Let's Talk Calorie Density

Let's talk calorie density.  But first, an explanation. I have a buddy. Her name is Jane Birch. You don't get to know my real name because I find courage to share my journey in the [illusory] veil of anonymity that is internet blogging.  Jane, on the other hand, is on her way to publishing a book on the Word of Wisdom and Whole Food, Plant Based eating with her real name and picture attached to it.

So now you know. Jane is my accountability buddy and I email her at least once a day about how well I've stayed on track. Sometimes I email her several times a day with completely unrelated details and rants and stories. She's very kind about this.  She also tends to send me slurries (is that a real word? It sounded better than flurries in my head) of emails about her awesome book. And sometimes she even takes my advice about it, which is pretty cool.

And then there are the times Jane calls me to repentance. Like when I said my goal was to do as many 100% days as I could "manage" this week.  She wrote back and told me I'm perfectly capable of managing it, I've just been choosing not to.  Ouch, right? But then she softened it with praise and compliments. If you're trying to lose weight, overcome a food addiction or reach any goal, or if you're struggling to maintain a WFPB diet, I highly recommend an accountability buddy. 

Anyway this post (my 2nd today, which is a new phenomenon) is a direct result of Jane's calling me to repentance. You're welcome.

Jane pointed out several things to me:

1. I have lost weight, not stayed the same or gone up; I should be happy about this.

2. I had my first-ever, fully conscious 100% day (I have to add the fully conscious qualifier because I did it once before consequent to falling asleep right after work).

3. Its probably for the best that I'm not experiencing great success in the weight-loss department at the moment since if I were, I wouldn't be as willing to let go of soda and nuts.

And here are my realizations:

1. I've actually lost 10 lbs in the space of 1 month. That's nothing to sneeze at.

2. I'm bummed out because my weight loss has been miniscule the past couple weeks when I've been expecting it to be much higher. A look at Jeff Novick's Calorie Density scale offers an explanation. I replaced fast food/junk food/cheese (calorie density 1000 to 2300 kcal/lb) with nuts (2800 kcal/lb)... and in the past couple weeks, not just a few nuts, but like enough nuts to fill me up and substitute for a meal. With the exception of the oil that was in the fast food (4,000 kcal/lb) and that's still in the honey roasted nuts I've been eating (4,000 kcal/lb), I went up in calorie density instead of down.

NO WONDER I haven't been losing as much/fast as I think I should be, given my starting weight. This chart is seriously awesome, folks.

If you're not familiar with Jeff's principles of calorie density, which make it possible to never, ever again have to count calories, fat grams, points, or anything else, see:

This article:
http://www.jeffnovick.com/RD/Articles/Entries/2012/5/20_A_Common_Sense_Approach_To_Sound_Nutrition.html

or purchase this incredible video:
http://www.jeffnovick.com/RD/Calorie_Density.html

or watch this short segment on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gTLpTq1nQk