Welcome to the last step of your 5-step How to Count Calories guide. I bet each of you have finally formulated plans circling around your daily calorie targets. If you’ve done that, then good! You’re almost done. If not, then take your time. This is not a race and we need to make sure we do things the right way.
So if you’re ready for the fifth and final step, then it’s all about tracking your Daily Caloric Intake. Since you’ve done the planning and done the implementing, it’s time to do the evaluating. How many calories were you able to eat today?
Well, if you try to recall everything you ate today on the top of your head, you’d probably miss some items and end up with a bad answer. The most effective way to keep track is to keep a Food Journal. This journal can be the size of your palm, so you can carry it anywhere and write down things on the go. Write about all the things you ate and by how much. However, if you have high-end phones, PDAs, or other gadgets, you can use them as well.
At the end of the day, open up your journals (or phones) and calculate how much calories you were able to eat. Did you fall on or below your daily Caloric Intake target? If yes, then congratulations! Make sure to keep it up! If no, then don’t worry. We’re still starting out. They say the best start is to begin at the bottom and end on top. It would be bad if it were the other way around.
If you exceeded your daily target and ended up with more calories than you intended, try to review the things you’ve eaten today. You will probably find some things you can live the day without. Like a cupcake, a glass of soda, pieces of fries, a bag of chips, or other things that shouldn’t be in your diet. Try to keep a mental note to avoid these foods the next day.
If you’ve lost all the junk food in your diet but you’re still exceeding limits, try to minimize your eating. For example, instead of eating 1 serving of potatoes per meal, try half a serving. Apply this concept in other things too.
Just remember, when your cutting things out of your diet, start with the non-healthy and calorie packed food first. So if it’s a choice between your usual chocolate dessert for dinner and your morning apple, lose the chocolate.
All these calorie counting may be hard at first. But if you put your mind into it and integrate it in your system for 1 week, you’ll find that it’s human nature to Count Calories. You probably won’t remember the time when you didn’t count them. By now, you should be an expert when it comes to how to count calories.
