I’m keeping a food journal again–primarily because I really needed to figure out how many calories I’m taking in so I could tweak, if need be, to keep burning the fat.
I resist calorie counting, probably because I was so obsessively weird about it in my youth. I could’ve rattled off a calorie count for just about any food in existence. Like so many other young women who are absolutely not fat, I thought I was too fat. During those adolescent years (pre-weight training) I was between 105 and 115 pounds at a height of nearly 5′ 5". And that ain’t fat. But you have to consider that Twiggy (a starved waif) and her ilk were considered ideal women.
My body image didn’t get corrected until I discovered weights and running and started being concerned with lean body mass and fat percentage rather than scale weight.
At any rate, keeping the journal is illuminating.
I’m following Tom Venuto’s advice and doing a very mild caloric restriction: 15 percent.
When I have a chance, I’m going to re-read the dieting chapters in Tom’s e-book Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle. I’ve talked about Tom’s book before, but for the record, it’s a terrific guide to permanent fat-reduction through healthy diet, weight training, and cardio.
In any case, that amount of food reduction isn’t too painful, although it requires me to think twice about everything I eat and to plan what I’m going to eat. Both of those are good changes.
