To Count or to Not Count the Calories?

In this episode, we are talking about calories.

There are lots of ideas out there about calorie counting, for example how this can help you lose weight faster or control your food intake.

When I was a PT and prepared meals for over 200 people per day, I paid attention to each person to see how their body reacted to a menu without counting calories. It was pretty amazing to see the impressive results in weight loss that happened without even counting the calories that went into the meals.

Let’s be honest now; let’s say you have an extremely busy life. You are a manager of a company, but you also have a family to take care of, mortgages to worry about, and not to mention the everyday stresses of life.

If someone came up to you and said “You know what? If you want to be healthy, you have to start counting your calorie intake”, how would you react?

Would this extra job not create extra stress for your daily life?

Yes, of course it would!

It only becomes an extra thing for you to worry about.

If you begin counting calories and end up struggling to keep up, you would only be causing yourself more unnecessary pressure and stress.

I know a lot of people will still insist: “But Andrei, there are apps out there that can count this for us.”

Yes of course this is true. But would you really want to spend more time before meals scanning the labels of every product and manually writing each ingredient down in the app? Wouldn’t this simply create more stress and hassle for you?

I had a lot of clients at PT that would travel a lot for work while also try to count their calories.

One day, one of them told me: “Andrei, I’ve had enough with counting calories and these apps! I had a dinner meeting the other day, but the app told me I couldn’t eat anymore as I had already consumed all my calories for the day. Do you know how stressed I was? Throughout the entire meeting I was only thinking about whether or not I should eat, and was not focused on my client at all”

I am sure a lot of people are facing the same situation.

So what do you have to do to combat this problem?

The solution is very simple – in fact, it is always simple, but it is human nature to complicate things.

The first thing you have to understand is that you are not an athlete.

Only athletes should count calories.

Why?

Because this is their job – to focus on exercise nutrition and make their bodies reach their maximum potential.

This is their job guys!

If you are not an athlete or you don’t want to become one, then why should you put more stress on your brain and body? Why should you do this instead of enjoying the food you eat, the sports that you do, and the results that you have?

The second thing is to try and eat as healthy as possible.

What does it mean to eat healthy?

Try to keep these 4 things in mind:

1. Eat regular meals and never skip a meal. 3 meals per day is the standard.
2. Drink at least 3L of water everyday. Don’t say “no”, just do it 😊
3. Don’t eat after 8pm, only do so if it is a must.
4. Eat more vegetables such as beans, peas, tomatoes, rather than carbs like potatoes, rice or sugar.

If you do this, you will feel much better in a shorter period of time and you can also lose some weight.

The third and final tip is to do exercise.

Don’t try to make excuses that stop you from doing this

For example, you don’t like exercise? Try to reconsider this because it can improve your mood and help you stay fit and healthy.

What if you don’t have the time? Well, I am sure you do. If you’re already spending time counting calories, scanning labels and writing this down in your app, surely you have 10 minutes a day to spare to do some push-ups, squats and ab exercises instead.

In life, you will have to do things you don’t enjoy, but you must acknowledge the benefits these things can bring you. Once you understand how many benefits you will get from exercising, I am sure you will start wanting to go to the gym more often, try running, or other activities that give you a good sweat.

Doing these exercises will help your muscles to improve, and with your muscles improving, your body will start consuming more and more calories. As a result, you will lose weight, feel better and be healthier overall.

We all know what we have to eat and what the differences are between bad food and good food.

But because of marketing and ads we are often subconsciously swayed into choosing the bad junk food instead.

Think about it this way – if starting from tomorrow, Coca-Cola suddenly stopped all ads on their products, their sales will decrease significantly. What we will quickly realise is that we don’t need products like Coca-Cola that do not benefit us and only rely on marketing/adverts to bring value to the market.

What we really need are products that genuinely help us live a better, healthier lifestyle. It is these products that will bring positive change to our mindsets and bodies.

I hope all this information makes sense, has opened your eyes, released your brain from the extra stress of calorie counting, and encouraged you to enjoy your food and your life much more.

See you in the next episode 😊