The Perfect Bowl of Cereal- Moderation and Portion Control in a Simple Snack
When I was over 400 pounds, my wife would give me a real hard time about my weight, and how I needed to lose it. Some days she would flat out tell me how unhealthy I was, some days she would throw out some “helpful” hints on living a better life. It was annoying at the time. Very annoying!
Truth is, I was selfish, and did not want to lose weight.
But I did live with her, so I had to think of something to keep the peace. I wasn’t going to diet, yet I could not have her mad at me all of the time. So I came up with this great idea of tricking her!
What I would do was buy “low fat” foods, and tell my wife I was trying to lose weight. Examples of these foods were:
Sugar-Free Oreos
Lowfat Cherry Garcia Ben and Jerry’s
Boxes of Lean Pockets
Low Fat Chunky Soup
I would eat a great deal of these items, since I had no moderation, and I would not lose any weight at all. But, my wife was happy at the time because I was making some sort of effort to “eat better”. It is funny what is truly considered a healthy snack. I could make any healthy snack unhealthy!
I think most people do that with their spouses/loved ones. They really do want to make the leap into a healthy lifestyle, but they want to do it on their own terms, not everyone else’s.
I was reminded of my trickery a couple of years ago. I was having a rough day at work. It was busy, we had corporate people in town, and I was short staffed. The day before, I put in my blog entry that I would love to help anyone with their weight loss. I do love answering questions but sometimes people do not want to know about weight loss. They want to know if the way I lost weight is easier than the way they are losing weight. Truth is… it is not. Either way I put this dandy on my blog.
“Just send me an email and I will respond right away!”
Wow, I am a regular Dr. Phil!
So I was stressed out at work when I got an email. Boy, do I love emails! They are like digital surprises.
It was from a guy who said his wife reads my blog, and she suggested that he talked to me. He was in a rut, and needed to lose weight. He wanted some advice.
As bad or as busy as I was at work, I was so excited that I got an email. Did I mention that I love emails? I wrote back to him quickly, and gave him my cell phone number, and told him to call me anytime.
He called me back within the hour, and we started to talk. Although his email was very moving, he did not sound like he really wanted to talk on the phone. As a matter of fact, he seemed like he really did not want anything to do with me. Here is how the conversation went:
“So, are you working out?”
“Um, yeah, I go a couple of times a week. Sometimes I go three times, but most of the time I go once or twice.”
“Okay, how about your diet?”
“Well, here is the thing. I love cereal. Every day, I have a big bowl of cereal!”
“What do you consider a big bowl of cereal?”
“Ummm, big! I love cereal.”
“Well, first thing, maybe you can have a little less cereal.”
“No, I love cereal!”
And that is when I knew this guy did not want to lose weight. Not yet, at least. He wanted an easy way out, just like I did. He probably wanted to appease his wife, so she would think he was making an effort to lose weight.
I was a little sad at first, because I thought I could make a difference in someone, but then realized that this guy was me. I did the same thing! I would do anything to get my wife off my back. Anything. I would have called Jenny Craig personally to have my wife leave me alone.
Now, I thank my wife for caring about me so much. I apologize for not listening, and waiting so long to lose the weight.
After the conversation the guy and I had, I told him to email me anytime with his diet and we would look over it. He has not done so yet. He probably never will.
I do hope one day he does though! And he will eventually thank his wife for caring so much!
This month Attune Foods is talking about healthy snacks. I just tasted their awesome new “Erewhon Supergrains Buckwheat & Hemp” cereal and it is good! But I was careful that I only had 1 cup, which is the suggested portion size.
Any snack can be healthy. You just have to moderate how much you eat. At least I know I need to.
Be well!
Tony
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Nov 06, 2012 @ 06:37:00
I like email surprises too, even preferring them to phone call communication. Like you, I’ve made the switch to smarter eating habits and have shed 75 lbs. It’s taken a year, but a slower pace is healthier anyway. It’s great that you want to help others. Keep up the good work all around!