Portion Sizes. Or, how what we learn from our parents follows us for a looooong time...

Every night, my father walks to the laundry room, opens the freezer, and grabs a pail of ice cream (Kemps, of course). He pours chocolate sauce or maple syrup into a bowl, and puts it in the microwave. Granted, this was after I scolded him solidly for days about microwaving things in plastic containers - his response was, "Well, if the asbestos didn't kill me, I sure don't think a little plastic will." But he acquiesced, and now that he has a warm bowl, he starts scooping. One...two...three...four...five...six...seven...eight. Eight scoops of ice cream. It nearly spills over the top of the bowl, although not as much as it used to since we now have larger bowls. He settles in his leather chair and digs in.

This happens every night. And this sort of habit is why I have such a horrendous problem with portion sizes. I had no idea that this was far more ice cream than you should ever consume until college. I kid you not. I'm not trying to place blame here...but it is a reality that children will notice what parents do and mimic these habits.

Today I discovered a website that shows 300 calorie portion sizes as they really are ---

It's amazing what browsing through these pictures will do for your sense of awareness of the size of things. They include the dollar bill and credit card to provide a sense of scale, something really important to think about when you are learning to control portion sizes.

Slightly unrelated but still relevant are the differences between the costs of these different servings. And we wonder why there is such a correlation between poverty and obesity?