My personal
ongoing choice is
to count calories because I find it far less difficult than trying to stick to a restrictive diet that tells me exactly when and/or what to eat. 

Part of my dieting hobby involves experimentation with various diets, ways-of-eating, lifestyles, including those eating methods which call themselves non-diets.

However, even when I experiment with other specific diet plans which don’t involve calorie counting, I continue to count and record my calories. 


For the past 10 (13+) years, I’ve used a computer food journal to track my calories, and I do that all day, every day, no matter what number the day’s total calories turns out to be. 

If any substance goes into my body, it goes into my computer food log.  Accuracy or lack of accuracy is always an issue when counting calories, but I do my ultimate best to weigh, measure, and record consistently and accurately, and I am willing to trust that my personal best efforts are good enough. 

After having successfully completed more than 3800 consecutive days of counting calories, I feel qualified to say that it is possible for a person to establish an enjoyable, ongoing calorie counting habit.

Some of the Benefits of Counting Calories are:

I have Freedom of Choice. 



 I am free to choose the food I eat. I know that good food exists and I feel comfortable seeking it out without guilt. I base my food choices on what I need and want, keeping moderation in mind, and the needs of my health as well.

I don't believe in depriving myself, but I take responsibility for my body, allowing it to enjoy the pleasure of taste, as well as proper nutrition. I know that there's no such thing as bad food unless of course it has spoiled, tastes bad, or doesn't otherwise live up to my expectations.



 I am Absolved From Allegiance to Others.



I am not beholden to a book, a piece of paper, or a meal delivery service. I am also not tied to a celebrity trainer, DVD, medical professional, or specific diet such as low-carb, high-protein, low-fat, or high-fat to reach or maintain a healthy weight. I no longer blame, nor do I need, others for my own personal food choices.

My loyalty is to my health and well-being, so I matter most when it comes to what I choose to eat. I seek out assistance, help, and support, to inform my decisions, but I have no guilt or shame for not following others’ advice …or even my own advice 100% of the time. 



  I am a Self-Governing Body. 



I have the power to change my eating habits if I desire to, and I take steps that feed my ability to regulate my food intake. I set up checks and balances in my life to ensure that my lifestyle is an environment that sustains my healthy eating habits. I consistently look for ways to improve on my own food choices and take the initiative in cultivating new ways to eat.  

I don’t accept what others say is healthy for me. I am thorough in making sure that what I eat, and how I eat, is up to my standards regardless of what menus, the news media, or others say. By choosing food according to my own caloric needs, taste preferences, and nutritional needs, I am a self-governing body. 



 NOTE: Originally posted March 30, 2015.  Bumped up for new viewers.

Completed:
having all parts or elements; lacking nothing; whole; entire; full; finished; no further work needs to be done.

Give this possibility a chance. It is possible to function well, energetically, beautifully, without feeling inferior. It is an Insult to Life to continually feel that you are inferior, less-than, unworthy, or worthless.

Never forget that whenever you are told that you must “Grow” or “Achieve” or “Accomplish” or “Acquire” to become superior, you are receiving a lesson that you need to improve, to be of better quality.  What you are actually being told is, “You are less than”.   Because, what does an instruction to become superior imply? It implies that you are inferior.

You have great regard for people who tell you, “Grow! Rise! Climb! Go! Progress! Gain superiority!”

You never ask them: “Why you are insulting me so?”
You never ask them,
“Am I so inferior that you must constantly tell me to grow and progress?
Am I so ugly that you are constantly telling me to make myself up and appear beautiful?
Isn’t telling me that I need to wear make-up an insult?”

That’s how the intelligent mind functions. It looks at the obvious fact. If somebody near you constantly tells you to go and brush your teeth, what does this obviously mean? It means they think that your breath stinks.

The world is constantly telling you, “Go wash your face, you are not all right”. And you take that as a compliment. “Oh, these are my well-wishers, they are telling me to wash my face”.
 
You never ask: “What’s so wrong with my face?”

And the more someone humiliates you the more regard you have for that person.

Someone will come to you and say, “You can rise up to the stars!” Don’t you see that this statement means that right now you are in the gutter?

But you will say, “This one, this expert, this guru, he is my well-wisher!”

You don’t ask, “Why do I need to rise up to the stars? What’s so wrong with me where I am?”

They say, “You can attain this and that!”
But you never ask, “And why do I need to attain?”

So ….you wear size zero designer clothing,….. now you are complete. All your life you have been chasing that completeness, but incompleteness has only been your own deep assumption.

Why are you holding on to that assumption? What makes you stay there? Throw it away.

This is what an intelligent life is:

‘“I will not accept this stupidity.
What are these advertisements telling me?
What are my family and my society telling me?

I am perfect as I am. Perfection is my nature.
I may not be skilled, yet I am perfect.
I may be at the bottom of the table, yet I am perfect.
My language skills may not be good, I am still perfect.
My body may not be lean or fit, I am still perfect.
My health might be poor, yet I am perfect.
If, in comparison, I may not look as attractive as others, I am still perfect”.

Hold on to this.
This is completeness.

The Source does not produce imperfect goods. The one from whom you come does not produce anything imperfect.

Everyone is beautiful, perfect, complete and divine. No one here has anything wrong with him or her.

Accept yourself unconditionally.

Do not hold grudges against yourself. Do not impose conditions upon yourself. Do not tell yourself: “I cannot rest until I achieve this or that”.

You are wonderful as you are; just realize your nature. Just live in your nature of perfection.  None of us is  "unfinished", or a "work-in-progress".  Each of us is Complete at this very moment.

Your only fault is that you do not live in your nature. You created an assumption; you began living in that assumption; and that is the reason you suffer.

Live in your nature; you are perfect. Reject everything, everybody and every medium that tells you that there is something wrong with you. No, there is nothing wrong with you, there can be nothing wrong with you. No matter who you are, or what you have done, you are perfect as you are.

Always, already, unconditionally; you are complete.

Walk in that faith, live in that faith and laugh when somebody wants to give you some other message.

Realize that any person who gives you that other message is ultimately following their own self-interest; out of concern for their own financial advantage or their own emotional well-being.

Before you love anybody else, love yourself unconditionally.

You are beautiful! Fall in love with yourself. This Valentine’s Day buy a loving card for yourself.
Tell yourself, ‘I am complete, already, always’.