Day Two Towards Transformation. Food Scale

Most people already have a food scale, but if you don't, you need one.  It's time to know what you don't know!  Food scales range in price from under $20, to over $80.  I highly suggest buying one that allows you to convert ounce to gram measurements as I find a lot of nutritional labels listing portion sizes in grams.

This is the one that I own:

http://www.amazon.com/Taylor-Service-10-Pound-Stainless-Digital/dp/B002G9UKTY/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1387117103&sr=8-4&keywords=food+scale+taylor

I was able to find this model at my local Smart and Final store for $45, well worth it, but over $80 on Amazon?  That's pretty expensive even for me, BUT, if I take into consideration how much money I waste on things I don't need, if I had to pay more I would consider it.  This particular scale is super easy to use and the stainless steel top comes off so it's easy to wash.  The last scale I had cost around $25 but it sucked!  For some reason it would drain the battery right away, and it ended up not lasting long at all.  Anyway....

When I first started to change the way I eat, I knew I had to educate myself with portion size.  Almost every food we buy in this country comes listed with nutritional information except for most fresh foods. In that case we have to weigh and measure.  I'm not ashamed or embarrassed that I often weigh foods for portion size, how else can I make the best decisions and choices if I had to rely on guessing?  Finding myself 100lbs overweight pretty much proved I was not a good guesser!  It was time to know what I didn't know, or didn't want to know. 

Just this last week I found myself eating a few lg size dates (okay, 5!), I could have guessed what the calories were, but I knew I didn't know.  Out came the food scale.  I found the nutritional information by googling "calories in dates".  Numerous sites that list calorie counts came up and it was easy to figure out the data I needed because I was able to weigh the fruit.  No guessing.

Similar thing happened this morning.  I ate two large persimmons.  I knew they were large, but I didn't know how large, until I weighed them.  Again, so much easier to learn the language of nutrition when you have the tools to translate the information.  It's not a big deal, but it is a big deal if you are guessing based on what you wish the facts were.  Until you absolutely know, then you don't really know.

We all tend to eat the same basic foods so don't think you have to learn the calorie counts of every single kind of food that exists to man!  Besides, once you get in the habit of some quick research you will find the similarities of food groups and their calorie counts.  For instance, 99% of all fats, oils and butters, have the same amount of calories, 100 per tbl.  90% of all animal proteins are 50 calories per ounce, which, if you own a food scale you will be able to measure easily.  4 oz of chicken is a lot of chicken, and for only 200 calories!  Grains, rices, beans are usually 150-175 per 1/2-3/4 c cooked (1/4 c uncooked).  It becomes very easy and effortless after a short amount of time. 


I'm feeling great!  I'm moving in the right direction and getting back in the habits I know I need to practice to ensure that I'm the one in charge!  It's possible, and gosh darn it I'm doing it!

Here is my food journal entry from yesterday.  As much as I did not want to post that I chose to drink wine for dinner instead of eating a meal; hey, it was Saturday night!  The important thing is that I still made the choice to stay within range of my daily calories (1650).  But no wine for me tonight!