Five days in

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So, we’re five days into 2007! Belated Happy New Year to all. I was working between Christmas and New Year’s, unlike most of my coworkers, so I was a little preoccupied and not in the mood to blog much in my free time.

Overall, it was a nice New Year’s Eve. We spent most of the afternoon and evening at my inlaws, and we all had a great dinner and enjoyed each other’s company.

And of course, January 1st rolled around and it’s time to pull up the bootstraps, especially in the healthy eating area. December was a wash - everyone was sick and we all ate pretty badly. Lots of chocolate, lots of other tasty things, but not all of it was very good for us.

I had some success a couple months ago with an online food tracker, and I found another one with more features and a nicer interface. It does have a monthly subscription fee of $9US, but for now I think it’s worth it. That’s two Starbucks coffees.  If you’re so inclined, try out www.myfooddiary.com and take the guided tour. I like it so far, and I appreciate that it gives me a running total of how much I’ve eaten plus how much room I have left in my calorie budget for the day.

I’m also amazed at how many calories there are in fast food meals, even the so called “healthy choices!” It’s cool that most of the big chains are listing all of the nutrition info (www.wendys.com is very neat - you can customize your meal to give you an accurate idea of how much you’re really eating, handy for people like me who shun most condiments.) However, most of the fast food meals are easily more than half of my daily caloric budget. Not worth it.

In my wise old age (34 now, I’m certainly getting on, aren’t I?) I’ve come to the conclusion that a calorie is a calorie is a calorie. So I’m going to watch them like a hawk and see how things go. My food diary told me that I was over the limit by about 300 calories, but I hadn’t exercised (I slept in this morning instead!) So I went and rode my recumbent bike for 30 minutes after dinner and that brought me back in line again. And I’m just going to take it one day at a time.

When I went to confession during Advent, I had to confess my laziness and my general lack of concern for my health. I have to say that actually admitting it to the priest, and in effect to God, really struck my heart this time. Not to mention that I love my life and want to enjoy it as long as possible. I used to think that I didn’t overeat, but in retrospect I can see that I’ve made some regrettable food choices, usually emotionally based, and I think (I know!) I can do better. I’m so grateful for my Catholic faith in this, because it is so understanding of our fallen human nature. We try, we fail, we get up again, and on it goes. There is such gentleness and love in Christ, and I need to hold fast to that as I struggle to bring “healthy back.”

To any of my readers and friends out there, I wish you a blessed and joyful 2007. I think it’s going to be a wonderful year; even though the weather here has been most frightful lately (flooding again just a couple of days ago!) we can be thankful for friends, family, God’s love, health, work, and everything that brings us peace and happiness.

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Filed under Catholicism, Personal, Reflections, Self Improvement