A Morrison's "Eat Smart" Chicken Arabiatta ready meal isn't listed automatically, but after entering all the nutritional information required to calculate the Propoint value of the meal (including this new thing called "fibre") the eSource program calculated the total as:
I went a bit wobbly at this. My daily allocation is 71 Propoints, and to waste such a huge proportion on one nice (but hardly Michelin star level) plastic tray of pasta, chicken and spicy tomato was really quite upsetting! So, I entered the information again. Tap-tap-tap. And again I got:
By now, I was looking at the little nutritional information panel on the side of the ready meal with a lot of resentment. 'Right,' I thought, 'clearly the supermarkets are lying to us. Only 3 percent fat. Eat Smart, Eat Healthily. It's all bollocks - and I'm never going near any of their products again.' And to just make tripley sure, I tried to calculate the points a third time and still got the same answer:
Now, what made me try a fourth time, I have no idea (except maybe a tiny suspicioun that I had done something wrong somewhere) but this time - to my massive, massive relief - the total I got was:
which is far more manageable and means I can put away the celery and the tap water for another night. But it just goes to show that when taking on a new dieting system like this, mistakes can occur in your calculations. I wonder how many other people who have started the Weightwatchers Propoint plan this week are having problems? And remember, this is using the on-line calculator, not the whirly-wheel thing in the back of the information pack I spoke about yesterday.
If anyone else is reading this and doing the "new" Weightwatchers, here is a quick photo of the nutritional information on the Arabiatta pack. See if you can calculate the Propoints (either on paper, with a WW calculator, or using the e-source program) and see if you come up with 12 or 52!We're all in this together! :-))
Tada! Welcome to evidence on why we actually get to the state we are in. It really does pay to read the actual nutrition info, because advertisers lie. They lie about 'diet' and 'healthy' and 'low-fat' and 'low calorie'. To get to your measurements, did you intend to eat the whole package or one serving? There is a big difference, and you do need to be aware that one serving is not always one package...another way advertisers lie. I'm sure I am preaching to the choir, but the whole ready made meals cabal pisses me off. Weight Watchers meals are some of the worst at it too.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I'll get back to you with the numbers, unless you have heard enough from my soap box this time.
Portion sizes with ready meals are a big problem for me. Something which to my ravenous eyes seems the size of a postage stamp is hard to cut into two and then eat over two meals. So no, shamefully, I ate the 450g pack in one go (although I did calculate the per-100g Propoints and then give the portion size as 450g).
ReplyDeleteWe very rarely eat ready meals any more, partly because (for me, anyway) they need to be bulked up with extra veg to make them remotely filling - so I might as well make my own choice of "main" from scratch and now exactly what's going into it in terms of salt, sugar, etc.
That's the beauty of the WW points system. There is no shame in eating the whole thing, you just calculate the points in it and adjust the rest of your day accordingly. One or two times NOT eating until breakfast the next morning pretty quickly changes the way you feel about those 'there are twenty normal portions in this meal' meals.
ReplyDeleteThe best thing I hear with this, John, is the decision to do as much of your own cooking as possible. That way you can control what goes into your tum. I find I can't eat restaurant meals anymore as they boost them up with so much salt and spice to cover the lack of flavor.
Carry on, you are doing a great job!
I have fallen in love with cooking these last 18 months - and if it means I associate food with something creative and healthy rather than slovenly and guilt-ridden, so much the better!
ReplyDelete(But oh, if only there really WERE kitchen-cleaning robots in 2010. Those old-time sci-fi writers were lying to us!)
My husband and I have a deal...whoever cooks does not have to clean. Some days it is a toss up which is the worst task.
ReplyDeleteCooking can be absolutely, wonderfully creative, but it does take time and energy that one may not have after working all day.
Kudos, John!