Louisa's Weight Loss Blog

2012 - better on the big screen I suspect

Last night, Jonny and I went to the first showing of the new film 2012 staring John Cusack and the only other name I recognise, Thandie Newton. I won’t give the plot away to those who haven’t seen it yet, but it wasn’t the greatest film I’ve ever seen. Yes, it’s rather predictable in some places, the acting leaves much to be desired and there are plot holes that should be better explained. However, if you enjoy general chasos, death and devastation and if you like to watch famous monuments crumble such as the Washington Monument, the Cristo Redentor in Rio de Janeiro or the Vatican in Italy, this is definitely something you might like.

Anyway, standing at the cinema I was appalled by two things. The price of food (£6.50 for a crappy frankfurter hotdog and a massive sugary fizzy drink) and the quality of the food and drink on offer.

There was a Ben and Jerry’s Ice cream stand, a huge kiosk for pic and mix sweets and the aforementioned hotdogs, nachos and the obligatory popcorn.

Considering this kind of thing is crammed with salt that is deliberately intended to make you thirsty and quaff gallons of the expensive fizzy drinks, I do feel somewhat outraged. Why does this make me so cross? Most cinemas have a policy where they do not allow you to bring your own food in.

This is wrong for a few reasons:

1. Their portions are gigantic and they encourage you to buy a medium rather than a “small” drink by reminding you that it is only 20p more.
2. You don’t realise how much you are eating when you’re sat in a cinema and in my teens, if I had popcorn it was usually eaten by time the half an hour of ads finished before the film started!
3. They actively encourage you to buy food by making the food stands more prominent in the lobby than the box office. By time you’ve waited 10 mins to buy your movie tickets, you’re hungry because your brain has been bombarded with images of food!

How can you get past this?

Take a big handbag to hide your snacks of suitable portions. Drink water instead of a litre of evil fizzy drinks. Do you remember my blog posts about fizzy drinks?

Total Chunk Top Tip: Cinemas are a business like everybody else but dieters need to be aware of their underhand money-making techniques. Until cinemas are offering diet-friendly snacks for those dieters who really enjoy a little munch when watching a film on the big screen, my advice is to take your own food and do not apologise if you are ‘caught out’. Dried fruit, rice cakes or a small packet of crisps are all OK in moderation but if you’re really trying to lose weight, get used to not eating whilst distracted with a good movie.

Who here likes crisps? I do too! They are a nice snack but they are not by any means a healthy option. Crisps are full of oils and fats and although the crisp makers have made an effort to reduce oil and fat content they are still not your best option.

Crisps are a nice snack but should be limited

When dieting, you should not feel as though you are denying yourself everything you like. Multipacks of crisps are smaller than the individual packs you might buy and can save you up to a whopping 100 calories compared to the big ‘grab bags’ you buy at the front of the supermarket or at the garage.

32g multipack of McCoys flame grilled steak crisps is 165 calories. a 50g packet is 258 calories. See the difference? The great thing is that very rarely do I feel cheated eating 18g less of my favourite crisps. I am genuinely satisfied after a smaller packet, we only eat the whole packet of crisps in front of us because it’s there and we trust the manufacturers to give us a satisfactory portion. Multipacks are the way forward people!

Total Chunk Top Tip: We all know that to lose weight successfully and KEEP IT OFF, we can’t deny ourselves a little of what we fancy. Think ahead and keep multi packs of your favourite crisps in the car or at the office. Try not to get sucked into buying individual packs and you can save up to 100 calories and still be satisfied.