Always read the label!

So it's lunchtime, and I had the usual pondering of 'what shall I have for lunch'. In the cupboard I spied a can of soup - yes that will do! That should be healthy enough. I thought I was having tomato soup, but it turned out to be mulligatawny when I actually opened the can - my fault entirely, should have read the label first.

As I was washing the can out to put into recycling, I noticed on the front it said 'low fat 105 calories per serving'. Well that can't be bad can it! For a very slight moment I began to feel quite proud of my lunch time choice. But then again, we are of course assuming that one can = one serving. Knowing that we all can be easily fooled if we are not careful with these things, I looked at the nutritional information on the back.

As it turns out, a 400g can of soup is not classed as 'one serving', in fact in the small print, it stated 100g = 57 calories. That's 228 calories per can. Still, as lunch goes, 228 is not a bad number at all, you would get about that in a slim fast shake or bar. So really, despite my 'misjudgement' I think I got away with it - just.

But think about it. How many times have you just 'grabbed' something on the run. I did this exercise with my mother a few months ago. We were in Basingstoke in between jobs when both were hungry, and decided to grab something at the local garage.

Now, we are both aware that we both need to lose weight (I more than she it must be pointed out), so we both think we have a pretty good handle on what goes into our mouths. I can't remember now exactly what we had, but it went along the lines of pre packed sandwich, crisps and a drink each. I had water, mother had a banana milkshake.

We started talking about diets, and she couldn't understand why she wasn't losing weight. On her part she 'only had' xyz and from her talking, I couldn't understand either.

Getting down to the nitty gritty, I asked her to see how many calories were in her crisps. I then got her to do the same with her sandwich and then her milkshake. Upon adding it all together her total lunchtime calorie consumption came to over 900 calories (I think mine came to about 700). To say she was shocked was an understatement. I then suggested to she thought about what she had for breakfast, what snacks she had really had through out the day so far, and what she was planning on having for dinner, and it was very obvious that her overall calorie in take for that day would be more than the 'recommended'.

She was, and still is I am afraid in what I refer to as 'Calorie Denial'. Even today when we embarked upon the same conversation, she maintains she is 'doing her best', but admitted to buying a Marks & Spencers cheesecake, to which she had two slices. What wasn't said, and I got from my sister later was that this 'pudding' buying was a habit, not a one off occurrence, and she had been buying similar things over the past couple of weeks.

So if you are trying to lose weight yourself, I cannot stress enough how important it is to be so aware of what, and how much, is going into your mouth. There is a real need to be honest with yourself as it's always the 'little' things that you have forgotten you have eaten that will add up to one big fat you. Once you start reading labels, and actually appreciating how much fat / sugar etc you are putting into your body, I am willing to bet, if you are serious about losing weight, you will automatically start to change your eating habits for the better.