Week Three: Time For Some Numbers

The goals from week one and two have been going pretty well. I would say the biggest struggle has been keeping my snacks healthy. Getting all my fruits and veggies has taken some practice but curbing the desire for all the unhealthy snacks I usually have has been a lot of work. Solid progress is being made though!!
I think the next step in my mission is to get a full account of how much and what kinds of food I am eating every day. I have a pretty good idea of what I'm eating but I need some hard data to look at and then I can find problem spots. To get this data I am going to keep a food diary for the next week. I like to us the My Fitness Pal app to track my intake. I could simply write down everything I eat but I find that to be a bit of a pain in the ass. Using the My fitness pal app is so much easier. Anything with a bar code I can simply use my smartphone to scan it and the app knows what it is and has all the nutritional information. The app also has a very extensive library of foods so entering in what I am eating is really simple. I have tried a lot of different calorie counting apps and honestly My Fitness Pal is the best I have used.

Here is my breakfast and lunch for today!

Tracking my intake through the app is going to give me a lot of data. Calories, fat, carbs, sodium, sugar, protein, vitamins, etc. Pretty much it compiles all the nutritional info on what I ate and gives me a report. I have my goal on the app set for loosing 2lbs a week. The app sets my goals based on activity level, age, gender and weight. According to MFP, if I stay under 3800 calories a day I will loose 2lbs a week. I think I can do better than that in calories but I am more concerned about carbs and sodium.

On a bit of a side note you might be thinking that 3800 calories a day is a TON of calories. It is. That might give you a little insight into the physical differences between someone that is 365 pounds and someone that is 180 pounds. The typical adult should eat around 2000 calories a day to maintain where they are. I can eat almost double that and loose weight. That essentially means that my body is working twice as hard just to do the regular daily activity of being alive. Thinking about how hard my body is working just to keep me alive it seems obvious that extreme obesity would lead to heart disease, organ failure, arthritis, diabetes, etc. Sometimes I worry that I am to late. I can already feel the affects of years of obesity in my back, knees and ankles. I went to the doctor the other day and had blood taken to test all the general things like cholesterol, triglycerides, blood sugar. The yearly physical kind of stuff. The last time I had my cholesterol checked I was 24 and it was borderline high. I never got it checked again for a number of reasons but partially because I just didn't want to deal with it. I am now waiting to get my numbers back to see what kind of damage I have done. The doctor reassured me that even if it is high I am on the right track and as long as I stay the course it will come down. Thinking about all of this makes it tempting to sit back in self-pity about "O, I am overweight cause of this and that" and let the depression take over but that will not get my children's father to a healthy life. Regardless of what irreparable damage I may have done, I can stop doing more damage and fix what can be fixed. So here's to trudging forward for these guys!!!

Plus 2 more that hadn't been born yet :)