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Last week my sister called me from New York City where she lives, to talk about my mother and what was my memory of Mom growing up? Mom is still alive, but Sis is in therapy, so likes to walk down memory lane to see what weirdness might have been caused by Mom. Well, that got me thinking about food, because of my current road to health, and I have a very clear memory of what we ate growing up because Mom went to grad school when I was 16, so I and my younger sibs cooked dinner a lot of nights.
Here it is: every night, we ate white rice. Two cups of rice divided by 6 people, so we each got half a cup of rice (50 calories?). Then, veggies were canned, two cans of veggies = 50 calories each person. Ok, and then every night there was 2 or 3 pounds of plain meat, which was chicken, fish, pork, or beef. And usually with the bone in, so generally let's say we all had about a third of a pound of meat, for a generous 300 calories. And there was no marbling in the beef either. Ok - so basically, our home-cooked dinners were 400 calories? Plus milk - another 200 calories, because that was unlimited in my parents' house, and we only got soda on Sunday. So, while I was growing up, dinners were 600 calories of plain food. And the thing is, I don't ever remember being bored eating that food, because we were outside from 3 after school, running around, riding our bikes, even took gymnastics classes in high school, burning calories all afternoon so the dinner was delish! We rarely filled up on bread - usually dinner was plenty filling.
Fast forward to today, my girls don't really get outside much, as all their friends are spread around the city, and we didn't let them outside without bug spray because of equine encephalitis, and not too much bug spray because that contributes to cancer, and then once you had to cover them with sunscreen too we didn't let them outside most days. Luckily, our schools keep them exercised and outdoors a lot anyway, but our habits now are just not as stream-lined as when I was a child.
My point is this: I think if I were hungrier at dinner, a plain simple meal would be great. If I cut down on snacks during the afternoon, I will be happier with whatever there is for dinner. My husband would be fine with cereal and fruit for dinner, so at least he isn't picky about food, so here is the plan: back to the meals of my childhood, except with fresh vegetables. And that will be easy for my 17 yo to cook too, so I won't even have to cook!
Plus, this week I was reading the booklets they give out at Weight Watchers, and there are daily meal plans right in one of the books, so that I can pick from that so that I don't have to count points or figure them out. Yeah! It gets tedious, and I don't have a great imagination, but the listing has some really great combo suggestions.
Here is today's menu for me:
B: 2 whole wheat pancakes, 1 Tbl. syrup, 1 tangerine
L: tuna with celery, peppers, and low-fat mayo, on lettuce, baby carrots with fat-free ranch for dip.
D: haddock with 1/2 cup mashed potato, asparagus with 1 tsp. olive oil and balsamic vinegar.
Snack: 1 cup fat-free milk with coffee (divided between 2 large cups of coffee and ice).
This should end up at about 1000 calories today, or 20 points which is my allowance.
Good luck everyone!
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2484 kcal
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Exercise:
Yard Work (gardening) - 2 hours, Sleeping - 8 hours, Desk Work - 6 hours, Resting - 8 hours. more...
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