Reduced

It seems all television channels are promoting weight-loss products. We, who need to lose “a few,” don’t constantly want to hear about it night and day.

Honestly, have you noticed all the loud advertisements explaining how to lose the excess pounds that most people gain over the winter?

Companies in America don’t pause to consider the feelings of people who are desperately trying to gain weight. There are many folks with severe health problems who are trying so hard to eat enough so that they can gain pounds.

Before Christmas, ads were telling the public what delicious food to purchase. Customers like you and me were inundated with catalogs selling Omaha steaks, Virginia peanuts (chocolate covered, salted, mixed and more), fruit cakes, all kinds of candy, cupcakes, pound cakes, etc.

Those catalogs have almost disappeared. If your mailbox is like mine, the catalogs arriving now are for household items and clothing, but the TV advertisements are all screaming, “Lose weight now.”

The only things that this reporter has noticed “losing weight” are in our grocery stores.

For instance, check out a box of Ritz crackers. If you have an older box in your cupboard, be sure to compare the new box to the old! The box is shorter and smaller. It reduced!

Take a look at your graham crackers that come in packs of four in a box. Boy, did they ever slim down! The same number of crackers won’t even cover the bottom of a 9 x 13 pan anymore. The crackers shrunk.

I try not to go down the cookie aisle but someone in my household likes to snack. Most of the cookie boxes have been reduced in size which also makes the cookies smaller. The Fig Newtons either got smaller or there aren’t as many in a sleeve.

What do you think about the jars of peanut butter? Not only did the manufacturer eliminate the glass jar, they use plastic now and lowered the amount of product one gets in the jar. They surely knew how to reduce.

How about the size of an ice cream carton? If that was a woman, she’d be happy with the smaller size but Hubby is not. I heard his yell, “What happened to the ice cream?” I smiled and replied, “They reduced the size but I bought you two!”

Have you noticed your rolls of toilet paper lately? If you’ve been wondering why the roll gets empty so quick, check out a new roll. It got slimmer. It was reduced!

Cans of dog food and cat food have also been reduced in size. We, as consumers, are paying more for less, but of course, you know that. Look at can sizes. They lost weight!

What happened to my Kraft American Cheese? Forever, I have purchased the 8-pack, NOT individually wrapped; that was the perfect size for me to make my pimento and cheese. That was reduced so much that it’s not on the shelf anymore.

Now, I know that all of you have noticed the sizes of cereal boxes. They are all reduced in size.

We consumers want an answer to the age-old question. How do we lose weight like that?

The items in the grocery store are smaller and we can be, too! Let’s quit listening to Jennifer Hudson and Marie Osmond. We can surely do it without them.

We’ll quit opening our mouth every time we bend an elbow. By June, we’re going to look fabulous!