Spending calories for dirty food!
Yagisama
Posts: 595 Member
My coworkers bring doughnuts to work on a regular basis. And I used to grab one. Trouble was that a lot of times, they were stale old marked down "a dozen for some ridiculously low cost" doughnuts. I appreciated the sentiment so I never thought about it in a negative manner. I also took some pastries and chocolates in once in a while.
But the bigger issue was that I didn't really like the doughnuts. Most were stale, dry, filled with some gooey blueberry or strawberry jam filling. I generally took one not to be rude, and I didn't really think about the calories. Plus, who could argue with a free doughnut! When I looked into the calorie side, I realized that I was eating 300-400 calories without a good reason! At 8.5 calories per minute of exercise it would take 40 minutes to burn off that stale doughnut.
Now, what I do is take the 400 calories and try to find the best dirty food I can find. I like the Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut a lot more than the purple filled one. I get it freshly baked and it's only 190 calories, which is only ~20 minutes of exercise to burn for me. That's less than 3 minutes of extra exercise per day for one week!
And the best part is that there is no guilt, I know exactly how many calories I want to "spend." And sure, I don't get to eat everything I come across, but the stuff that I eat are better and more memorable.
My next plan is to incorporate my three favorite German sausages: Bratwurst, Nürnberger Rostbratwurst, and Weisswurst. They are each ~300 calories so I will build up my exercise and dietary plan for this or next weekend for them.
Doughnuts and bratwurst? Why not? :drinker:
But the bigger issue was that I didn't really like the doughnuts. Most were stale, dry, filled with some gooey blueberry or strawberry jam filling. I generally took one not to be rude, and I didn't really think about the calories. Plus, who could argue with a free doughnut! When I looked into the calorie side, I realized that I was eating 300-400 calories without a good reason! At 8.5 calories per minute of exercise it would take 40 minutes to burn off that stale doughnut.
Now, what I do is take the 400 calories and try to find the best dirty food I can find. I like the Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut a lot more than the purple filled one. I get it freshly baked and it's only 190 calories, which is only ~20 minutes of exercise to burn for me. That's less than 3 minutes of extra exercise per day for one week!
And the best part is that there is no guilt, I know exactly how many calories I want to "spend." And sure, I don't get to eat everything I come across, but the stuff that I eat are better and more memorable.
My next plan is to incorporate my three favorite German sausages: Bratwurst, Nürnberger Rostbratwurst, and Weisswurst. They are each ~300 calories so I will build up my exercise and dietary plan for this or next weekend for them.
Doughnuts and bratwurst? Why not? :drinker:
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Brilliant!.
I read this to my non-MFP member boyfriend too. He used to bring home marked-down "treats" from the supermarket bakery all the time. He has a hell of a sweet tooth and for him, quantity was more important than quality. This catapulted him into the Diabetes diagnosis that finally made us change our eating habits.
For years, before I even really started to eat healthfully, I've tried to ask myself "Is it worth it?" before eating junk food. This worked for me because there were a lot of things that I just didn't enjoy well enough to eat. But after years of living with him, my standard of quality greatly decreased to the point that I began to like things I didn't like before. Like Hostess and Little Debbie snacks, they always tasted so stale to me. I mean, they leave a film on my tongue. That's just weird.
Now after eating better since November, my taste is much more discerning. I had some Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream a few months ago on a cheat, and it didn't really taste better than the So Delicious Almond Milk Ice Cream we buy. And if I stick to the serving size, it's not even a cheat. So I haven't even been tempted by Ben & Jerry's since then. Then a couple of weeks ago we got pizza and wings from an old favorite place. Again, not worth it. It was not near as good as I remember it being at all. However, there are other things, like my favorite Mexican restaurant, some favorite beers and my homemade chicken wings that are SO worth it.
Those experiences of tasting unpleasant cookies, cakes, frozen pizzas and other foods that were unhealthy and I didn't enjoy serve me well now. I conjure those memories when I'm tempted by something. This helps me immensely because, like last night, we were out most of the day running errands and I was starving by the time we got to the supermarket. We walked in and were instantly overwhelmed by the smells of greasy fried foods from the deli and the boxes of pastries from the bakery. We were SO tempted to get something. But we thought about the disappointment the last time we got any of these things, and we decided to just get what I came for, go home and eat something healthy. We did, it was delicious, and we can still have something naughty and delicious this weekend. Win.0 -
This is why the rich are thin.0
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How did everyone do this past week? Down 2.4 lbs with a pretty dirty week.0
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Down about 1.5 lb and that included a day where I ate 700+ calorie/slice pizza! :drinker:0
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Looks like we all did well last week...I am down 2 lb...lots of subway and chocolate!0
