100 Days

What I ate today

Breakfast (9:15 a.m.)
1 grapefruit
Calories: 100?
Fat: 0 grams

Snack (10:30 a.m.)
1 can of Campbell’s beef vegetable soup
Calories: 60
Fat: 1 gram

Lunch (12:30 p.m.)
12 inches of pure Subway chicken breast goodness
Calories: 640
Fat: 10 grams

Snack (3 p.m.)
¼ cup of steel cut oats
Calories: 160
Fat: 3 grams

Dinner (5:30 p.m.)
4 chicken filets
Calories: 100 Quote from the back of the bag: “Serving Size: 4 pieces” “Calories per serving: 100” I swear)
Fat: .5 grams

Snack (8 p.m.)
1 stick of beef jerky (convenience store emergency)
Calories: 150
Fat 1 gram

Snack (11 p.m.)
2 servings of baby carrots
Calories: 70
Fat: 0 grams

Total Calories: 1,280
Total fat: 15.5 grams

Exercise: none

Count ‘em up, kids. I ate seven times today. That’s right, seven. And not only that, I went to the health food store today and stocked up on some brown rice and steel cut oats. My boss recommended them, and I had to make the buy because of the name: Steel Cut Oats. That sounds like a man’s oats.

I couldn’t wait to try the steel cut oats when I got home. They were bland, but in a good way. I think they would be fantastic with some brown sugar. However, I will hold off on that for now.

I got an interesting comment today that I am sure many readers will agree with. It gives me a chance to clear something up.

From: Jeri
Re: You can’t count
I hate to mention it, since you're working so hard, but I think you may be underestimating calorie counts. If you ate a whole can of Campbell's condensed soup, that's 2.5 servings, not one. Unless you're eating really small "lite" multigrain bread, most of those are 100+ calories a slice. Turkey may be 45 calories an ounce. My numbers add up to closer to 400 for your breakfast today. Make sure you aren't fooled by nutritional labels on products that are OBVIOUSLY meant to be single servings which have nutritional information figuring 2 or more servings. Good luck!

Alright, I can definitely see where she is coming from and I understand the perception of misrepresentation of calories. However, I can read and I am smart enough to look at serving size when I buy stuff. I think sometimes, though, I don’t fully explain exactly what I am eating. Most condensed soup is much more than 60 calories. However, what I have had the last two days is “Campbell’s Soup At Hand Vegetable Beef”. It is the kind that you microwave as a whole and it comes with a convenient drinking lid so you don’t burn yourself. It is a genius idea from the people at Campbell’s. I have the label right in front of me now: “Serving Size: 1 container”, “Calories: 60”, “Fat: 1 gram”.

As for the bread, what I am eating is “Sara Lee Delightful 100% Multi-Grain”. Right next to Sarah Lee’s name it says “Only 45 calories”. Remember, I started off with “Sara Lee Country Potato Bread”, but gave it up because it was over 100 calories per slice. As for the turkey, I will admit to constantly forgetting whether a two-ounce serving has 50 or 100 calories (I think it is 50, but I may be wrong). But It is definitely one of those two. I’ve checked it three times at the counter. The Roast Beef has 100 calories and three grams of fat for a three-ounce serving. As for the chicken I am eating, it is incredibly lean, but I am skeptical of the “100 calories per four pieces” nutritional information. But it does say that calories will vary depending on the size of the pieces. So actually I would guess that today, since I had four of the larger pieces in the bag, I took in more than 100 calories at dinner.

The irony in all this is that, if I have been underestimating calories, that would be a good thing. In the past two weeks I have struggled to keep calories over 1,200. So hopefully Jeri is right. However, while I will admit that my calorie count is often approximated, I think I am pretty close to being right most of the time. And even if I’m not, I am burning 4,000 calories per day by being alive. So if I get up to 2,000 or whatever, then I will still lose weight.

Alright, that was fun. Here is the short version of the rest of the day: I was sore from working out, I played some video games, I covered two basketball games, I have Olympic Fever, I am happy with what I ate today (even the jerky) and I want to get a new job soon.

That’s about it.