November 17, 2014

Short and Sweet: An Experiment in Portion Control

By Crabby McSlacker

As regular readers are probably sick of hearing, one thing I tend to suck at is portion control.


Sometimes I just don't know when enough is enough!

Coincidentally, part of my recent blogging angst is an inability to just say a little bit about something and not keep going and going and going and going, exploring at length all conceivably related topics.

So after last week's heavy-ass navel-gazing whine-fest, this is a light, fluffy and hopefully petite-sized post about a snacking experiment.

Wanna hear a trick I figured out that allows me to keep eating a tasty sweet treat all day long, virtually guilt free?

Well, I'll tell ya! But it's also an experiment in blog self-discipline.  Can I put this puppy to bed in less than 500 words? Especially if there are compelling tangential issues?



The Trick in Brief:

I permit myself 1/4 cup kettlecorn any time I travel across the house and downstairs to the kitchen. Just one per visit, but unlimited visits per day.



Some further explanation and rationalizations:

1. Air-popped Popcorn is a Healthy, Low Calorie Snack.


You may have seen the study that came out a while back that said, wowza, popcorn is good for you and even has a crapload of antioxidants. Plus it's got fiber and it's low cal and it's technically a whole grain. 

But seriously, naked dry air-popped popcorn? What a lame snack!  It's like eating raw oatmeal or fistfuls of broccoli florets or pencil shavings.

2. But Kettlecorn Can Taste Mighty Delicious Without Adding Too Much Evilness.

Does this look suspiciously like I'm pimping a product for financial gain?


Well I'm not!  The BoomChickaPop people have no idea who I am, and are not paying me anything or even ponying up free popcorn.  (Though I believe they may have contacted me after Natural Products Expo West but I was too lazy to follow up).

Anyway, the beauty of their kettle corn: a minimal amount of sugar and safflower oil still yields a Relatively Virtuous but still Delicious Snack. Each quarter cup serving is less than 10 calories.

Even if I were to visit the kitchen 13 times during the course of the day, I'd be at One Serving. Which is 120 calories and 5 grams of sugar.

The ingredient list is pretty short: Popcorn, Fair Trade Organic Dried Cane Sugar, Sunflower Oil, Sea Salt.

3. But Wait: Kettlecorn is High Carb!

At least relative to snacking on meat or vegetables.  The aforementioned day-long serving size has 21 grams.

And here we encounter a major Tangential Danger Zone: Lately I've been re-thinking my usual high protein, low carb approach to eating.

I'm adding in a few more carbs, and eating a slightly less insane amount of protein. I got a bit spooked by a scary study suggesting there are health risks to high protein diets in middle age, and I have a lot of heart disease and cancer in my gene pool.

(Even as another study just came out saying that high-protein diets can lower blood pressure.)

Color me "still confused" on the carb/protein question, but if my confusion sneaks a bit more sweet potatoes, popcorn, quinoa, oats, brown rice etc in my diet and it turns out the study was wrong? Well, screw it.  I like carbs!

4. Aren't Popcorn and Kettlecorn insanely addictive?

Yes!  I have had to swear off Kettlecorn before because of my enormous serving sizes.


That Looks About Right
photo: wikipedia commons

But here's the thing.  Sticking to 1/4 cup at a time is easier than I thought--because I know another serving is available pretty much whenever I feel like it!

It helps that our kitchen is on a different floor from my office, and that once I go back upstairs and get immersed in something I often forget about coming back down again for another handful.

And even a measley quarter cup yields 4 mini-handfuls of 3 kernels a piece. Again, this is less than 10 calories!


Try it sometime: it actually feels big enough to "count" as having eaten something. And I feel exactly the same when I've finished a 1/4 cup as I do when I'm finished an entire bag:  Like, damn, I could still eat more.

And yes, a year or so ago in a moment (or more accurately, many many moments) of weakness I did indeed eat an entire bag all by myself in a single evening.  Which apparently makes for SIXTY-FIVE quarter cup servings.

As I said, portion control is not my strong suit.  (Wordcount: 773! But whatever.)  

Anyone else got any portion control or healthy snacking thoughts or tips?

42 comments:

  1. Good on you for making yourself work for your snack.
    I don't do portion control. It makes me crave and then the whole idea goes to hell.

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    1. I'm with Leah. Of course I don't do snacks, either. If you offer me a snack, you'd better be prepared to follow up with a meal.
      (Sugar in popcorn? Ewwww.)

      Mary Anne in Kentucky

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  2. Nope! That seems like the trials of Hercules! I'm more of an eat junk or don't eat junk kind of person. Either way my portion sizes are large and I will have a massive whining session and sulk if I don't get my way. I work better with the have a big massive salad that you have to finish before you can have anything else. That works well until you start to get sick of salad.

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    1. I employ the massive salad trick too Cindy! But no matter what size it leaves the aftetaste of virtue in my mouth and I must follow with a little something sweet.

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    3. Kimberley, where did you go? :( Dang, missed it!

