Howdy, Stranger!
Categories
Family Eating
Running Kev
✭✭✭
I'm trying to lose weight and eat good "training food".
Whilst we don't always eat together as a family due to me coming home from work late we nearly always eat the same (we have 3 children 10, 6 and 5), with the children eating around 5:30pm and my Wife and I about 7:30 / 8:00pm.
This time of year my wife goes in to "overdrive" and makes winter warming massive casseroles, roast dinners (with gravy made with fat / flour), shepherds pies etc.. Plus there is usually enough left over for me to take to work the next day.
Tonight (after my run) we had roast duck dinner (duck crowns are on special in ASDA thiis week!) then she made pancakes filled with bananas cooked in butter and sugar and topped with vanilla ice-cream - I'm doomed - doomed I say!
The meals are all beautifully made from scratch but are full of calories and fat! So no good for me.
The rest of the family don't want to eat salads etc. this time of year so we are somewhat stuck! We don't want to go to the expense / hassle of eating separately.
Do any of you have the same issue and what do you do about it?
TIA
Kev
The materials in this website are in no way intended to replace the professional medical care, advice, diagnosis or treatment of a doctor, qualified personal trainer, therapist, dietitian or nutritionist Runners's World, Part of the Hearst UK well-being network © Copyright 2017
Comments
Why don't you just look for "lower fat" versions of all the lovely things your wife already makes, or reduce your portion sizes.
I can sympathise here.
I share a flat with two others and part of the deal for moving in was that we share the cooking and eat together. I was told it would be healthy before I moved in, but I should probably have thought that through more. One of my flatmates is obese and the other is a skinny near pro footballer. Both can consume HUGE amounts of food.
In our house it isn't so much that it is always unhealthy food, but the enormous portions that get put down in front of me. What i've started doing is just eating half the meal and then saving the rest for lunch the next day instead of trying to eat it all at once. I also always make sure I have some broccoli and salad in the house so if it is unhealthy I add that to my meal, and then when it's my turn too cook I make something really healthy to balance things out. Sometimes I change it a bit too, like the bigger flatmate likes to make nachos sometimes, so i'll have mine with brown rice instead of corn chips. She is also a compulsive baker and I used to feel like I was being rude if I didn't have some, but i've just started being honset recently and saying I can't eat that stuff all the time or i'll get fat and I won't be able to run! Harsh but true.
Could you suggest trying out some other meals and just be honest about it? I realise it's kind of hard when your wife is doing all the cooking though! Maybe you could cook some healthy different meals during the weekend?
Sounds tough. One of the main catalysts for me finally losing weight and keeping it off was when I started to shop and cook just for myself - and the person I kicked out was just my lodger!!
A few ideas...
- Most of my meals are prepared pretty quickly. Can you cook, and if so could you volunteer to prepare some meals as soon as you get back from work, thereby having more control over ingredients?
- Failing that can you drop subtle hints by giving your wife some healthy recipes or coming home with exotic vegetables and stuff?
- Do what you can in other areas of your diet. Think of the evening meal as the treat for the day and live like a saint wherever else you can. (i.e. eating good stuff, not starving yourself.)
Well that was easy to type. I do sympathise though - if I had someone cooking me all those goodies every day I think I might be a couple of pounds heavier. Good luck.
Lucky you
sounds healthy to me - (well apart from the desert) meat and veg are good for you - you do need fat in your diet! Have fruit for desert. Have smaller sizes but bulk out with salads or plain, steamed veg - even if you have to cook it separately it won't take long. Eat lighter thru the day.
D
Cheers for replies. Portion control is a good point - cooking for 5 we always end up with more than we need.
If I cook something myself we'll end up with different meals and the expense of two sets of ingredients.
Desserts - don't usually sucumb but home made pancakes.... mmmmm
I think I'll see if I can get recipes for lower fat versions of the same type / similar meals (e.g. quorn shepherds / cottage pie) and see if I can convince them to join me. As suggested, if I take iniative on a few then we may adjust over time.
Agree Phil, kind of a nice problem to have. My diet in the day is usually saintly (cereals / salads / fruit) - unless I take in last nights leftovers grrr.......
This rings true for me.
I agree cooking from scratch is better than ready prepared low cal/low fat preprepared stuff. The thing that worked for me was portion control, and increasing vegitable proportion of meal.
I'm trying to lose weight and cutting my portion sizes is what's working for me.
Just asking but does your wife know you want to lose weight, have you told her?
KK - I agree! I much prefer to have proper full fat, stuff once in a while, appreciating that it's a treat and making the most of it.
It's like meat / chicken - I know organic, free-range happy meat is way more expensive than the intensively reared crap, but I buy it. Knowing how much I've paid for it means I really appreciate it as a treat and ensures none of it goes to waste. We've grown too used to meat everyday, when we should realise it's special and should be regarded as such.
Could you have the same meal but two versions??
Im in training at the moment..tonight we are having Bangers and Mash.
