Stop counting calories and enjoy your food. Counting calories is not the way. No need to count anything but instead eat Whole Foods. Eating real plant based foods and learning to love food. Lets talk about why restricting calories will harm you more than help you.
Love and light
Clarissa
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Transcript
(00:46):Hello loves how are you doing today? I hope you are having a wonderful day. So today we’re going to talk about counting calories. Okay. It’s like a hot topic. People are like, I just want to lose this weight really quick. And I just want to reduce my calories and cause basically 3,500 calories a pound, but it’s just more complicated than that. I mean, it’s not complicated per se, but it’s a lot more simple. So ideally we want to stop counting calories and Ms might be an unpopular opinion, but stop counting your calories and just relax.
Just enjoy your life a little bit more. So instead of counting our calories, it is idea to focus on the quality of the food you were eating in your lifestyle and you don’t have to worry about it. You don’t have, you can just relax a little bit more.
(01:43):Okay. And a lot of times worrying about what you’re eating in that fashion will, can cause stress on you. And lots of times when you’re stressed out, the cortisol is keeping you from losing weight as well. So he wants to reduce our stress levels at all times because it affects every part of us, including weight loss.
All right. And the first thing, all calories are not created equal. So if you are that magic numbers, 1200, which is not enough calories to do anything, push you’re probably tired. And then you’re wondering why you’re tired. You’re like I don’t have any energy to do this and don’t have any energy to work out.
I don’t have an energy for my family is because you don’t have any energy and calories is energy. This is what it is. It’s giving us the fuel. We need to move about the day and to take care of our loved ones to work, to do all the things we have to do on our plate.
(02:39):Okay. So if you’re eating junk food compared to eating real food, it’s a different kind of calorie. So if you’re eating a bag of chips and it’s a thousand calories compared to a thousand calories of broccoli, it’s going to hit your body different. All right. It just is.
There’s going to be no nutrients. And the chips I missed using chips as an example. And so you’re not going to have any energy, your body’s going to be looking for the nutrients that it needs. So let’s say you’ve been snacking all day because you’ve been super busy.
You are like, I’m going to be really productive today. I’m going to do this project. And then you’re like, well, I don’t have time to eat. You’re tired. That’s increasing your stress levels. And then by the time you get ready to eat, you eat all the food.
I mean, you eat like all the whole plate and then some more because your body is starving so much because it has not had any food and it’s ravenous because it’s trying to hold on to everything.
(03:36):And then what does that do result in a binge, right? So now you have this whole cycle going in. You’re like, I can’t stop eating. And it’s because your body is starving and you’re just so hungry. Okay. So switching out processed foods, ultra processed foods, and just trying to eat more whole foods. And that will also fill you up. So then, you know, when you’re eating regularly, which is the goal to eat regularly, you know, and if you are having a snack, just, you know, picking something that’s a little bit more nutritious, like six and blueberries.
That’s also full of antioxidants, okay. That will feed your bodies. We want nutrient dense food. And this is great for your metabolism. It’ll get you up and tablets up and just going and you’re going to feel wonderful. All right. So swapping that junk food out for the better quality food, which is going to give you the energy that you need, because we need to have our energy, you know, because then you can’t get anything done.
(04:38):So then when you are at home with your family, you just want to sleep, right. Because you’re already being super productive and you’re doing all these things. And so we wanted to have that extra energy as well. So we need the calories from the food. All right. Okay. And second, we have our food labels.
All right. So talk about some macros are proteins, fats and carbs. So a protein, four calories is a gram and our carbs for calories is a gram and our fats nine calories in the grant. So four and four for protein and carbs and fats is nine. All right. So you have to calculate that. And then you also have to look at the servings.
All right. So let’s say you’re eating that bag of chips and it’s four servings, right? And then you got to go down there and calculate it.
(05:28):Then there’s also the sodium and everything else also that’s there. So then there’s that water retention was also adds to the number on the scale, which I don’t recommend looking at numbers on the scale, but it’s best to take progress, pictures and measurements.
All right. Because the scale can Misha hit up real quick. You know, it can all the things going on there, the hormones, the food you ate, the water retention, all the things. All right. So, but back to my labels. So he got to sit there and look at the serving size. And then also it might not be accurate because it’s how much of it did you eat? So, I mean, it’s not like you’re sitting there and measuring out a half a cup of food, per se.
Most people do not do that. You might have a scale in your house, but not everybody has a scale of their measuring out their protein and things of that nature.
(06:16):Most people, most people are just eating the food. You’re hungry, you grab it and you eat it all or you eat some of it, you know? So how much of it did you eat and how did you prepare it?
All right. Because then, you know, that’s adding calories on as well. So the goal is to prepare in a more healthy manner, but you might not, you might decide today, you want to fry this chicken because that’s what you feel like having, instead of you don’t want to bake it or roast it.
What did you put on it? Is there a sauce that you put on it? That’s more calories, you know, depending on what you do, because you want it to flavor your food. Ideally you can have a cabinet full of spices and herbs and you can make just about anything tastes good. Okay.
(06:58):So you can make your own sauce from scratch. If that’s what you want to do a broth, did you make it in oil? See, then that’s added fats there too as well. So it’s not just as cut and dry as it is.
Maybe reading a label because you’re going to prepare the food in a certain way. All right. Food is information, you know? So it all, it all depends on what you’re doing. There are you it’s because it’s going to be stored as energy and it’s going to use it. However it needs. It might just sit there in your body or it’s going to use it.
Sometimes it’s just stored. So if you’re eating a bunch of junk food, it’s just going to store it because it doesn’t really have any use for it. Okay.
