Food, Portions, Sunk Costs, Slow Stomachs

Thanks to Zawodny spurring us on, Jack and I have been trading tips and tools (Nutridiary.com, Physicsdiet.com) for weight-, calorie- and exercise-tracking. Here’s an email I wrote today:

also, you know the portions you get at almost any restaurant are flat out too big. most of the time you can cut them down the middle, eat one half, and take the other half home. but if it’s not a food that will keep well, and you’re full (or nearly full) by the time you finish the first half, just leave the rest. you’ll feel silly sitting there with a plate half full of perfectly good food that you paid for, but you have to think of that money as a sunk cost. the money is spent - it’s gone. you’re not going to get more out of it by eating so much that you need to roll yourself out on a wheelbarrow. (of course, i’ve done this 1 million times.)

almost every time i (now) go to the wrap cart downtown, i end up throwing away half of the wrap because they are freaking ginormous. but i don’t toss it right away. i trick myself by doing this: if i can manage to eat the first half slowly enough to get almost full, i put the other half of the wrap back in the box (which is kinda hard because they are delicious, you remember) and walk around the city block. i tell myself that i can eat the rest if i still want it after the walk. but by the time i finish the walk, my stomach has caught up with the rest of me and i realize i actually am full and don’t want it anymore and i get rid of it. this happens every time.

I wonder how many other geeks out there have also started becoming obsessed with this stuff in the last week or so. It’s actually fun, though, and kind of like a game, what with all the cool online tools there are now.