's motd Wednesday April 20, 2011

[Guest guest]

A CALORIE IS

A CALORIE?

Wednesday, 20 April 2011

I never heard about calories

until my parents took me to the doctor. After

examining and taking a good look at my body, the

doctor said to my parents, "Mr. and Mrs.

, your son really needs to lose some

weight. I don't know how many calories he's

eating per day but I'm thinking he needs to cut

the number in half."

I wasn't the only one who didn't

know a lot about calories. My parents didn't

either. In fact, back then, the average person on

the street didn't know very much about calories. No

one counted calories when I was a kid. We were just

happy having some good-old food to eat. And hey,

that's all that mattered.

Anyway, my parents spent some more time with the

doctor as he instructed them on what I should be

eating and how many calories I should be consuming

each day. He tried to explain it all to me, too.

But I'm telling you, the only word I could

hear, above everything else he was saying to me

was...punishment!

When we got home, my mother repeated the words my

doctor had spoken. And yes, the number of calories

I ate was really going to be cut-in-half! Okay,

but I had only one very important question for my

mother and that was...Who was going to get the

other half?

Fast forward to the present day and, oh my, we live

in a country of...calorie freaks! We go to

the grocery store, read those labels to check how

many calories are in the foods we buy. And today,

many restaurants not only list a breakdown of the

fat and sodium content of their foods but, of

course, they list how many calories are contained in

each dish, too.

There are very few foods that

contain no calories at all. I mean, even

those teeny little mints that lots of people like to

pop into their mouths contain at least a few

calories.

Now if you're consuming lots of

calories that are just full of sugar, salt and

grease, believe me, you're not doing your body any

favors. See, your body doesn't really need all of

those "empty" do-no-good-for-your-body calories.

They provide nothing beneficial for your body's good

health. So okay, let's review the six major food

groups again, shall we?

Vegetables, fruits, proteins, dairy,

carbohydrates and fats, almost in that order

in fact, are the foods you should be eating.

I was looking at the label on a

chocolate Easter egg and it contained over 300

calories! Now how long will it take you to eat that

little egg, huh? Oh, you know...not long.

Hey, with that number of calories to spend, I could

put a little sesame oil in a skillet, saute some

zucchini squash, onions, chicken, brown rice and...yum!

Right there, I've got a healthy, filling dish

that'll do some good for my body rather

than wasting 300 calories on one of those solid

chocolate Easter eggs. Like I said, that egg has

nothing useful for your body. Hey, it was just a

little Easter present for your taste buds and that's

about it.

Look, you know I love fattening

foods too. But if we consume too many calories and

don't burn them off then, you know what happens. We gain

weight. First, it's a pound-or-two, then

it's five-to-seven pounds and next stop, you've

gained 15 pounds. Where does it end?

Have you been there? I certainly have! But there

came a time in my life where all of those empty

calories were really getting me into trouble. And

that's when I began to live my life eating in a

healthy way, with a healthy mix of foods from the

six food groups. Yes, once in a while, I'll want a piece of

candy and when I do, I fit the calories from that

candy into my daily caloric intake.

I know many of you have not

tried my FoodMover

yet. But the FoodMover teaches you to respect

those calories and consume them responsibly. The

FoodMover will teach you to measure your foods and

consume them in the right-size portions for

successful weight-loss.

Here's a little something for you to think about.

Instead of saying you have, say 40 pounds to lose,

look at your weight-loss goal in calories.

Multiply that 40 by 3500. (It takes 3500 calories

to add one pound to your body.) So if you have 40

pounds to lose, multiply that 40 X 3500 and see,

that means you have 140,000 calories to

lose in order to reach your goal-weight. So hey, if

I were you, I'd really be watching those calories

today.

Love,