Tuesday 2 June 2009

How to weigh squirty cream - and other modern dilemmas

'Lunch will be provided' - is there any other phrase to strike quite such terror into a dieter's heart? I fretted about it from the moment I read the agenda. And from the moment that the platters of sandwiches were brought in I was transfixed. I don't even like sandwiches! Unless I've made them myself with superior bread - these weren't nice, I knew it, but the the student in me (and the pig - oink oink) wanted some. Otherwise they all might go! But I didn't scoop so much of a morsel from the inside. I went and heated up my DC soup and ate some of the melon provided. Hurrah for me!

Of course I then slightly dimmed my own glory by coming home and having a wedge of cheese with a piece of quince paste (left over from dinner party) as this was not part of my Food Focus calorie count of 1200-1300cals. My excuse is that I came in from cycling home, starving and knowing that it would be at least 8.15pm until I got to eat (I'm technically at work). It's not an adequate excuse.

So, squirty cream: I have been reading a largely US weight loss forum and this put the idea of sugar free jelly and low fat squirty cream into my mind. Now my sweet tooth is more like a sweet (sabre tooth) fang so I lept joyfully towards this new (and rather downmarket) pudding idea. But the calories given on the back of the cream can were not per squirt (surely logical? Even per inch would be reasonably sensible) but per 12g. I ask you, 12g! But I couldn't risk it, I had to find out just how much 10g of squirty cream would be (I wasn't ambitious enough - or with sufficiently minutely calibrated equipment - to weigh 12g). I'll do it from eye next time because, frankly, it's a messy, tricky, slightly obsessive thing to be weighing synthetic creamy air puffs, but knowledge is power, people.

I saw an amusing thing this morning - a gaggle of about 8 male cyclists all - literally - busting a gut to try and overtake each other. Male cyclists really are funny (and yes, Lesley, other males too but at least not (often) in tight lycra) in that they mostly determinedly wear all the kit and zip along as fast as possible. I'm quite proud to not be in their gang.

1 comment:

Lesley said...

Now I have 2 funny pictures - you trying to weigh a squirt of squirty cream....v v funny and 8 blokes in daft gear killings themselves to get somewhere a few seconds faster!

Having said that, I've just spent 2 exhausting hours on the track killing myself learning how to get round a banked wooden oval slightly faster than I could maage last week so who is daft now??

Well done on the sandwich avoidance fortitude, very difficult to achieve!

Lesley x