An Easy Way To Count Calories

It is recipe day but today I am doing something different.  I have been trying to count my calories.  It always happens in the dead of winter when I can't get out to exercise or get my mind off food.  Then when I can get out, my mind starts thinking about other things and I get past the need to be skinny (or even a little thinner).  I got on the Wii for the first time since last winter.  I got the fat avatar with the music indicating "Overweight".  What's new, I will probably never be "normal".

Seriously, I have found two websites that are really quite good.  The first one is one where you can enter all the ingredients for a recipe and it calculates the calories.  I did it for the Cherry Cheesecake Cupcakes that I posted last Tuesday.

http://www.thecabincountess.com/2014/01/cherry-cheesecake-cupcakes.html

You just cut and paste the recipe, put the number of servings in and click analyze.  It is shocking sometimes to see the total calories and how fast they add up.  You have to either save or burn 3600 calories to lose just one pound.  I'm sure there are tons of sites that do the same thing.  I have no investment in any of them, but it really makes things easy.

http://caloriecount.about.com/cc/recipe_analysis.php

The one I use the most is My Fitness Pal.  It links up wirelessly with the Fitbit I got for Christmas.  The Fitbit counts a persons steps and gives calorie credit for  them, but the fitness pal website can be used on its own.  There is a free app for it so all you do is enter your food, and it keeps track of the calories including the breakdown of carbs, fats, protein, sodium and other things.  We all have our phone with us most of the time, and it only takes a second to do.  If you don't want to use the phone the website does the same thing.  It couldn't be easier, the problem is Not grabbing the donut or cookie.  It is amazing what we eat that we don't even realize we are eating.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com

I have always said that losing weight is easy but keeping it off is the tough part.  Don't ask how I am doing with this.  If I look thinner in the Spring, then I am doing it.  If I don't, then it's my own fault.