Serving Size of Dry vs Cooked Pasta

Figuring out the serving sizes of dry vs. cooked pasta has been a bit of an issue for me. The box says 2oz of dry pasta. Great. That's easy enough, but considering you boil the pasta prior to eating it, dry measurements aren't very helpful. When it comes time to count my calories, I can get a little neurotic trying to figure it all out. So today I did a little experiment.

Below, 2oz. of DRY pasta. Not much to it, just 2oz. of pasta, weighed out. Not very impressive, and doesn't amount to a whole lot.

I boiled this in a small saucepan, separate from the big batch boiling for the rest of the family.

Here it is after being thrown into boiling, salted water for a bout 12 minutes.

Not a huge difference visually. Maybe doubled. But less pasta than my kids would eat in a sitting. More importantly, is the weight.

The COOKED pasta comes to 126 grams.

Dry pasta: 2oz (aka 56 grams)

Cooked pasta: 126 grams (aka 4.3 ounces)

So, a simple calculation would be that you can measure out 4 ounces of cooked pasta to equal the 2oz. serving size of dry pasta.

When eying it up in my bowl, I figured it was about the size of a Lean Cuisine or other pre-packaged foods for fatties. It's a normal serving size. I ate it, with a little bit of sauce, some olive oil and parmesan cheese, contemplating the me a year ago who would probably eat double that amount. Most restaurants give double or triple that for their portion sizes.

Hope that's helpful to someone else. It sure helped me.

Drink, You Fool

It's been so hot out the past few days. Our air is not working (going on over a week now) and my mood is suffering because of it. Heat, humidity and me don't make good company.

But I haven't done anything radical. Not yet. I'm hanging in there.

Amazingly I've still managed to get out and exercise here and there, despite the fact that you could fry an egg on my head (if you shaved my hair first). In the cool of the morning right now I'm contemplating a quick walk with my doggie. Contemplating. Haven't quite worked up to it, yet. But it is nice out right now, almost on the verge of raining. Perfect walking weather. The mosquitoes, though, will kill you. Literally. So walks have been hard. After taking yesterday off, though, it is a necessity.

Also a necessity is me drinking oodles of water today. I've slacked off on that (no clue why, still trying to figure it out) ever since the heatwave hit. Does not make sense at all, really. I notice it in my legs, though. I had cramps the other day and couldn't figure out what I'd been doing to give myself leg cramps.

Um.. not drinking water, and existing in a jungle for the past 7 days?

So, the goal today is to drink water and get a nice walk in. I should be able to manage that.

Saving The Best For Last

Sometimes it's a good idea to save the best for last. Sometimes... not so good.

If you save the best for last, for instance, the cheesiest part of the lasagna, or the butteriest section of the potatoes on your plate - you've pretty much guaranteed that you'll be eating everything to get to that last, cheesy or buttery bite.

(I dug this up from last year. Timeless.)

Mochachochafattywattylatte

Something interesting to note.

A coworker was telling me about a friend of hers who stopped drinking all liquids besides water for Lent. No coffee, soda, beer, wine, juice. Just water. And guess what?

She loses weight. 10 pounds so far.

Don't worry, I'll try not to get hysterical. So as my coworker is telling me this I'm thinking in my head how I've been counting calories and exercising, refocusing, being thoughtful... and have lost, well. Less than TEN POUNDS. My eye started twitching a bit, and my smile felt like a tight rubber band, ready to snap. My throat began forming words that had no way of coming out kind.

I continued to hold my grimace, "oooh-aaahed" at the fact that this person had simply given up drinking water, and WOW!? - then blurted something about how I could not believe that people are so ignorant to consume half of their daily caloric intake in liquids and totally NOT REALIZE IT. And then I remembered that, I may be fat on the outside, but I'm probably about as nutty as a food-conscious anorexic on the inside.

I'm not a "oops, I drank 1000 calories of Mountain Dew a day" fatty. I'm an "emotional-eater, obsess-about-food, body-likes-me-plump" fatty. I actually eat healthy. Healthier than anyone else I know (and I'm bigger than them). My body/brain likes to be fat, and works to keep me there. I don't sit on the kitchen floor with 5 chickens, a liter of soda and a tray of Oreos, eat it in 5 minutes, and then cry about it.

I don't really know why I'm saying this all, besides the fact that I'm on my period and sometimes I lose my grace a bit. But come on, now.

I get the part that she said that certain things don't taste the same when you're drinking water, so you're less prone to eat them. So instead of having a soda and pizza, she'd drink water and eat less pizza. Instead of a tea at night, she'd drink water and go for a walk. I'll give her credit for that. And I'll slap her upside the head for not realizing that drinking a mochachochafattywattylatte three times daily can probably keep you in your fat pants. Duh.