Calories and Money

CALORIES AND MONEY - I love the concept of using calories like money. While I think that counting calories for the purpose of weight loss is impossible, I believe that counting calories like money can be a helpful tool in many ways:

• We can look for the foods with the best value for the calorie buck. I get twice as much quantity with this food for the same calorie price. I can eat a cup of this cereal and pay twice the amount as this cereal, but I like them both the same. Wow, no brainer! I have a new breakfast cereal added to my list of food substitutions!
  

• We can actively look at the store for lower cost food substitutions for our love foods that are expensive. This is a great way to stretch our calorie budget and still keep the foods that we enjoy in our lives, rather than practicing deprivation, which usually leads us to failure.
  

• We can look for cheap deals that can fill our plates because we like lots of quantity. This food was such a deal. I can eat 5 times the amount for the same price as that food.
  

• We can look for foods that last a long time. This food goes on and on. We are not hungry for a long time, so it really is a great deal, plus it keeps our cravings at bay. It keeps us satisfied, but this food leaves us wanting more really quickly, so it is pricey in the long term.
  

• Helps us quickly identify which foods are just too expensive to purchase, and destroy our budget. Wow, that Costco muffin is half of our daily budget. Is it worth that to us? No! We would need to first determine our daily calorie budget, though!
  

• Helps us identify which foods seem cheap, but since we eat so much more of them, they cost us too much. Wow, the potato chips are only 120 calories for a serving so they seem cheap, but if I eat the whole bag and it is 2000 calories, it might not be such a great deal.
  

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Those of you familiar with budgets could find many more ways to use calories like money, I am sure. This concept may not work for everyone, but has been one of my healthy diet habits for years. It puts calories into a format that is familiar to me. Most people have no idea how to use calories, but this is familiar and a Lifestyle Solution that is practical and easily understood.