Feeding your family = weighing 20 stone ??

We were supposed to go out today but the snow has prevented that. I shall have to start doing something productive like craft or else I'll find myself baking

I haven’t read all the comments but I think probably, we have huge portions these days-of everything. Apart from not being as active, I can’t see why else we put on weight in a way we didn’t years ago. This thread has inspired me to try just having a bit less...so I can bake for example, but cut myself a small slice of cake instead of the huge one I usually have! The problems come when you’re on holiday and buy food out- I find the portions too big but eat it mostly, anyway.

Yes gmelon...eat more than melons! Try a pie or two. Six stone st our age is scraggy!

My late husband liked to cook, but would never attempt baking. I think that he thought it was a bit cissy! He loved my baking, though, especially apple pie and coconut pyramids. I don’t bake now that he is gone, just buy now and again.

I'm a size 6, an American 2 or 4. I was a 0. It's the correct size for my height, 4' 11 or kids 152!! It's impossible to buy clothes and I've never been able to just go out and buy a dress or trousers. Shoes also. I used to be a size 3 1/2 but now that size is a 3. Who stocks that size, or if so very little choice? All those tall models starve themselves and the fasion industry is still mostly using models that size. It's not a good example to our youngsters. Most shops don't stock a size 6 and never have. People say how lucky I am but I would so like being able to buy clothes that fit. But being over 60 I do watch what I eat. It's a great idea to freeze cake in portion sizes, I do that. Sorry for the rant, but it's been a life long problem.

I have always loved to bake and rarely buy pre made food. My test is always to adapt whatever I am making to be low fat and low sugar ... it doesn’t always go to plan ! Some cakes are so bland, Nutella has been applied to make them edible for all !

I started to collect Vintage Crockery as my DD1 and I were going to start a hire company, however it became such a difficult thing to set up that now all of it is in crates in my shed, which we don’t discuss, as DH says I should sell it, but it’s so pretty! And I do rotate it to use indoors. I lend it to anyone who wants to have a tea party or Christening, but they need a large car to move it. So there it sits, in my shed.
But the dishes are tiny, as are the cups and dinner plates, they obviously ate a lot less back in the day.

missadventure jalimall08
A further giggle for you both.
It is me who collects crockery! Oopsadaisy mentioned it first. Then me at 19.52.
Blame it on Saturday night beverages?

MissA Sat 17-Mar-18 20:19:47
LOL

On that note, I'm off to bed, giggling as I go!

gmelon frozen strawberries go v mushy but in fact they are fine in a smoothie - so I keep some in the freezer for when DGD asks 'can we make smoothies please?'

Oh, its not you who collects crockery.
Ok, well kind of like someone else's crockery collection then.

Could you buy pretty tins and containers to keep the new food supplies in? Kind of like an extension of your crockery collection?

bluebell Thank you. I've really been the same as you, don't have food in the house. That was easy when I didn't buy for little grandchildren and very hungry adult son. Hence the revived interest in cooking and baking.

I'm getting by in front of them at the moment by cooking , from scratch, nice healthy meals for them, but it will be something I dislike to eat. So I'm safe from temptation there.

Buying in cakes and biscuits that I don't like. Not baking them yet. The sugar police allow the children a certain ration!

Having food in the house is so hard, I feel uncomfortable. It's not the temptation as none of it is to my taste.
Feel like flinging it all out and having clean cupboards again.

oopsadaisy Great advice all along. Thank you. I had not thought of hypnosis. Oh and yes plates both dinner and side are much bigger. I remember my Grandma buying a full dinner service in the early seventies. She was puzzled to receive two sets of circular dinner plates in two sizes. She deemed the larger size "disgusting because no one would be rude enough to eat so much " They never saw the light of day, confined to a dark cupboard for life.
Since then plates are even bigger.
Bowls are cavernous now. I collect crockery, as old as I can find (and afford). Dessert bowls were miniscule and very shallow. That's how they fitted into those corsets! I love your name oopsadaisy.

nelliemoser you made me smile. "Maybe it's time for cake". Brilliant attitude.

missadventure Flowers. How lovely, thank you.

jalimall08 Smoothies look nice, I have a friend who puts oats in as well before whizzing it up.. An "on the go" breakfast.

silverlining48 Thank you. They are a joy.
As an encouragement to never give up hope I shared this story of reunion on the estranged Grandparents thread. They were very positive and interested.
Then suddenly certain people tried to mix me up in their row about which was the genuine thread. Apparantley there are two.

