Common Sense

I've looked into serving sizes a bit more. How big do you think a serving of mashed potatoes would be? Imagine my surprise when I saw 1/3 cup equaled a serving. Calories come to 66.40 calories. However, that serving size is listed under fast food mashed potoates. For the old fashioned type, mashing potatoes made with whole milk: A serving is one cup. Calories 161.70.

I don't know about you, but I need a bit of butter in my potatoes too. Again, one cup is a serving size. With butter added, the calories mount to 222.60 per cup.

Why do I bring this up? Because it's time for us to use some common sense. Look at the above information. If you're fighting the buldge around the middle, what size should your serving be?

Instead of cutting foods out of your diet, learn to control your serving size and calorie intake.

What's a Serving

How often do you sit at the end of a meal at a restaurant stuffed, but continue to pick at the food on your plate? Better yet, how many times have you wondered why you've gained weight when you haven't eaten that much?

In today's blog we'll take a look at portions. One site I've found helpful in determining nutritional information is Dr. Walford's Food Data Base.

Let's take a look at a typical day. A bowl of cereal with milk. We won't even add sugar because we're being good. So, how many calories in a bowl of cereal. It depends not only on the cereal or what kind of milk you use, but it also matters what size bowl you use.

Here's a test. Take the bowl you'd usually use. Pour some cereal into it. Before you add milk, pour that cereal into a measuring cup just for grins. How much cereal does your bowl hold? One cup, two, or even three?

It's important. For today's example I checked two brands of raisin bran. Both consider one cup to be a serving. Calories for one cup ranged from 178.20 - 186.05. Remember, this is for one cup. Most people I talk to tend to eat more than that. Milk is another 100-148 calories for each cup.

To realistically lose weight, you need to consider your portion sizes. Study labels to find out how big a serving is suppose to be and adjust your intake accordingly.

Heading Toward the Holidays

Did you ever stop to think about how much our culture's special events have a central theme--eating. Let's face it. Vacations, we splurge and seek out favorite foods. Birthdays, we eat cake, ice cream and favorite dishes. Anniversaries lead to dinners out, and then there's the holidays. What about Thanksgiving?

One year my daughter and some of her friends went to a 5K race Thanksgiving morning. They decided they'd break the eating tradition and do something active together. On the way home they figured out how many calories they'd usually eat on a normal Thanksgiving day. They settled on the rounded number of 13,000. Yes, I said thousand.

We figure it's okay once in awhile to over indulge, but think about this. If you are a man trying to lose weight you'll want to stick around 1,300-1,500 calories a day. For a woman you'll want to stay around 1,000-1,200. Think about that. If you eat 13,000 calories in one special day, your body still has to do something with that energy.

Not eating for 10 days to compensate is not a healthy option. So what do we do? We have about two months to get in shape before Thanksgiving. Just like training to run a marathon, we can train to make better choices on Thanksgiving Day.

I don't know about you, but I'm still a little more than 20 lbs. from my target. Realistically, I know I won't lose 20 lbs in two months. Even if I did, eating 13,000 calories in a day is not an option. Moderation is the answer. We need to train ourselves to be satisfied with smaller portions and healthy snacks. These two steps will make a big difference.

In my next blog, we'll look at serving portions to start the education process. Most of the time I'm amazed at how small a serving is and on the other hand I even more surprised to learn it can sastisfy me.

Life Changing Morsels

Remember patching innertubes for bike tires? Okay, some of you may be too young to know what an innertube is, but think of floating around in a pool or lake with an innertube, or being pulled at high speeds behind a boat. It's called tubing because you're riding an innertube.

Innertubes held air inside the tire. If a leak sprung, the tire went flat. People had a couple of choices. Patch it or buy a new one. I remember patching tires multiple times, but eventually the innertube failed. Patches worked as a quick fix, but eventually the innertube needed to be replaced.

I woke up thinking about how diets are a lot like patching the innertube. They work for a time and then you need another patch. How many overweight people do you know that have tried diet after diet and still tip the scales with excess weight?

An overeating problem is a spiritual problem. I'm not talking about people with thyroid or other medical reasons for excess weight. I'm speaking to people that overeat or make poor food choices to satisfy a mood. I'm talking to myself. Did you ever consider that the reason we want to eat whatever we want and as much as we want is literally feeding your flesh?

"For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things" (Phil. 3:18-19).

So what's the answer? Look at the bottom line. "Their mind is on earthly things." Jesus told us he is the bread of life and living water. He is the Word made flesh that dwelt among us. Instead of running to the refrigerator for a snack, pick up God's word and taste of it. If you don't know where to start, open to Philippians. It offers a banquet of life changing morsels.

The next time you reach for something to eat, think about it. Should you be reaching for God's Word instead?