Counting Calories, Day 2

Sometimes in a valiant effort to be healthy we sabotage out healthiness. Here’s an example.

Let’s say you eat oatmeal drizzled with real maple syrup and pecans for breakfast. For a midmorning snack you have a banana and peanuts. Then for lunch it’s a green salad with organic dressing. Midafternoon you go with a high-oxidant Odwalla bar. Dinner consists of rice and chicken and stir-fry vegetables.

The day may have been nutritious, but you may also fail to lose weight. Why? Because nutritious doesn’t always mean lean. Take the organic salad dressing. A serving of Newman’s Own Creamy Italian Dressing contains 140 calories and 14 grams of fat for 2 tablespoons. Health bars like the Odwalla brand carry a surprisingly high number of calories along with the nutrients. The Super Protein bar has 230 calories. Sounds more like a small meal. Real maple syrup may be natural, but it is extremely high in sugar. ¼ a cup equals 210 calories. Rather high for a flavoring.

The best way to avoid having too much of a good thing is to write the good things down. Just because it’s nutritious doesn’t give us a right to binge. Too much health food is simply not healthy.