Home comforts
Posted by Becky
Right, I’ll start this food diary for today with an explanation of my behaviour, knowing full well that it sounds like I’m making excuses for my poor performance today.
Today I went to see my grandmother. Now, what you need to know is that part of the reason we decided to move out to California (where I am originally from) is so that we could see my grandmother (who I really love and get on with) more often and for her to see me and my daughter, Lucy. That relationship seems to revolve (as many relationships in my family do) with food. My family loves to lunch. We love to eat out and as I’ve already explained before, we show love with food. (we also all diet constantly and seem to be obsessed with our weight. Chicken or egg?)
Anyway, rightly or wrongly I find that part of my enjoyment of seeing my grandmother is wanting to enjoy her cooking. She does “nursery food” extremely well. What I mean by that is comfort food with lots of creamy sauces. She does a lovely casserole with chicken breasts, mayonaise, canned mushrooms cheese and cream of chicken soup mix. And, because she still thinks I’m twelve, she gives me extra large portions to fatten me up! (Isn’t love blind?)
Today was no different. She cooked lovely ricotta cheese and spinach canneloni, garlic bread, and salad with creamy dressing. She also had a lemon cream pie for dessert. All retro food and all stuff that I didn’t want to miss out on as that would kind of symbolize missing out on time with my grandmother. Or am I just kidding myself and trying to find excuses for overeating?
Anyway, the eating for the day went fairly well. I decided that it would all be okay if I had very little for dinner. And, because I was quite full from lunch it wouldn’t be hard to skip dinner.
However, I over-indulged when I decided that all of the left-over food that my mother had brought with her when she came to stay shouldn’t go to waste. That’s when the cheesy rye toasts got made and when I decided that a platter of cut up chicken and artichoke sausages would go down very well with the Mojitos and wine. (Mojitos for those of you who aren’t cocktail drinkers are tall rum drinks with lime and mint)
So, the lesson here is not to associate love, good times, etc with food. I know we’ve been over this ground before but it’s a hard lesson to sink in.
| Meal | Food or Drink | Calories |
|---|---|---|
| Breakfast | Piece of crusty bread | 150 |
| butter | 30 | |
| Lunch | Ricotta and Spinach Canelloni | 110 |
| Alfredo sauce | 35 | |
| Garlic Bread | 250 | |
| Salad | 35 | |
| Dessert | Lemon Cream Pie | 275 |
| Rootbeer | 0 | |
| Dinner | 1/2 Mojito | 175 |
| Cheese Rye toasts | 175 | |
| Artichoke and Chicken sausages | 75 | |
| white wine (1 glass) | 85 | |
| 1 glass 7 up | 0 | |
| Total | 1,395 | |
Sylvia said,
17 April 2008 at 10:59 am
I totally understand that feeling – my family definitely associates good times and care-taking with big meals. When we get together, it’s big meals and restaurants and all about the special food. However, I’m the only one who is overweight – I guess the others exhibit more self-control when they are on their own than I do.
I think 1400 sounds really good considering meals with family and drinks!
Paola said,
17 April 2008 at 11:48 am
(Well, I’m going to try another tactic.) Becky, I think you’re bonkers if you think that 1,400 calories was a bad day (by any degree of measure).
In over 100 days, I’ve never managed less than 1,700 when I’ve eaten at someone else’s house. I’ve also been close to 2,000 a couple of times since I started my diet but I am still losing weight.
You’re doing amazingly well for the first week of a diet but you did extraordinarily well at your grandmother’s. I hope you enjoyed the visit rather than feel guilty about eating.
I reckon you should cut yourself some slack – you’re NOT over-eating. I just re-checked a few sites and they say that the recommended number of calories for women in the UK is 2,000. The 600 less you ate is the equivalent to a burger, fries and drink!
You WILL lose weight even if you continue to eat just 1,400 calories a day.
You know you’ve picked the worse time to start a diet – you have to organise your move from America back to England. You will have people wanting to give you parties before you leave and more, here, when you arrive back.
Even if you lost just one pound a week until you’re settled back in the UK, isn’t that a good thing? At any rate, I’ll bet money you’ll be near your ideal weight by July.
Sylvia said,
17 April 2008 at 2:34 pm
(I thought the same but I thought it would sound a bit hollow from someone struggling to get under 2k!)
Becky said,
17 April 2008 at 4:40 pm
Paola, I totally agree with you. Absolutely. Just at the moment, I feel that only if I am really, really strict with myself, will I stay on the diet. I know that sounds crazy but life feels crazy at the moment. 1200 calories is like a daily goal and I feel that if I slip and allow more, I’ll fall off the wagon and not get back on.
I also have a practical problem in that my scales are rubbish. Since starting the diet last Wednesday, they have been yo-yoing (sp?) at 144, 142, 143 etc. My body feels a lot better as if I have genuinely lost a couple of pounds. I can’t buy new scales as they will be ruined in the house move so if I keep the calories quite low, I know I will be pleasantly surprised in a few weeks when I buy new scales.
Instead of weighing myself I’m going to get out the measuring tape and measure my waist, hips and thighs. Anyone tried doing this?
Paola said,
17 April 2008 at 6:27 pm
Okay, I understand the 1,200 rule now.
I feel that way about noting everything down exactly. I worry that if I am lax about it just once, I’m more likely to slip in the future. For me, since I am a professional worrier, this is probably an irrational fear – I suspect I could maintain my diet now even if I stopped food-diarying.
Why not change the size of your wagon and set your daily goal to 1,300 calories? Have you used any of the online calculators?
I also suggest that you don’t weigh yourself every day. Your weight will fluctuate anyway and you’re more likely to see progress if you weigh weekly. Are you going to make a ticker?
Simon said,
17 April 2008 at 7:42 pm
I think Paola sets a very high standard which we may struggle to equal! Not only has she set herself a very low daily total, she also records very accurately.
I certainly don’t relish having to do the latter, and as I’ve noted, if I tried to maintain a correspondingly low-for-me daily total I’d not function adequately.
It’s all about settling in to whatever works for you personally, and then going with it, in whatever form that takes. That may not even be counting calories at all, it may just be avoiding cake / chocolate / ice cream / alcohol / other calorific treats! Or as Becky says, not even weighing oneself, but measuring instead.
Or not even measuring anything, just doing it holistically by what feels right, and just by knowing you’re making progress.
Sylvia said,
20 April 2008 at 1:46 pm
It’s been quite helpful to see how other people work. It’s really interesting to see how differently we are all reac ting to the same basic concepts. For you, the strict goal and striving seems to work (and I’ll stop saying “but hey, that’s good enough!” when you are under 1400 now that I understand it); whereas for me, it just makes me feel like the entire thing is futile and not worth doing.