OK, I'm going to blind you all with science now (or possibly just make you fall asleep - up to you - I'm not judging).
For someone of my weight, the daily calorie guideline is approx 2,100 to maintain current weight. In order to lose a couple of pounds a week, I need to create a calorie deficit of approx 1,000 calories a day. Some of this will come from reducing my food, while some will come from increasing my activity.
So here's how it went for day one:
Got up, walked the dog, then headed to work. In total I burned 290 calories this morning, just from walking. Whoop!
For breakfast I had uncooked porridge oats, mixed up with a splash of skimmed milk and some Rachel's Organic low fat yoghurt. I love this yogurt, has anyone tried it? Today I had the elderflower & apple flavour and it is delici0us. This is a fairly typical breakfast for me (unless I pop into M&S on the way to the office and grab a cinnamon swirl - lovely, but quite a bit more naughty!) and you can always spice it up a bit by adding some fruit to it - raspberries, strawberries, anything really. A friend put me onto this breakfast some time ago and I've never looked back!
Mid morning snack - some edamame followed by a bag of sesame sticks. Case in point - not everything that you can buy from Holland & Barrett is good for you! I do love this snack though, and had a bag of them left in my desk drawer. I'm not going to beat myself up over the fact that I ate them, I've factored them into my calories for the day.
For someone of my weight, the daily calorie guideline is approx 2,100 to maintain current weight. In order to lose a couple of pounds a week, I need to create a calorie deficit of approx 1,000 calories a day. Some of this will come from reducing my food, while some will come from increasing my activity.
So here's how it went for day one:
Got up, walked the dog, then headed to work. In total I burned 290 calories this morning, just from walking. Whoop!
For breakfast I had uncooked porridge oats, mixed up with a splash of skimmed milk and some Rachel's Organic low fat yoghurt. I love this yogurt, has anyone tried it? Today I had the elderflower & apple flavour and it is delici0us. This is a fairly typical breakfast for me (unless I pop into M&S on the way to the office and grab a cinnamon swirl - lovely, but quite a bit more naughty!) and you can always spice it up a bit by adding some fruit to it - raspberries, strawberries, anything really. A friend put me onto this breakfast some time ago and I've never looked back!
Mid morning snack - some edamame followed by a bag of sesame sticks. Case in point - not everything that you can buy from Holland & Barrett is good for you! I do love this snack though, and had a bag of them left in my desk drawer. I'm not going to beat myself up over the fact that I ate them, I've factored them into my calories for the day.
 |
| Om nom nom - edamame |
1pm arrived and I headed to the gym for a quick 30 minute lunchtime session. I went on the crosstrainer and burned 340 calories. Whoop.
When I got back to the office I had a quick spot of lunch. Today's lunch is not typical. I usually have a sandwich, a salad or possibly some reheated leftovers. Today I had low fat Brussels paté on some water biscuits. The paté needed eating up, but I have a feeling that this v. light lunch will leave me feeling a bit peckish late afternoon.
4pm. Waaaaaah! I want to eat something! But I'm not actually hungry, so I won't.
I'm going to post this before I leave the office for the day, but I'll let you know that for dinner I'm having one of my favourites. It's essentially spaghetti bolognese but instead of pasta, I have bulgar wheat. I call it Beefy Bulgar and I made a big batch of it for dinner yesterday, so now have another three portions to work my way through for the remainder of the week. If anyone ever wants a recipe for the things I mention here, just say the word and I'll post it.
Daily summary:
Calories eaten: 1,500
Calories burned: 630
Calorie deficit: 1,230
Quote of the day - from Kim Peek - the real guy that the film Rain Man was loosely based on:
"Learn to recognise differences in others and treat them like you would want them to treat you. It will make this a better world to live in. Care and share and do your best. You don't have to be handicapped to be different - everybody is."
Great - I like the science. I am rubbish at understanding calorie requirements and content of food, so it's good that you are able to work it out.
ReplyDeleteDon't want to be a party pooper, but is there a level of calories that we use just standing still? Like the walk - would you use 50 calories by lying on the floor? I mention this in case there is a 'correction' to be done on te calories used so you don't over-estimate. You may already have taken this into account though.
Hope it's helpful.
Hope you survived the big wet day today.