Doing it for ME

A bit late on today's posting...but better late than never, right?

I have been so frustrated with my health/lifestyle lately.  I WANT to make positive changes, but I cannot seem to stick with them.  I WANT to eat healthy but feel I'm sabatoged by fast food and my husband's cooking.  I WANT to exercise, but I tend to blame the early darkness and the lack of energy to get up at 5 am.  I guess that means I don't WANT it badly enough.

So drastic times call for drastic measures.  Last week, I joined Calorie King, which is an online tool & community to promote and help you STICK with a healthy lifestyle leading to weight loss and weight management.  It IS calorie counting, but you don't do it...the computer does.  You have to be 100% honest and log every single morsel that passes your lips.  Every single one.  It then calculates your calorie intake for the day, and logs & graphs your nutritional intake as well.  Based upon your current weight, and how active of a lifestyle you lead, it calculates how many NET calories** you need a day to lose a healthy 1-2 lbs/week.
** NET calories are the calories you intake, minus the calories you burn through exercise. 

Calorie King promotes "incidental" exercise.  This is the exercise you don't know your doing.  Not running, not going to the gym.  But parking your car in a far-away space and walking through the parking lot to the store; taking the stairs instead of the elevator or escalator; walking the long way around the office to the bathroom; dancing at night w/ your child; pacing while on the phone, etc. etc.
For now, I need to take in around 1730 cals/day to lose weight.  Once I start exercising more (ie: gym) I'll need to take in about 150 more/day (if I go to the gym 3-4 times a week.)  I've found it's actually HARD to eat enough calories when you are watching them, spacing out your meals, and eating healthy foods.  For example, the leafy greens recipe I posted on Friday fills me up a lot more than bread or white rice would.  Come 8 pm at night, I've found I HAVE to eat something (fruit, yogert, popcorn) just to get enough cals in per day.
The site also has support groups to join, based upon how much weight you are trying to lose (decade club, century club, etc.) and age (silver club, golden club) and lifestyle (SAHM club, working moms club), etc.

The moral of this story: I think I've found something that will work for ME.  And I'm doing this for ME for the first time.  Not to look good in a particular outfit.  Not to be "skinny."  Not for low self-esteem or a myriad of other reasons.  But for ME.  And I think that's pretty great.

If you are trying to get healthy/lose weight what's working or not working for you??