It’s that time of year again. The snow is melting. The days are getting longer. The flowers are blooming and those cute little girls in tan uniforms entice us ditch our nutritional goals and spend $3.50 for evil in a box. We give in to the pressure and buy one or more boxes of Thin Mints, Tagalongs^®, Caramel deLites^® or whatever else our favorites kind is.

So how do we continue to maintain our healthy lifestyle or be able to keep losing weight with our cabinet full of these goodies? The answer is simple: we be smart about it!

When those colorful, innocent looking boxes show up at your doorstep, take the time to examine the nutritional label. Yes, they have them. No, you really don’t want to know…but you should! The most important key in examining the label is to note the serving size. Are you surprised by how small it is?

Many food manufacturers, including the sweet, innocent Girl Scouts, hope you look at the total calories first and so they aim for the lowest calorie total possible. How do they do that? Well, it’s not by using healthy ingredients, it’s by lowering the serving size. Take Caramel deLites for example. You look at the calorie total and it doesn’t look so bad. They only have 140 calories. 140 calories. That’s borderline healthy, right? So you indulge in this “health” food and you eat the whole box (which of course for your $3.50 is only like 16 cookies). The problem is, for Caramel deLites^® the serving size is only 2, so those 16 cookies are actually 8 servings, meaning you just ate 140×8 which is 1120 calories. This is over half of what most people should eat in a day!

I know it’s difficult to do, but if you can train yourself to stick to 1 serving (this principle goes for any food item) then you are not sabotaging your weight loss goals.

To save you some time, here is the nutritional information taken from www.girlscouts.com.

Lemon Chalet Cremes^™
Serving Size: 3 cookies · Calories: 170 · Total Fat: 7g (2.5g sat. fat) · Carbs: 26g (13g sugars) · Protein: 2g (that’s why you’re eating these, right?)

Trefoils
Serving Size: 5 cookies · Calories: 160 · Total Fat: 8g (2.5g sat. fat) · Carbs: 22g (7g sugars) · Protein: 2g

Do-si-dos^®
Serving Size: 2 cookies · Calories: 110 · Total Fat: 5g (1.5g sat. fat) · Carbs: 16g (7g sugars) · Protein: 2g

Samoas^®
Serving Size: 2 cookies · Calories: 150 · Total Fat: 8g (6g sat. fat) · Carbs: 19g (11g sugars) · Protein: <1g

Dulce de Leche
Serving Size: 4 cookies · Calories: 160 · Total Fat: 8g (3.5g sat. fat) · Carbs: 19g (9g sugars) · Protein: 2g

Thank U Berry Munch^™ (These have berries in them, they must be healthy, right? Actually, if you stick to a serving size they aren’t too bad!)
Serving Size: 2 cookies · Calories: 120 · Total Fat: 5g (2g sat. fat) · Carbs: 18g (7g sugars) · Protein: 1g

Tagalongs^®
Serving Size: 2 cookies · Calories: 140 · Total Fat: 9g (5g sat. fat) · Carbs: 13g (8g sugars) · Protein: 2g

Thin Mints (One of my favorites!)
Serving Size: 4 cookies · Calories: 160 · Total Fat: 8g (5g sat. fat) · Carbs: 22g (10g sugars) · Protein: 1g

Shortbread
Serving Size: 4 cookies · Calories: 120 · Total Fat: 4.5g (2g sat. fat) · Carbs: 19g (4g sugars) · Protein: 1g

Peanut Butter Patties^® (Another one of my favorites!)
Serving Size: 2 cookies · Calories: 150 · Total Fat: 8g (5g sat. fat) · Carbs: 17g (10g sugars) · Protein: 2g

Reduced Fat Daisy Go Rounds^™
Serving Size: 5 cookies · Calories: 100 · Total Fat: 2g (1g sat. fat) · Carbs: 19g (8g sugars) · Protein: 1g

Peanut Butter Sandwich
Serving Size: 3 cookies · Calories: 160 · Total Fat: 6g (2.5g sat. fat) · Carbs: 26g (8g sugars) · Protein: 2g

Thanks-A-Lot^™
Serving Size: 2 cookies · Calories: 150 · Total Fat: 6g (3.5g sat. fat) · Carbs: 22g (9g sugars) · Protein: 2g

Lemonades^™
Serving Size: 2 cookies · Calories: 150 · Total Fat: 7g (4g sat. fat) · Carbs: 22g (9g sugars) · Protein: 1g

And there you have it. I hope it helps. Again, the key to maintaining a healthy lifestyle and losing weight is moderation. If you can stick to the serving sizes of treats like Girl Scout Cookies you can have your cake and eat it too, literally!

So what’s your favorite kind of Girl Scout Cookie?

Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”