Of Calories And Unicons, Or, How To Become A Really Big Baby If You Are Not Careful.

[Eir]

Hello, I would like to speak of a dangerous land I have been living in where calories are unicorns, and wizzards magically keep waste lines from expanding! This message is intended as a public service announcement, I had no idea how many liquid calories I had been ingesting. I am not judging anyone, I am simply telling a story about the dangerous land I have been living in for the past several weeks. In order to help myself feel like a baby, I would drink several of the following items per day.

Big glass of Chocolate milk 580 Calories

5 tablespoons of chocolate syrup 250 calories.

330 calories from the 2.75 cups of milk

Not the queen's tea 397.5 calories per bottle

Two and a half tablespoons of honey 157.5 calories

2 cups of milk 240 calories. 8 tea bags-no calories

When measured goes down to half tablespoon of honey at 31.4 calories

Measured total is 271.4. This is much better but enough to be a problem if you have several per day.

Orange juice 165 calories per bottle.

110 calories per 8 ounce glass. I filled my bottle with half orange juice and half water.

And let's just post the calories in a gallon of 2 percent milk for good measure.

A gallon of milk has 1920 calories! A half gallon has 960 calories and a quarter gallon has 480 calories! I have actually gone through 2 gallons of milk in a single week! It would be easy to really

overdo the milk if you are trying to feel like a baby! But this is an excellent way to become a really big baby! Going through two gallons a week is a really big problem!

In short, I noticed that I was becoming a very big baby, and not in a good way, I scared myself by approximately measuring the portions I actually use when i do not measure! This message is simply a reminder that liquid calories do matter, and I have allowed myself to think they do not! Milk is a killer if you overdo it, and it is very easy if you do not consider how calorie dense it is!

I am now at 237 pounds, and hope to get back down to 196 very soon.

Fight Like A Baby,

Terryfighter.

[Codymoogle]

That's why I drink skim milk.

To compare the calorie count in cow's milk...

Whole milk = 150 calories per 8 oz.

2% milk = 130 calories per 8 oz

Skim milk = 80 to 90 calories per 8 oz.

When I make a bottle, most of the time I'll do 4 oz skim milk to 4 oz water.

When I use powdered formula, I always note the calories per serving. My favorite kind has 170 calories per serving. A serving equals 36g, or four 9g scoops. Each 9g scoop is 42.5 calories.

Just to point out how I got those figures in case it isn't obvious to some...Divide 36g by four to get 9g, and 170 calories by four to get 42.5 calories.

One bottle made with 4 oz skim milk, 4 oz water = 40 to 45 calories.

One bottle made with 4 oz skim milk, 4 oz water, and one scoop of powder = 87.5 calories.

If I would have 4 bottles of a day, I would be consuming 350 calories from them. I don't drink formula often or in large quantities, though, so I would personally never hit that. Mainly, I drink water, unsweetened hot tea (literally just water and tea bags), and black coffee. Therefore liquid calories are rarely a problem for me, and when I do drink something with calories like milk or formula, I factor the calories into my day.

Thanks for the reminder on liquid calories, terry. If I may add a few tips of my own:

- Get a food scale if you don't have one. It's essential to getting accurate portion sizes...Even if you're a good "eyeballer", you may still be unknowingly consuming a higher amount of calories.

- When you drink anything but water, it has calories. Black coffee and plain tea only have 1-2 calories per cup depending on strength, though, so I'd advise not worrying about that...Juices, milk, soda, and other things though? When you drink these, count the calories, and decrease your food intake accordingly.

- Try to decrease dependency on sugar and other sweeteners. Reduce your "usual" portion of additives (whether it's sugar, honey, chocolate syrup, creamer, artificial sweetener, agave syrup...the list goes on) by 1/4 for a week or two. Soon, you won't miss it. Then, try decreasing it again by another 1/4 for another few weeks. Soon, you'll be content using much less sweetener...You may even find that you don't even want the additives anymore! I used to be a sugar or honey junkie for my tea, and a sweetened creamer junkie as far as my coffee. Now, I prefer my tea fully plain. I still like some creamer in my coffee, but I can drink it black if it's made less strong. Believe it or not, I used to be a pop (soda) junkie too...I used to drink up to 2 liters a day of the stuff, it didn't matter the kind. Now, I actually don't like pop very much. Breaking the sugar dependency makes a lot of difference - for your heath and your waistline.

~ moogle

[Creepymouse]

Skim milk is lower in calories, but still has a LOT of sugar.

People need to get their water from water. A bag of black tea won't hurt, in fact when it's very weak it seems to taste sweet even without sweetener to me. I've known so many people who don't drink ANY water, "Water is nasty" they say. Fake sugar isn't any better, it simply confuses your brain and makes it even less capable of maintaining a healthy response to real sugar.

I still love a sweetened iced tea now and then, and a coke even less occasionally, but I get far more than my RDA of water, from water.

On the topic of calories... they're actually a unit of energy/heat. The trouble with that is even WOOD has calories, but our bodies can't digest it effectively. There's no accurate way to determine how many calories pass through your digestive system unused. A (perhaps TMI) example, when I eat too many nuts, particularly peanuts, I'll end up pooping them out in more-or-less as-chewed condition, there's no way they've been fully digested or used by the body.

