Feeding your family = weighing 20 stone ??

I used to bake and cook a lot when the kids were at home, but if I did it now I would just end up eating too much for an absolute certainty. We dont have cakes or biscuits and dessert is fruit except at the weekend. I even struggle with buying a large loaf because I cant resist the temptation to avoid waste by converting it into yummy toast. I believe there is a charity you can join where volunteers host a tea party on Sundays for lonely older people. I dont know anything about it, but it might provide an opportunity for some lovely baking without ending up eating the results. Our village also has Easter, Summer, Christmas etc events where home baked cakes are sold to raise funds for good causes.

and you Gabriella, as long as it's just a spoonful.
He likes leftovers for the next day.

Someone mentioned apple crumble. Are there any leftovers you need me to clear away. Am very efficient.
So is DH but I'm sure he'll let you have a small bowful.

It is a gf one btw - but crumble comes out OK, it's gf pastry that is a disaster.
No sugar in the apples.

Fran0251 I'm another one who is only 4ft 11ins and a size 6, well sometimes I am a size 8, depends where I buy my clothes as in some shops even the size 6 is too big! I also find it a huge problem finding clothes that fit, even though lots of shops do petite ranges they don't have much to try on in the shops, you tend to have to order online.

I used to bake a lot, all my own sourdough bread and loads of cakes. I went to college for 6mths to learn cake decorating and the house was always full of cake, but I used to either get my OH to take cake to work or I would just freeze it and take out as needed. Now he's retired I don't bake so much as our time is taken up with other things

harrigran

Vegetarians eat dairy and wheat which are supposed to be 'fattening'.
Your daughter must have slim genes.
I've been a vegetarian for 40+ years and never been less than UK size 12. I'm now a 16 top 14 bottom half, weigh about 10-8 and 5-7 in height.
I have full fat everything, french butter, cream etc and regularly eat cakes, biscuits puddings, many home-made.
Each to their own, it would be boring if we were all the same.

Someone mentioned apple crumble. Are there any leftovers you need me to clear away. Am very efficient.

Mmmm...apple crumble.
Custard too maybe?

You're obviously not 'in trouble' with the results of baking as you're a size 6. Just keep on doing what you're doing.
Personally, I prefer to be a more huggable size 14 bottom 16 top with a curvy figure.

I'm making an apple crumble .....

although I am not under 9 stone.

Thanks for your interesting posts. I am a sugar addict, boredom and comfort eater who 'tidies away' leftovers into my stomach, and I know what I should eat and how much of it, but have no willpower to lose weight on my own. I found that I could only stick to losing weight by joining a slimming group and paying out good money for it. Committing my money, and myself to being weighed each week works for me. After losing just a stone my knees dont hurt any more, I dont have to go to the loo as often, and my back hurts less. Am now 10 stone 3lb at 5' 4" tall. Less pain is a big bonus. Any slimming group will work. Try one out. If you are under 9 stone please eat cake.

I bake cakes and ration myself to one piece of cake or a scone a day. Otherwise I would be like the Michelin man.

My family help me out with the cakes too as they are very big hearted.

oopsadaisy do not sell. Enjoy your link with the past. A very pretty link.

If husband insists you sell then I'll buy the lot! Either that or I'll arrange to have him bumped off for you.

to you all. There's real care and thought on this site.

Meandshy so sorry that you're struggling with similar.
ailsa43 MS, not fun at all. Thank you for your good wishes.

For those looking for a smaller dinner plate I'd recommend Salad plates from Denby.

They are the size of older dinner plates.. Available new, high Street, online, or even better at Denby outlets where everything is cheaper, seconds are piled high, the "fault" usually a tiny pinhead size dark dot in the intact glaze.

You'll find new or unused on ebay in any amount from single plate upwards.

I've lots of vintage Denby mostly from the seventies. They've always done a salad plate.

I use salad plates for most of my meals, when I was diagnosed as Diabetic I was given a menu planner wheel, it gives portion sizes, yes we all tend to put too much on our plates.

