[DMNewman]

I need to get back in the swing of things... I have been at 188-190 for about 3 months now without counting calories. I am now working as a pre-k teacher and I, as the teacher have to eat lunch with my 3 year olds. I eat whatever they are having for lunch that day and I have no clue how to figure calories out when I don't have all of the information. Any advice? I am not supposed to take my own food, we do a sit down lunch with the kids so I'm pretty SOL when it comes to taking my own stuff. Thanks

[calimodel1]

why cant you bring your lunch???
If you really cant, dont the three yr olds need to be eating pretty healthy?? Figure the calories for what the cafeteria offers for them. Then go off of that I suppose...does your school really expect you to eat what a three year old would eat for lunch?? thats just silly , different stages of life need different things.

[eilla05]

What kinds of things are you eating? There is a calorie site that you can input your data and it tells you. Not sure what it is. Hopefully some one else will chime with the site.

If you think your eating bad, why dont you just eat half of it? then have a snack on the way home or something. That ridiculous that you cant bring your own lunch and I would be talking to someone about that. They cant force you to eat their food.

[kelly315]

If you really wanted to push it, not allowing you to bring your own food is not legal. However, I'm guessing that you want to keep things friendly with your employer, so is it possible for you to eat your lunch during recess? I'm not sure how your school works, but every school I know of allows teachers at least 20 minutes on their own, usually during recess.

[4me4mygirls]

I'm assuming this is more of a daycare center than a school, even so, they have to let you know what you are eating due to the potential for allergies.

If the center makes their own food, ask the cooks for a menu. If they don't have a nutritional breakdown, you'll have to input the info into a website such as calorieking.com. If the lunches are brought in or catered, then they should have a menu with a breakdown of nutritional info.

If nothing else, eat what the three year olds eat in the same or smaller portions.

Good luck!

[Shannon in ATL]

We get a menu each month for my three year old stepson, so I would take that and plan from there, if you get one. Plug it into Daily Plate or Calorie King.

I bought a small jeweler's scale that is purse sized, you could even buy one of those and try to weigh, but that might get too hard with three year olds all over the place!