Don't Cheat Yourself

Calorie counting is critical but be sure you are in fact getting the amount of food you're charging yourself for. When food has played such an important part of your life, and you decide you're going to limit how much of it you have, you don't want to cheat yourself out of even one morsel!

That's why it's important to have a good kitchen scale and weigh portions, particularly if it's food coming from cans. On the nutrition label, the manufacturer will not only give the size of the serving of say, green beans, but it will also give how many of those servings you can expect to get from said can. If you portion out those servings by simply eyeballing it, you may find that the information of, "about 3 1/2 servings," written on the nutrition label seems extremely generous when the food is actually separated that way. In most instances, I have rarely come across a can of just about anything that actually contained the amount the label claimed. Don't ask me how the manufacturers get away with it, but they do and some major brands are actually worse about it than others. Do your own test. Not only are you getting cheated out of the amount of food you think you're eating, but it's especially annoying when you're trying to feed a family on a budget and you aren't getting the value you think you are.

If you take a moment to weigh your servings, (it's really not that big a hassle if you keep your scale easily accessible - mine sits on my kitchen counter all the time), you may well find that out of a 15.5 ounce can of most any vegetable, you'll end up with just a little more than 2 servings, and yes, I'm even including the packing water in those measurements.

When it comes to accurate calorie counting, portion control is critical. Just be certain you're getting what you think you are.