Warm Food & Drink In The Cold Of Winter

Perhaps the most difficult time of year for me when it comes to my diet is winter. While it may not be that time of year yet, it is the latter part of fall and the cold weather is beginning to set in. Generally speaking, summer time tends to be easier for me in controlling my food intake, especially since I enjoy doing a lot of outdoor exercise at that time of year. I know one can easily stock up on calorie-packed barbecue foods and sweets, but I have generally been able to overcome these desires and it hasn’t generally been that big of a deal since I got through the difficult first part of my diet. But now that winter is looming, the urge to stock up on warm food and drink to combat the colder temperatures is all too alluring.

For example, I am a chocoholic and one thing that I absolutely love is a cup of hot chocolate. On a cold day, nothing beats a cup of hot chocolate when visiting Peet’s Coffee with my office mates to start off the day. During the summer I always bought a cup of sugarless iced-tea, which certainly helped in my daily caloric intake. But a cup of hot chocolate can certainly pack a number of calories unless one is careful in how they order it.

What I do is I order a small hot chocolate with no whipped cream. According to the data I have been able to find, a small cup of hot chocolate is 200 calories.  On a 1,200 daily calorie diet, that leaves me with 1,000 calories left to consume for the day. If I decide to order a small hot chocolate, I am sure to add a fast paced walk during my work day, a route that is just over 1 mile in distance and takes just under 15 minutes to walk, a nice 4 mph walking speed. And according to my diet/exercise database of calorie numbers, a 15 minute walk at 4 mph is 76 calories. If I do this twice in my work day, that adds up to just over 150 calories, leaving just 50 calories of that hot chocolate drink.

Adding in exercise routines to counterbalance calories that I have eaten or drank during the day is what I do on a regular basis to try an end up at the daily 1,200 calorie mark. And just to be sure, I add an additional workout at the gym in the evening.