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    4. Aftertaste of virtue? I love it - now at least I have a name for that problem!

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  3. Great post Crabby!! I love Kettle Corn too - there's a little speck of Virginia between the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers where along the side of the road they sell fresh kettle corn - good stuff!

    21 g carb per serving makes me want to think about eating kettle corn, but I'm not sure I could maintain control at this point.

    On your overall macros, have you considered increasing your fat instead of your carbs when you reduce your protein? I'm at 70/20/10 thereabouts for fat/protein/carb.

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    1. Lucky Mama, great idea. .. but I'm already very liberal with the healthy fats!

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  4. I like your idea. I have several 1/8 cup scoops that I use for treats - somehow I feel better when I get to have four scoops of my granola vs one 1/2 cup scoop. Hey, I never said I was right in the brain when it comes to food...but it works for me, and it sounds like it's working for you, too. :)

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    1. Shelly I am totally with you in thinking 4 servings are "more" than 1 serving even if they are only1 /4 the size! (As you may recall, I not only divide my food into smaller pieces, sometimes I put it in a plastic bag and step on it to make it look bigger. OK, just quest bars but still, I got you totally beat on the Crazy)

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  5. "And I feel exactly the same when I've finished a 1/4 cup as I do when I'm finished an entire bag: Like, damn, I could still eat more."

    hahahaha. That was a profound statement right there. :)

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    1. Thanks QD. I am still waiting to discover a serving size of a snack food or a dessert that leaves me feeling I couldn't eat more. I'm not sure one exists!

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  6. My best hope is to eat half of something, or some other smallish quantity, and make myself wait 1/2 hour or so to see if I really want more. Sometimes I do, but more often I don't. I guess knowing it's ok to have more is the common element here. Popcorn - easy for me to ignore, and if I went for 1/4 cup, and my treat was ice cream, well, that might not be such a great solution - more like 120 calories each time!

    On the carb question, my general approach is to be highly suspicious of anyone who tells me any of the basic food components is either evil or saintly. Those trends never seem to last more than a few years (eggs, fats, grains, dairy, gluten - just a few that have been on both sides of the love-hate graph in my lifetime). I bet that your choice to go back to a more balanced mix is a really good decision!

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    1. I think your take on the carb thing is a wise one DRG! I did find, however, that higher protein made it easier to keep my weight in check. The more carbs I eat, the more I WANT. If I was putting the miles in that you do though, all bets would totally be off on portion control!

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    2. Once again, I am in total agreement with DRG! I remember when I was in high school, protein was the villain. "Americans eat too much protein. It's inefficient to get protein from animals that eat grain, rather than directly from the grain." (Probably still true from an ecological perspective.) Then we had the fat-as-villain era, until we learned that not all fats are equal. Now carbs are the bad guys, even though it seems obvious that not all carbs are equal either. I think all three macronutrients work well together, and all three have healthy representatives and unhealthy ones. I have decided that the food industry is like the fashion industry: they have to keep changing the "styles" so that we keep buying new products, books, apps, etc. Moderation (i.e., portion control) in all things seems like a timeless rule to me.
      Lisa in Walnut Creek

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  7. I am not good with portion control. And I do like sweet/salty popcorn. I finished a bag of it in four days. Or it would have been four days if Frank hadn't actually finished it off on the fourth day. ;)

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    1. Wait, it took 4 whole days and even then Frank finished it? I don't know Hilary, I think you're far better at photography than gluttony. :) But thanks for playing!

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  8. Good for you in using portion control, Crabby!

    I used to put a little salad dressing on popcorn, but now I do just eat it plain airpopped. It's an acquired taste I suppose, but I have acquired it :-) I do worry a bit about GMO and popcorn, but I still eat it.

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    1. Salad dressing on popcorn? Have not tried that Dr. J, it sounds just weird enough to be intriguing!

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    2. Your popcorn is still safe.. popcorn hasn't been gmo'd, yet.

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  9. Very clever idea! My kitchen is steps from the living room, bedroom & bathroom (that's what happens when you live in 650 square feet I guess) so that particular trick won't work for me, which is why I generally keep things out of the house that I don't have the ability to easily control. Thankfully, most of those things are things that one can go out and buy one of (a scoop of ice cream, for example).

    Hearing other people talk about eating whole bags of stuff gives me flashbacks to the time when Olestra was a thing, and there was such a thing called WOW! Doritos. Should that ever make a resurgence, I implore all of you to fight the urge to eat an entire bag. Just trust me.

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    1. Acck, I remember the whole Olestra thing OtF, but fortunately never fell victim. But I think the whole "keep it out of the house" strategy is a very wise one. If I wasn't such a baby about wanting SOME kinda treats around, I wouldn't have to resort to bizarre rules mandating micro-servings.

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  10. Portion control is definitely my weakness - if I'm not careful I can eat an entire bag (family size) of Lays Potato Chips in one sitting. Oh, and wine - I don't do well portioning that either!!!

