Tracking milestones in a project is the way you track progress, when you’re losing weight, setting milestones give you something to aim at.
Also looking back at a milestone and tracking how well you’re doing is key. Think about sobriety, it can be a key part of AA. In the early months it is a powerful motivator, keeping a running count gives you the confidence to get through the hard days, and it measures your progress, and helps you visualise the distance you have travelled.
So what am I going on about? Well I’m on about my kryptonite “Crisps”.
In 1981 a new maize snack was released, it came in cheese flavour, and made by a company called Sooner Foods based in Scunthorpe. They were bought by Golden Wonder in 1987 and then in 2012 by KP. As I remember it, soon after release they then came in spicy flavour and then Sampi and Lemon (which were strong and stank!).
I am of course talking about Nik-Naks.
Over the years they have come in many different flavours and the cheese ones have disappeared now, however, about 6 months before I gave up, Wotsits came out with Wotsits Crunch, which were a rip of of Crunchy Cheetos, but were stunning.
Today marks 400 days since I gave them crisps, not just Nik-Naks. 400 days, so we could say 400 pack’s of Nik-Naks and if I was conservative and only had a small pack (yeah right!) I have saved myself 102,00 calories, or if you eat the recommended 2500 calories a day as a man, that would be 41 days! If however, we are talking about a pack of these below, then you are talking about 124 days!!!
After giving up for lent last year (21 February 2023) and then not eating a huge bag on Easter Sunday to make up for it, I made the choice to just not go back to them, as I say they were my kryptonite, Sensations, Pringles, Kettle chips, Doritos, nothing was safe from me.
However, I think I have now got to the point where I don’t think about them, back at the start it was hard/impossible to even walk down the crisp aisle in the supermarket without wanting them and asking myself “why am I doing this?”.
I did get easier and now I can even cope with the kids sharing a tube of BBQ Pringles in the car (which smell amazing) but it’s now a choice, which extends into cooking. I have recipes that use crushed up Doritos as a breadcrumb on a zinger burger, I would love to try, but it could be a slippery slope that I don’t want to risk stepping on.
When I talk about giving this up, I have been asked what I replaced it with? In the beginning it was very much Rice Cakes and popcorn, but now I don’t feel to the need to have them all the time either.
Dorito Popcorn Seasoning
When I started making popcorn again last year, I wanted to flavour it and after some research came across this recipe for what they called Dorito popcorn seasoning, it is amazing what you can find on the web.
Ingredients
2 Tbsp nutritional yeast.
¼ tsp garlic powder.
¼ tsp onion powder.
¼ tsp cumin.
¼ tsp paprika.
¼ tsp chili powder.
¼ tsp salt.
Directions
Firstly, I would make double and keep it in a pot as ¼ tsp is fiddly. Basically mix them in a little pop, but the lid on and shake it around to mix it up.
Cook your popcorn, when done, spray with 1 cal spray and shake on the seasoning.
That is it, sit back and enjoy. Oh, and for Weight Watchers the seasoning is zero points.
Do you have something that is your Kryptonite? Could you give it up cold turkey and not go back to it?
It is definitely a radical choice to make, but one I have felt I needs to take for the new lifestyle I am building for myself.
Thanks for reading, drop me a comment, a like, or share it with your friends.
Cooking by Matt 