SEARCHING FOR CLUES

Before we get started I would like to give an update to an earlier post regarding journaling. Seems I forgot to mention another option for journaling. I apologize. There are web sites that will let you record a journal on their site. It will add up the numbers for you and you can probably enter information from a cell phone or Blackberry or whatever device you may be carrying. Do a search on your computer with something like  "weight loss journal", check out the various web sites that pop up and see if you want to go that route. Just beware of sites that want to charge you money or want you to buy something for that privilege. I work at home and don't travel much so I don't have the latest gizmo for texting or phone apps and stuff like that. So you might also want to check out those options. I won't mention these sites because I don't want my readers (if I have any) to think that I'm promoting a certain site or product, or that I'm getting  paid in any way to write this blog. So make use of that search engine!

If you started recording in your journal you've probably ran into some situations that has led to questions you want to ask me. Questions like "How the heck am I supposed to know how many calories are in that Lasagna I just made?" or "How am I supposed to know how many calories are in McDonald's delicious French fries?"

Let's tackle the latter first. Surprisingly, there are web sites out there that will tell you how many calories are in a specific company's product. You ate some McDonald's fries?, type "McDonald's French fries + calories" into you're search engine and there will probably be 50 sites that will pop up and will tell you how many calories there are in McDonald's French Fries.  

OK...homemade cooking. If you mainly cook at home, calorie counting may seem a bit daunting. I think I can help with that.  The first time you figure out the calories for that Lasagna (and this applies to all recipes), it may be a little time consuming. But when you're  finished with the recipe and you've figured out the calories, just write it down in your recipe book or journal (or where ever works for you) for the next time you eat it. 

Again, you can find out calorie amounts for just about anything these days which makes calorie counting a whole heck of lot easier than when I grew up. How many calories in a cup of flour?  Enter  "1 cup of  flour + calories" into your search engine. How many calories in a large egg?  enter "1 large egg + calories" into your search engine. You get the idea.  So back to the lasagna...the first thing you want to do is to weigh your empty lasagna pan on your kitchen scale. Second, for packaged lasagna noodles it will tell you on the label how many calories per serving. It will also tell you how many servings are in the package. From there you can determine how may calories are in the package. "But Melting Man, I don't use the whole package when I make lasagna". Easy, count how many noodles are in the package and from there you can determine how many calories are in each noodle. Then just write down noodles and how may calories on your sheet of paper you're using to determine how many calories are in your lasagna. Once you're done finding calorie amounts  for each ingredient and you've  written it down, just add up the numbers. That will be the total amount of calories for the whole pan of lasagna. Now that you have your lasagna put together and  in the pan, just weigh it before you stick it in the oven. Subtract out the weight of your empty lasagna pan. From there you can determine how many calories are in each ounce of lasagna (remember 16 ounces in a pound). I like to break my food portions down into ounces because some days I might want to eat 5 ounces, some days only  3 ounces. In your journal (or wherever else you want that's handy) just record how many calories are in each ounce of your wonderful homemade lasagna for the next time. You can apply this method to all your recipes, I just used lasagna as an example.

My motto  "Eat ounces, lose pounds"- yeah I came up with that. So just credit Melting Man when using that little gem  :)

I hope this has been helpful. If you still have questions please post them and I will answer them the best I can.