Monthly Archives: July 2006

July 30, 2006 — Just 4 Today


Posted by katiebird

Just 4 Today, I’ll take my fiber supplement twice (haven’t taken it yet — that’s another thing I haven’t done yet today) walk 3 miles (uh…) and drink 2 liters of water (I’ve drunk one)

I’ll let you know as I make progress. The temperatures down from 100 to 97.9 — I’ll go out for my walk as soon as it drops below 90. (I just took my fiber supplement with 2 large glasses of water. I wish I’d thought of that an hour ago when I had the chips.e This is what happens when I don’t get my blogging done on time.)


A chore that can’t be put off


Posted by katiebird

Just today, I’m not going to eat between meals and I’m not going to take seconds. And I’ll use the tools of the Hacker’s Diet to help me reach my goal.

This has been the sort of crazy day that happens now and then. The sort of day where one unpredictable thing happens after another. And all the while it’s getting hotter and hotter.

So, I totally forgot to write down what I weighed this morning (did I weigh myself? Maybe not.) I went out for breakfast with my mom. And my brakes complained all the way there and back. So we (mister really) had to do a brake job as soon as I got back. And while we were working on that, our oldest boy called and he was having car trouble.

And, it’s sort have been like that. I ended up eating chips and salsa after everything slowed down. Although it was a nice treat, I don’t think I’d have done that if I started the day properly, with this article.

I won’t be putting this chore off again. It’s too important to my day.


Portion Distortion and Eating on the right side of the chart


Posted by katiebird

Just today, I’m not going to eat between meals and I’m not going to take seconds. And I’ll use the Tools of The Hacker’s Diet to help me stay focused and successful.

That doesn’t mean that other tools aren’t useful also. I’ve been poking around the federal government’s nutrition web sites. And yesterday I found a couple of slide shows demonstrating the swelling of portion sizes from 20 years ago to now. It’s pretty interesting and I think a more helpful comparison than the standard ones about a compac disc being the size of a pancake.

I’ve been guarding against “portion creep” for my own meals. Last year I carefully measured every single thing I ate for months. And then sort of coasted on what I learned about how those portions fit in or on our dishes. But I know my tendenancy is to let those portions drift gradually bigger. So every few months I go back to measuring (if only for a few days) to get myself back on track.

It’s interesting to see that it’s a cultural problem. It doesn’t affect just one sort of meal of food. The portions we expect to have for just about every food have gotten larger. And I think that’s where the confusion about the number of servings in prepackaged food comes from. The official servings match the common serving size of 20 years ago. But the packages are doubled or more in size. The result is a single bagel that is 2.5 servings.
Portion Distortion (Follow the link to an HTML interactive slideshow):

Bagel

20 Years Ago

Today

image of 3-inch bagel

image of 6-inch bagel

3-inch diameter
140 calories

??? calories
A bagel 20 years ago was 3 inches in diameter and had 140 calories. How many calories do you think are in today’s bagel?

Continue reading →