I never worried before about calories. If I felt I was putting on weight, I'd cut back on portions for a week or two. That would usually take care of it.
Pre-pregnancy, anyway.
Post-pregnancy, I've had to become aware of calories.
So much of what I used to eat without a second thought suddenly pops up on my never-again list.
For example, I used to love crackers with anything. Crackers with soup, crackers with peanut butter, crackers with sardines, crackers with cheese . . .
It's that last one that's pissed me off.
As the weight has come off (I've lost all the pregnancy weight finally -- and, no, I did not give birth in 2012, it was a long fight back), I've been able to think about returning to regular eating.
But I'm now aware of calories. So a few weeks ago, in the deli, I thought, "I'll get Special K crackers and have some cheese."
It wouldn't be like the days of Wheat Thins or Trisquits or good old Nabisco Saltines, but with the Special K crackers I wouldn't have to worry about calories so much. There are approximately 13 calories in a saltine cracker. I don't know anyone who eats just one. I usually eat 20 minimum if I'm having a "cracker and . . ." treat. That would be 260 calories for 20 crackers. By sticking to Special K crackers, I can eat 30 and only consume 110 calories.
So since I was doing so well on calories with regards to calories, I could get some good cheese, right?
I'm wandering through the deli, grabbing cheese rolls, cheese balls and cheese wedges and I am repeatedly shocked by how many calories are in cheese. (I hadn't eaten cheese -- except on pizzas -- since before my pregnancy.) What really pissed me off was the wedges and balls that made it impossible to track calories.
You probably can't see the illustration clearly. Good. What you need to do is go through the deli section of your own supermarket.
The label says there are 100 calories per serving.
What does that mean?
Normally that means each portion of X will yield 100 calories.
So how many portions are in the cheese ball whose label I photographed?
That's the problem.
"Servings"? It reads "Servings: Varied."
If you don't count calories, that means nothing to you.
If you do count calories, you understand why I'm furious.
If they can't tell you how many servings are in a ball, they can't tell you how many calories are in a serving -- though they pretend to.
100 calories in a serving, they claim while insisting that servings vary. (That information is useless. The reality is that when they can't tell you how many servings, they can't honestly tell you how many calories.)
Again, I don't know how they get away with that.
But if, like me, you are trying to watch calories, I'd suggest that we band together and refuse to purchase any cheese product that refuses to tell us the calorie information.