Tues Tips & Trends

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Today’s post is brought to you by the letter P.

As in Portion control.

As in why is it so freakin hard and why do we now insist on cramming everything into a bag or can labeled 100 calories.

my personal fave? the 100 calorie cans of pop (can you tell where Im from? which coast?). Ludicrous and not the good kind.

Im torn on the cal-packs. Most of me loves them (especially the almonds) as Im all about being the informed consumer.

Sure, I may lose myself in a riveting hour with the NY Real Housewives (Im fascinated by Bethenny. Not so much her dating-life but her fame-quest and branding mission.) & discover at the end Im surrounded by cupcake almond wrappers but at least the sheer number of them leaves me aware of how much Ive eaten.

The other side of me, the MizFit side, is entirely aware that most of the 100 cal packs are things we shouldnt be eating *anyway* and, as established on Eat Cake day, when we indulge do we really want it to be in stuff with a shelf life?

To don my serious-fitness-health-bandanna for a moment—–all we really need to do is (re)learn what portion size is and eat accordingly.

Please to remember:

One serving (three ounces) of meat, poultry or fish is about the size of a deck of playing card.

One serving (one-half cup) of fruit, vegetables, pasta or rice is about the size of a small fist (MizFit comment: I dont love this phrasing. Whose fist?!)

One serving (one ounce) of cheese is about the size of your thumb (see above).

One serving (one cup) of milk, yogurt, or chopped fresh greens is about the size of a tennis ball.

(please to imagine me yanking off aforementioned bandanna)

Now, Im not about the portion control when one is eating clean (we’ve previously established all that) but it’s always good to know.

In addition, it is *so* hard to exercise control over the very snacks which are shoved into 100 calorie packages so perhaps that IS the answer in some instances.

your thoughts?

One concept I think we can ALL agree sucks may never make The O List is this.

I seriously had to keep clicking around the site to see if this “Portion Control Made Easy”! (note: the exclamation point OUTSIDE of the quotation marks is theirs not mine) was a joke or not.

Im trying to get them to send the MizFits a plate and, if they do, I’ll be looking for volunteers to haul it to a restaurant & use it in public (dont panic. there are directions).

That, my friends, would be comedy gold.

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Comments

  1. I LOVE Real Housewives of NYC!!! Ramona is my favorite because she’s so out there and kind of simultaneously horrible and fabulous. LuAnn fascinates me–she’s one of those girls I wanted to be in high school.

    Thanks for the portion refresher–it’s appalling how huge the portions are in restaurants these days. Seriously–you’d have to eat less than HALF of what you’re served to come close to a reasonable portion…

  2. Oh Jen THANK YOU for outing yourself.

    I fear that I horrify the Renaissance Man with my R.W.NYC addiction.

    M.

  3. Seriously, is the plate for real? On the other hand, it *is* ‘fine earthenware’.

    Thanks for the portion advice. I didn’t know the one about the cheese/thumb. Good to know (seriously) as sometimes I just open up the block of cheese and take a bite. I should mention that my husband loves it when I do this.

  4. I say “pop” too and people look at me like some sort of freak. I’m from Buffalo Grove, IL, but we’re also known in certain circles as “The Boston of the Midwest.” I think my dad made me do it.

    Now, the 100-calorie pack has downsized to 90-cal packs! I think Quaker just came out with one. Pretty soon we’ll be shellingout $5 for a few 20-calorie packs of Chips Ahoy which will consist of a tiny little chip rattling around in an airpuffed bag.

    That just made me sad.

  5. Shelley? You mock until you are selected to haul aforementioned plate to Chueys.

    And Weighting Game? That made me laugh. And then sad. And then totally envision the infomercial where aforementioned chip is touted as being MASSAGED BY A POCKET OF AIR ONLY INCREASING ITS ABILITY TO REV YOUR METABOLISM AND DECREASING ITS CALORIES.

    BUT THAT’S NOT ALL.

    IF YOU CALL NOW YOU’LL ALSO GET THE POCKET OF AIR sans chip FOR NO EXTRA MONEY.

    M.

  6. This is an excellent post. I, personally, am offended by those 100-cal packs. Like you said, the stuff they pack into them are typically pretty crap, and all it does is get people to learn to fear numbers rather than learn portion control. I like the analogy’s you listed to fist- and thumb-size. Portion size should be relative to person size, I think.

  7. The 100-calorie packs worry me in the same way that the Weight Watchers fake-y food “only one point” stuff does. I think it would be far healthier and more useful in real life to learn portion control of REAL foods, so that you don’t blow a gasket when faced with a restaurant menu or a friend’s cookout dinner. Plus the whole “actually eating things with nutritional value” part, instead of over-processed junk. Do you need 100 calories of Chips Ahoy? Maybe you should eat an apple or banana instead.

  8. Loved this: “when we indulge do we really want it to be in stuff with a shelf life?” But Leslie’s comment about 20-cal packs and your hilarious marketing spiel made my whole day!!

