Comforting to Count

Your Challenge Today:

Comforting to count calories …

By Bernadette Kathryn, LMT, IHLC

I find it almost comforting to count calories,

because it makes me conscious of what I’m eating.

~ Kristen Bell

Information is comforting, having the knowledge to understand is helpful and comforting. I like to understand things even though my capacity to understand certain things is more limited than other things. I am not a natural when it comes to machines or computers, I try and only go so far. I suppose that goes along with aptitude, my natural aptitude is not in the mechanical department.

I am more of an empathetic individual. I have a deep sense of feeling and sensitivity to others. I believe this was developed when I was very young, I was always very sensitive to my surroundings and the energy in them. I always found comfort in understanding other people and their feelings. I suspect this is part of why I like my job, working with people, helping them to feel better in their bodies. We can’t escape our bodies, we carry them with us 24/7, and finding a way to love and appreciate our bodies has been a life long passion for me.

I find it comforting to count calories too, calories are a measure that we can control and manipulate to create the desired result. I don’t believe that creating a Living Fit Lifestyle is as simple as counting calories but I do believe that counting calories are an important component. There is a basic sense of science and math that plays a role in reaching a healthy weight and managing your body fat to muscle mass ratio.

Where I jump off the beaten path is ~ I don’t believe that all calories are created equal. I do believe that if we focus solely on calories we may reach our desired body weight goal ~ but ~ we may not necessarily reach our Living Fit Lifestyle goal. Creating a healthy life is much more than fitting into a pair of skinny jeans. My goal is to create a healthy body, inside and out. I want the health of my body on the inside to be reflected on the outside and that is a much more complex subject than simply counting calories. AND — we do need to be mindful of the energy input to energy output ratio. We cannot out-train a poor diet. No amount of exercise can waylay too many calories. And, no amount of unhealthy dieting can create sustainable health and vitality that we are all striving for.

I believe that when we look at our food intake and exercise output – we need to take into consideration the object of creating a calorie deficit to facilitate a weight loss goal. And, we need to look at the objective of creating a Living Fit Lifestyle by considering the integrity of the calories that we are choosing to ingest. Our objective is to provide the very best quality foods for our body in a balanced plan to support our Living Fit Lifestyle.