I’ve been losing (and sometimes gaining) weight for the last seven years. I did the diet & exercise thing on my own from December 2004 to August 2010. I did Take Shape for Life from April 2010 until last month. Now I’ve come full-circle back to the diet & exercise routine. This time Kayla and I are doing it together and so far it’s been a lot of fun.

The folks marketing food aren’t dumb. They know what we want to see. No trans fats, sugar-free, fat-free, low-sodium? It’s a shell game. If it’s low-fat it’s high in sodium. If it’s low in sodium it’s probably loaded with sugar. If none of those tricks marketing maneuvers work, there’s always the serving size tactic confusion. Yeah, that food might only have 50 calories but there are 8 servings in a box. You didn’t plan on eating 1/8th of it and putting it down, did you? No, of course you didn’t.

The only way to truly know what you’re putting in your body is to look at the entire nutrition label. And how many of us really know how to read a nutrition label? Sugar tastes good, so it must be bad for me. Fat? I don’t want to be fat so that can’t be good, either. What about carbohydrates, fiber, and sodium? If you’re not into nutrition, how would you even know what those words mean? I went to public school. I remember the food pyramid. That was what? Third grade? It’s been a minute y’all.

Most folks know someone who’s on Weight Watchers. They’re the ones carrying around little calculators emblazoned with their cute little logo. They’re turning boxes on their sides in the supermarket and plugging numbers into their super-secret formula to get a number: the points. They only get so many points per day so they’re spent like hard-earned currency. If this item is worth 4 points and this other item is worth 15 points it really boils down to two things: first, is the second item worth that many of my points; and second, am I willing to spend that many on a single item. The higher-point item would blow 1/4 of my points for the day. It’s funny what happens when you attach a sense of loss to something. The moment you have to “spend” to eat, you think about it a little harder before you pop that tasty morsel.

The real fun comes when you start plugging in the foods that you would normally munch without giving them a second thought. The Outback Steakhouse is one of my very favorite restaurants. If you haven’t had the pleasure, their appetizers are worth many hours in the gym. Aussie Cheese Fries – mmm, delicious. A half order? 36 points. Alice Springs Chicken – basically a chicken breast smothered in cheese and bacon? 27 points. Some fries on the side? Another 11 points. That’s 74 points: 12 more points than I usually roll any other day of the week. That was my standard order when I’d hit that awesome Australian eatery. Is it any wonder why I put on the pounds when I’m not focused on what I’m eating?

Those same points could break out like this instead: egg substitute scramble with ham, cheese, and salsa (5 points); 4 strips of turkey bacon (3 points); raspberry yogurt (4 points); FiberOne™ chocolate peanut butter bar (2 points); Panda Express 2-entree with Mandarin chicken, black pepper chicken, fortune cookie (15 points); baked Parmesan chicken breast (6 points); mixed green salad with tomatoes, croutons and dressing (4 points); Tastee Freeze chocolate-dipped cone (11 points). Boom, 50 points with 12 left to spare. I didn’t starve myself and I enjoyed some of my favorites, but ditched a lot of food that I would have grabbed without a thought before they had 20+ point values associated with them.

So I’m back in the gym lifting weights and I’m shedding the pounds again. What’s more, I’m rediscovering how to eat well again. I’ve skated for a long while doing a bunch of Zumba and eating whatever I wanted, breaking even every week. It’s time to get to my goal weight, folks. Let’s do it.

Updated 12/06/2011 @ 8:15am: Much thanks to Lia of the A.R. & Proud blog for dropping a link talking about how the sizing is done on products. What I thought was marketing trickery is just plain old consumer confusion (are we tired of alliteration yet?). Remember to read the labels and multiply those numbers by the serving count or you won’t know what you’re getting!