calorie burning chart......

click on chart to enlarge

1/2 cup chicken salad

1/2 cup of chicken salad spread out a bit

I've been thinking for a while about how to loose this weight. I see these advertisements for stomach bands. Way too scary for me, but I like scientific evidence and these surgeries have them. Seems when an over weight diabetic person has their tummy shortened they suddenly are no longer diabetic. I mean within a week their blood sugar goes back to normal. Now that is a shock. Just by having a smaller tummy they are given a new start. So I began thinking about this. No way I'm doing this kind of surgery but why couldn't I eat like they have to with that tiny stomach?

It's not hard to find how much we should be eating. At the simplest is the labels of products, they all tell how many servings are in the package. You will be shocked how small a serving really can be. If you want a more through way to know how much you should eat there is a fairly new chart that tells you calories by how active you are. Now this is important for me. Here in the Northwest we can be wildly active in the good times and very sedate in the dark cold times.

Since I moved here 23 years ago I have watched my hobbies swing from outside hobbies to inside activities. I think this may be why I gained weight to begin with. None of those 5 children added weight to me, and age hasn't done it. No it's been the adjustment I so easily made to quiet, still hobbies. Not good! So using this chart I can see to loose weight I must change my calorie intake during those slow times. Despite the believe that Northwesterners don't melt (yes it rains a lot) I do melt (born and raised in Los Angeles) so with that in mind you won't find me out on long walks in the rain. I'm smiling at the thought. Not this girl!

I don't suggest that you measure, and weigh everything you eat. You would loose weight but you won't last long I'm sure. I do suggest we all measure a few of our meals after we have them dished up. Am I eating two or maybe more servings of a food per meal? For the last year I've read the cans, and boxes for what a serving is. I've tried to start eating just one serving. It's a lot less food and I'm growing used to seeing less on my plate.

Now that brings me to another thought. How about we eat on a lovely looking small plate and only eat what fits on it. You'd have to be honest about it, I've seen my husband pile that Mongolian plate higher than the Andes! What we need is to find a way to eat small, shrink that stomach so that we know when we over eat in the future.

The photo is of 1/2 cup of chicken salad. It doesn't look like much in a cup shape but see what it does spread out on my plate. A 1/2 cup is a lot of chicken salad. If you read my other blog you know that to be healthy we need a lot of different foods. If I eat a half cup of everything I'm going to be over eating. So here is another chart just as an example of some basic serving sizes. It may be OK for my swimming every other day, husky bleached boy to have two servings of something but for me it would be too much food.

common one serving size of some basic foods:

1 cup milk or yogurt

3/4 cup Fruit or veggie juice

1 medium sized piece of fruit

1/2 cup berries

1/2 cup raw non-leafy veggies

1 cup raw, leafy veggies

1 small potato

1 1/2 ounce of cheese

meat servings the thickness and size of a deck of cards

So don't go on a diet, don't change all your foods for just salad. Try my pretend Stomach band, eat what you will burn and use a small plate and let's all see what this does for us. If you are at a happy weight do tell us how it feels and how you eat?

my next weight blog will finally be the one I started writing first "how we think where weight is concerned"

If you got a Wii-fit for Mothers day please tell us your favorite game and favorite features. I hear it's great for getting Fit!