Read the small print!

Muddy and I are now entering week four of the necessary but irksome diet. In my mind Mud doesn’t need to lose any weight which is more than can be said for me.  it’s going well but it’s just SO BORING.  I’m sitting on a train nibbling carrot sticks trying to make the bag last till I get off in Bath, but then when I get on the next train I’ve a whole apple to look forward to whoopee!

Until two weeks ago I’d found comfort and solace in the small mixed seed pots sold at my local supermarket. I discovered if I ate one seed at a time I could get through 2 episodes of Mad Men without thinking of biscuits. Each pot contains 108 calories…. Or so I thought till I happened to be shopping in a different supermarket. When I picked up one of their similar mixed seed pots I was horrified to see it contained 5 times more calories granted it was a slightly bigger pot but still.  I plonked them back on the shelf in a  “Hmph I’m not buying these seeds when I can get the low calorie ones at the other place” type manner.

As the day progressed and cogs in my little brain slowly clanked about I thought “hang on! They were the same seeds just in different pots.”  When I got home I picked up my supposedly low calorie pot, in massive writing across the top it says 108 calories.  Once I peeled the transparent wrapper off the pot and looked closely I could just about see in small black writing “a typical 25g serving contains.” On a back drop of seeds and fruit this is virtually impossible to read.  On the bottom it states a weight of 60g, so I had been eating more than twice the calories I thought I had and fair enough once a flood it doesn’t matter but when you’re counting calories it all adds up.  If I’d had a mixed seed pot every day for a month I would be 4500 calories over my limit a difference of about 1 lb 5 oz in weight.  It shouldn’t be allowed.

Actually the thing that’s really surprised me is how much I’m enjoying eating less meat and more vegetables like marrow and aubergine although to be honest our cork dinner mats are looking quite tasty by 6pm.