How Many Calories is That?

It all started with a bet.

I bet Maya and Mildred that I’ll lose 10kg by June 30 of this year or I’ll pay them S$100 each.

They bet me the same thing but with different weight loss goals.

Enter our friend Nikki, who has been counting calories for about three months now. She lost 10kg since she started, but since I told myself that I would never count calories as a means of losing weight because it’s too troublesome, I didn’t really want to follow her footsteps.

But then Mildred decided that she did and when she told me that there was an iPhone app to help you do that, I downloaded it and next thing you know – I was hooked.

So now lunch time is a funny hour punctuated with “how many calories is that?” being a standard joke.

One time, we were laughing so hard for so long, prompting Nikki to wonder if laughing burned any calories. She did her research and found out that 15 minutes of laughing burns off enough calories for 2 Hershey’s kisses. Upon learning that, she immediately got one Goldilocks polvoron that Farrah brought and declared it a free pass.

MyFitnessPal is an iPhone app that syncs to their website too, so you can log on either phone or web.

I’ve read so many times that the key to most successful weight loss episodes is keeping a food diary. I tried doing that before but always keep forgetting, but now this app makes it so easy peasy.

Another key factor in successful weight loss – diet buddies. So I’m glad I have three of those. It becomes a fun experience instead of a chore, or maybe that’s just because we’re all so competitive. Hahaha.

Funny incident – last Tuesday I made an FB status update that I had jogged in the park. Maya did the same. When Mildred saw that, she was already dressed to go to work, but she put down her bag and did 20 sit ups. LOL!

Anyway, here is a screenshot of what the app looks like:

Can you believe a measly little ball of yema has 111 calories in it?? Why, for a bit more than that number of calories, you can already have this:

12 Doritos chips = 140 calories. So I can still enjoy our weekly beer and chips day at the office. Hehe.

Most of my meals involve iceberg lettuce, though. A cup of those greens only has 10 calories in it. Luckily for me, I love lettuce. I mix it up with balsamic vinegar (15cal), parmesan cheese (15cal) and a boiled egg (78cal). I used to put extra virgin olive oil with that till I found out that one tbsp of EVOO has 120 calories in it.

I thoroughly enjoyed the dinner I had at Carl’s Jr the other night. I had calories to spare, so I splurged on Nestle Sjora, 90 calories. The salad itself has 250 calories and I didn’t even finish it all because I was already so full.

I splurge because I can’t go too low, you see. If you go too low, the app tells you this:

The fun thing about this method is that there are no restrictions as to types of food. You can eat whatever you want, even junk food, but in minuscule proportions to meet your calorie target.

Actually you are required to have one cheat day every week, so you can eat huge proportions too, on said day.

We decided to have cheat night last night and I had this in IBM’s cafe. Fried rice is my weakness, and IBM’s is the best.

Aside from the app, I have another new tool for my weight loss goal – a digital weighing scale that I bought from Ikea last Sunday right after I landed in Singapore.