You don't know what you don't know.

Have you ever eaten something just so it doesn't "go to waste"?  Of course you probably have!  The worst situation may be when you eat something you don't like just to avoid throwing it away!  Seriously, I never want to do that again, and it's something I'm more and more conscious of, which in turn helps me identify if, and when, that is happening.  Better yet, I'm becoming much more aware of buying too much food in the first place, and/or buying things I really don't want to eat. (I was in Lucky grocery store this afternoon and came across Oreo cookies with a marshmallow center....I reached out....and they almost snagged me....wtheck...marshmallow filling?)

We all think we're so smart, don't we?  

Well, if you admit that you don't know what you don't know, then you are much closer to being as smart as you think you are!

I had one sweet potato.  I only bought one because if I had bought 4 or 5 I'd eat four or five!  At the most I would only ever is need one....so that's what I had.  The only time I use a sweet potato is if I grate it to thicken a batch of chili.  If I were to make sweet potato fries in the oven then I would eat every dang gone one of them (which is why I only buy one sweet potato at a time!).  Well, there it sat...that one sweet potato.  Yes, I did make a couple of batches of chili, but I used red lentils to thicken one batch and red chard stems to thicken the other....so there it sat....growing sprouts.  Is it okay to eat potatoes that start to sprout?  I'm guessing yes....it's not going to kill me.  Knowing I won't use it for chili...but yet not wanting to throw it away...

I decided to roast it.  I looked in my fridge for something else to roast with it.  Maybe a green vegetable to cut the calorie density.  But nope.  Nothing green to be found.  No brussels, no green beans, no broccoli.  Geez, I didn't want to roast one lonely sweet potato!  Viola!  Two apples that have almost gone to the wayside were at the bottom of my crisper, and like the yam, so close to the end, one red, and one tangy green.  Maybe I can use the roasted yam and apples in a spinach salad tomorrow?  A few dried cranberries and if I were eating bacon and/or blue cheese...(omg...yum!)  I am eating walnuts though...hmnn...with a maple dressing?  I think I may be in trouble!

Here's the thing.  I will want to eat the whole darn batch!  Add in other salad ingredients, especially dressing, and all of a sudden that lonely yam, and a couple of apples, could easily turn into an 800 to an almost 1300 calorie meal!  Yep, do the math people!  I did:

10.6 ounce sweet potato (Garnet yam) = 345 calories
10.2 ounce apple = 137 calories
1 tbl oil to roast = 100 calories
total so far 582

handful of baby spinach, what? 20-30 calories? lol
3-4 oz protein = 150-200 calories (you pick; chicken, shredded pork, sliced turkey, bacon, sausage, etc)
oil and vinegar/lemon dressing, maple syrup = 100-200 calories
1 ounce of crumbled blue cheese = 110 calories
1 ounce chopped walnuts = 185 calories
total  1147-1297 calories

An entire day's worth of calories in one salad....you didn't want croutons, did you?

But it was just a salad.....  And this all started because I didn't want to throw away one yam!  Get into establishing the habits of not buying foods you really don't want to eat / throwing away foods you really do not want to eat.  

OR, the moral of this story?  If you find yourself weighing more than you say you want to weigh, and you don't know why, do some math.  If you find yourself weighing more than you say you want to weigh, and you don't believe in the Fat Fairy, then maybe it's time to admit that you don't know what you don't know.