Monday, August 04, 2008

Proportionately speaking

I have decided that about forty more pounds or so has to go before the beginning of next year. So far, down four.
Excellent.
Baby Chicken was doing the same plan. But then the other two chickens said they wanted to, also.
The more the merrier.

Now here's my million dollar question: How in the hell did America get so royally fucked up over portion sizes???
Are you freakin' kidding me? I had a 1/2 cup bran cereal this morning with a cup of milk. Rock on. How much do I usually have? Usually twice that. And that's in a LITTLE bowl!
I made meatloaf last night. I usually make a 3-4 lb meatloaf. Just slop that hamburger in there, add some eggs, bread crumbs, a bit of ketchup...bake.
I used ONE pound of very lean hamburger last night and divided the small loaf into fours. I am utterly amazed at the difference a serving makes when you pay attention to it.
All I can say is...wow.

Middle Chicken decides she's getting on board with this. Keep in mind, please...she's made out of sour candy and hot cheetos. I'm just saying.
So she asks how many points are in a cup of strawberries. I inform her that would be one. So she gets out a cup to measure and looks at me with disbelief.
*insert teenage voice laced with deep disgust* and says..."What in the heck is THIS all about?"
I almost fell off the couch laughing. Because, you see, MC's serving size before was a quart of strawberries. She would rinse them, set them on her lap, and go to town.
lmao
Quite an eye-opener.
Wish us luck!
Grins*

2 comments:

Lyvvie said...

My doctor recommended I read the diet book by the UK TV hypnotist Paul McKenna. I scoffed but bought it. His plan is very sensible with only four rules:

1: Eat When You Are Hungry. This means eat when your stomach sends the signal to eat and only then. We shouldn't eat from boredom and we need to re-learn the difference.

2: Eat What You Really Want and Not What You Think You Should Have. So no eating nothing but salads and if you want a cake then you can have some cake!

3: Eat Consciously and Enjoy Every Mouthful. Indulge your senses and smell your food, chew slowly and savour all the flavours. His big thing is the put down your knife and fork after every bite and not pick them up again until you're ready for the next bite. Mealtimes should be relaxed and pleasurable.

4: Stop When You Think you're Full. That's the voice that's been ignored and stifled for so long that folks are in the clean plate club and the bad habit of eating beyond fullness. We need to learn the signals our body send to tell us we are full. Once we start listening and acting on that signal it becomes habit.

It took a long time to come to grips with those four steps, some easier than others, but the eat only when hungry - well I'm a snacker! So when I realized that I was only really hungry maybe twice a day, but had been snacking far more than that - wow! What an eye opener. I also found the last step hard because I hate wasting food. This is another reason why my bento box lunches have become so important to me as all the leftovers are now used for the next day.

Maybe, with school starting soon, getting the girls into bento boxes would be a great way to encourage the portion control and healthier meals. You can get started cheaply enough. Let me know if you'd like to and I'll offer any advice I can. Come see my bento pages

Best of luck to all you!

Rene said...

When I joined Weight Watchers I realized I wasn't really eating all that much fattening food, but my proportion sizes were completely out of tune with reality. It's hard to control but I'm working on it. I took a break for SF (which I paid for with a stomach ache). I'm really trying to force the salads down. I can have plenty of that. I've got about 30lbs. to go.