I thought it’d be an interesting little experiment to document everything I ate and drank for Independence Day yesterday to estimate my calorie intake during a holiday when I am not tracking.
I have no real intention to track on days like this, life is too short to count calories every single day and miss out on celebrations with friends and family. What’s important is being cognizant of how easy it can be to overconsume if I didn’t track during my usual everyday life.
I knew it wasn’t going to be great, but I was still surprised by how much over even my maintenance it turned out to be (granted, alcohol was easily one of the biggest offenders).
Started off strong with breakfast (the only meal I actually tracked since it was at home):
– Whole wheat toast with tomato and avocado, egg + egg white scramble cooked with a little butter, and a strawberry banana smoothie I split with my husband.
[348 kcal]
Lunch:
– Carne asada w/ avocado salsa, 2 small potato samosas, garlic parm chicken skewer, pineapple and watermelon with Sprite Zero, followed by a small pour of craft beer not long after.
[~603.75 kcal]
Snack(?):
– Cookies & Cream Built Bar, strawberry cream puff pastry, small homemade sourdough piece w/ butter, pineapple and watermelon.
[~631.25 kcal]
Alcohol:
– Light Twisted Teas x2, Regular Twisted Tea x1
[~410 kcal]
Dinner(?):
– Taco Bell bean burrito with green sauce
[~370 kcal]
Grand Total Estimate: ~2,363 kcal
(I typically aim to eat around 1,300 kcal for my current deficit, and ~1,600 kcal for maintenance.)
by anonymousexgf
14 Comments
Thank you for this. More people need to realize that *on occasion*, eating what the fuck ever is okay. You won’t gain 10lbs because you enjoyed the holiday.
That’s not so bad! May I ask, why the protein bar? It seems so out of place lol
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This was me yesterday lol. Had a pretty healthy protein fueled breakfast and then chips were out and I was like f it! Had a bunch of chicken wings, two ice cream bars and more dessert lol.
tbh this is way better than what i did. i woke up late and didn’t eat till 3 pm and had chips and about 3 michelob ultra’s then ate a cheeseburger and a few more chips and then 2 more ultra’s and finished the night at midnight snacking on pita chips and hummus lol.
yes i woke up with a splitting headache this morning.
This is a total success story!
I absolutely track everything every day, even on holidays and celebration days when I’m eating everything and not caring about a budget.
Life’s too short to be on a diet 24/7/365 but I also like my data to be complete 😉
Plus I feel better about the celebration days when I can see my protein, and when I can see the raw numbers to account for my water weight fluctuation for the following week.
How is the twisted tea raspberry?
Did you at least get your 15,000 steps???
Love this! It’s also my reality and truly it’s so freeing not having to act like I don’t want a slice of cake or something. It’s back to scheduled program tomorrow 🫡
yes!! i heard someone say that just how one day of low cal eating won’t immediately get you to your goal weight, one day of overeating won’t make you undo all your progress!! such a good reminder
Looks like a great day!!
Best way to keep your metabolism on its toes!
What are the best apps to use for tracking? I want to start playing this game!
Okay, I un-sarcastically LOVE how multi-cultural your US independence day was! samosa, burrito, skewer, carne asada. I had a 2700 calorie day last week but it was one of the best days of my life (spoke at a conference, had a picnic, submitted my thesis) and I smashed back so much good food I wouldn’t change a thing!!!