The Leftovers Mom

I read once that a major contributor to the weight that women gain (or haven't lost) after having kids is due to eating food off of their kids' plates, and I believe it.  I am a victim of it myself!  After reading The Fat Loss Troubleshoot and getting a black and white reminder that I need to weigh, not just measure but WEIGH IN GRAMS, my food to get an accurate picture of calories in versus calories out, I am realizing just how much of a habit this has become for me.

My kid eats healthy food.  I mean, its not like his leftovers are Cocoa Krispies and chicken nuggets.  But, as I've said before, even healthy food has calories.  Even tomatoes have to be burned into fuel and that means they have calories. I keep a food journal, but do you think I write down those blueberries I tossed in my mouth before putting some on his plate?  What's a few blueberries, right? And that spoonful of his oatmeal to make sure it isn't too hot? Pshaw!  Scooping up his uneaten broccoli at dinner to prove a point about how they are sooooo goooood that I just want to eat it allllll day long...well, veggies are "free," right?

Not right.

The more I read about people whose fat loss is sabotaged by these seemingly harmless nibbles, the more I started to do the math in my head and realized that I am likely eating on average 300-500 more calories in an entire day than I realize.  Uh oh. Damn it!

So I pulled that digital kitchen scale out of the cabinet and got to work.  I usually only weigh meat and cheese because they are more calorie dense than fruits and vegetables, and figure I don't need to worry about produce as much.  I was very relieved to find that for the most part, my guesstimated portions were right on the money or close to it, and now that I have nixed the kiddo-plate-nibbles, my actual consumption and my http://www.fitday.com/ profile are a little more in agreement.

But to be sure, I went a little overboard with the ziplocks this week and measured every single morsel. To the gram.  It's always good to get a refresher on reality.

And in the meantime, I am making smaller portions for my picky prince.  Hey, no sense in all that good food going to waist.

Good day! :)