A friend of mine came to me asking for help with her weight loss plan. She had been losing weight, but was now at a standstill.
She said, “Kim, I know I’m eating right, but I don’t know what’s going on. Why have I stopped losing weight?”
To help her find out what was happening, I asked her to keep a food journal for a week and then let me review it. She kept the journal and sent it to me a week later.
I looked at the journal and saw that my friend’s eating pattern was healthy overall. However, one thing did catch my attention. For her snack, she almost always noted eating this: ‘Trail Mix: 1 bag’.
I asked her if she had an empty bag of the trail mix that I could see. When we next got together, she showed me the trail mix bag.
When I saw the label, my mouth dropped open. I said to her: “You’re eating this whole bag?”
She said, “Yes. See, it is only 140 calories.”
I had her take a closer look. While it was true that package read that one serving of the trail mix was 140 calories, the serving size was only 1/4 cup. The label indicated that the entire bag contained 10 servings.
So my friend was really eating 140 calories times 10! That’s 1400 calories in trail mix alone. To put this in perspective, a typical woman requires 1,800 calories for weight maintenance.
Since the trail mix alone was 1,400 calories in my friend’s case, then it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that a steady diet of it would cause major weight gain over time. After all, she wasn’t eating trail mix only; she was eating other meals on top of that.
My friend’s trail mix deception reminds me of one of my favorite scriptures about eating:
When you sit down to eat with a ruler,
Consider carefully what is before you;
And put a knife to your throat
If you are a man given to appetite.
Do not desire his delicacies,
For they are deceptive food (Proverbs 23:1-3).”
With her new awareness about the trail mix calories, my friend considered carefully whether she still wanted to keep eating it. Her answer was no. She decided to trade the trail mix for an apple, orange, a turkey roll-up, or a few nuts on occasion for her snacks, which are all lower in calories and would keep her fuller, longer. She started losing weight again.
That is the power of the awareness effect.
NOTE:In the Nigerian setting,liken Trail mix with plantain chips.People over indulge in this snack and this greatly affect their weight loss.
Sit back and think,what is that ONE snack you are indulging in that is wrecking havoc on your weight loss/midsection.
Remain blessed.
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