I spent my 20′s racking up credit card debt and gaining weight. What do these two things have in common? Budgeting. And it took me 10 years to realize it. Most people know, to a reasonable degree, how much money they are going to make in a month and how much their bills will be. Yet, we still overspend and live paycheck to paycheck even when unexpected expenses don’t pop up. The problem is usually because we spend on things we want, not things we need. The same is true for our calorie budgets. Most people know what they should and shouldn’t eat yet nearly 70% of Americans are all going over our calorie budgets and going into “weight debt”.
While learning how to manage my caloric intake, I’ve also become better at my financial budget but I think managing your caloric budget is much easier than managing finances. You can know with reasonable certainty how many calories you should eat in a day. From there you can plan your day and be assured you won’t go over budget unless you stray from your plan. But, when you have a plan you’ll be much less likely to stray.
Each morning I have basically the same type of breakfast and morning snack. I have some type of granola or other non-sugary, fiber-rich cereal and a small amount of milk for breakfast and then 150 calories worth of fruit and nuts as a mid-morning snack. So, each day by lunch I have had approximately 350 calories. By mid-morning I have also already planned what I’ll be making for dinner so I know how many calories I should have at lunch. For lunch I have a rotation of meals that are all 350 – 500 calories. These lunches include:
-a ham & turkey sandwich on whole grain bread or a wrap with a small amount of light Miracle Whip and a salad with Henry’s raspberry vinaigrette
-a frozen entree such as Amy’s Tofu Lasagna
-a tuna sandwich and a serving of organic chips such as Terra or Veggie Stix
As you can see I’m not having celery and carrot sticks for lunch. I’m enjoying some chips or even a piece of lasagna. But, I’m making wise choices about the kind of chips so they are laden with sugar and sodium and with the frozen meals so they are lower calorie but still filling (unlike Lean Cuisine and other 250 calorie tiny entrees).
Mid-afternoon I’ll have another 200 calorie snack of fruit and nuts or some turkey jerky putting me around 1000 calories for the day. This works for me because I have more of an appetite in the evening and like to have a larger dinner plus a treat after.
Since I already planned what I will be making for dinner much earlier in the day, I know I can have about 600 calories at dinner since I save around 200 calories for greek yogurt and fresh fruit after dinner. 600 calories can get you a very robust dinner if you don’t use much butter, sugar or oil when cooking.
Planning out my calorie budget like this and knowing what I am going to eat before the day really gets going helps me stay on track and actually saves me a considerable amount of time and grief. How many times have you sat with a friend or significant other and tried to decide what to have for dinner? That process of “I don’t care I’m not in the mood for anything” “Me either. You pick.” can go on until finally one of you picks something just to get it over with. And you probably don’t end up eating something you really want or something that is good for you. By planning my meals I know that I’m going to be eating something I really want and that is good for me. Also by eating on a schedule, I never get ravenously hungry so my chances of binging are much less.
Once you budget for a couple of weeks it becomes second nature. And as I said it can carry over and make you more organized in other parts of your life. You may find yourself getting out of debt or not living paycheck to paycheck once you get your budgeting skills up to par. If nothing else you will lose weight if you properly budget and stick to your workouts!