    As for the 100-cal packs (and aren’t they actually “paks”??) I am suspicious of them for their processed nature – just like how the tag line for Fig Newtons is “the cookie who thinks it’s a fruit.” Um, just eat fruit!! If you want a cookie, MAKE one you KNOW is a cookie!

  9. No time, but for some reason I was fascinated by the portion control plate. Was amused by the “woman’s portion is the same as a child’s portion” part. So funny. And sad. Well, maybe just sad.

  10. Hmmm… a cheese portion the size of your thumb? Wow. Apparently, I love some cheese – because I can’t grasp that.

    The plate is definitely a concept gone all wrong. very very wrong.

  11. Poor (wo)man’s portion control plate – draw on it with a permanent marker (make sure it’s non-toxic ink, though!)

    We say “pop”, too.

    And the Bag Lady will use the Cowboy’s enormous, arthritic thumb to measure her cheese, please.

  12. Many years ago, after I had my first baby (I’ve had six), I naturally wanted to lose the pregnancy weight. I did this by breastfeeding, walking a lot, and portion control.

    But back then we didn’t have those 100-calorie packs of everything, so I bought sandwich bags and a scale, and I packaged everything into serving sizes. If I wanted chips with my lunch, that was okay as long as I only had one serving! If I wanted cookies after dinner I allowed myself two, and only two.

    Losing weight is different from maintaining, though. We do have to deny ourselves in order to lose weight. Maintaining is infinitely easier.

    By the way, I ended up losing more weight than I’d gained with that pregnancy, and I stayed at that weight until my divorce two years later. But that’s a story for another day.

  13. Heather, I took note of the very same thing (please to insert rant HERE about how the worldatlarge is attempting to make us wanna be small skinny and NOT HEARD like children. Repeat after the MizFit: Im HERE. Im BIG. Im STRONG and taking up SPACE.)

    Melany, GRASP OPPOSABLE THUMB ha ha. you pun-y even if you didnt intend to be so.

    And B.L.? Please woman, keep making the bags but WRITE A BOOK (gather your blog entries into a book?) you make me laugh.

    M.

  15. Okay, that plate is ridiculous. And no, I will not haul it out in public. I will knit in public no problem, but there is no way I will pull a plate out of my purse and start spooning food onto it. That and I’m pretty sure it was $37. I think a whole place setting of my china cost that much.

    Pop? Where I come from we call it all coke. It goes like this:
    Me: Wanna coke?
    GP: Sure.
    Me: What kind?
    GP: Dr. Pepper

    GP being the husband, natch. Any guess where I’m originally from?

  16. My favorite part of the plate is the sauce circle. Ha! While the plate itself is silly, I get the concept. Doesn’t the AHA recommend *mentally* dividing your plate and putting xyz in 1/3 and filling the rest with veggies? That mental rule of thumb makes sense to this member of the bumbling band.

    Also! (note i am normally NOT this contrary)

    I love the 100 cal packs. I didn’t realize that one could get junk food in that size, tho. I loves me the the almonds (although I generally make my own snack pac of almonds b/c the 100 cal ones are hard to find in these parts) and the popcorn bags.

    But then, I’m a half-hearted weight watcher who is all about the portion control. I like the idea of figuring out how much 100 calories is of thing I usually eat (rough estimate…not talking about exact science!) so it’s easier to stay on plan. Kind of like the points system. So, depending on how many cals i’m aiming for, I can easily adjust what I eat.

    Maybe that’s just my inner Excel nerd coming out, tho??

  17. I have consumed a few 100 cal packs in my day. Most of these said packs were consumed when I first started WW. I liked the idea of eating my favorite snack and having a portion divided out for me. I have not bought these in a couple years as now I know that I feel more satisfied with REAL food. I came to a realization that an apple or and egg white sandwich held me over much longer that 5 wheat thins out of a baggie.

    Also Mizfit you say you don’t need to watch calories if your are eating clean. Did you post on this before? I am new to your blog and this really intrigues me. I have been maintaining a 60# loss for about 2 years and still am very conscious about the calories in things. I lost on WW so I am a point freak but eat fairly clean.

  20. Another great post. I don’t go anywhere near those 100 calorie packs. If I want an oreo cookie, I will have a real oreo cookie – not a 100 calorie pack of oreo whatever they are called.

    Oh, and I’m going to guess – are you from the east coast?

  21. THANK YOU for writing this… I had a huge ranting post a while back on my blog about 100 calorie packs. They drive me mad.

    Also I would LOVE to take a plate like that into a restaurant… the reaction would be way too funny!

  22. I’m not really a fan of those packs for the main reason that it’s usually a processed food. Cookies are cookies. Crappy crackers are crappy crackers. You’re still putting poopy stuff into your body. Now, the almond ones are fine – I’m referring to the other kind. And also, it gives people more of an excuse to eat crap. It may only be 100 calories, but it’s still crap.

    If I’m going to crappy stuff into my body, it will be in the form of a martini!

  23. Okay, my recent 40 year old status aside, I WOULD TOTALLY BRING THE PLATE WITH ME EVERYWHERE. Must procure.

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