I read an article in the Daily Mail Website and it strikes a brilliant tone with me. Find it here. I found myself nodding along to this. I was encouraged (bribed? coerced?) to eat every morsel on my plate as a child. (So much so I found myself, as an adult, feeling guilty if I went to my Dad's house and left food on the plate at the end of the meal) I probably got chocolate and sweets as "treats" for good behaviour, and so on. And sometimes I think how these childhood eating habits do pave the way to bad adult eating habits. This should really go in my parenting blog too, as I feel sometimes as parents we do want to "make sure" our kids are eating enough of their dinner. And I need to catch myself I think before we ingrain too much into Robert's habits about eating. I don't want him to struggle with weight like I have done. I want him to learn himself when he is full, not go by the amount of food on his plate. But at the same time I don't want him to fill up with junk. I don't keep a lot of "junk" in the house, but sometimes I worry he's not getting all the nutrients he needs as he snacks on a lot of fruit and then his dinner goes untouched. I guess, one way to stop that is to cut down grazing, into set snack times, and any fruit requests wait til snack time or after the meal as pudding. And if he doesn't eat his dinner, make it clear that if he isn't hungry that's ok, but if he is, all he will have is his dinner.
Anywayyy. I think bad eating habits left over from childhood are hard to conquer, and it's those that we have to get rid of in order to succeed at losing weight and keeping it off. Learning to put down the fork when you stop feeling hungry. Something I need to work on is conquering my feeling of guilt when I am not hungry enough for my whole plate of food. I feel terribly guilty for wasting food, and not eating it all. So I eat it all, regardless of whether I am hungry or not. Perhaps the trick, when eating where I am not serving the food, is to ask for smaller portions, if I know the portions would otherwise be quite large.
My eating habits on the whole are hugely better than they were. I remember, 6 or 7 years ago, the number of takeaways a week we had was astounding. More than 1 a week is too many really. These days, very occasionally we might have two a week, but then we won't have any for several weeks. To be honest, I find myself craving them less often. I prefer homecooked food and the lure of pizza, or chippie, or chinese, isn't as great as it was.
I made a shepherd's pie on Tuesday. I don't often get the time to make them because it is a lot of prep time, and time I am stuck in the kitchen, but Tuesday afternoons are actually the ideal time to do them, as the in-laws are over and they can watch the boys while I prepare a dinner that we can stock up the freezer with.
I have bought some Chicken Tonight sauces, some curry pastes, so while those aren't completely homecooked, they're closer than takeaway ;) Lots of fresh veg in the house. I'm looking forward to doing some more couscous, perhaps with a baked chicken breast for a more substancial meal, and the curries etc. I've also bought a butternut squash, something I've never bought before but I figured, hey, lets try something with it! Homemade soups are lovely, One of my favourites is broccoli and cauliflower, but I also love courgette soup, and I might try making the squash into a soup.
Anyway, I got complimented on my weight loss again today. It certainly helps when you wear more fitted clothes! ;)
I have slowed down a lot the last few weeks, only lost 1lb overall the last 3 weeks, but hoping that with a renewed zest, I can get back on track. Perhaps I was getting too complacent? I would love to be in my size 12s by April/May. I'm only just fitting into some of my 14s so unless I properly get back on track and start losing 2+ lb a week average I don't think I have a chance of that yet! :)
Tonight, what to have... Hmmm. Perhaps couscous, or one of the Chicken Tonights. Better get the chicken out to defrost :)
No comments:
Post a Comment