How to Calculate The Nutritional Ingredients In Recipes

                                                Calories In:  1450    Calories Out:  2232

This is an actual picture of the sauce I made. 

Today's overall calorie count is good. I made spaghetti sauce with sauce, with lots of veges added in. I wrote about how I make this sauce here. It's delicious! Tonight, I measured it very well, so I could be more precise about what I am eating. I usually do  a lot of guessing but I want to try to really know what I am eating, so I can pinpoint what my portions need to be. 


This sauce is the regular jar sauce, but it has celery, onions, bell pepper and garlic added. It was delicious tonight! This is my gorgeous husband's favourite: spaghetti. Adding all the veges is something I have got him used to! 


I still ate too much at supper, though, with a supper total of 761 calories. I was totally stuffed. I ate one cup of cooked spaghetti and one cup of the sauce (which is 253 calories per cup.) And then I had some olive oil on the spaghetti and 2 cups of milk. This all added up. I was thinking of how I could get the meal down to 500 calories or so: eat only 1/2 cup of spaghetti, add even more veges, and go back to 1% milk. 


Here's a tip for anyone that's cooking a lot and doesn't know how to calculate your recipes. First, create a recipe on Sparkpeople, Create the recipe by entering all the ingredients and then putting in how many servings the recipe creates. You can then have a calorie count for your recipe. It's great! I am sure there are other programs that do this, too, but I am familiar with Sparkpeople. The really nice thing about this is that you can cook this recipe again, and know the calories every time. It's in the program. You can also print the recipe out and put in a book for yourself. I love it! 


So, that was my eating for today. How was your day? 

I Burned 819 Calories Last Night!

Calorie Differential Report

Hi! I am trying this blogging thing again, after a day of Blogger not working for me. Arrrgghh! Has anyone else had this problem?

So, I just wanted to say "yay!" Last night, I walked five miles and burned 819 calories. I am so, so happy! You know, it actually felt good to walk. My lungs were starting to fill with air, and I was hardly out of breath. And I enjoyed the fresh air and flowers and yards.

And in case you are wondering what that cool looking picture is, just beside you <<=====-. That is a screen picture of my report from Sparkpeople. The report shows the amount of calories I ate versus the number of calories burned, for the day. And there were more burned. Yay!

I just went back to SparkPeople, after two years, and actually tracked my exercise and food yesterday. I also wrote a little blog in there. Doing that was a sign to myself that I am committed to do it, this time.

Sparkpeople is such a good site. It has a food and exercise tracking program and gives you reports about everything you can imagine. It has a home page for each member and TONS of support. Best part of all: it's free!

So, I am feeling good today. I am committed to making this work. I will post again soon. Thank you so much to those of you that reached with your support on my last post. I am going to respond to the comments in comments section soon. Take care!

My week

Well, this week was a step in the right direction. I started teaching again this week, and I was at work very late getting things ready, and didn't get much sleep this weekend. Overall, the week was a step in the right direction. On Tuesday morning, I walked my hour before school, at 4:30 a.m. It was nice, and I really enjoyed the morning air. The unfortunate part was that it meant only getting about 2 hours sleep. I stayed up until two, just excited and nervous about starting work again, and then went into the school right after I worked out. So, I was very tired by that night.

The next morning, Wed, I got up and did about half an hour of Pilates, and then went to work. Well, by Thurs, I was exhausted that I slept in more, and got up in time to do 15 minutes of aerobic-type exercising on my own. And by Friday, today, I was so tired that I couldn't force myself out of bed until 45 minutes before work, and barely dragged my buns into the shower. Well, the week started well, but I petered out from exhaustion. I have to find a way to pace myself to stick with this on a consistent basis. I thought that exercising would give me more energy, but it's not enough yet to make me all energetic and dying to get up.

And my eating has improved. I joined the website, SparkPeople, and have started keeping track of my calories. This practise alone has really helped me to start being aware of what I am eating, and leading me to eat less. I did have a binge of macaroni salad on Wed night, but having to account for it was great for making me face it, and move on. I did not carry the guilt around with me all the next day, but instead let go, and forgave myself. This is a big improvement for me.

I am set up with SparkPeople to eat between 1800 and 2200 calories. I hope this is a right figure for me. I also am scheduled to do five hours of cardio a week. This week, I have almost reached this goal because of going with the P.E. Class at school, taking part in a bit of the tennis and walking to the tennis courts.

This month, my leg has been swelling up like crazy. I have had two blood clots and it swelling up like it did when I had my blood clots. I can't afford to get a blood clot right now, because I need to work, and to lose weight! I am wondering if it is my calves swelling up from the pressure of carrying all this weight around while walking.

It is just one thing after another. I take two steps forward, and one back. I am going a bit forward, though. I am far better than I was two months ago. It's just frustrating that it can't be faster.