I am so sorry that I missed my workouts this week. But my health issues derailed me pretty bad. I’m doing better and looking forward to being there again on Tuesday.

I wanted you all to take a look at this. This first photo is a relatively small bowl of oatmeal (for me), roughly a medium sized dinner soup bowl here. Looking at the nutrition labels for whatever is in it (and had I not known any better) I’d guess this in total is about 350 Calories. But I carefully measured out this meal. In this bowl is 1.5 cups of oatmeal, 1.25 cups of whole milk, 1/6 cup of real maple syrup, and some cinnamon. That adds up to 797 Calories. For MANY of you that’s nearly a half a day’s Calorie goal in a small bowl. The next meal is my lunch, 1.5 cups of rice (measured dry), a can of oiled sardines, 4 eggs, sriracha mayo, chipotle sauce, and soy sauce. This looks like a lot because it is. There’s about 1,400-1,500 Calories in there. In total that’s more than 2,100 Calories all before 1:00 pm. I still have two more meals today! If you don’t know how much you’re eating you could be eating far more than you think. If you aren’t hitting your goals measure your food. Track it. What you find when you’re doing it right is where you need to change. But what if I am tracking and I’m still gaining weight? Two possibilities: 1. You might need to reduce your intake. 2. (And generally more likely) there is user error~ as in you’re not measuring enough or correctly But what if measuring my food drives me crazy? I don’t believe you. It’s you that drives you crazy. All that suffering is in your head, not in the real real. It’s actually quite painless to scoop things into a measuring cup, and it’s quite fun to make a game of how few or many Calories you can put into a meal. Your problem might be something else— like trying to measure while watching a show or thinking about what Janice from HR said about Henry from the second floor while you’re cooking. And look I get it, Janice and Henry were meant for each other and they just don’t see it yet— but cooking time is for cooking. Not for workplace soap operas. So I say make a game of it. Make it fun— play like a chemist in a lab, the lab of nutritious eats.

Good morning! Here are the results from the Questions of the Day so far…

The number on the scale only tells part of the story. Learn the difference between weight loss and fat loss, what healthy body-fat percentages look like, and why preserving muscle matters.

Did you dress up? Let’s see!