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    1. SOME day Kim I gotta head your direction, and you can show me some of your kick ass workouts and I can flail around for about 4 seconds before giving up, and we can top it all off with dinner and I'll bring the wine and chips and kettlecorn!

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  11. "And I feel exactly the same when I've finished a 1/4 cup as I do when I'm finished an entire bag: Like, damn, I could still eat more." Ahem. Yes.

    Funny, after doing my 10 days of green smoothies cleanse, I managed to rid myself of pretty much all my cravings... except for hot, buttery popcorn. Popcorn (even when it's in kettlecorn form ;)) is my biggest weakness EVER.

    I'm pretty sure if I employed this particular trick to popcorn, I would just eat dozens of quarter-cups of popcorn each day :) BUT I can definitely see this trick working well for other foods in my life! Must give it a shot.

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    1. I am SO impressed with your green smoothie cleanse! You are a stronger woman than I. But I can totally see why after all that relentlessly healthy green liquid, some buttery crunchy salty goodness would sound mighty appealing!

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  12. Portion control only works on me if i use my little blue plate. It's saucer size, so no matter what i'm eating, i don't get enough to blow a gasket.

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    1. Small plates are a really smart idea messymimi! I'd probably go back multiple times for more helpings, but at least that's a little exercise, right?

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    2. I agree that small plates are a good idea and I find that by eating slowly, I feel full faster and therefore control my portions. I like the idea of keeping a 1/4 cup with you to minimize your snack portions.

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  13. Brilliant!...and I absolutely love Boom Chicka Pop!!!

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  14. I tried this with M&Ms once. I successfully found more ways that portion control did not work for me when it came to sugary things.

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  15. IF YOU SAW ME EAT YOU WOULD KNOW... I have no idea what portion control is... BA H HA HA HA! I AM A HUMAN "clean" garbage disposal. NO JOKE! Everyone is always so impressed, LOL! If it is in front of me, I will eat it... ESPECIALLY: Salmon, Chestnuts, Butternut & Spaghetti Squash.... And anything doused in TONS of olive oil! HA HA!

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  16. I, too, can behave like a vacuum cleaner/disposal/black hole when it comes to consumption!! For me - the only thing that works CONSISTENTLY is to plan my eating day :(. Seriously. It's a pain in the proverbial and lacks ANY sense of spontaneity. But - for me - it definitely works. Every time. Damn.
    Soooo - when the siren call of all those items NOT on the list gets to be too much - I allow myself one, entire, whole portion of whatever is calling. I don't "count" it. I just do it and that's that. The other rule is I can't do this day after day. Nope. It's gotta be less than once a week.

    Finally - I DO plan in a daily indulgence every single ever-loving day. In this way, I don't feel completely deprived.

    So, now that I've declared all THAT - what about Thanksgiving?!?!?!??!?!?!? :):):):)

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  17. Portion control - the opposite of binge eating or at the very least fun eating? It is so difficult! My portion control nemesis is red wine...but that's a different illness...

    Good luck with your new rules. Let us know how that works out!! I think it truly is about re-establishing balance! All we can do is just keep trying until we find the things that work!

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  18. As yo may recall, I am all about portion control in my life & have been since early on. It has gotten me here although I know they way I eat is not for all.. to each their own. I also am not a low carb gal - I do eat my protein BUT I eat my carbs & with age, I have changed the type of carbs but also still eat my healthy breads & all. I always tell people, carbs are not the enemy - it is the types of carbs they may be eating. :)

    I love your idea above!!!

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  19. The only thing that I use consistently as far as portion control is by buying bags of chips in the multi-packs. One bag = one serving.
    M$Ms, especially peanut ones, the portion is whatever the bag size is...right? :D

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  20. I HAVE NO CONTROL WITH PISTACHIOS
    still
    I have to count those suckers OUT each time!

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  21. Love all these comments! It's strangely comforting to hear I'm not the only one who struggles with this, even if none of you can come CLOSE to the crazy-ass weirdness I employ to trick myself into some semblance of health eating.

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  22. If I had a bag of popcorn in the house, that would indeed be the portion! I can control just about everything except popcorn. So when we go to movies, which is rare, I have the evil movie popcorn and enjoy every last damn bite! I can deal with everything else. Seriously. If I want chocolate, I have two squares (OK, sometimes four squares. . . ) but with popcorn? Cannot. Have. It. In. My. House! I admire your restraint, Crabby! For everything else, like UltraKaz, planning is the key. And hey, if I plan it, it's all OK, right? Right? The printed weekly menu on the kitchen cabinet is law.

    But yes, yes, yes on the healthy grains. I cannot get my body to function at high capacity without some of those.

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  23. Dear Crabby,
    I'm OK with portion control - I never seem to have a problem sticking to huge portions.

    I was wondering... very light food like popcorn, saffron, and post-its can't possibly add any weight, right?

    Sincerely, Tabby

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  24. I do the exact thing but with peanuts. Peanuts may not be low on fat but they do have those healthy fats that help your heart!

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