Eating for Gold - confessions of an Olympic level eater!
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When I was growing up, I was the second fastest eater in my family - giving my Dad a good run for his money. I much preferred my Dad's approach to food - he enjoyed every mouthful and had a way of eating that made food look absolutely delicious. I can still picture him eating toast with butter and marmalade at Sunday breakfast and I am sure that's where my bread festish comes from.
So me and Dad were the quick eaters, or so I thought! And then I started eating with boys.... My goodness they were quick, and when I was a flat sharing student, I had to learn to eat even faster or I'd miss pudding! I shared the table with guys from families where if you didn't eat quicker than everyone else, they'd eat your dinner when they'd finished theirs. Kids from large families were Usain Bolt level Olympic scoffers and they were ruthless. I had to step up to the plate (sorry!).
Then you start pairing up with someone special and it all goes off again. You start off with the Scarlett O'Hara approach to eating (you eat like a bird when you're with them and scoff in secret) but gradually you relax and over time your eating patterns, like the rest of your life, synchronise.
If you're like me, before you know it, you're eating man-sized meals at speed and going up for seconds. Not good for the waistline and being in relationships can really make me fat. I only realised the damage I was doing when I started using the food diary on the TescoDiets website. I got a big shock when I realised just how many calories I was shifting - more than double what I actually needed.
When we both started on the healthy eating, we cut down on the amount of fatty food we ate, but I needed to cut down more than that. Now I am not the sort of person who can sit down to dinner with a tiny plate if others are eating their fill, I feel deprived and unhappy and I will crack. So instead of eating off a saucer with a teaspoon, I changed the balance of food on our plates. I make sure I have a bit less protein, a lot fewer carbs and a massive amount of healthy veg to give me a nice big plate of healthy food. I can still have seconds too - usually more veg.
It's a well known phenomenon; how quickly we eat and how much we eat change to match the people we eat with. It's not a conscious thing, we just all keep up with each other. This is most likely to happen when we we're getting to know people and I guess that sets the scene.
I know I'm very susceptible to the influence of other people, it's just how I am. And because of that, it's easier for me to go with that rather than try and fight against myself. So far so good, my ploy seems to be working.
How do you manage? Have you got all the family on a diet or do you eat different meals? Does it work?
Have a great week and take care
Suex
Susan I love your suggestion for OH. I think it measn other half, but old husband is much better. I fondly call mine the OG. Sounds like hit!
Hope you're all doing well and keeping up the good work!
Suex
Comment by StaySlimSue -
Isn't it amazing what we pick up on the way! My Mum was a nurse and I'm sure that's where she got her awful eating habits from. Do you remember all those diets? I remember Mum on the egg diet, the PLJ (lemon joice) diet, grapefruit, no potatoes. I think she must have been starving. Put me off diets for years!
we all find our won way through don't we!
Good luck ladies!
Suex
Comment by StaySlimSue -
Dear Ladies
How true you are about eating quickly. I was nursing from 1960 -94. We had 30 mins for meals and if we were busy less time so we too had to "gobble"
Myhusband is a bit of a fussy eater so I swop meals around until I find something he likes and adapt it a bit for him. Me, I eat anything! I know what you mean though when his plate is fuller than yours.
A tip to eek out a glass of wine is to pour out a half glass of tonic or soda top it up with wine. If you drink gin, put the tonic in first, then gin( perhaps not a full measure) you get a good taste of gin and a bit does filter down through the tonic.
I've been dieting on and off through my life (70) now. Weight doesn't come off so easily. When I joined TD I was eating a lot more volume of food. I've cut down on quantity a lot, I've put it down to tasty recipes
I laughed at the bit about eat like a bird and scoff in secret
Doris could your daughter/sons cook something for themselves now and then and you could find a special recipe to make for yourself.
I put on my chart that I wanted 6 drinks a week. I don't always have them all but I may have 3 on one day.
I'm not very up on abbreviations . I've worked out most of them but what is OH. The only thing I can think it means is "old husband"! I'm sure that's not right.
Keep at it ladies this is the best diet I know
SusanX
Comment by MIDWINTER7 -
I eat much quicker than my husband but not because I am a quick eater. He concentrates on the TV while I concentrate on the food.
As children we were never allowed to talk while we were eating. Modern thinking is it is good to talk while eating. However it has stuck with me and that is why my food tends to disappear quickly.
However I do know the slower you eat the more full up you feel because your brain has time to register what you have eaten. Don't eat a dessert straight after your main meal give it time and you might find you don't even need to eat one.
Pauline xx
Comment by CockneyLady -
I am dieting on my own - OH steadfastly refuses to join me and I am battling with my envy when he sits in front of telly with a glass of wine. Kids are not in need of losing weight - the daughter who lives permanently with us is very sporty and doesn't like alcohol, second daughter is tall and slim and only rarely indulges and son can eat like a horse and still looks like he is underfed. Less so now that he has a sedentary job, but they are 23 years old (triplets) - and at that age I could eat what I wanted, too.
So, this week and next, I am on a very reglemented plan - and just eat at the same time as others, but my own meals. After that, I am planning to go low-carb - and just leave out the carbs they eat whilst trying to be much on the same dinner. Breakfast and lunch, we all do our own thing anyway. That will just leave me to battle the temptation to give in to the regular glass of wine or two. But I think I can do it - not every week, but most weeks, which means I can still lose weight.
It took me a long time to gain all my weight - so right now, it's taking much less time to lose it. And I am getting faster round the tennis court!
Have a great week yourself - take care!
Doris
Comment by EICHHORNCHEN -