The New York Times reports today that Mayor Michael Bloomberg, while instituting strict regulations on New York City for the use of trans fats, salt, restaurant displays of calorie amounts and more, isn’t always one to practice what he preaches.

“Friends of the mayor said that, like most New Yorkers overwhelmed with food choices, he swings between two dietary poles: indulgence and abstemiousness. After a dinner loaded with fat and salt, they said, he will consume a grapefruit for breakfast, then a bowl of soup for lunch. He keeps a running calorie count in his head, and rarely exceeds 2,000 a day, they said.”

Too many people after getting married or reaching beyond the age of 40 feel that there is no need to lose weight or maintain a smaller waistline. It’s quite refreshing to see someone as rich and powerful as Michael Bloomberg following some sort of regimen in losing weight, even if he too often splurges. But as I have described myself doing in previous posts, heavy duty meals are followed by lean and overly healthy meals the following day. As long as one falls under the weekly estimate of a 2,000 calorie per day meal, or in my case, 1,200 calories when aiming to lose more weight.

Unlike Mayor Bloomberg, I tend not to trust my head in tabulating calorie numbers for a day, because it’s all too easy to forget the small little nibbles that come up throughout the day. This adds up and might lead one to a false comfort in thinking that they ate under the calorie limit for the day. Software tends to be more efficient than my memory in this department when recording one’s daily intake.

Read the New York Times report.