Daily Arithmetic for Thirtysomethings

Oh boy, metabolism's a b.....est friend? Well, it used to be anyway. I remember the high school days when I used to eat a box of Hot Tamales, down it with a Coke, and somehow still be able to fit through Carlo's doggy door when I lost the house key. But then again, Deebo also learned how to fit through the doggy door.*

Ah, I digress. Metabolism. Mine used to pace itself with a ride on a bullet train, but now is just a steady Amtrak. And I do realize that there's still time for it to become little Tommy the Tank Engine sputtering along.

Some girlfriends and I were recently talking about health, and I made a comment regarding diet and exercise that I hadn't realized until it came out of my mouth. I came to the realization that when I was younger, exercise seemed to be the more important component for me personally (because my metabolism ran free). Now, however, diet is much more important for me. I'm realizing that I really do need a system for what goes in my piehole.

I'm working on regaining my pregradschool body. We'll just call it my PGS body. It's not all that different from my GS body; just more toned and less round around the middle. I'm not looking to dethrone Miss Hawaiian Tropic here. Anyway, I don't know how much of my PGS body is to blame on grad school or just the fact that 30 is knocking on my door this year. So, I've taken it upon myself to really get educated about my diet.

Before I know what I need to improve on, I need to understand what I'm eating now and how it does or does not help me in the long run. So I started a food diary. It's the first part of my experiment only to monitor, not to change. I've always heard about keeping a food diary, but have never been able to do it because of the time commitment. But I found a great site that is making the task much easier. It's called Calorie Count.

Here's what I like about it. There are three types of data you can log on a daily basis:
1. Food. Enter all of the foods you eat. Many foods are already in the database, which contains all nutritional label data. If you are eating a particular food not in the database, you can enter the info yourself and of course save the data for the next time you eat that food. If you are using a recipe to cook something, you can also enter it in to get nutritional data for the final product.
2. Activity. Enter significant activity you accomplish (i.e. spin class, walking the dog, etc) and the duration. The site calculates how many calories per hour are burned for that activity.
3. Weight. Keep track of your weight. If you have a goal weight you are trying to reach, the site will calculate what date you will probably reach that weight given your past eating and exercising trends.

The first day I started entering food data, I'll admit it took a little bit of time. But it gets faster and faster as you continue to eat things you have already eaten before. Once they're in the system, they're there. And once you get into the habit of registering the food you've eaten, it gets easier. The activity log is also very easy to keep track of. I've not done a good job logging my weight because I don't own a scale (and have no desire to). Maybe I'll check it out at the gym every few weeks or something.

So what I'm realizing from my little experiment is that just by the simple process of entering food, I've become a thousand times more aware of what I'm eating. I was not even planning on changing anything at this point - I just want to look for trends and deficiencies - but I can't help thinking about things before I choose to put them in my mouth. Here's a sample report card from today.

Nutrition Report

Fat - 25.7% (77 grams) Protein - 13.4% (91 grams) Carbohydrates - 60.9% (412 grams) Alcohol - 0.0% (1 grams) Other - 0.0% Daily Sodium Intake - 1,321 mg Daily Sugar Intake - 98 grams Daily Cholesterol Intake - 96 mg Daily Saturated Fat Intake - 22 grams Daily Fiber Intake - 65 grams

Nutrition Grade

	Calories	Grams	Fat	Carbs	Protein	Grade
	2,644	1,556	77	412	91	A

As you can see, I did okay today. Some things surprised me. I had 430% RDA of Vitamin C (yay, fruit and beans) and also did great on Vitamin A and calcium. I have been pleased to see I've been doing well on protein too, which will make all of you meatheads happy. I promise there are other ways to get protein! I have been somewhat low on iron though, and this is one I want to follow. We'll see what trend comes out of that one.

Calorie Counter also provides a daily Calories In, Calories Out estimate given the foods you eat and the activities you complete. For those of us who are mathematically minded, this is very satisfactory. :)

Give it a whirl, see what you think. I'll update in a few weeks with my progress.


* Carlo = 10 pounds, Deebo = 60 pounds :)