I’m here, I’m here! I promise I didn’t dissapear!
Brought to you by Emily Rhymes at 4am ;)

Lately I’ve been thinking about all messed-up, weird, and down-right backward-ass things that are involved on this weight-loss journey of mine. There are so many bad habits I’m trying to break, and countless things I’m learning about nutrition, exercise, myself and my body. Up until this blog, I haven’t paid much attention to any of the before mentioned topics. If I had, I wouldn’t have swelled up to 310lbs.

Example : Did you know chicken has more grams of protein per ounce than ground beef? Me either! Popcorn has a higher glycemic index (sugar) than some fruits? Say Whaaa? Your ass will undoubtedly get bigger the more cheese you eat? Okay, maybe not. But I seriously have so many “What the F*ck Frick?” moments on this journey that I wanted to start sharing them all with you!

Welcome to my new (hopefully) weekly segment : WTF Wednesdays; tackling all the mysterious (or sometimes just mysterious to me) aspects of weight loss and getting healthy.

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WTF Wednesday : Portion Control
aka : You mean I shouldn’t be eating a pound of pasta in one sitting?

 

(source)

I don’t joke about pasta. Fo Realz, people. If I had one wish, one wish in the entire world, it would probably involve some sort of “Emily can eat all the carbs she wants and never gain any weight or realize her ass is the size of Montana.” *sigh* Let me just quickly daydream about that …. so … many … carbs … ;) So here’s the point. That picture looks totally amazing gross, right? Right. There was a time a while back (we’re talking months, friends, not years) where that was exactly how much pasta I could and WOULD  eat in one sitting. Probably more, because I didn’t even use a bowl. That’s right, I would eat it out of a massive tupperware container so I could shove it down my gullet with less shame.

If it fits in one container, it’s one serving, right?

Clearly I knew this wasn’t the case, but for some reason I honestly could not understand how to portion control my pasta. How the hell are you supposed to tell? Even after I stopped eating an entire box (read: a flippin POUND of pasta!) I would grab what I thought was a fair amount in my hand, and then later come to find I had made WAY too much. And wouldn’t you just know it … I couldn’t just put the extras in the fridge like a normal person, I just had to “not let it go to waste” and eat it as fast as possible. Let me show you:

Looks okay, right? Nothing too crazy. I mean, c’mon – a girl’s gotta eat! So I walk over to my kitchen utensil drawer, and pull out my Healthy Steps pasta basket to see how awesome I did. I’ve got this, right? I’ve lost 50lbs – surely I know how much pasta to be eating at a time .. pffft I say, PFFFT!

This next two pictures are totally not a joke. I was seriously shocked when I realized how far off I was on my “guesstimation” of portion size!

Where’s the hole?

 

Don’t know what you’re looking at? Let me fill you in. There’s supposed to be a hole in the handle that you slide the pasta through and it gives you the correct portion size. Let me re-phrase that. There IS a hole, but my fist full of pasta is so enormous that you can’t even SEE IT.

I’m not gonna lie – I was a bit confused. I stood there looking at my hand full of pasta, then back at the pasta basket, then mysteriously around the room as if to say “WTF, is someone trying to trick me?” Cue back to me, trying to slowly twist the pasta into the hole. Damn, not working. Maybe if I kinda get one side in I can jimmy the other side …. (10 minutes pass) … or maybe if I just lay it sideways I can … STOP! Put. Down. The. Pasta.

I laid my noodles down, and picked them up 5 at a time until I filled the appropriate amount.

Then, my brain exploded.

 

On Right : Normal portion

 

WTF!!!!

The portion on the right is exactly what I should be eating in one sitting, if I only want one serving of pasta. That’s not saying I can’t have more, but c’mon .. I don’t need that. Here’s the extremely crazy, WTF moment : My fistful portion? Was the left and right combined!!! Are you kidding me? How could I have been so far off? That’s the difference between 170 calories and 680 calories!

Here’s what the pasta basket should look like, in all it proportioned glory.

You know what I find even more mind-blowing? The fact that this amount of pasta was enough. Instead of making the pasta the star of the gallon-sized tupperwear container show, I bulked up my sauce with extra veggies, and sauteed some garlic chicken for more protein. It was much more filling, nutritious, SMART.

I honestly think it’s the little things like this that keep us from reaching our goals. There’s that saying “You don’t know what you don’t know.” The more I learn and educate myself on these little gadgets and tricks in the kitchen, the more shocking my previous food habits were. It was completely normal for me to eat that fist-full. I wouldn’t have thought twice. Now I look at that and think, WTF?! What was I doing to my body for all those years? Why did I ever think that it was healthy to eat that much every night?

You don’t have to start buying all health food, join an expensive gym, hire a personal trainer, or completely change your everyday life beyond recognition. Sure, all those things could help – but a lot of them aren’t realistic for the every-day person. I’m a full-time working mom with little time or energy to care about half of those things. What I can do? Portion control. Move more. Start treating my body and mind with respect. Stop picking up fist-fulls of pasta (or insert choice of food here) and start measuring. Lots of little changes add up to big results :)

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Talk to Me!
Do you struggle with portion control?
Have you ever had a WTF moment that stopped you dead in your tracks?
What do you think about this segment? Cool? Lame? Send me your ideas!

 

 

 

psst: This post was part of my sponsorship contract with Healthy Steps (read their views on portion control here), who were one of my amazing sponsors at Fitbloggin. However, I have owned these products long before their sponsorship and have never received any of their products for free.  Any mushy outpouring of love I have for them is purely my own healthy-gadget obsession. Thank you! :)

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categories: Binge Eating, Product Review, WTF Wednesday42 comments