Budgeting calories

Ok, in my initial post I referenced Dave Ramsey and how he not only helped us to become debt free with our finances but with our health as well. One of Dave Ramsey's biggest principles is living and sticking to a budget. When you write down and make a plan for your money you are budgeting. When you start to get good at budgeting, you start to see how much you can do with your money and you are telling your money how you want to spend it.

This is the same idea with "dieting"(I say "dieting" because I hate the word diet, it has a negative connotation because of all the crappy fads that are out there. To me you are healthier). When you begin to want to lose weight (debt) you have to look at your calorie consumption (bills). The best way to lose the weight (debt) is to write down what you are eating (bills) and log where your calories are going(budget) Your daily allotted calories is your budget. My fitness pal is an app that I used to help form my budget. They take your weight, activity level and how much weight you want to lose and create a budget for you to follow.

So you start to write down where you want your calories to go. You find out real quick the piece of cake, or quarter pounder with cheese is a waste of all of your calories. Your overtime or found money throughout the day is exercise. So let's say your budget is 1370 calories per day, you have to decide what food you can fit into the budget. I love to eat 3 meals with 2 snacks. My budget per meal needs to be between 200-400 calories and my snacks about 100 calories. Any exercise, will increase your budget. A spinning class burns about 800-900 calories an hour, walking briskly averages about 150 calories, swimming laps for 30 mins is about 300 calories.  Just remember that if you are trying to lose weight, you don't want to get into the mentality to eat the extra calories that have been added to your budget.

Once you start writing and tracking your budget, you will begin to see the results. You are telling yourself where you want your calories to go, just like Dave talks about telling your money where to go. You can plan your daily caloric intake with intent by prepping meals ahead of time and making good choices. Remember that if you are craving something like chocolate or salt. Give your self the chocolate or salt but in better ways. Like pita chips vs. chips, a hershey kiss vs. a whole candy bar. Also give yourself some grace when you start. If you screw up on one meal, don't let it impact your whole day's budget. Get back on track the next time you are going to eat, or go walk, do lunges up your stairs, do push ups on the commercial breaks etc.
I hope this helps! :)