Many people are hesitant to talk about counting calories.
I know I was!!!!!
I have counted calories many times over the years of trying to lose weight. At one point, I decided “I was never going to count calories again”. I viewed counting calories like a prison, like bondage – restrictive.
When Wayne and I first sat down to talk, we talked about how God designed the body – and what an amazing masterpiece it is!!!! We also talked about the design, science and math of how our bodies store and lose weight. For the body to lose weight, there must be a calorie deficit.
One pound is equal to 3500 calories
therefore to lose one pound a week, there must be a 3500 calorie deficit (500 calories per day). From years of dieting and learning about weight loss, I knew this was correct information. Then he brought up the dreaded subject of counting calories. I shared with him that I had said “I was never going to count calories again”. I told him that it felt restrictive and like a prison. He challenged me to look at it from a different perspective.
A tool to be used.
Wayne told me it was a tool to be used. I have heard him use the analogy of blindfolding someone, spinning them in a circle, and then asking them to hit a target. What are the chances that person would hit the bulls eye – or even the target??? If I need to create a calorie deficit to lose weight, how will I know if I have created a deficit if I don’t know how many calories I am putting into my body?
We talked this through at length (because I had lots of “yeah buts” to work through).
We talked about it in the context of God’s amazing creation and design and the science and math. He told me it was bankable! I needed something bankable. I needed to know that if I was going to put forth an effort to do something, that change would happen.
I needed HOPE!
I had been overweight so long, was concerned for my health, felt desperate and that I had no time to waste. Throughout our conversation, I began to see that counting calories really can be a tool. We figured up how many calories my body needed for fuel and how to create a healthy deficit. That was a boundary for me – a non-negotiable – it was the amount of fuel my body needed to thrive and to begin to lose excess weight. Counting calories in that perspective is a tool. I no longer viewed it as a dictator, a bunch of rules or restrictive. I CHOSE to live within those healthy boundaries where I could thrive!!
Counting calories became knowledge and EMPOWERED me to know that I was within the calories my body needed.
And I can tell you now, 22.5 months later, 167.5 pounds gone, that it is bankable!!!!
