I’m not a person who likes to advocate waste. In fact, the less I can impact the environment, the better.
However, there is a weight-reduction secret out there that is often overlooked by everyone except the food companies, and it’s this:
Individual packaging gets people to eat less.
Ever wonder why the 100 Calorie Snack Packs are popular? Of course not, because you know that one of the “packages” has 100 calories, which keeps you from diving into an entire bag and eating 800 calories worth of chips/cookies/crackers (generally). You’re limited. You can keep yourself to one package, because it feels wasteful to open another package.
We are generally a “see food” culture/species. If we see food, we eat it, regardless of whether our bodies actually need that many calories.
Here is the secret behind “portion control” – if you put 2 cups of pasta on a large plate, you don’t feel like you’ve eaten much. If you put the same amount of food on a small plate, you are convinced that you’ve eaten quite a bit of food.
Therefore, it stands to reason that if you eat something from a package, you’ll do the same thing: small food in small package=eat less; small food with other small food in large package=eat more.
Now, does this mean that I’m advocating you start eating those 100 calorie snack packs?
Not at all. Sure, a once-in-a-while snack from one of them is fine, but it’s not something that should make up the bulk of your diet.
What I am advocating is that you start portioning your food into their own “snack packs.”
Get a bunch of tupperware, measure out your food into these tupperware, then grab and go as needed.
That’s all it takes! And believe me, you’ll find you suddenly start dropping fat like crazy.
Here’s a handy guide of 100 calorie foods:
- Half an apple with 2 teaspoons of peanut butter
- An orange and a few dry-roasted nuts
- 10 cashew nuts
- 10 almonds
- 2 ounces of lean roast beef
- Half a small avocado
- 4-6 ounces of no-fat or low-fat yogurt
- A 5-ounce tossed salad with lettuce, tomato, cucumber and 1/4 cup fat-free dressing
- 4 cups broccoli
- 2 cups green beans
- 4 cups cauliflower
Foods under 100 calories:
- 1 apple (60 calories for 1 medium)
- 1 orange (72 calories for 1 medium)
- 12 Cherries (63 calories for 12 large)
- 1 banana (65 calories for 1 medium)
- 1.5 cup carrots (75 calories)
- 17 grapes (61 calories)
- cottage cheese (95 calories for 1/2 cup)
- 1 cup blueberries (85 calories)
- bran cereal (65 calories for 1/2 cup, no milk/yogurt)
- 1 hard boiled egg (70 calories)
- sugar-free chocolate pudding (80 calories for 1/2 cup)
*Some 100-calorie itemsfrom this WebMD article
*100-Calorie food photo from Eat Smart, Move More North Carolina booklet, “Snacks and Drinks: Simple Solutions to Help You and Your Family Eat Healthy”
JAN
