A Girls Survival Guide

Calories? Tell me about it.

Calories? Tell me about it.

Disclaimer: I am NOT a health professional, I'm just stating what I think and know. In other words, how I keep healthy. I am by no means the healthiest person ever, but I know a few things that I'd like to share. These tips are very simple yet useful. Babbling a bunch of scientific talk wouldn't be as much help as this since A) I could be wrong about the scientific facts I'm stating and B) the simplest and smallest changes make a difference.

Ah, it can be a dark world when you learn the concept of counting calories. Not for all, but for anyone who gets used to it, it's hard. Lots of girls (and guys) tend to count calories and sometimes take it too far. Now I'm not saying you shouldn't be aware of what you're eating, but to be careful. Most strict dieters like myself tend to see phone applications such as MyFitnessPal or any other health application as a calorie counter. A calorie counter that helps you feed your addiction of consuming less than x calories or less than x grams of fat and count the calories you've burned throughout the day.

The sad thing is, these applications are made to MONITOR your health, not damage it. I would recommend not using them at all and just eating healthy. I used to be a calorie freak but I recently stopped counting how much I ate, even though I am still very aware of the calorific content in what I'm eating. Although the numbers I remember as I'm eating sometimes bother me, I don't let it get the best of me.

Now here comes the tricky part: how to eat "healthy." There are so many misconceptions of what "clean" or "healthy" eating means. Some think it's eating only foods that are 100% fat free, others think it's omitting all sorts of meat from their diet or even eating as little as 1000 calories a day in greens (veggies, fruits...). It's not.

Eating healthy is all about moderation to me. It took me a couple of years to realize this, but I did. What you and everyone else should do, is eat what you want yet vary the amount. For example, eating a huge portion of fries and a tiny salad isn't as healthy as eating a regular portion of fries and a huge salad (this would even fill you up more). That said, not everyone likes salad, but it's common sense to know what's healthy and what isn't. If you don't know, ask someone who has some knowledge on the subject or google it. Based on your newfound (yay for research!) or already existing knowledge, you can now try to balance your diet and maintain your (healthy) weight or even effortlessly shed a couple of pounds with this change.

Now, some of you might say "but that's not going to help me lose weight!" This is an entirely different story. Losing weight (I'm talking about 10+lb weight loss) requires more than fixing your diet and eating a regular amount of food. I'll make sure that my next post is about it, since it's a frequent topic in the current world. Anyone who has a significant amount of weight to lose should keep an eye out for the next post.

I'm not going to go into details on WHAT to eat since everybody's metabolism and tastes are different. To have a general idea of how much you should be eating, calculate your BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate, google it) and go from there.

Let's talk about something else now. EXERCISING. This article isn't just about what you eat, but also about what you do. I'm not a personal trainer, very far from being one really, but I know that exercising definitely helps to stay in shape and tone certain parts of your body. It's also a way for anyone with a sweet tooth or a serial snacker to have extra calories to munch on without gaining weight. Not only is working out good for toning your body, it also has a series of health benefits such as: improving your mood and helps you sleep better. Who knows, you might even like it! Try classes, they're more fun. It'll feel less like a chore this way. Or just stick to regular gym machines, those work too if you've got enough dedication and willpower seen as machines can become boring because of the repetitiveness.

To sum it up, there are two things about calories you should know: how many you should consume, and how many you're spending. These two come hand in hand and should be balanced. You shouldn't overeat (consume more than you're burning by activity and with what your body is automatically burning) but you shouldn't undereat either.

Stay healthy! If you've got any questions whatsoever, shoot me a message.

- @audenk