Swiz you busted me!

Oh a direct question makes a direct hit. Swizzlepop asked me how I track my food and maybe something's up when I workout as hard as I do but am not losing. Well here's the secret:
I don't count.

You all know I'm not WW. But I do sometimes talk about calories. Well I'm guessing. I do look up individual foods when I'm curious. But I don't count everything I eat. Periodically I do log a whole week on Fitday. But my problem with that is it didn't have all my food so I had to sort of guess it with what was in there anyway. Those times showed me I tend to eat around 1600 - 1800 calories. I know it's more than a lot of you eat but frankly I have a lot of muscle mass. (am I fooling myself here?) I do eat more fat than I should, because of my peanut butter addiction. But in my defence I usually eat in a real "core" type way. As in my food choices can't be beat (except cookie debaucles). No granola bars, 100 calorie packs, anything like that. Every snack from waking up until home from work is either fruit, fat free yogurt or light cheese. Breakfast and lunches are always portion controlled and I don't feel bad about a thing in them (maybe it's because my scale sense is uncalibrated). Suppers I do know are a problem with over eating, basically portions and not enough veggies. I know I know. But I don't snack at night at all (except for post workout proteins sometimes). I think i'm doing alright.

But why aren't I losing then?

My once in awhile slip ups are not frequent enough to cause this.

It's all portions I think. How many fruit a day is too much? I eat 1.5 cups of grapes, a pear or apple, 1 cup of pineapple a day. Plus 1.5 cups of carrots and celery with hummus dip (only 50 calories of dip). Is that too much? How about when it's with a mini source yogurt (50 cal), a string cheese (70 cal)? And also 2 toasts with peanut butter and jam (!) and 2 cups of homemade hamburger soup, with something like a chicken stir fry with lots of veggies or a homemade hard shelled tacos? And then another pear or another yogurt? That's a very typical day for me. where's the problem? sometimes I eat 20 almonds a day. Is that bad?

I see one problem in the toast with peanut butter and jam. I can change my breakfasts. I used to eat good breakfasts, but when I ran out of tomatoes I stopped. Back at it I guess! Eureka moment? I've recently started eating my Kashi cereal again, which I do measure every now and then with skim milk. (it's too hard and crunchy for me usually but I've started pouring my milk and then packing my lunch and then eating, now it's good).

Another problem I have is right around supper. I'm usually starving while I'm making it and snack on something. Problem is, I don't know what I snack on. I can't remember! but I know I rumage around for a long time trying to find something not too bad. I should just have some grapes on the cupboard with me cooking. anybody else have a good solution for this? I'm definately going to eat something. baby carrots?

Same thing happens after supper. I need to get the supper taste out of my mouth (I don't know why) so I eat something for dessert. Like a yogurt or fruit, but sometimes it's been a cookie or chocolate covered apricots. I think I need to brush my teeth as soon as I'm done eating. I'll try that next time.

Will that do it? I dunno, am I really eating too many calories of fruit and veggies? I know I don't eat a lot of leafy greens but that comes and goes in spurts.

On a different note. I had the soup salad and half wrap from East Side Mario's for lunch. Smallest bowl ever of Italian wedding soup, some gross iceburg lettuce with a couple cherry tomatoes and a house dressing (maybe 1 tbsp) and half a wrap with chicken and veggies and cheese. I didn't really pay much attention to what was in the wrap honestly. probably some kinda sauce too.

Swiz again you're right, I know food isn't a reward. And i'm not really thinking of that a chocolate bar tomorrow night as a reward. It's just something I get on friday. a planned splurge I guess. Though it is incentive to eat well before hand, knowing I get that later. You're right, food isn't a reward, I've never rewarded myself with food before and I'm not doing that now. Thanks for the ass kicking. I need it sometimes. Especially when I'm telling myself I don't know why I'm showing a 2 lb gain. (though I really hope it goes away tomorrow anyway)