First diet challenge.

Alrighty then.  Now that we know calories are both important and not really important, we can begin.

Next step is to determine how many calories we need a day to live, get through work, get through a workout.

We have all heard that if you ingest 3500 calories a day, you'll gain weight.  This is just a means and not really appropriate for you.  Three rules of thumb for determining daily caloric intake.

Rule One:  If you are sedentary multiply your weight by 10.  I weigh 180lbs so I would need 1800 calories to maintain.  Sedentary is where you sit on the couch, sit in the car, sit at the office.  Sit, sit, sit.  You are not doing much, but your body still needs energy to maintain.  This is basic life support.

Rule Two:  If you are a normal mortal and work out 3 times a week and play a sport like football or softball on the weekend, multiply your weight by 15.  I.e. 2700 calories for me.

Rule Three:  If you are an immortal and work out everyday preparing for the Olympics or work hard construction, multiply your weight by 20. I.e. 3600 calories for me.

I re-iterate, that these are rules of thumbs.  You may find a +\- of 25% on your totals depending on your bodies needs.

I both work construction and train.  I have had to cut back on my workouts since i cannot simply eat enough to fulfill my requirements.  Now this brings up an interesting point.  Average daily caloric intake is nice to spout off about, but isn't realistic.  Some days, I am putting away 6 to 7 thousand calories to rebuild my body from heavy lifting in the heat.  Other days, I maybe hit 2 thousand calories so my body can rest from trying to digest food.

Resting from eating?  What a maroon right?  Not really.  Heavy diets are a strain on the body too.  Sometimes your tummy just wants to nap in a sunbeam and relax.

We are scheduled from week to week.  We also need to schedule our diet accordingly.  We can not eat the same static diet everyday and expect to be on our game.

So now look at your "dear diary" of food from last week.  Kinda of a crazy assortment you have been stuffing in your pie hole.  This is OK.

"WHAT?" unhealthy diet is OK?  Not really.  If your diet consists of an extra large meat pizza with two six packs of coke everyday, then continue and change gradually.  If you decide the next day to switch to a diet of one celery stick, your body will rebel and mess a fool up.  This is an incredible stress on the body.

So here is your next step in changing your diet for the better.  Try to cut out High Fructose Corn Syrup.  HFC for short.  It is estimated that each American puts away 60 pounds of this stuff every year.  60 POUNDS!!!  Now you know why our pants have writing on the back like "Wide Load".

Start reading your labels and look for HFC.  You will most likely panic and go hide in the closet somewhere til HFC disappears from our food.  Not happening.  This is not meant to scare you, but bring awareness to what you are ingesting.  Juices, cereals, diet bars and canned goods are biggest culprits.  Now you have to decide what is a necessary evil to eat.  Your Noodly-O's may have to go, but the instant oatmeal can hang out longer until you find a better substitute.

By becoming more aware of what goes into your body, you can start making changes based on how you feel.  Out diet is not something we should stress about.  Small change by small change will bring about a better you.

Da