No plan is a plan

When I was in high school, my father approached the subject of dating with quite a bit of trepidation. Having been a teenage boy himself, he knew the score, and when I would ask permission to go on vague nonspecific outings, he would insist that I provide more details: times, locations, who else would be there besides my boyfriend and myself, phone numbers to reach me if I came home late, etc. When I asked why he was being so unreasonably strict, in the way only a self-righteous teenager with thwarted plans could, he intoned "Because no plan is a plan."

I have found this sentiment to be true in all the aspects of my life which do not involve backseat necking as well. I've also heard it rephrased in terms of productivity as "If you fail to plan, you should plan to fail."

I've resisted choosing and committing to a new diet plan for months. I keep telling myself that any day now, I'll get the inspiration I need, but gazing down at my midsection I'm aware this is untrue.

Last night my boyfriend got home late, and I had neglected to go to the grocery before it closed at 10pm. Instinctively, I wanted to pick up the telephone or surf over to the Dominos website to order something.

I stopped myself, and I even said out loud that even though pizza or take-out would be satisfying and I really wanted it, I also want to be healthy and I don't want to be obese all my life. I went in search of a more sensible option, and I found a box of tri-color rotini and a jar of tomato sauce in the cupboard.

I thought I was being terribly clever, satisfying the craving for tomato and carbohydrates, but omitting the fatty cheese and the glut of pork-based products I typically add. It took less time to cook at home than even the speediest delivery guy could manage, and I knew the ingredients cost vastly less than a pizza, so I was pleased with myself all around.

The trouble is that after one bowl, I was not even remotely satisfied. I gave it some time to settle in my stomach, drinking a big glass of diet soda, thinking that at any moment I would feel full. But no, I was still actively, physically hungry, so I ate another heaping bowl.

As I was wrapping up the leftovers, I realized I'd eaten more than half a box of pasta, and I was still really dissatisfied. My mind flashed to nights of carbo-loading before high school athletic meets, and I realized I'd just inundated my system with carbohydrates and probably not much nutrition.

Since I ate the remainder of the pasta and sauce for lunch and an afternoon snack today, I couldn't stop the intonation in my brain, "I ate 12 ounces of pasta and 3 cups of sauce by myself in the past 24 hours."

I fished the pasta box and sauce jar out of the recycling bin and decided to find out just what kind of damage I had done.




(click to enlarge)

Well shoot. So much for being sensible.

From the sauce, I consumed 540 calories, 150 of which were fat. 18 grams of fat, 3 of which were saturated. 78 grams of carbohydrates, 60 of which were sugar and 18 of which contained dietary fiber, and 2820 mg of sodium.

From the pasta, I consumed 1260 calories, 60 of which were fat. 6 grams of fat, though no saturated or trans. 252 grams of carbohydrates, 12 of which were sugar and 12 dietary fiber, and 180 mg sodium.

My total for the past 24 hours, therefore, was:

Calories	1800
Calories from Fat	210
Fat	24 g
Saturated Fat	3
Carbohydrates	330 g
Sugar	72 g
Dietary Fiber	30 g
Sodium	3000 mg

Ugh. Well, I thought, it can't have been all bad. Perhaps I got some good nutrients in?

54 g protein, and of daily values, 60% Vitamin A, 36% Vitamin C, 12% calcium, 84% iron, 66% potassium, 180% thiamin, 60% Riboflavin, 90% Niacin, 150% Folate (folic acid).

Not exactly batting a thousand here.

The thing is... when left to my own devices, I usually make much worse choices than this, which include tons of trans fats, packaged and overly processed cookies and sweets, and fried abominations with even less redeeming value. I am quite certain I massively exceed 2000 calories a day, and I know a whopping percentage of them must be fat and sugar.

The real surprise isn't that I'm fat, rather that I'm not even fatter.

When I look at it as a simple numbers game, it seems really easy to balance the scales and drop pounds. I know myself, of course, and I know that hasn't proved true thus far, but I think that learning more about nutrition and actually paying attention to these things would help me in being a less brainless eater.

This is where conscientious dieting - learning why I'm doing what I'm doing - is the most powerful tool at my disposal. I do need to learn how to eat right in the long term, or I'm going to constantly battle my weight throughout life.

Of course, I've got all this fat now and I really want to drop it quickly. Sigh.