Handy portion tip for junk food lovers / snackers
faithyang
Posts: 297 Member
I found a really handy hint from one of the food forums and would like to share it.
For those with binge or snack attacks especially!
Snacks and junk food always comes in massive boxes because manufacturers earn more by pushing larger portions that cost less to them to produce for the extra dollars they earn per unit. That too and psychologically we eat more when we have a large portion of anything in front of us. Individual portion sizes sold at the supermarkets are also more expensive.
So it can be a battle of wills for those of us mere mortals who have not / or don't see the point of due to practicality or whatever, cleared our entire home free of junk or snacks.
Similar to nuts and trail mixes, it makes the whole process of eating snacks less cumbersome, less to think about, less to get conflicted about and provides a very visceral experience of consciously having to reach for ANOTHER PORTIONED BAG rather than mindlessly dipping your hands into the box.
I just tried it a day or two ago and it is pretty helpful esp with people like myself with this organisational OCD itches...not to mention it really keeps the junk food "fresh" (lol...not that they need to be since they last forever).
For those with binge or snack attacks especially!
Snacks and junk food always comes in massive boxes because manufacturers earn more by pushing larger portions that cost less to them to produce for the extra dollars they earn per unit. That too and psychologically we eat more when we have a large portion of anything in front of us. Individual portion sizes sold at the supermarkets are also more expensive.
So it can be a battle of wills for those of us mere mortals who have not / or don't see the point of due to practicality or whatever, cleared our entire home free of junk or snacks.
If you have a box of biscuits or snacks, get back home, straight away PORTION IT IN HANDY LITTLE SNACK ZIPLOCK BAGS PER SERVING SIZE OR DESIRED SERVING SIZE.
Similar to nuts and trail mixes, it makes the whole process of eating snacks less cumbersome, less to think about, less to get conflicted about and provides a very visceral experience of consciously having to reach for ANOTHER PORTIONED BAG rather than mindlessly dipping your hands into the box.
I just tried it a day or two ago and it is pretty helpful esp with people like myself with this organisational OCD itches...not to mention it really keeps the junk food "fresh" (lol...not that they need to be since they last forever).
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That's a lot of plastic. You must hate the earth.0
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DeguelloTex wrote: »That's a lot of plastic. You must hate the earth.
This made me giggle. I used to do the same, but then I hate most things, the world is no exception.
OP-glad this helps you! This helped me a lot before I started using a food scale-but it never helped my bingeing. I would just eat every single baggy and basically wasted a bunch of plastic and time
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DeguelloTex wrote: »That's a lot of plastic. You must hate the earth.
This made me giggle. I used to do the same, but then I hate most things, the world is no exception.
OP-glad this helps you! This helped me a lot before I started using a food scale-but it never helped my bingeing. I would just eat every single baggy and basically wasted a bunch of plastic and time
me too!0 -
I just weigh out stuff on a paper towel or a bowl, depending on what it is. Anything that can help break the habit of mindlessly eating out of a large container will probably help, though.0
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DeguelloTex wrote: »That's a lot of plastic. You must hate the earth.
That's a bit rich considering we live, thrive and operate in the most excessive, wasteful nations on the planet per capita as compared to the rest of the developing world, probably first or second to Australia.
But if you must know since it seems hip these days to judge people's characters and lives based on a single picture or a post - I reuse my bags.
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Then why do Oreo packages keep getting smaller?0
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DeguelloTex wrote: »That's a lot of plastic. You must hate the earth.
This made me giggle. I used to do the same, but then I hate most things, the world is no exception.
OP-glad this helps you! This helped me a lot before I started using a food scale-but it never helped my bingeing. I would just eat every single baggy and basically wasted a bunch of plastic and time
Haha I think I might graduate on to that in a few weeks when the novelty of pre-portioned bags gets old.
I have a food scale...but I don't really use it except for baking. Mine is the cheapo ones I got from one of those $2 stores...that's probably why. 0 -
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Then why do Oreo packages keep getting smaller?
VERY GOOD POINT. *scratches head*
What comes to mind is...they make it smaller because they figured they can sell the same sh!!t to us at the same price and use their $2,000,000/yr marketing gurus on retainers and billion dollar focus groups and chemical taste teams to tell us its for our own good and health.
You have Supersize Me to thank for that.
Hmm..Now you've given me an idea about oreos.
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DeguelloTex wrote: »That's a lot of plastic. You must hate the earth.
This made me giggle. I used to do the same, but then I hate most things, the world is no exception.
OP-glad this helps you! This helped me a lot before I started using a food scale-but it never helped my bingeing. I would just eat every single baggy and basically wasted a bunch of plastic and time
Haha I think I might graduate on to that in a few weeks when the novelty of pre-portioned bags gets old.
I have a food scale...but I don't really use it except for baking. Mine is the cheapo ones I got from one of those $2 stores...that's probably why.
I resisted a scale for so long because I always thought it was obsessive or crazy for some reason. In reality-it is SO MUCH EASIER! (Not to mention accurate)
I still tend to eat a "serving", mostly be aside in too lazy to do the math. So I weigh out one serving and log it as such. But-it is nice to be able to have just a little extra-and log accordingly. It's second nature at this point.0 -
DeguelloTex wrote: »That's a lot of plastic. You must hate the earth.
Recycling exists for a reason.0 -
DeguelloTex wrote: »That's a lot of plastic. You must hate the earth.
