As we all know I count calories which I find really easy and of all the things I have tried is the one thing I can easily stick to...HOWEVER...I am finding that more and more I am looking at the labels of things all the time of nearly everything I buy...I don't look at labels for fresh produce but anything that I am buying ready made I spend ages looking at the labels and comparing them with other similar products...and the things is I am not even meaning "ready-meals" I just mean anything in a packet or that has been made or produced .... Now I know most of you will be shouting "well stop buying ready made food" but unfortunately I do not have time to make EVERYTHING.
This morning I was in the Co-Op looking for things for breakfast and I of course wanted to stay away from bread and croissant so after about 5 minutes of wandering around debating what to have I settled on Chicken breast, egg, Light Philadelphia and then Rice Cakes....but it still wasn't that simple... I picked up all 3 Rice Cake brands on offer and compared them for calories... but not just the calories, I look at the Sugar, Sat fat...everything.... I don't mind doing this for some things but it's getting to the point that I am finding it hard to decide what to eat because half the time I pick up something, look at the Cals or the sugar or the sat fat and think there is no way in hell that I am eating that! I don't think it helps that there are some things that are just shocking and unless you knew you would think you were eating healthily... prime example of this was from the other night... Biggy had been playing tennis for a few hours and came home with a 1L bottle of Evian Water...great...he offered me some as it was Strawberry flavour... I was about to have some and for some reason I looked at the label... 12g of Sugar per 250ml.... 48g of sugar in 1L of WATER... how ridiculous is that....
I have no worries about cooking fresh at home and don't worry about the calories so much.. I still log everything but I know its all fresh healthy food so am not paranoid about it... it's just as soon as I am buying food that has been manufactured... I find it's more apparent when I want to have a change of food and not just a salad or something like that and I go to the shop and see all the crap that's put into things... the worst thing is that I know the craving I get from wanting something "naughty" even if it's just a sandwich is totally something I can ride out - when I do give in I just look at the calories I have consumed and think well that really wasn't worth it and I think of all the exercise I do and think great ..that one sandwich is the same as 60 minutes on the cross trainer... and when I have finished eating I still have the same feeling/craving as I did before I ate the sandwich...
Anyway I feel like I am not really making much sense... all in all... I don't want to become one of those people that just looks at labels all the time and can't occasionally indulge without feeling a mass of guilt...
I love the new look of your blog! Very vibrant and inviting! I am obsessed with reading the labels on food, and because of the struggles I've had with my weight all my life I am going to be doing it for the rest of my life. It totally sucks! I do cheat of course, I'm only human, and I LOVE food, but now that I am more conscious of what I'm putting in my mouth, I cannot believe that there were times in my life where I would sit down and eat ALL OF IT, and then I wonder why I'm where I'm at. I'm always going to look at labels, but being aware of the calories and nutritional content just makes me stop at a serving size, or a serving size and a half (depending on my day-im an emotional eater) instead of indulging in the entire thing!
ReplyDeleteI try to look at labels for salt, fat and sugqr content but to be honest I hardly ever look at calories. I know what you mean by not having time to cook; sometimes convenience food is all you've got time for.
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