The first week in the May Weightloss Challenge is over. Time to weigh in: no change. But that’s okay. I did really well all week long until the weekend. Saturday was centered around eating a big lunch and birthday dinner, complete with a Bruster’s Ice Cream cake (chocolate cake and chocolate raspberry truffle ice cream, if you are interested). Yummy!!! Sunday was Mother’s Day and I just didn’t have a plan. That was my downfall there. I’m just happy I didn’t gain anything, and I’m back on track this week.
The biggest challenge I am facing, and it’s not the first time, is cooking dinner for the family. My husband likes down-home-cookin’. He thinks a fresh picked green bean has the same nutritional value as one that’s been simmering in a pot of bacon grease for 2 hours. That’s how he eats his “vegtables” (can they even be called that at that point?)
I like to cook for him. I think it’s a nice thing to do for him, having dinner prepared when he gets home after working all day. The house smells warm and inviting. But we don’t see eye to eye on what to eat. And who am I to say, “No meatloaf and mashed potatoes for you Dear, I don’t care if you have been working outside for the last 10 hours. Here, have this nice crisp lettuce salad and a raspberry vinegrette.”
So this is truly my issue to own. I have some thoughts going forward for the week ahead. Tonight I am fixing him his favorite roast with potatoes and carrots. There will be creamed corn and yeast rolls on the side. I figure I have 2 options. One, I can try to eat a small portion of the meal. But that will be hard. Especially with the rolls.
Two, I can just simply fix the dinner for him and leave it alone. I think dinner time is one of my weaknesses anyways. I eat out of GUILT most nights. I feel like I should eat it, because I fixed it and there are starving people in Africa (thanks Mom for that one). I feel like society tells us that we should sit down together as a family and eat dinner, even though I have already eaten breakfast and lunch with 2 outa 3 of them. And lots of nights I eat dinner soley because it’s dinner time, regardless of the fact that I was only able to eat my lunch an hour before.
So moving forward I am going to try to get these preconceived ideas out of my head and eat more sensibly. As for what I will be preparing, well I’ve had to talk to Jeremy about his food preferences recently anyways because a close friend of ours had a stroke. He made the comment, “I’m afraid that will be me someday”. So I took that opportunity to plug some healthy meal options and basically explained that he could wait until after having a major problem and let the doctor completely restrict his diet, or he could add some healthier choices in the week now, and maybe get a taste for some different foods.
He agreed and I have found one recipe that he enjoyed so far. I’ll post it here in case anyone else has a meat-n-potatoes man in their house they are trying to please as well.
I call it simply Chicken Pasta Salad: Take Betty Crocker’s Suddenly Salad (Classic flavor) box mix. Prepare it according to box directions (I use olive oil in place of vegtable oil for some health benefits). Then add cut up, cooked chicken breasts. Then I throw in whatever fresh vegtables we have in the fridge. Last time I added zucchini, yellow squash, cherry tomatoes (halved), carrot shavings, and broccoli. It’s very tasty!
8 Comments
Hi Jodi
Yip I find it hard cooking for a family who like such different food!I am forever reminding them……”This is not a hotel! now eat what you get!Q
Just keep at it! You can do it!
Fifi
It *was* Mother’s Day Sunday. :) One thing you can do if you’re having a good old home cooked meal is fill up 3/4 of your plate with vegetables and then the meat and potatoes. It’s a little trick that may just get you through the meal with pleasure, knowing you’re still on you way.
I like your attitude. Keep it up and you will be losing lots of weight! Good job1
You are going to do just fine, I’m sure. It was only the first week.
I don’t think the “starving people in Africa” :) will care whether you eat the meat and potatoes or the salad…but I believe, strongly, that YOU will benefit from sitting down with the family at supper time (especially as the kids get older) regardless of what you choose to eat.
Here’s your old friend agreeing with Mom. What matters is that you are all together. I guess it
is up to us to have the will power not to eat so much! Oh boy, that is the hard part. The kids
will probably get the most out of “family Diinner time” since they have not seen Daddy as much during the day.
Sometimes dinner is where we find out the neat stuff that happened that day.
My husband likes to take leftovers to work for lunch, so that keeps me from pigging out! Is that an option for Jeremy?
That does sound good! It is good to give our husbands the foods they love, but in moderation. Even though they “deserve” stuff they love, they have us in charge of that in the home, so we need to make good choices for them. They will learn to like it. Besides, its not all about dh, we have to train our kids to be good eaters, not eat like our dh’s like to eat. I’m thinking once or twice a week having the more fatty meal would be ok, and then good food the rest. I’m still trying to work it through in my head.