Personal messages arrived in my gransnet box.
I withdrew from the thread.
Anyone know what that's all about?

I d like to congratulate you on such an incitful attitude to your life problems I do hope you find an answer I ve got zero control over food if it’s in the house so try not to buy things I really love more than once a week
I ve also had a 6 stone period not because I thought I was fat but through sheer unhappiness now it’s the opposite if I get unhappy I look for food . Guess we never get it right really

gmelon such good news about your son and family being in your life after so long. Delighted for you.

I'm asking advice on how to stop being a greedy guts in the face of temptation.

I could be a greedy guts if faced with temptation - if I baked a cake I could, over a few days, eat quite a lot of it and DH would have a slice or two. I rarely bake, but if I do I freeze portions and if not faced with it, I can forget about it.
Sometimes my will power is just fine but if I am anxious it wavers. I found a very large box of chocolates which I bought at Christmas and forgot about - as I have decided not to eat chocolate for Lent it is in the sideboard and I think about it occasionally but haven't opened it.

If I was on my own I would cook healthy, tasty meals when I was in the mood or felt like cooking and freeze. As it is, I cook most days (sometimes freezing extra in portions too).

DS and DIL don't eat sweet things but they don't mind if the DGC have some occasionally. DGD's favourite thing to make is a smoothie - easy to make, drink and probably full of calories so that could be an idea for you (banana, fruit, full fat yogurt or milk and she likes to add good icecream too).

"bagatelle" Thank you for telling me you story.

Wonderfully detailed advice from you all.
Freeze things, give baked treats away, my neighbours will love the Gransnetters for this.
I've four grandchildren , recently arrived in my life and my heart. Estranged son got in touch after 9yrs with a surprise of wife and four children.
Unfortunately/fortunately they are the sugar police parents.

gmelon thanks for telling the full story. I was anorexic in my teens until I got away from my mother and I've never been over weight, but I lost a stone after a 'bad' time in life 10 years ago and managed to keep it off and then another stone after another 'bad' time a few years later. For me, keeping the scales handy and weighing once a week does it. If my weight hasn't changed, that's OK. If it has gone up then biscuits and second helpings go and the dog gets an extra mile a day. Everyone's weight varies a bit, depending on hormones, weather, water retention etc. but regular weighing and not letting my belt out seems to work. The big incentive is that my knee and hip problems disappeared with the second stone, although I do more heavy lifting as my husband's carer, and I don't want them back. I'm more active than I was before I retired, and most of my baking goes home with my daughters-in-law so I don't get fat on it. They don't either, although they assure me that they love the cake! Maybe that's another bonus - 'brownie' points from daughters-in-law!

On a slightly different note, does anyone realise the size of dinner plates nowadays? I have masses of vintage crockery
( long story, which we don’t mention at home) and the dinner plates are so much smaller than modern ones.
When I get back from holiday I’m going to start using them, portion control is on its way...... only problem is that I’ll have to hand wash them.

Gmelon, if you really miss baking can you find some neighbours who would appreciate your efforts? I was trying some American cake recipes with ‘frosting’ on, I knew that if I started to sample them I would eat them all.
I have a few elderly neighbours, they nearly bit my arm off when I took the plates around. Problem was that it became a bit expensive, but it gets the need to bake out of my system now and again.

I'm sure the fact that you recognise the depth of your denial that there's a problem is a positive, though.
A problem shared is a problem halved, so 'they' say.

I've had psychiatric care for the last few years . I can't co- operate with the advice. I think I'm fine when I'm in that mindset.
I get very beligerent.
I agree with the medical professionals that ultimately it's in my hands to change.

I think a good few people struggle with what is a healthy attitude to eating nice food.
I know I do!