Don't Be In Denial! Tell Yourself The Truth......

POUTINE IS SOMETHING I REFUSE TO GIVE UP!

Some foods are just worth the calories. Poutine for example. Fries with cheese and gravy on top. What's not to love? You can thank Montreal for this invention: www.montrealpoutine.com/recipes.html

I like to think I'm a healthy eater. But I was confused when my once favorite skinny jeans no longer zipped up without me doing crazy yoga positions while stretched out across my bed looking like an idiot. That is when I decided to stop lying to myself and start writing down what I was eating. I just couldn't imagine that I was the reason for my most recent weight gain. Well, I realized right away that I was running to the candy jar at my office and having one fun size candy bar everytime I was under pressure.....which was often. In my mind I thought a handful of fun size candy bars were safe. Well they are if you go to the candy jar once. Not 6 times like I was doing. This made me wonder how healthy I really was. So I found a website that tracked my calories, fat, protien and sodium. Low and behold my consisted of many office work day snacks that I just didn't think about. By writing down everything I ate I was able to identify a that my carb intake was too high and my protien intake was too low. As a result I was impulse eating and choosing all the wrong foods. I was in DENIAL! After 6 months of tracking what I ate I lost 20 lbs and have been able to maintain it for over 3 years. Writing down what you eat is the best way to tell yourself the truth. It has changed how I approach food and anytime I feel like I'm no longer fitting in my clothes I write things down. I'm not saying anyone should give up their favorite things just don't lie to yourself. Eat the appropriate amount of calories and work out regularly and you should be able to maintain, lose or gain weight appropriately. If you eat a bacon cheeseburger on Monday go for egg whites on Tuesday morning.

I've used 2 sites that have worked for me:

www.livestrong.com & www.fatsecret.com

Livestrong is great and I love the way the site is layed out. The food database is much larger which makes it easy to find dishes at your favorite restaurants. The downside: No Driod or iPhone ap.

Fatsecret is also helpful but the website is not as user friendly as Livestrong. What I do like about this site is the phone ap and barcode scanner. You can scan any item found at the grocery store and 80% of the time the item will automatically populate in your tracker.