Extreme calorie counting

Looking back, I still cant believe just how bad my calorie counting was and how obsessed I was with calculating the exact number of calories that everything I ate contained. I would weigh absolutely everything I ate so that I could calculate the exact number of calories and refused to eat anything prepared by anyone else. Even though I would weigh each thinng many times before eating it, I would still often freak out when I was half way through  meal that Imay have made a mistake or that the scales may not have been working properly.

I would make sure that I ate the exact same number of calories ever single day and I wouldn't let myself go over this amount by even a single calorie. Preparing food took a long time as I had to weigh out absolutely everything I was using and then also do the math to calculate the number of calories and add it into my calorie counter. I would reweigh things that had the nutritional values already writtten on them so that I could calculate the EXACT amount.

There was no type of food that I would not weigh (except liquids like milk which I would measure out with a measuring cup. I would even weigh things like pieces of fuit, salad and vegetables. I will use breakfast as an example of my extreme calorie counting. I would weigh the slices of bread that I was going to use for my toast and then also the spreads that I was going to be putting on them. If  I had something like apple and custard oats I would weigh out the oats and sweetner I was going to be using, weigh out the custard and then cut up an exact weighed amount of apple to stir through.

I honestly dont know how I did what I did. Just the thought of doing this insane calorie counting whilst preparing food and planning what to eat seems like such a huge waste of time and effort. I suppose at the time I ddn't really have anything else happening in my liffe to concentrate on but I still don't know how Icould have been bothered to go to all that effort, just so I could know that I was eating an exact number of calories each day.

At one stage I was also counting macros which was even more awful as I didn'tt only need to eat an esact number of calories eah day, but I had to eat a mixture of foods that would fit perfectly into my macronutrient goal too. The amount of time I have wasted in my life with this useless calorie/macro planning and counting really does make me sick and if you are currently living the sae way, I highly encourage you to try and get out of these unhealthy behaviours now. Life really is to short to be spending so much time doing these absolutely pointless things and letting go of these behaviours is very important for your recovery.

Even though I still have a fair idea of the amount of calories I eat as I like to make sure I am reaching my minimum calorie target each day, I have no idea of the exact number of calories and I also have no idea about how much of each macronutrient I eat. Letting go of these behaviours was one of the greatest challenges in my recovery  but I am proud to now say that I have managed to do it and I know that you can do it too. It feels so good to now have the freedom to eat exactly what I feel like, despite how many calories grams of carbs, fat or protein it may contain.