Someone once told me calories are little creatures that go in your closet and shrink your clothes. This is not necessarily true, but it definitely is what it feels like. I don’t know about you, but counting calories is hard! It is a full-time commitment you make and if you are going to do it you have to do it right and include every single thing you eat or drink.
But, what if I told you that not all calories are the same? It is not only about how many calories are in your food but also, about the nutrient density of foods. This plays a huge role in how food is processed in our body and can make a world of difference. This is why counting calories, while extremely inconvenient, may not be the best way to lose those extra pounds.
Say for example you have snack options such as a string cheese which is about 80 calories vs 1 cup of blueberries which is about 85 calories. At the end of the day, the string cheese is probably going to not fill you up enough and you may have to add some nuts (or something else) which will also add up calories, whereas that cup of blueberries, because of its higher fiber content and clearly higher quantity will probably be enough to fill you up until your next meal. What this means is simply that while the string cheese has quite a few calories which should be ideal for a snack, it lacks other nutrients. On the other hand, the blueberries are more nutrient dense, which makes our body process these calories in a more efficient way, therefore, providing us with longer lasting results.
With this simple example, you can already start to see where I am going. It is not about the calories but about the quality of the food we eat. I’ve tried counting calories in the past and it drives me insane, it is hard to keep up and at the end of the day you don’t even know how accurate it is.
There are apps out there now that make this a lot easier, but truth be told, I use these every once in a blue moon as I don’t have the discipline to pull out my phone to enter every single thing I eat or drink throughout the day. However, with a little bit of understanding of some of the basic foods and maybe narrowing down the amount of foods that we consume daily, it makes the not counting calories lifestyle a lot easier and hey, I don’t know about you, but my life is crazy enough where making whatever I can simple is a win-win!
Instead of counting calories, what I do is I try to stick to a few foods on most days and what others would call my “cheat” day is the days I sneak in something else here and there but always controlling my portion size. Let’s say, for example, Monday through Friday I meal prep. I make myself some chicken breast in my Instant-Pot using some garlic and lime and then shredding it into my meal prep containers along with some portioned rice. As a side, I sometimes grab a banana, this is actually my favorite quick and easy lunch combination. As you all know vegetables are not my thing and well this is my way of sneaking in fruit during the day. I know this meal is not the healthiest but let me tell you, it is more nutrient-dense than when I decide to order lunch. Doing simple things like this will make your life so much simpler and it is even budget-friendly so why not!
So, make a list of foods you like, break it into categories, these being proteins, fat, and carbohydrates. Pick one food item from each category and make your plate. Look up some simple, healthy recipes that won’t take you all Sunday to prep and make enough for the week. It is always good to have a list of healthier cooking methods such as baking, grilling, and steaming. This will make it simple to know how to cook certain food items if you are short on time. Use basics such as garlic, onion (for those of you who like onion, I would never lol), Italian seasoning, you name it, these make it a good base to add just about any sauce if needed. Your body will thank you for it as you will be providing cleaner meals and so will your budget as batch cooking means less eating out for convenience because what is more convenient than grabbing a meal you already made from your fridge that just needs to be warmed up?! I got these awesome reusable meal prep containers from Amazon which make it so easy to portion your meals. Of course, using the small side for my rice and big side for protein and some low-carbs vegetables.
Some examples can be tossing the cooked chicken and in a pan with some BBQ sauce and serving it over Basmati rice. I may also just grab the chicken and toss it with veggies (for Alex of course, I don’t do veggies) and some soy sauce and make a stir-fry, and so on. Get creative and repeat those dishes you enjoy. And when short on time, just grab it and eat it just the way it is! It already has some seasoning, so it should be good to just warm up and eat. You may have to do some research at first to identify the foods that have the highest nutrient content but once you do this all you have to do is go back and grab 3 different foods from the categories and boom! Every week you have a different option that is easy, simple, budget-friendly, and no calorie counting needed.
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