Counting The Calories

According to the BMI calculator on the NHS website I’m obese. 

Awesome.

I know I’m not healthy and I know I’m overweight but I’ve never ever been able to do anything about it. I’ve never had enough will power or self-control to try and improve my health. I’m the kind of person who says on a Monday morning ‘I’m going to start eating healthily’ and by Tuesday morning I’m back to my old ways because I haven’t lost three stone and got thin in the space of 24 hours!

Over the past few years I’ve become more and more aware of my own mortality and am realising that if I don’t start looking after my  body and health now then I’m gonna be in trouble later on in life. I don’t want to end up with diabetes or high blood pressure and I don’t want to put myself more at risk of cancer and heart disease and all the other nasty things that could happen to me if I don’t look after myself now.

So I’ve started to follow the NHS Choices lose weight plan. It encourages you to eat only the amount of calories you actually need in a day and to make sure you stay active. Simple. And the best way to get healthy.

I don’t believe in all these fad diets or replacing meals with shakes or supplements. The best way to stay healthy is to eat in moderation and to stay active. It’s as simple as that. I’m not going to start banning myself from eating the things I like because then I will end up seriously grumpy and will give up much more easily, it’s just about eating things in moderation.

So instead of having a whole bar of chocolate, have one square. Instead of having a whole cake, have half. Instead of ordering a large takeaway pizza, order a small.

Part of the NHS plan is also to make sure you hit your five a day fruit and veg target which is harder than it sounds! I’ve never really paid much attention to how many portions I eat a day but now I am consciously measuring it, I realise that I don’t eat enough!

Same goes for the calorie counting…

Now that I’m counting the calories in everything I eat, I realise how much I was over-eating before. I would keep eating and eating and normally it wasn’t even because I was hungry. In fact, my body hardly needs anything to keep me going. According to the BMI calculator, due to my weight I need to be eating 1,600 calories a day and I am SHOCKED at how fast I can use those calories up. I dread to think how many calories I would have been eating before.

I’m also making sure I drink at least 1.2 litres of water a day to keep myself hydrated and thankfully water is calorie free so I can have as much of that as I want!!

I’m actually quite excited to be following this plan and I LOVE how the NHS provide you with check sheets for you to measure your progress each week. The whole plan is for twelve weeks and I am hoping to stick to it for that long. I find that I can follow things a lot easier if there are rigid plans and a structure to something. Before when I’ve tried to eat healthily I’ve found that I just don’t have the ability to keep track very well!

This isn’t something I’m doing as I want to be skinny (that would be nice!) but something I’m doing because I want to be healthy and happier and full of energy, rather than sluggish because I’ve eaten too much.  I want to give myself the best possible chance of living a long and healthy life and I know that I’m never going to be stick thin (it’s not in my genes!) and I don’t mind about being slightly large. I just want to be healthy and give myself the best chance of living a long life!

If you fancy giving it a go too then there’s all the information here. Good luck! I shall keep you all updated on how it’s going.