Holy cannolis,

For the past couple of Fridays I've been getting a "treat" of a blueberry muffin (with the thought in mind that it had to be much fewer calories and better for me than a doughnut!) as part of my day off (not binge day).

Well, I happend to come across this link that lists calories for all fast food. Look under the link for "fast food guide" here:
http://www.bddiabetes.com/us/download/download.asp

the muffin is over twice as many calories as a freakin' doughnut!
blueberry muffin: 490
bavarian kreme doughtnut: 210

just goes to show, it's good to check if you don't know!!

It's so easy to misstep when you don't have enough information. I'm not alone in recommending that everybody should at some point at least try out journalling/logging their foods in order to see what they're really consuming. Not only is it illuminating from the standpoint of understanding the calories and other nutritional components (like fat, sugar, sodium, et al....) but it's been regularly documented that journalling is a key step in losing weight when you have a lot to lose. (Most of us didn't get into this pickle by eating appropriately!)

I use Diet Power and swear by it (like some other folks) but I know that a LOT of people really appreciate the reliable -- and free -- FitDay. I think Diet Power offers a lot more, but if you're just starting out and are not committed to logging your eats and exercise over the long term, FitDay might be the best way to start.

Even just logging your eats for a week can be an eye-opener for a lot of people.

Hey and thanks a whole **** of a lot, Marge, for making me crave a donut!

Ain't it the truth! As long as I've been at this, I still get tripped up sometimes when I haven't looked into the calories beforehand, and my assumptions turn out to be all wrong! Of course you don't always have the chance to look up content, but the more you know in general, the better choices you can make.

I'm with Sarah on the subject of logging foods. Is she ever wrong?

I try not to put anything in my mouth when I don't know the nutritional information. That's not always possible, of course, and on the occasions I have to, I find my estimation of the number of kcals starts out quite generous and then reduces throughout the day until it's a massive underestimation!

I agree, you really never know with some stuff. I'm sorry you got such a shock, but at least now you know the truth, and will most likely be more aware in the future. Still sucks to have to learn the hard way though, ugh?

Beverly

sorry! I know, even just hearing or seeing the word can do me in!

I do fitday off and on, and get cocky that I "know it all." Heh heh. then I get bored and change my diet then RUDE AWAKENING (sometimes!). I think I can't afford to lose my dieting humility!

Isn't that redundant?

And Fishy, you're too nice to me!

reminds me of a high school essay assignment I had once: Ignorance is bliss, discuss.

Ouch!

So, inquiring minds want to know--are you going to go for the doughnut or pick a new treat?

I hate when that happens...the worst thing is that they can make healthy & good tasting muffins & such, but it cost more so they use the cheaper ingrediants that are calorie dense. I need to get back to baking up some low cal goodies to have on hand for myself- I came up with some really good recipes for muffins & breakfast cookies a few years ago when I was doing WW. I had lost my copies of the recipes, so it was a good thing that I had posted them her at 3FC....the breakfast cookies are actually more like a muffin top- but very high in fiber & protien...just checked & its 210 calories, 1 gram fat, 13 gram fiber, & 7 gram protein. When it comes to donuts, I can't help but remember how much grease I had to add to the fryer when I worked in bakeries while going to college. It was something like 25 pounds for every 2 upright bakery racks of donuts...and since oil can't evaporate and not much ends up on the floor or draining off the donuts, we all know were it ends up unfortunetely. I still enjoy an occasional donut from time to time, but I definantly wouldn't want to eat them on a regular basis.

Does anyone else use a PDA for journally their food? I'm doing WW on my own and have loaded a journally & points program on mine. It makes it so much easier so I don't have to look up everything & recalculate all the time- plus I can have the entire USDA nutritional data base at my finger tips anywhere. I try to journal before I eat, so I know were I am at 'budget wise' for the day. Another thing I did was to get out my digital food scale since I am restarting WW- at first I really need to make sure I am using the correct serving size. As time goes by, I can start to trust myself, though I will still occasionally check if I'm correct in judging serving sizes...its just to easy for serving sizes to get out of hand if we aren't careful.

Does anyone ever avoid certain food choices specifically because they're not sure how many calories are in them, and go for something that's prepackaged with a calorie count? I know last month on a business trip I skipped the random cookies (they were big, like the type you get at Subway or something) and went for a bag of M&Ms for a chocolate fix. They probably had about the same calories but... you never know, and I wanted the certainty of M&Ms as opposed to the randomness of cookies. Sometimes I'm convinced restaurants just inject calories randomly into the food they cook.

Awww Marge.. Muffin's are EVIL! Even low fat ones are NOT low fat... When I had to pick something for breakfast at work, muffin's were the worst choice in terms of points. In conclusion? MUFFINS =

I definitely try to watch what I eat when I'm away from home.. infact when I go to work I always ALWAYS pack an apple.. I can't remember the logic, but an apple is VERY filling! If I still have room for it after my salad and apple, I'll allow it.. but mostly I spend my lunch break chewing.. heh.

-Aimee

Ohh, where can I find the recipe for these?

I journal mine on my Sidekick II (PDAish but also a phone, web browser etc). I have a program on it where I can enter my foods (I'm not on WW). I find it helps immensely. It makes it easy to log the things I eat when I'm not home and then I can add to Fitday when I get home.

Shannon, that little puppy of yours is so CUTE!! He (she?) reminds me of my Louie when he's going after ..... um..... like, anything that he thinks he could fit into his mouth, swallow, and digest! (Ok, so he might not be thinking of the digesting part.)

What a cutie your little guy is!