Size Matters

Wow!  The wind is really blowing outside as a blizzard breezes through the Midwest.  I'll keep tonight's posting short.

4 weeks ago, Scott offered to use his weight as reassurance that we were eating enough.  Scott weighs himself every morning and records it in a spreadsheet.  I weight myself too, but there is no way I'll ever write it down and share it with anyone, let alone everyone.  If you know Scott and me, you'll know what data dorks we are.  Scott created amazing spreadsheets that we use to record our daily consumption, our spending habits, and his weight.  We also keep every receipt in an envelope so we can cross reference prices and I have a notebook where I record everything that we eat so each day's calculations are accurate to the penny.  We are also pretty diligent about measuring everything.  I've never paid attention to the serving sizes of many of the foods I eat.  For example, I never knew that a serving size of pancake syrup is 1/4 cup.  That sounds like a lot of syrup, and I've measured 1/4 cup of syrup both in a 1/4 cup measuring cup and as 4 Tablespoons and it didn't look like much.  But it did the job and I didn't need any more.  I know for a fact that if I wasn't measuring the syrup, I'd have used twice as much without thinking about it, and most of it would have been wasted on my plate.  That's money I'm throwing away, and while I know it's only syrup, 1/4 cup of syrup costs17 cents.  If I saw 17 cents lying on the ground, I'd certainly pick it up, so why would I leave that much money lying on my plate?

True, Scott has lost weight over the past 4 weeks, over 10 pounds, but it's not because he hasn't been well fed.  If you look back at what we've eaten, we've had a lot of food.  He's lost weight because we're learning what a portion is.  When we started measuring out one serving of a food rather than pouring absentmindedly, we were surprised by the difference in size.  But by being aware of portion size, we are also aware of the cost per portion and therefore the cost per meal. It all works together.  Perhaps this is why diets like Weight Watchers and Nutrisystem and Jenny Craig work.  They all claim you can eat whatever you want, and it's because you're aware of your portions.  Perhaps Scott and I have created a new type of diet, "The Tighten your Belt Diet" you save money and lose weight!

Here's what we ate today:

Breakfast
- S Cereal and Milk
- KC&G Oatmeal with Brown Sugar
- C&G Milk
Total $0.64

Lunch
- SKC&G Frozen Rigatoni with Vegetables, Mandarin Oranges, Toast
- S&G Bananas
- G Crackers
- C&G Milk
- S&K Tea
Total $5.79

Snack
- G Milk
Total $0.06

Dinner
- SKC&G Omelet with Cheese, English Muffins, and Breakfast Potatoes
- C&G Milk
- S Tea
Total $2.26

Dessert
- SKC&G Brownies
Total $0.72

Total Spend $9. 47

Tomorrow, What we ate