Yes, I finally jumped on the Twitter bandwagon!  Since I’m going on a vacation next week, you can follow me through a stream of updates as I scurry around in the warm California sunshine.  All you need to do is head over to: http://twitter.com/lemueljopio. 

Since my wife and I will be visiting San Diego and L.A., we plan to check out some venues that feature Salsa dancing.  Thanks to MeetUP.com, I’ve been able to join a local San Diego Salsa Meet Up Group for an upcoming event.  There’s a popular Salsa bar we plan to check out called “Cafe Sevlilla“.  I’m a pretty much a NOOB but I really enjoy the music and ambience that Salsa dancing provides.

Our despressing winters will make anyone beg for warmer weather.  I look forward to next week and the good times that lie ahead.  We also have a family reunion to attend, along with the usual wine tour, sightseeing, shopping, etc.  Whoo-Hoo!

With all these fancy ideas I’ve picked up here and there on how to lose weight, I seem to have forgotten that nothing really beats counting calories.

Gone are my low carb diets.  A time when I had to maintain a very strict diet to the point that I had to stay away from breads and, my favorite, doughnuts!

I think I got duped into the trendy way of thinking that cutting out carbs, going vegetarian or even taking diet supplements can give me the edge in losing weight.  In fact, I now believe that this actually might have contributed to my weight loss plateau.

I found out a year ago, I was still paying for an online calorie counter that I never got to use.  It’s about $8.00 every three months, so it flew under the radar on my credit card statements.

Since I was paid up until August, I decided to put it into good use.  After doing a little bit of research, I set my daily calorie intake based on my height and weight.

Here I thought that this will just be a piece of cake.  After all, I don’t eat carbs anymore and I’m practically off red meat.  I should be able to meet that target with no problem.

What was I thinking???

As soon as I started counting my daily calorie intake, I realized that my existing diet consisted of high calorie foods, topping at almost 3500+ calories a day.  It’s a perfect number if I was maintaining or trying to gain weight, but it will not do if I wanted to live a healthier lifestyle!

The calorie counter I use provides me a list of foods with their calorie content and I decided to go shopping to buy foods that I actually, like whole wheat bread, unsalted butter.  To my amazement, I lost four pounds the first week.  Then, I lost another five pounds for the second and third week combined.  After a year of living such an easy lifestyle, along with my daily exercise regimen, I noticed a big difference with my appearance and energy levels!

I am eating more healthy and balanced meals.  My new weight loss is quite noticeable that everyone started asking me about my secret to losing weight.

It’s funny, actually, because the first thing I hear is “did you drop carbs?”.