Counting calories combines the joys of math and starvation

If I haven’t mentioned it before, I’m currently undertaking the fool’s errand that is trying to lose a bit of weight.

Yes … yes … I know. Life’s too short to deny myself the pleasures of delicious food, and one of life’s great cruelties is that the most delicious foods are also the ones that turn us into over-inflated flesh-balloons. It’s totally unfair.

Which is why I’m not denying myself specific foods, but the amounts of the specific foods I eat. In other words, counting calories.

Ah, yes. That age-old, scientifically proved method of shedding pounds: starvation.

OK, so maybe eating fewer calories than you burn isn’t TECHNICALLY starvation, Mr. or Ms. Webster. But, unless you’re packing your face daily with high-volume, low-calorie foods, you’re likely to spend most of your day feeling at least a little famished. Sigh.

Here’s the thing, though: Counting calories works, at least for me. That’s because it combines two of my greatest nemeses: meticulously keeping track of something, and math.

Counting calories is always a revelatory process. I don’t realize just how much mindless eating I do during a typical day until I track every morsel I plop into my mouth. No more freebies. Sure, those seven fistfuls of baby carrots might seem like a consequenceless afternoon snack, but every mouthful is a couple dozen calories, and those add up quickly. As does that entire sleeve of saltine crackers you just downed while staring dead-eyed through the window above your kitchen sink.

That’s the thing about privilege, right? It can be hard to recognize. When I’m not paying attention to what I eat, much of it goes completely unnoticed and, therefore, unenjoyed. Food should be savored. Meals should be experiences. We should eat with purpose.

Although a pain, tracking what I eat helps me in ways that reach far beyond weight loss. It forces me to take the time to consider what I’m eating, to recognize when I’m truly hungry rather than just bored, and to appreciate every delicious bite.