Saturday, May 31, 2008

"Bad" foods and a stunning weight loss result!

Hey, remember last week when I said I figured the big weight-losses were over and I'd start losing a half pound to a pound a week now?

Well, this morning I weighed in at WW and posted a loss of 4.6 pounds! Woo hoo!

This is why you should never take me seriously when I predict the future; I'm almost always wrong.

Anyway, as promised, here's just a few of the "bad" foods I've indulged in during my past, which made me the woman I am today (fat!):

1. Ramen noodles and popcorn - Doesn't sound too awful, does it? But those tiny little packages of Ramen noodles contain a whopping 16 grams of fat! (And of course I ate the whole package - how could I not? It always seemed ridiculous to me that they thought anyone would actually be able to share them.)

For a while, they made a baked version which was much lower in fat, and I bought those when I could find them. But I guess they didn't make enough obscene profit from them because they quit making them.

As for the popcorn, that's actually good for you and has lots of fiber - except when you cover it in butter and melted cheese.

For many years, Ramen noodles and "popcorn plus" were my regular evening meals, especially during winter months. In my defense, the Ramen noodles are CHEAP - check them out next time you go to any grocery store. You can get, like, 100 packages for a dollar! It's pretty tempting when you're on a limited budget.

Still, the fat did add up (and the melted butter and two kinds of melted cheese on the popcorn didn't help).

2. Parmesan cheese. You know those big green canisters of Kraft Parmesan cheese? A nice, light topping for your cheesy needs. I'm able to just sprinkle a little bit on my foods now with no problem.

However, for a long time I was going through not one, not two but THREE of those canisters in the space of a week. Not only was I pouring it on top of popcorn (see #1 above), I also just ate it straight out of the can. Quite filling.

3. Boxed macaroni & cheese. Mmmm good, and theoretically you could cook it & eat small portions of it over several days - right? Yeah RIGHT! Get this:

On a regular basis, I would buy TWO boxes of the stuff - cook the macaroni from only ONE package - and mix in the pouches of cheese from BOTH boxes!

Because ... see ... when prepared with just the one packet of cheese, it didn't taste cheesy enough.

And sometimes I would add some Parmesan (see #2) on top of THAT.

Mmmm ... good! But definitely NOT good for me!

Now - here's the big question: Did I *know* that all these things weren't good for me?

Well ... yes. I kind of did. But I had also gotten kind of mixed up in the way I thought about my health, and my weight. See, I was still trying to walk regularly, and I kidded myself that as long as I was exercising, I didn't have to worry about what I ate.

So here I am, almost 50 years old, finally finding the right answers, but more importantly, putting them into practice. And the answers are as old as the hills - "Eat right and exercise." There's really nothing else to it. But as the saying goes, "We are too soon old and too late smart!"