I rarely bake but I do make delicious soups & casseroles which I portion out & freeze for the following weeks. My "ready meals" are home made but useful if I'm out during the day. Lots of fresh or frozen veg & 2 portions of fruit per day (natural sugars). I try not to have biscuits or cake in the house, my vice is dark chocolate

Yes portion control, the amount we are given/allow ourselves is huge compared to what my mum would have dished up years ago there is also such a large choice and supermarket shopping doesn't help. We also 'treat' ourselves much more now. You are slim gmelon and have some difficult health issues so I guess you are not really eating too many unhealthy foods. Just try and make sure you eat from each food section, dairy, carbs etc.and enjoy

When I was young my mother baked cakes a fair bit. And we ate them! We ate bars of chocolate and bought bags of sweets from jars in the sweetie shop and drank full sugar pop. We never gave a thought to 'bad teeth' or 'calories'. Yet I don't remember hoards of overweight children. Happy days. I suppose it's confirmation that we were more active and we perhaps didn't eat the daily quantity of sweets, crisps etc that the youth of today seem to eat.

We need to be able to buy much smaller plates. We used to be able to buy smaller plates as lunch or breakfast plates but these have disappeared.

Now all plates are dinner-sized and the latest fad is for huge coup plates with a lip to stop your food from dropping off!

...smaller plates should be a thing with plenty of selection on our high streets, in our malls on online.

Not quite as small as those tapas plates.

Portion control needs to appeal to our eyes as well.

Fran0251gmelon Fran thanks why on earth didn't I do it? It's so sensible what you said;
great idea to freeze cake in portion sizes, I already freeze slices of bread ready to toast if I have too much. I'm on my own so it's not easy to eat everything before it goes off.
I'm scared I've missed the point somewhere and might not have been helpful in my previous comment gmelon. I'm really sorry if this is so. I do struggle not to add to my already flabby body. I used to be extremely active and on the go so kept nice and trim, then became disabled so now I can't walk far and the pain prevents almost all useful exercise. Result = fat me, unless I cut back on food intake. Good luck with the baking for the family. I do understand! I give all the leftover cake to them to take home.

Lost half a stone off my already skinny frame when I had bad flue and went down to under eight stone. Looked awful! Took ages to put back on but am now around 8st 11 and feel and look so much better. Too skinny is as bad as too fat but no has any reticence in telling you, you are too skinny!!

gmelon I just want to say, after reading all of this thread, that you sound like a lovely lady, and I'm sorry about the MS my brother has it as did my late M-I-L.
I am only petite yet I have the oppostie problem, I just can't stop eating, through sheer boredom sometimes I think, and I have a few medical issues that prevent me exercising to any great extent although I try, even just 15 minutes walk every other day, leaves me very breathless as I live on top of a steep hill and I have asthma, but like you I've lost and gained stones, several times over the last 10 years, but always end up putting it all back on even though I've gone through real difficulty losing it in the first place. I'm less than 5 feet tall, but weigh 12 stones. It's very depressing.

I just wish there was a magic way to lose or gain weight.
However, I wish you good luck, and the best health you can hope for.

gmelon wow, size 6 is small. However I couldn't agree more. Unless my family are visiting, - they all live a long way away - i dare not make cake especially flapjack. I would just eat it all! Why is Mary Berry so petite? well done for your neat size gmelon. love from L size 16

gmelon you sound like you're struggling with food and have been all your adult life.
You can acknowledge that the advice from professionals is sound but you're unable to follow it. That's called addiction.
I have the opposite problem to you. I am addicted to food. Sugery food to be precise. But I'm diabetic. I know eating sugar is killing me. I know I could go blind. I'm in denial. I haven't been honest with the Drs at all. I tell them my blood sugar results are due to carbs that I eat.
I don't have any answers for you but I send you a virtual hug and best wishes ⚘

Gmelon.
Common sense and willpower.
Knowing what is GOOD / RIGHT for you and STICKING to it.

I bake one cake which roughly lasts 7 to 10 day’s in an airtight tin.
I cook a lot of meals over the week for my h and gd and myself, which a normally healthy meals.
We don’t eat huge meals now, we’ll never did anyway.
I find keeping to a sensible eating pattern of little but often is best. It’s harder in the cold weather to get out and walk and so I do light exercises to keep me mobile and keep busy through the day. My weakness used to be picking, biscuits etc.