(07:40):And three, let’s talk about our devices. There has been research that even shows that when we have our calories on our devices, they’re not accurate. You know, you can think about it. It’s just a watch or a Fitbit or whatever it is that you’re using.
It’s just not, it’s going to be awesome. It’s only going to be so accurate. They say that it is either going to be minus 400 calories to plus 200 calories. So in 24 hours, let’s say your watch says that you burn 700 calories or a thousand calories. Okay? So your watch says you burn a thousand calories, but it might not be true.
You might be up or down a good 600 calories or 400 calories, a couple of hundred. So it was very hard to rely on things. You know, you want to be active and moving your body. If you are typically more sedentary, it’s good to just start with just walking.
(08:35):And then as you get more used to it, you’ll start doing more activities. You know, you might start jogging, doing different kinds of activities just to get your body going and building muscle. And when you’re working out and moving, you need more calories.
You have to feed your body. You need that protein to repair. Okay? So better that you are eating more, eat more. When you are like more active, the more you do the more your body needs and needs to heal, it needs to recover your body’s in a stressed out state and it needs the food good food, cause it’s fuel to help repair your body.
Okay. And another very important reason is when you’re just your body is going to feel like it’s going into starvation mode, it’s going to feel like it’s a shortage of food. Your body thinks is going through an energy shortage, and this is going to have your metabolism slow down.
(09:32):So it’s going to use less energy, which is converting fat into usable fuel. So in metabolism is going to slow down and didn’t, you’re going to feel like it’s doing the opposite of what you want to lose weight because the energy you do have is going to be stored as fat, okay.
And not use. And it’s going to burn off so much slower because your body’s like, you know, what’s going on here. That’s just like fading out here. And that’s also going to wind up resulting in increased appetite, which goes back to that bingeing. Then you’re going to probably possibly be eating the food that you should not be eating. Right. And you’re going to eat more of that.
So your body’s is going to be lacking the proper nutrients that needs for you to function properly. Then you can, concentration is going to not be as good.
(10:21):Your energy is going to be low because you don’t have the nutrients you need because your body is starving. Okay. And sometimes that can also make you be thirsty and you feel parched was then also brings you back to feeling sleepy, lethargic.
All right. So just some things to be mindful of there. So just eating the correct food, it also make you feel less stressed out. It’s just, it’s just so much easier, right? So the goal is not to count calories. You want to love your body. Okay? Love yourself and love your body.
And a lot of times when you’re depriving yourself, you’re not showing your body enough love. All right. So also a lot of times, if you’re counting calories, you’re looking at the scale and we don’t want to look at this scale so that earlier, you know, try to take progress pictures and also do your measurements.
(11:13):Instead of focusing on the number on the scale, because a number of the scale is not accurate and it will change all the time. And lot of times you might get into the habit of getting on the scale every single day. And it’s going to be different. It’s going to fluctuate up and down. Your hormones can affect it. Your water, you know, you have water retention.
Did you read about your salt? What did you eat? You know, and also muscle weighs more than fat. It is dense. And so we want muscle that gives you that sleek, look that sexy. Look, you know, but it’s going to weigh more. So it’s better to take your measurements, okay?
Because your body will start getting toned because the number might not change. It might go up a couple of degrees, degrees. It might go up a couple of pounds.
(11:59):We’re going to call this like a recovery stage. You’re healing your body. And it’s like, oh yes, I’m so happy. She’s feeding me. She’s working out all the things she’s doing all this self care for me. And so it’s going to hold on to it. And then that you might stay the same.
You might go down, you might go up because you got to give it some time to regulate and to get back to where it needs to be to that healthy place. All right. Your salt retention is going to affect that number, your gut health. Now, what are you eating?
You’re getting your probiotics, you know, your mind and your brain is so connected. That’s why the stress levels, the cortisol, you know, your weight. It’s all connected. It very much is. I mean, I know a years ago I was counting in college.
(12:44):Cause I didn’t know any better. I mean, I’ve been there. I think everybody has at one point, but when you know better, you do better. Right. And that’s, and that’s okay. And that’s okay. You know, and talk to yourself with love. Don’t be too hard on yourself. You got this. All right. So no more counting calories. All right. We talked about the type of food, how it affects you, swapping out the junk and the process food for the good food quality in the lifestyle sleep.
Okay. We need our sleep is different for everybody. But a good rule of thumb is to try to get at least seven, you know, just try to do that. You know, the moving your body, just nutrients, just all the things. It’s a good lifestyle though. There’s a whole lot involved in lifestyle, but right now we’re going to talk about swapping the food quality, getting rid of the ultra, processed the refined sugars, all the things, and just trying to eat better food quality.
(13:45):And when you do that, you don’t need to worry about calories. Okay? It just, it takes care of itself because once you have the lean, lean meat per se, or, or more plants and you prepare it in a way that’s more healthy, then you don’t have to worry about it. It cancels stuff out.
And then you get full and you have your energy. Your body has nutrients that it needs. Okay. Also food labels, paying attention to your food labels. You can, you know, because it’s not always accurate depending on how you’re doing your food. How are you preparing your food?
All the things and our devices that we use to track. Okay, they’re good to have as a general rule of thumb, but they are not always accurate. All right. Just be mindful of that and eating enough just in general. So our body’s not going into a starvation mode.
We want our metabolism good. And this all affects our metabolism, which is super important. All right, guys. Okay. So I hope this helped. So if you have any questions or you want to reach out all my contact is down there in the show notes, I would love to talk to you
