So my dear friend Brandie challenged me to track my calories for a month. Before I even try cutting calories, just track them and learn about them. So I have been doing this for several days, sort of. You can check it out at my Fit Day site. I have NEVER kept track of calories. I have no clue what is unhealthy and what is healthy. I am so frustrated already and it has only been a few days.

When I eat out, I try to eat healthy. I love veggies and greens. So it is not hard for me. So I thought. I went to Corner bakery with a friend last week. ordered my Harvest Salad like I always do. A salad is a good choice, right? Wrong!! I came home and went to track the calories. Holy cow!! 780 calories.

Then today, I had some Campbell's Condensed Minestrone Soup. Ok, maybe not the healthiest, but really, how many calories can it have? I looked at the can ... 90 calories. Sweet!! So I make my lunch, sit down to eat and input the info in my Fit Day account when I see what I missed. 90 calories per serving. Ok, that's what it usually means, BUT... there is 2.5 servings in this one little can. That's 270 calories for a can of soup. Still not horrible, but not as good as I was hoping.

And if that wasn't confusing enough for me, we went to McDonald's for lunch on Sunday. Since I am not cutting calories yet, I decided to order what I normally order just to get an idea of how many MANY calories are in their food. I will admit, I did not order fries today. I opted for the Apples and grapes salad which I did not eat because my oldest daughter did. Thank goodness I did. The number of calories on those fries was CRAZY!!! But I digress, back to what I did eat. I ordered my usual Southwestern Chicken Salad with the Crispy Chicken. I knew crispy chicken was the worst of the two choices, but it was what I like and I am not trying to cut calories just yet. I come home and sit down to input my calories and to my surprise, my salad only had 140 calories and the dressing 100 calories. 240 calories for McDonald's is not bad at all.

So I am confused. When I try to eat healthy, I eat a ton of calories and when I just eat what I normally do, I eat fewer calories. I know that is not always the case, but so far it seems to be the majority here.

And then why don't all restaurants have their nutritional facts on their site. I can't count calories if I can't find them. We have eaten out a lot lately because I just had a birthday. I would love to see the calories at all of those places. Pappadeux's and Uncle Julio's. And then every Saturday we eat at Snuffer's. I know why they don't have their nutritional facts posted. But I am dying to know how many calories in those YUMMY cheese fries I eat every weekend.

Anyway, all of that to say I am frustrated with calorie counting. I haven't even begun to try and figure out the calories on what I cook at home. Where do I find out the calorie content of meats I cook? I can find a lot of the info on the packaging I use like the seasoning and such, but I haven't figured out the meats. Any and all advice is welcomed. I want to do this. I want to learn. I just need some teachers to help guide me.