How do you figure some things out? I mean, any general rules of thumb?

For example: I want to count calories but that doesn't mean I'm NEVER going to eat at someone else's house or eat out again.

What are your guidelines for ball-parking?

I'd suggest using www.fitday.com - It's 100% free, I just got used to using it and am in love with it.. If you know you're going out for dinner, just try and keep your calories low for the day (i don't mean starve yourself, but watch what you're eating) and then try entering in some foods and see what you can eat for dinner that will fit within your daily limit.

And, if you're eating at a friends, just have smaller portions than you usually would and try and fill up on the veggies, etc.

Hope this helps..

Although I don't count calories (I'm following WW) I do still try to enter all the food I eat into fitday.com so I can see how many calories I'm taking in a day and where they are coming from (fat/protein/carbs). that way on my road to eating healthier I can start getting a more equal balance of foods.
For instance today I had just over 1300 calories for 26 points. Yesterday I had about 1650 calories for 31.5 points.

ditto on the fitday. it doesn't have everything in there, so i save nutrition labels if i can. i enter them on the custom foods area. otherweise, i jsut estimate. like, i went to indian food for lunch this week, adn there is NO WAY the different things i ate were in there. so i put some rice, pita bread (it's kinda like the naan bread) and 2 cups chicken curry, and called it a day. that was the closest match, and it felt like it was appropriate.

i try to stay between 1200-1500. that's just me, my metabolism is really, really slow since i've messed it up for all these years.

calorieking.com is GREAT! Especially when you hit the fast food places!!!

i liked calorieking.com better than fitday, but it's not free anymore!!

One good way to learn to estimate what you are eating is to be diligent about measuring your food at home. I use measuring cups to measure out servings of everything at home (pasta, cereal, condiments, peanut butter, ice cream, etc.) and this has given me an idea of what a realistic portion looks like. I am better at eyeballing a serving of food when I'm out or at someone else's house because I practice at home.

I never logged my food at calorie king (could you do that??), but I think they have some better food choices. When I use fitday, I just create a custom food from the calorie king info.

Hmmm. Maybe I should try that? Thanks ladies....

It's Monday tomorrow... you know what that means! Begin again!