Balance Bar Gold

Over the last few months I've lost a bunch of weight, like 22 pounds. This is good, because I was getting pretty porky. In the long run I've come to terms with the fact that pudge is my destiny, but every couple of years I knock it down to try to stave off the inevitable.

When I do try to lose weight, it honestly seems pretty straightforward. I won't be so arrogant as to think that my strategy would work for everyone, but pretty much I find that if I eat less than 1440 calories a day, I lose weight. I figured this out with the help of some nutrition book back in college, and it has served me well as a guide ever since.

These Balance Bars are a big part of making that easy. One bar for breakfast is about 220-240 calories (Clif and Powerbar are also good). Some soup or a small sandwich for lunch ranges from 150-300 calories. So at worst I have about 900 calories for dinner and a late-night snack, which really is pretty reasonable.

I do exercise some, but I'm kidding myself to say that has much to do with it. It's all about the calories.

Key if you live at my house: most fast food places now have full nutritional guides online, and the truth is you can eat reasonably at almost any of them --- even McDonalds. For example, a hamburger is just 260 calories, which isn't tiny but certainly won't throw you completely off once in awhile.

My point is that you don't need to go overboard with a diet for it to work. I believe in calorie counting because it allows me to be creative about what I eat, rather than getting stuck in some mundate rut of frozen foods day after day after day.