For the first post in this series about making small changes let’s start with a simple example that anyone can do. Now, if you don’t eat cheese then feel free to skip onto another article, but if you do let’s examine how a small change can have a huge result.
First off, the details aren’t the same for everyone. So, if you want something tailored specific to you, then you need to track what you eat for 1 week. And when I say “track what you eat”, I mean everything you put in your mouth. For the purpose of this article, we are going to look at what I ate when I did this exercise. To keep it simple, I am only going to talk about the meals in which I consumed cheese.
Okay, let’s begin!
Monday
In the morning, I had scrambled eggs with one piece of American cheese (104 calories). For lunch, I had a turkey sandwich from Jersey Mikes with 3 slices of provolone cheese (200 calories). I had about 5 cheese and crackers as a snack before dinner. In all about 1 slice of Colby jack. (104 calories)
Tuesday
In the morning, I had 1 slice of cheese on my ham, egg and cheese sandwich (104 calories). For lunch, I had 1 slice of Colby jack cheese on a sandwich I made at home (104 calories). For dinner, I had 1 tablespoon of Parmesan on my pasta(22 calories).
Wednesday
No cheese in the morning. For lunch, I had a slice of Colby jack on my sandwich (104 calories). No cheese at dinner.
Thursday
In the morning, I had scrambled eggs with one piece of American cheese (104 calories). For lunch, I had 1 slice of Colby jack cheese on a sandwich I made at home (104 calories). No cheese at dinner.
Friday
In the morning, I had 1 slice of cheese on my ham, egg and cheese sandwich (104 calories). I had about 5 cheese and crackers as a snack before dinner. In all about 1 slice of Colby jack (104 calories).
Saturday
Had some nachos while watching football. Just going to estimate about 1 oz. (104 calories)
Sunday
In the morning, I had scrambled eggs with one piece of American cheese (104 calories). For lunch, I had a Chicken Phili sandwich from Jersey Mikes with 3 slices of provolone cheese (200 calories). At dinner, I had Zita with heaps of cheese. Going to estimate 3 oz of mozzarella, ricotta and Parmesan. (300 calories)
So, that was 1 week where I tracked all the cheese that I ate. Now, let’s add it all up and see where we are at.
Holy cow! 1866 calories in cheese.
If you go by the standard 3,500 calories in a pound, I consumed over a 1/2 pound of calories in cheese alone. Now imagine for a second that your goal was to lose a pound a week. By simply making a small choice to not eat cheese, you are already over half way to your goal and you didn’t even do anything!
Now, let’s look at the long term effects.
If I did nothing else but cut out cheese for an entire year, I would have avoided eating 27.7 lbs of calories. Do you think I might have lost weight? Do you think you can too?
This is what we mean when we say: “Small Changes for Big Results”!