to come over for a visit. Your demanding social life, horrible self-control, and unhealthy dining centers won’t allow it.
So, after many other attempted diets, I was tired of feeling icky about myself. I’m doing it for real this time, I told myself. Most healthy living experts say the key to losing weight is your diet — although exercise will always help! Because of the near-irresistible temptation of my favorite foods and how hard it is to make healthy choices at the dining centers, I decided to do that thing where you can eat anything you want as long as you stay under a certain amount of calories per day (kinda like Weight Watchers if you are familiar with common diets).
Some side notes before I start: I usually don’t eat breakfast because I wake up 10 minutes before class — I like my sleep — and by the time I’m out of class it’s lunch time (if you are an early bird some good options for breakfast are a smoothie, fruit and yogurt, eggs, oatmeal, and energy/granola bars). For this experiment, the goal is to stay around 1,500 calories (what’s recommended for adult women who aren’t overly active). I’m also attempting to drink a lot of water, because staying hydrated is healthy. Also, wow, alcohol has a lot of calories — yikes.
Monday
Snacks: 12 oz coffee with cream
Lunch: Small “Oh Kale” smoothie, 1 colby jack cheese stick
Dinner: 3 oz red skin potatoes, 1 dinner roll, medium salad (2 cups salad greens, 3 tablespoons ranch, 4 slices cucumber, 1 teaspoon sunflower seeds), 2 medium chocolate chip cookies (okay yes, I had two, judge me)
Total Daily Calories: 1,371
So I broke when I had two cookies, but it’s okay because I stayed under my calories, right?
Tuesday
Snacks: Iced Hazelnut Macchiato (Starbucks)
Lunch: Broccoli beef, steamed rice, 2 cream cheese rangoons (from Panda Express)
Dinner: Whole wheat noodles with garlic alfredo sauce, Italian bread stick, medium salad (2 cups salad greens, 3 tablespoons ranch, 4 slices cucumber, 1 teaspoon sunflower seeds)
Total daily calories: 1,439
Surprisingly not that many calories — try subbing steamed rice for fried
Wednesday
Snacks: Medium iced coffee with cream (Dunkin’ Donuts)
Lunch: Strawberry Greek yogurt, colby jack cheese stick
Dinner: Wheat wrap (turkey, pepper jack cheese, cucumbers, pickles, lettuce, honey mustard, ranch), medium apple, chocolate chip cookie, colby jack cheese stick
Total daily calories: 1,059
Thursday
Snacks: None!
Lunch: 4 oz chicken noodle soup, medium salad (2 cups salad greens, 3 tablespoons ranch, 4 slices cucumber, 1 teaspoon sunflower seeds)
Dinner: Wheat wrap (turkey, pepper jack cheese, cucumbers, pickles, lettuce, honey mustard, ranch), medium apple, chocolate chip cookie, colby jack cheese stick
Total daily calories: 1,042
Friday
Snacks: None!
Lunch: Small “Oh Kale” smoothie, colby jack cheese stick
Dinner: 5 oz chicken baked chicken breast, medium salad (2 cups salad greens, 4 tablespoons ranch), 1 cup mixed vegetables with 3 tablespoons mozzarella
Total daily calories: 952
Saturday
Snacks: None!
Breakfast: Pineapple smoothie with almond milk
Lunch: ½ chicken bacon ranch flatbread, ½ salad
Dinner: Wheat wrap (turkey, pepper jack cheese, cucumbers, pickles, lettuce, honey mustard, ranch), medium apple, chocolate chip cookie, colby jack cheese stick
Total daily calories: 1,717
A weekend note: Alcohol may go down as smooth as water (or not) but it has hundreds more calories!
Sunday
Snacks: Yogurt bread
Lunch: Mixed berry Greek yogurt, cheddar potato soup
Dinner: Chicken noodle soup, medium salad (2 cups salad greens, 3 tablespoons ranch, 4 slices cucumber, 1 teaspoon sunflower seeds, parmesan crusted chicken)
Total daily calories: 1,420
I made it! (But it starts all over again tomorrow…)
Although cutting calories in my diet was not the easiest thing to do — meaning at times I felt like I was starving myself at 3pm and 10pm when I would usually have a snack — I felt as though I was successful. By about mid-week I was in the habit of whipping out my phone to track calories whenever I was about to eat. Being aware of the calories I was eating for the day made me feel in control of what will happen to my body during this process.
I also found that drinking lots of water and being conscious of how many calories you’re eating helps you eat less, even though you’re still getting full off of a meal or snack. When you’re eating less, your stomach shrinks, so you’ll get full from less food, hence the weight loss. While watching my calories, I actually ended up eating less than what I usually would in a day while still getting full, and believe it or not I lost 2 pounds!
If you’re planning to try a diet of any sort, make sure you’re doing it for the right reasons. Not because you can’t get the hot guy/girl at the party to hook up, not because you watched the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show, not because you want to see 20 pounds off the scale, and not for any other superficial reason. Do it because you want to feel and be healthy! Do it because you want to be fit, and do it to become a better you. While dieting, remember that short term and long term goal setting is important: Whether it’s tracking your calories everyday, walking for 30 minutes a day, or not forgetting to eat your veggies, small goals help you reach the big one. There are tons of healthy diets out there that won’t starve you to death, and still let you have some of your favorite foods. Happy dieting!