[Eir]

I notice that I will actually consume less of anyting, when I measure sugar and honey (with measuring spoons) and food servings (with measuring cups). Liquid calories can be a problem for me. I very rarely consume soda (don't keep it in the house). For normal teas, I will measure out a teaspoon to half a tablespoon of honey, and use 2 shots of 2 percent milk. This works into being roughly 70 calories. Measuring out food is a discipline, lol. I pretty much have all the tools it takes to measure out food, I don't always use them. Because I am too much of a foodie to use skim milk or formula (blech), rich things like chocolate milk I will have to drink like many drink wine, just a little bit at a time (like 8 oz) and not a huge tumbler!!!! Nothing makes me feel more babyish than waking up in the "crib room" and using my wakeup bottle. My measured total is only 271!

I can not tolerate anything less than standard adult fare. Actually, that was a bit of a lie. I have a chinese wok which I enjoy using to prepare delicious things for myself!! Cooking while diapered makes me feel naughty somehow, like I am way to young to be in the kitchen! Baby is using knives and using electric stove, watch out! You will not find ramen noodles, or "frozen dinners" in my place. If I cannot stand the taste of bland, boring, soggy wonderbread food, how could I stand it further being smashed and pureed. Baby food (is completely) out of the question.

There are a handful of fast food places which I actually like, and they are few. Chick Fil A is one of them, Chipotle is another. I also like In N Out, which we do not have here in Texas. But we do have Crackerbarrel!

To recap my feelings on frozen dinners, I cannot believe that some men who live by themselves would actually starve without these frozen, soggy, unapatizing things! It would take a very hungry man to, actually eat one of those frozen T.V. dinners by the same name. In all honesty, I did not really like TV dinners, even as a kid.

And now that I enjoy using my wok, there is no way in hell I would use one of them! Woks are also great for frying meatballs. So far I have made: Mongolian Beef, Moo Goo Gai Pan (added generous amount of ginger and orange juice), Orange Chicken, Broccoli Beef (which doesn't count because I screwed up and the broccoli ended up like baby food), Kung Pao Chicken, and Walnut Chicken. Besides the Chinese food, I have made Mexican Hash (which is the bomb!), Omletts using chorizo, and pasta with meat balls on several occasions.

[Creepymouse]

I tried Chipotle, but it was way too expensive for the taste experience, it was bland except for the spiciness. Taqueria Garibaldi or Super Taqueria all the way. I'm a junk food fan though, I love good pizza, even Taco Bell. I like cooking, but I can never seem to cook things that taste better than what I can buy for the same price. Everyone touts homemade pizza and hamburgers, but they're never as enjoyable as the 'real thing' to me.

[Diapered Jason]

Babies need exercise too, haha.

Of all the drinks listed that I now drink, orange juice is the most filling even more so than soda. I only drink 1 Mexicano coke max a day, the rest is the one glass of orange juice or chocolate milk with breakfast and water. I drink mostly water, because my appetite is ruined by any other drinks, thus leading to an inefficient source of calories (bad workout). The refrigerated Brita water filter pitchers work great at home. When I eat out, I just order free water and ice, also really good. Fast-food sucks in more ways than one, but mostly because I hate the taste of everything they sell especially all of the pizza chains and sodas. Once you go back to sugar cane sodas, you will never drink another high fructose corn syrup soda again. I think it safe to say Indian food is probably one of my favorite places to eat out at as I have one Indian restaurant I frequent. Damn, I have to learn how to cook that stuff.

[missyD]

Ahhhh, but think of all the calcium we are getting from all that milk ! I really love my tokky milk, but keep it down to a litre (quart) per week. I do drink quite a bit of 2% milk in my baba, but figure there are far worse places to get calories. It is so true, though, that we have to be careful- i mean that bottle goes down SOOOO nicely, and it is so easy just to pour another, lie back and enjoy. The other thing that I just love is Heinz mixed cereal with fruit, and I love to have mummy feed me it. I like it made with milk and of course it is loaded with calories, to make baby grow big and strong! But my worst problem comes when I visit england and get "gold top" full fat milk, which comes from gurnsey or jersey cows or both - it is yummy delicious but a big, big girl like me doesn't need it. But i want it, and of course I have it, cuz i am a bad girl. Point is though, thanks Terryfighter for reminding us of why we are getting fat !

[Eir]

^ Do you know what is the weirdest part. I do not keep soda in the home, I have only bought icecream ONCE, and I am still having problems. Honestly, my biggest kryptonite would have to be chocolate milk, especially in those huge 36 ounce (bathtub) tumblers!

When i have normal tea I will use two shotglasses of milk and half a tablespoon of honey.

If you want a really big laugh check out,

Thing is, I was 196 not too long ago, now I weigh in at 231, which is considerably less than the 250 I was four years ago. But then I went to the gym, believing that "padre gimnesio" could absolve me of anything! A few weeks ago I was at 239, when I believed that calories were unicorns!

I cannot fit into over half of my wardrobe, inluding many of my express shirts!!! It is easy for me to lose because I am a guy with a quick metabolism, my problem is not trusting the portions I measure out!!