The Student News Site of Ripon High School

The Smoke Signal

The Student News Site of Ripon High School

The Smoke Signal

The Student News Site of Ripon High School

The Smoke Signal

Calorie Tracking and What it Taught Me

After 7 days of tracking everything that I was putting into my body and finally going through to analyze my choices, I was shocked! As this project was being explained to me in class all I was thinking about was how this project was pointless and unnecessary. I figured I knew what I was putting into my body. It sounds so simple, “of course” I thought, “How could I not be aware of the types of foods I’m putting into my body? I am the one placing the food in my my mouth!” Now that I have finished I am so grateful, I’ve realized what I’m doing to my body.

There was so little variety in my food, that I was starting to memorize how many calories were in a few of my favorites. Almost everyday for lunch I have a chip of some kind and a can of soda. Not only is that insanely unhealthy, I eat it 5 days a week. Students at Ripon High are so lucky that they have an open campus and a cafeteria. My house is even within walking distance. I have so many lunch options, so there is no excuse for my bad diet at lunch. Another pattern that stuck out was my late night snacking on candy. Almost every night I had a few hundred calories in candy.

I am 5 feet tall and weigh around 110 pounds. According to Buzzfeed I should be eating around 2,000 calories to maintain my weight. There was one day when I reached 2,000 calories. I am always so energetic so I would like to see if eating the proper amount of calories would give me an edge.

The food that I eat isn’t very good. If I’m being honest, I expected worse. I did get in an acceptable amount of fruits and proteins and  I take a multivitamin, but I ate 2 vegetables all week. I hate vegetables so much, but 2? That is just ridiculous. I don’t require  that many calories so the ones I do eat should be full of nutrients and good energy.

In the future I plan on adding more variety, eating more, and eating healthier. I will add more variety by making sure I don’t do my normal lunch more than 3 times in one week. I am also going to start to bring healthy snacks to school everyday to work in a bit more calories that have needed nutrients. Starting right this minute, I will be the person who does not eat the gummy worms but instead the celery and some peanut butter. I never realized how unhealthy I was. Now that I was given the opportunity to learn about my diet, I know I will be able to make strides in my health.

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About the Contributor
Abbi Kissee, Videographer
Abbi Kissee is a senior at Ripon High School and this is her second year on the Smoke Signal News staff. She looks forward to sharing with the school and community the most groundbreaking news in an engaging manner through multimedia platforms. She hopes to improve in her photography and videography skills throughout the year. Abbi is also the Editor-in-Chief of the yearbook staff. Her interests include taking photos, exploring new cities, finding new coffee shops, and learning new advances in the filmmaking field.

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