At Northern Bootcamp, we’re not massive fans of obsessive calorie counting. Yes, it’s important to know what you’re eating, and not to over-indulge, but a common-sense approach, along with plenty of exercise, is the right tactic.
However, as part of this ‘common-sense’ approach, it’s critical to have a broad understanding of what’s in the food you’re eating. That’s why this project, from website Wisegeek, caught our eye.
It’s a series of photos of foods, all cut into 200-calorie portions. It’s fascinating to see how each measures up.
You might not have thought, for example, that, measure-for-measure, balsamic vinegar carries more than twice as many calories as Coca Cola.
Or that a 33-gram portion of mixed nuts gets you to 200 calories, while it takes 52 grams of a glazed doughnut to do the same.
Of course, the fats you’ll find in nuts are far better for you than those you’ll find in the doughnut, which is, again, why it’s important not to get too hung up simply on calories.
Another example is the jelly beans and rice cereal – calorie-wise, totally identical, but the cereal will contain far more nutritional value than the jelly beans (as long as you don’t use whole milk, of course.)
So, an interesting exercise, but one that underlines the importance of looking at all the key ingredients of your food, not just the calorific value.
Nutrition plays a vital part in the work we do at Northern Bootcamp. Our weight loss boot camps, in particular, are aimed at not just helping people to lose weight in the long term, but at giving people the knowledge-based tools they need to go away and make the subtle changes to their eating habits to make sure they stay healthy.
Nobody ever goes hungry on our camps, but by giving people carefully-planned, nutritionally balanced (and delicious!) meals, we can make a huge impact, not just while they’re on camp, but to the way they eat when they leave us.
If you want to know more about nutrition, and how to improve your life by eating better and being more active, why not try one of our boot camps? Our one-day camps are an ideal way to introduce yourself to boot camp life and are incredibly popular.
Photo courtesy of wisegeek.com