My boyf will have potato and sweet potato mash and 'proper sausages' and I will have sausages that are reduced fat and sweet potato mash with no butter or milk addedd. I buy both proper and reduced fat packs and freeze them. Really I would like the full fat version but will keep that for a treat fry up.
With the pancakes...cant you have them once a week as a treat?? or change it so everyone in the house has certain treat food once a week.
Hi,
Never actually posted anything on any of these forums despite having a daily read of ppl's do's and dont's etc, but this is something i feel i may be able to add to. I recently (in the last 15 mths) have lost 4 stone through the slimming world diet and took up running seriously about 3 months ago now I'm down to my ideal weight. Whilst I need to eat more than the diet allows now as I'm training, I've stuck with a lot of the basic principles of it and being a bit savvy you can cut out loads of excess calories but not changing food habits too much. Should also add that my dad didnt do the diet but roughly followed it by eating main meals with us after seeing what we were eating and lost 2.5 stones making some small but important changes.
If your wife makes dinners from scratch then you've got a massive head start as you can make most things healthy quite easily if you want to, and are not forced into the fat/salt/sugar of processed food. I always eat salad for lunch but have homemade hot dinners virtually every night and am still losing weight despite not needing to so it can be done! Use fry light instead of oil for frying things and for roasting eg potatoes etc - you learn not to notice or mind the difference. Use water from boiled veg for gravy, bases for soups and casseroles etc - pretty tasty and v healthy. Make creamy sauces from scratch using some skimmed milk instead of all butter (bearneise sauce can still be delicious and much healthier), make fruit sauces with splenda (sugar substitute) or for better flavour do a half and half with sugar. We eat a lot of casseroles with a pureed/chopped tomato base - no added cra* in it. One of my favourites are homemade baked crispy chips, which I would take any day now over deep fried chips - means you can have chips as many nights of the week as you like!
Puddings are a bit tougher. I eat sugar free jelly with low fat choc mooses a lot - good one for kids too and they wouldnt have to have the no-sugar version of jelly, although I cant tell the difference. With regards to hot puddings we make a lot of crumbles with fruit, splenda and porridge oats on top. If you leave the porridge oats on top soaking for a few hrs before cooking then the top goes all gooey like a proper crumble and still tastes delicious. For a less severe version you can obviously mix regular topping with porridge oats and put sugar/splenda together with the fruits. I can honestly say I'd pick a healthy homemade crumble over a full-fat version now any day.
Have plenty more suggestions for ways to make cooking healthier - like bologneise, fish & meat pies and more dessert recipes if anyone's interested.....and am not an ambassador for slimming world, just seems a no-brainer to permanently adopt the things that are healthy but still really tasty.
Thanks for replies. I have told my Wife that I want to lose weight and she has suggested I eat seperate from them which I don't want to do.
I will check out the Slimming World options and try and mix and match the same meal (e.g. shepherds pie with a small side portion made with quorn).
Also I'm going to buy some new smaller plates to help with the portion control.
Desserts - just say no!
Well done annavic and thatnks for the detailed reply / tips.
Just a idea about potion control, I only cook for me unless mates come round for a chin wag, Want I do for a lot of caserlole/meal type stuff is freeze what I don't need and simply bung in the microwave or oven depending what it is next time. Save's a lot on waste and also makes meal time very cheap without having to but sh*t food.
Portion control is the biggie for me. Me and my SO do a lot of homemade meals but its still very easy to consume far more calories than we need to just bu having a big plateful.
Just take a look at where you could cut out some unnecessary cals/fat.....mash potatoes for instance: Do you really need a big blob of butter in there to help mash it? Just pour a little skimmed milk in there if needs be. Also I recently bought some lean mince from Asda but still managed to drain off a fair amount of fat once I'd browned it off in the pan. Remove and discard excess fat off cuts of meat and skin off chicken.
Big puddings are a real comforter! I adore jam roly poly or spotted dick and custard but limit these puds to once a week. I will now have fruit or a yoghurt for a pud for the rest of the week.
The fact that you have the motivation to eat more healthily means the battle has nearly been won.
Potion control Cake??? Now if only there was a potion for weight loss
I agree too!
Your body has trouble digesting the "fake" sugars/sweetners which are added therefore they are essentially wasted calories and the sweetners aren't utilised by the body..
Sauces are generally the devil's work (as in Jars of sauces) as they're laden with salt/sugar, so try and strip down the cooking (which your wide sounds like she does already) and keep the ingredients as natural as possible.
Try not to eat too late either.. if you can try and eat before 8pm?
Thanks for all replies!
Started my new healthier eating today. Changes include:
1. Portion Control. I have bought a small plate for myself and will eat one plate of the meal maximum, no seconds.
2. I won't take left over shepherd pies etc to work. Lunches will be very light - e.g. sardines, cous cous.
3. We have tried to pick healthier meal choices and gravy etc. will have no fat
4. I have given up alcohol
Fingers crossed!
Cheers
Kev
Jenni calling his wife a "wide" is probably a bit out of order... heh heh
Good luck Kev, hope it works for you!