WEIGH THE BANANA~The Importance of Knowing
WEIGH THE BANANA
The Importance of Knowing
Weigh the banana.
Yep. I said it.
Put the banana on the food scale.
Because one of the simplest things you can do when you're trying to lose weight—or maintain the weight you've worked hard to lose—is know how much you're actually eating.
Not guess.
Not eyeball.
Not assume.
Know.
And before anyone thinks I've declared war on bananas, let me be clear:
This isn't really about the banana.
It's about awareness.
“ZERO” DOESN'T MEAN “FREE”
When I worked at Weight Watchers, fruit was zero points.
That was a great tool for encouraging people to choose fruit. But sometimes people heard something very different:
FREE FOOD!
I once had a client tell me she ate an entire full-size watermelon.
An entire watermelon.
Now, watermelon is absolutely a nutritious food. It's hydrating, delicious, and something I encourage people to eat.
But zero points never meant zero calories.
Your body doesn't know how many points something has.
It knows what you consumed.
That's one of the reasons #9 in my Power of 13 is Eat Fruit—but measured.
I want you eating fruit!
But I also want you to understand how much you're eating because all calories count.
And this isn't just about fruit.
Not even close.
THE LITTLE THINGS ARE OFTEN THE BIG THING
Most of us know that a giant piece of cake has calories.
That's obvious.
What can be much harder to see are the little extras we consume throughout the day.
A little cream in the coffee.
A pour of salad dressing.
Some ketchup.
A handful of nuts while making dinner.
A little extra cheese.
Peanut butter straight from the jar.
Milk poured over cereal.
Oil in the pan.
A second splash of creamer.
None of those things individually has to be a problem.
But when you don't know how much you're actually using, those little things can add up surprisingly fast.
And if you're consistently eating more than you think you're eating, it can become the difference between losing weight, maintaining weight, or slowly gaining it.
OHHHH...CEREAL.
We need to talk about cereal.
Because cereal may be one of the greatest examples of why eyeballing portions can get us into trouble.
Take your favorite cereal and pour what you think is one serving into your bowl.
Now weigh it.
You may be surprised.
And don't forget the milk.
That counts too.
Again, cereal isn't bad.
Milk isn't bad.
The problem isn't the food.
The problem is thinking you're eating one serving when you're actually eating two or three.
That's information you need.
AND THEN THERE'S SALAD
“I had a salad!”
Fantastic.
What's on it?
Cheese?
Croutons?
Avocado?
Nuts?
Seeds?
Bacon?
Dried fruit?
Dressing?
A salad can be a wonderful, nutrient-packed meal. But we sometimes give foods a “healthy” label and stop paying attention to what we've added.
Especially salad dressing.
Pour your usual amount into a bowl sometime and then measure it.
You might discover that your “tablespoon” has been living a very generous life. 😂
Same with ketchup and sauces. Many contain added sugar, and serving sizes can be much smaller than what we're actually using.
Read the label. Measure the portion. Know what's going in.
YOUR COFFEE COUNTS TOO
You know I love my coffee.
But coffee additions don't disappear just because they're in a cup.
Cream.
Milk.
Flavored creamer.
Sugar.
Syrups.
And then there are those delicious seasonal coffees that don't necessarily feel like dessert—but nutritionally, they can get pretty close.
Take a Grande (16 oz.) Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte made with 2% milk. You're looking at roughly 390 calories and 50 grams of sugar.
Or a Grande Peppermint Mocha made with 2% milk—roughly 440 calories and 54 grams of sugar.
I'm not telling you that you can't have one.
Heck, you know me. I LOVE coffee.
But I want you to KNOW.
Because if you think, “I just had a coffee,” and don't account for it, several hundred calories just disappeared from your awareness—but they didn't disappear from your day.
And the same principle applies at home.
How much cream did you pour into your coffee?
Was it one tablespoon?
Two?
Four?
Have you ever actually measured it?
If you drink multiple cups a day, those little pours can become meaningful calories.
You don't have to drink black coffee for the rest of your life.
Just know what you're putting in it.
That's the entire point.
EVEN BREAD CAN FOOL YOU
Here's another one people don't always think about.
Bread.
We think:
“One slice is one slice.”
But have you ever noticed how different the slices can be in the same loaf?
One is tiny.
One is huge.
One is thick.
One is mostly crust.
Depending on the bread, those slices aren't necessarily identical.
That's where weighing food can give you much better information than simply counting pieces.
The same thing happens with potatoes, bananas, chicken breasts, cheese, fruit and countless other foods.
Size matters. Weight tells you what you're actually eating.
“BUT I DON'T WANT TO WEIGH FOOD FOREVER.”
Then don't.
Seriously.
The goal isn't to spend the rest of your life traveling with a food scale in your purse.
The goal is to learn.
Measure your cereal enough times and eventually you'll recognize what a serving looks like.
Measure your salad dressing and you'll learn what a tablespoon actually looks like.
Weigh your chicken.
Measure your milk.
Portion your nuts.
Weigh the banana.
You're training your eyes and your brain to recognize portions.
That's a skill.
And skills create freedom.
BUT HERE'S THE IMPORTANT PART...
If your weight loss slows down...
If the scale stops moving...
If you've started gaining...
Or if your results simply aren't matching what you think you're doing...
THIS IS THE FIRST PLACE I WANT YOU TO GO BACK TO.
Before you cut out carbs.
Before you skip meals.
Before you decide you need a brand-new diet.
Before you tell yourself, “Nothing works for me.”
Get the food scale back out.
Go back to weighing and measuring for a week or two.
Because over time, our tablespoon can get a little bigger.
Our handful can get a little fuller.
Our bowl of cereal can get a little deeper.
Our splash of creamer can become a pour.
Our three ounces can somehow become five.
That's not failure.
That's being human.
Portion creep is real.
And sometimes the answer isn't eating different food.
It's simply getting reacquainted with how much you're actually eating.
KNOWLEDGE IS DIFFERENT FROM RESTRICTION
This is important.
I don't want weighing and measuring to become punishment.
I don't want you looking at a banana thinking:
“I shouldn't eat this.”
Eat the banana!
I want you thinking:
“I know what I'm eating.”
There's a huge difference.
Knowing the calories in something doesn't mean you can't have it.
It simply gives you the information you need to decide how it fits into your day.
Maybe you want the bigger banana.
Great.
Maybe you want two tablespoons of dressing instead of one.
Fine.
Maybe you want cream in your coffee.
Enjoy it.
But make those decisions with information instead of assumptions.
THE POWER OF 13 IS ABOUT COMMON SENSE
My Power of 13 has never been about perfection.
It's about understanding your own habits and finding the easiest way for you to live a healthy lifestyle.
And part of that is knowing what's really happening.
If you're working hard, making healthy choices and wondering why the scale isn't moving, don't immediately assume you need a new diet.
Before changing everything, get curious.
Measure for a week.
Weigh your portions.
Measure the dressing.
Measure the creamer.
Look at the cereal.
Pay attention to the handfuls, bites, tastes and extras.
Gather information before you change the plan.
You might discover you're doing exactly what you thought you were doing.
Or you might find a few hundred calories hiding in places you never thought about.
Neither answer makes you good or bad.
It's simply information.
And once you have the information, you get to decide what you want to do with it.
So tomorrow morning, when you reach for that banana...
You know what I'm going to say.
WEIGH THE BANANA. 🍌
Not because bananas are the problem.
Because knowing is powerful.
And if your progress ever isn't where you want it to be?
Go back to the scale. Go back to measuring. Go back to knowing.
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