This made me giggle. I used to do the same, but then I hate most things, the world is no exception.
OP-glad this helps you! This helped me a lot before I started using a food scale-but it never helped my bingeing. I would just eat every single baggy and basically wasted a bunch of plastic and time
Haha I think I might graduate on to that in a few weeks when the novelty of pre-portioned bags gets old.
I have a food scale...but I don't really use it except for baking. Mine is the cheapo ones I got from one of those $2 stores...that's probably why.
I resisted a scale for so long because I always thought it was obsessive or crazy for some reason. In reality-it is SO MUCH EASIER! (Not to mention accurate)
I still tend to eat a "serving", mostly be aside in too lazy to do the math. So I weigh out one serving and log it as such. But-it is nice to be able to have just a little extra-and log accordingly. It's second nature at this point.
Yeah I know! I notice it gives you so much more control and ease over the accuracy of portions after I saw a friend weigh out her baby food (new experience observed in person easier to take on I guess?) with so much ease and without going through the process of 'is this a portion size?' mental maze. It made an impression on me because she was super multi-tasking her crying baby alongside trying to prepare his food.
There are end of financial year discounts all over now - I might pop out and check out some good ones. Do you reckon the ones with bowls are better, or the flat ones?
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This is what I do! (With baggies I bought from reuseit.com!)0
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i do the same with all my food..only i use Tupperware. Yeah i know i am old fashion. But it is soooo handy.0
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I bought some ziploc snack bags for hiking recently, and when I took one out I realized it actually had volume measurements right on the bag. Very convenient.0
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DeguelloTex wrote: »That's a lot of plastic. You must hate the earth.
This made me giggle. I used to do the same, but then I hate most things, the world is no exception.
OP-glad this helps you! This helped me a lot before I started using a food scale-but it never helped my bingeing. I would just eat every single baggy and basically wasted a bunch of plastic and time
Giggled here too
Have to say those are the most up appealing looking mix of weird foods ...what is it I see ...looks like frosted wheat cereal, marshmallows, nuts and smarties ...bleurgh ...0 -
DeguelloTex wrote: »That's a lot of plastic. You must hate the earth.
This made me giggle. I used to do the same, but then I hate most things, the world is no exception.
OP-glad this helps you! This helped me a lot before I started using a food scale-but it never helped my bingeing. I would just eat every single baggy and basically wasted a bunch of plastic and time
Giggled here too
Have to say those are the most up appealing looking mix of weird foods ...what is it I see ...looks like frosted wheat cereal, marshmallows, nuts and smarties ...bleurgh ...
Lol I agree - its a stock image.
I couldn't be arsed to pull open my pantry to snap a pic of my junk food stash.0 -
MakePeasNotWar wrote: »I bought some ziploc snack bags for hiking recently, and when I took one out I realized it actually had volume measurements right on the bag. Very convenient.
But... volume? For solids? Nope...0 -
MakePeasNotWar wrote: »I bought some ziploc snack bags for hiking recently, and when I took one out I realized it actually had volume measurements right on the bag. Very convenient.
But... volume? For solids? Nope...
I still weigh for calorie dense things like nuts or dried fruit, but if it's a small serving of something like popcorn or fresh fruit, I'm ok with an error margin. If I were to gain weight, or get stalled while trying to lose, I might weigh everything just to be sure, but right now everything is going fine and I don't really feel like weighing grapes to find out if my 1/2 cup is 31 calories or 29 or 33.
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One thing I do that works for me is cut frozen pizzas up into fourths or thirds and then only bake one of those at a time.0
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85Cardinals wrote: »One thing I do that works for me is cut frozen pizzas up into fourths or thirds and then only bake one of those at a time.
Ooo that's a good idea. I tend to be the only one in the house that eats a certain way and its frustrating (but totally understandably from an economical pov) that everything out there being sold is made for 4 people, 6 people, etc, including recipes online!!
I always end up cooking a batch of something and having a fridge full of leftovers! Sometimes it gets annoying to have like 50 raw bliss balls I take weeks to finish and everyone around me do not want bliss balls they want smores melted hersheys sticky ooey gooey mud fudge crumble brownies.
I'm really daft when it comes to food and have only recently become used to the concept of adding or subtracting to a recipe to my tastes rather than blindly following a recipe. Plus I'm bad at math. Yes, cop out, I know. 0 -
you can always wash the bags and use them again. We do that. same with plastic containers. and tupperware has some niffy reusable thingsDeguelloTex wrote: »That's a lot of plastic. You must hate the earth.
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DeguelloTex wrote: »That's a lot of plastic. You must hate the earth.
This made me giggle. I used to do the same, but then I hate most things, the world is no exception.
OP-glad this helps you! This helped me a lot before I started using a food scale-but it never helped my bingeing. I would just eat every single baggy and basically wasted a bunch of plastic and time
I giggled as well.
@faithyang, thank you for the tip. 0 -
@SLLRunner , no worries!
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There are PORTION DISPENSERS you can buy on the market for under $150. Just dump your snacks in and you can set how much to portion out.
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
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There are PORTION DISPENSERS you can buy on the market for under $150. Just dump your snacks in and you can set how much to portion out.
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
Thanks @ninerbuff I'll def look into that. 0 -
I'd rather buy the more expensive smaller portioned things.... The cost makes me rethink buying them, often I don't bother, or they last me longer because I don't eat them often.
And stuff goes stale... Even in a zip lock bag...0
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