Do you like Mayonnaise?

I used to love mayonnaise and I'd put it on everything.  

My favorite brand was Lady's Choice Mayonnaise.  My mom used it a lot in the salads and dips that she made.  She's use it as a "fancy" dressing of sorts on steamed Lapu-Lapu and, back then, when I was a kid, I really thought Lady's Choice made such dishes very classy.

And, in a rather odd way, my father would compliment my mother's cooking by estimating how much such a meal would cost in a fancy restaurant.  (Which, for some reason, made my eyes roll up in their sockets involuntarily when I turned thirteen.) 

In college, I'd put Lady's Choice mayonnaise on adobo, menudo, mechado, cornbeef, kaldereta, barbecue, and just about any kind of ulam there is.  It even got to the point where I was using it as a substitute for cream in soups and sauces.

It just made any kind of food more malinamnam or richer and well-bodied, so using it on poorly flavored food almost always makes it taste better.

My love affair with mayonnaise continued even after I got married.  Every time my wife and I would go to the grocery, mayonnaise would be on the grocery list.  We'd buy about four large jars of Lady's Choice Mayonnaise every month!

About a decade and a half ago, my body's metabolism was so fast that I'd burn up almost everything I ate.  I could eat a whole crispy pata dipped in Lady's Choice mayonnaise and not worry about gaining poundage after the meal.

These days, however, my metabolism is so sluggish that I really have to watch what I eat -- otherwise, well, I gain weight.

I am already 230 pounds right now -- which, I think, is the fighting weight of Mike Tyson -- and I am trying my darndest to lose about fifty pounds.

Anyway, after all running on the treadmill and doing free weight exercises for several months now, I have failed miserably to lose a substantial number of pounds.  This led me to consult a college buddy and fellow blogger who is a lean 160 pounds.

The first thing he pointed out while we were having lunch is the amount of mayonnaise I had in my food.  Like a walking version of Google, he came up with a fact that suddenly made things clear to me:

In general 1 tablespoon of regular mayo is between 57 to 114 calories. It depends on the brand.

Source: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_many_calories_are_in_1_tablespoon_mayonnaise

The lunch I was having was a Jollibee Champ and I opened up my favorite sandwhich to investigate.  Lo and behold! There must have been over a tablespoon of mayonnaise in the monster and easily, that could mean an additional 150 calories on top of the calories already packed into the burger I was eating.

Wow!

And apart from being densely packed with calories, mayonnaise is also mostly FAT. So, taking my friend's advice, I decided right there and then to avoid mayonnaise completely.

Good bye Lady's Choice Mayonnaise! So long!