Smith Family Weblog

Our family doctor, who is built a lot like I am, has recently dropped about 35 pounds. I know this because I manage to see her about once every two weeks. (If I don’t drop at least $60 a month in office visit co-pays, I just don’t know what to do with myself.)

Anyway, I finally asked her what she was doing. As a health care professional, I assumed she’d have keen insight into something that’s always been a challenge for me. Her response? “I stopped eating.” I laughed, and she said, “No, I’m serious.”

So much for that.

When I saw her again recently, I asked exactly what “not eating” entails. She said she’s keeping her caloric intake to around 1400 calories. I said, I can do that–I mean, I get to add about 500-600 on top of that because I’m nursing, right? She responded that nursing only burns about 200-300 calories a day, which–by the way–is not what they tell you when they’re trying to talk you into nursing in the first place. Still, though, 1700 calories seems like a lot. Totally manageable, right?

Despite my five (okay, seven) year affair with Weight Watchers, I’ve really fallen out of the habit of counting calories. I know roughly how many points are in various things, but I couldn’t tell you how many points I should be consuming a day. Now that I have a target, certainly that will help, right?

I started the day like I usually do, a bowl of cereal, a piece of fruit and coffee. I’m thinking that’s about 200 calories.

Except that it’s Kashi, and not the kind that suspiciously resembles hamster food. This actually has almonds. And honey. And 200 calories a cup.

And the milk? Normally I buy 1 percent for Ava, and sometimes even skim for myself. Apparently, though, I picked up whole milk yesterday. Do you have any idea how many grams of fat are in a cup of whole milk? Eight! That’s a huge difference. Plus, there’s almost double the calories, so it comes in at 150. And that banana I sliced over the top? 125. So before I downed the iced coffee (with a bit of cream, and alright, some sugar, too), I’m near 500. For breakfast! And a relatively healthy breakfast at that.

At this rate, I’m really going to have to reign in my brownie consumption.