One serving is what?!

And now a word from our sponsor...A few words on serving sizes. Sometimes a serving size is absolutely ridiculous. This is especially true when trying to lose weight, because if you take the whole bag or box into the living room with you, you will mindlessly eat a whole lot of Trader Joe's Salt & Pepper Ridge Cut Potato Chips. When really all you can have is seven. That's right a serving of these really yummy potato chips is seven chips. I thought, that was a silly amount so I took 14 potato chips.  I should have stopped and figure out the points, because if I had, I would have only taken seven.  Who eats only seven potato chips?

I bet I could write an entire blog post about ice cream. Whoever invented ice cream was really on to something.  Now you might be thinking, you are on a diet. You shouldn't eat ice cream. I am a firm believer in not excluding a food group. You have to include the ice cream food group even if you are trying to lose weight. Everything in moderation, right?  Suffice it to say, I do not keep ice cream in the house due to my ice cream addiction. I'm not sure if, technically, there is any scientific fact that one can be addicted to ice cream, but I am. Which reminds me of  Popsicles.  Apparently, Popsicle must be capitalized, so it must be like Jell-o.  I'll touch on Popsicles later.  Back to ice cream. A serving of ice cream is 1/2 cup.  If you measure that out, it is not very much. Who only eats 1/2 cup of ice cream along with your seven potato chips? Fat free and most low-fat ice cream is not that good.  Some things I can eat lowfat, like cheese, milk, yogurt and roast beef, but not ice cream. It is sacrilegious to eat low-fat or fat free ice cream (and seven potato chips).  If I am going to eat the ice cream, it needs to be the real stuff, otherwise I will not get rid of that craving.  So, I (once again) ate my son's Ben & Jerry's vanilla ice cream and loved it.  I also counted the points from it to the best of my ability.  I think it was about 18 points for the amount of ice cream I consumed. Oh well...sigh


Now back to Popsicles  So far, the Popsicles I have purchased have been low points. Jolly Rancher Popsicles are really good. I recently went to Trader Joe's and purchase Mango & Creme bars. They are only two points, however they are about 1" x 2", so they are really small and somewhat disappointing. I should have known better, because the box was too small to hold anything that my mind's eye thought should be in there.


A serving of peanut butter is 1 T which is a lot when you measure it. A serving of fat free salad dressing is 2 T which is adequate unless you like your veggies to take a bath in dressing. Then you are out of luck.


A serving of cereal is usually 1 cup which is fine with me with a 1/2 cup of milk and some fruit. Yummy...A serving of peppermint patties is three, although I am sure that is the small ones and not the big ones. A serving of meat is supposed to be about 4 oz. This is not very big, but you can then fill the rest of your plate with a baked sweet potato and non-starchy vegetables.  This can be a problem in my house, because I have one kid who will only eat corn, peas and tomatoes in the vegetable group and the other one will not eat corn or peas or tomatoes, but will eat brocolli. It is a dilemma, I tell you. Don't get me started on dinner in my house. Meanwhile, a serving of most vegetables is a cup, but vegetables are zero points on Weight Watcher's even if you eat more than a cup of veggies. 


Fruit is also zero points.  I haven't tried to see what would happen if I put in a ridiculous serving size of plums (a regular serving size is two), but I'm at the computer, so I'll try it now. Nope 20 plums is still zero points.  On the other side of serving sizes, who is going to eat 20 plums? And no, this is not a challenge for you. I take no responsibility for the consequences of eating 20 plums.


A serving size of eggs is egg. Only little children eat egg. I eat eggs. Don't you?  One egg is two points which lets me eat two eggs.


I love barbecue sauce. It is so yummy. Yummy, yummy, yummy!  Not as yummy as ice cream and I will not be putting barbecue sauce on my ice cream, because that is just gross.  At least it probably is...
Trader Joe's has many yummy things. I was at Trader Joe's a while ago and bought some barbecue sauce. That barbecue sauce's serving size was 1/4 cup. That is a lot of barbecue sauce until you buy a different kind.  Sweet  Baby Ray's serving size is 2 T. Why is there such a discrepancy? That is just weird in my opinion. I used 3 T the last time I used it on my brussel sprouts. I like brussel sprouts, but not enough to eat them plain.


I was curious so I looked up a Big Mac to see if a whole Big Mac was the serving size. Apparently, you can eat a whole Big Mac on Weight Watcher's and you spend 14 points.  In reality, I would advise against eating a Big Mac for the calories and fat alone.  A Whopper, Jr. on the other hand is only nine points and is (as I recently discovered) mostly bread.

 Since a Wendy's single is bigger it is also more points. Don't go there, because Wendy's sells salads. Yay. Unfortunately, since there is other stuff in there besides veggies, they are not zero points. 


I seem to be slightly obsessed with serving sizes, because I think that whoever thought of them was not thinking!


Let's not forget my progress, people. Despite eating the ice cream and the 14 potato chips. (And a whole bag of edamame chips.) I lost 2.6 lbs. this week!  


Last night, I ate at Red Lobster and made very wise delicious choices. No eating bland, boring food!  Also, no cutting out that very important food group mentioned above.