Cut The Fluff: Looking @ Calories

One area that I know I need to look at in my life is calories, where they come from, and how many I'm taking in. I've read my body size and activity level burns about 2500 calories a day. I wore my heart monitor the other day and in 5 hours I burned 1200 calories, which is to say in a 10 hour period, I would have burned 2400 calories and I was doing nothing but cleaning and moving around the house. I plan on doing a complete 24 hour monitor one day, sleeping and all, to see just how many calories I burn on a non-workout day and then compare that with a day I do workout.

Anyway, back to food. I've really been trying to pay attention to what I'm eating and where those calories are actually coming from. Pics below illustrate what I mean...take a look.

A veggie burger {120 cal.}, 14 carrots {35 cal.}, and 1/2 cup lima beans {120 cal.}

for a total of 275 calories.

I also munched on a box of raisins {130 cal.} while I cooked since my blood sugar was dropping. So, with this, I totalled 305 calories for lunch.

Compared to the 325 calories found this teeny, tiny jar of sausages.

I find it pretty interesting the amount of food you can get: two vegetables, two proteins {lima beans w/ 10 grams, and the veggie burger w/ 11 grams} and a fruit that are still less in calories than one can of the sausages. Now, I guess another test comes in which one actually keeps you fuller longer. I'm sure there wasn't as much fat in my lunch compared to the sausage and that will play a part in satisfying my hunger, but overall, I'm still happier to pick the variety over the single portion of meat any day.

How about you? Do you consider yourself educated on portion sizes and calorie intake, or are you like me, still lookin' and still learning?  :)