Recently I have shared my quest to eat more mindfully & must admit that it is still an uphill battle at times. As I reflect on my healthy living goals, the top priority is to remain active (check) and be mindful about what I put in my mouth (maybe half a check on that one). I have tinkered with the idea of recording what I eat for a few days. However, given the obsessive nature of my personality, I am afraid that calorie counting may become my 3rd job. While I am certainly an advocate of food records, there is a fine line between being aware of what we eat and being obsessed with what we put in our mouths.
As I reflected more on the process of calorie counting I realized that this might not be in alignment with my goal of low stress healthful living. It was serendipitous that I stumbled upon this article from The Stone Soup arguing against calorie counting. The article goes on to talk about mindful eating and though I think there are certain situations where calorie counting is warranted (certain medical conditions that require calories for weight gain/maintenance, etc) this article is pretty spot on. I encourage all of you to read it.
- Calorie counting takes the joy out of eating
- Counting calories encourages you to eat packaged, processed food
- Counting calories doesn’t guarantee you will get the nutrients you need
- Counting calories teaches you to ignore your natural satiety cues
- Calorie restriction doesn’t work for maintaining weight loss in the long term
- Cutting calories doesn’t address the root cause of your problem
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