Calorie-counting/exercise tracking tools

I’ve used Weight Watchers’ (paid) online tools a fair amount in the past, and I find the tracking tools at Lance Armstrong’s www.livestrong.com to be just as good — if not better.  Features lots of informative articles, too.  And it’s free!

“There’s room at the table for all of God’s creatures. Right beside the mashed potatoes!”

Though I’ve got nothin’ but love for my (many) vegetarian friends, I’d have an awfully hard time being one.  That said, we Americans do eat WAY too much meat.  It’s bad for us, and it’s bad for the environment.  We’ve fallen prey to the food industry’s ways and grown accustomed to ginormous slabs of meat passing for one serving.  (Think about what the creatures must look like that render the Dolly Parton-worthy boneless, skinless chicken breasts for sale at the grocery store.)

It’s time to get meat portion control under control.

Now, obviously it isn’t feasible to lug around a meat scale everywhere you go.  So one  piece of advice I’ve found to be helpful is the deck of cards rule.  One serving of meat is roughly 3 ounces — or about the size of a deck of cards.  The Food Network has some fun visuals of this “rule” and others to help with portion control.

Renowned foodie author Michael Pollan says everything he’s learned about food and health can be summed up in seven words: “Eat food, not too much, mostly plants.”

Here are his 7 rules explaining how:

1. Don’t eat anything your great grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food. “When you pick up that box of portable yogurt tubes, or eat something with 15 ingredients you can’t pronounce, ask yourself, “What are those things doing there?” Pollan says.


2. Don’t eat anything with more than five ingredients or ingredients you can’t pronounce.


3. Stay out of the middle of the supermarket; shop on the perimeter of the store. Real food tends to be on the outer edge of the store near the loading docks, where it can be replaced with fresh foods when it goes bad.


4. Don’t eat anything that won’t eventually rot. “There are exceptions — honey — but as a rule, things like Twinkies that never go bad aren’t food,” Pollan says.


5. It is not just what you eat but how you eat. “Always leave the table a little hungry,” Pollan says. “Many cultures have rules that you stop eating before you are full. In Japan, they say eat until you are four-fifths full. Islamic culture has a similar rule, and in German culture they say, ‘Tie off the sack before it’s full.’”


6. Families traditionally ate together, around a table and not a TV, at regular meal times. It’s a good tradition. Enjoy meals with the people you love. “Remember when eating between meals felt wrong?” Pollan asks.


7. Don’t buy food where you buy your gasoline. In the U.S., 20% of food is eaten in the car.

“Quitting smoking is easy. I’ve done it a thousand times!” - Mark Twain

Having been a few pounds overweight most of my life, I’ve dieted as many times as Mr. Twain endeavored to quit smoking.  Weight Watchers, Atkins Diet, South Beach Diet, Weigh Down Diet, the grapefruit diet… Even the cabbage soup diet.  (A family friend once quipped, “People will drive by your house and know you’re on THAT diet!”) 

With all of that practice, I have a sense of what approach works — for me at least.  In June of last year, I moved to Washington, DC and lost almost 30 pounds through healthy eating and regular exercise.  In October I got sick for a solid month, fell off the healthy bandwagon, quit exercising, and then proceeded to make excuses and gorge myself through the holidays, regaining (thankfully ONLY) about 15 of the pounds I’d lost. 

Over the coming days, I’ll share these “rules” by which I aim to abide, but the basic philosophy can be summed up in seven words from food author Michael Pollan: “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”  Pollan elaborates on this philosophy with seven “rules” that I’ll share in the next post.

Happy 2012, y’all! Like millions of other Americans, I’ve made a New Year’s resolution to shed a few pounds.  In order to better hold myself accountable and hopefully have a little fun in the process, I decided to dust off this old Tumblr account and use it to write (mostly) about these dieting and exercise efforts.  Hopefully those of you who are also kicking off the new year with a similar goal will find this to be a place to get new recipe ideas, vent your frustrations, share a laugh etc.

So here goes!