Habitual Nourishment - Family Meal at My Parents House

I knew we were having supper at my Mom’s last night so I planned ahead. I made sure to have a proper breakfast (smoothie) and a good lunch (salad, and I remembered the chick peas). I even did 50 minutes on the treadmill!

Since mom was serving prime rib with all the trimmings I knew I better come prepared so I made a big salad… which I forgot…

We did stop at Costco to pick up a box of mixed greens so I felt a bit prepared.

My initial plan was to eat my salad and forgo all the other stuff. I’m afraid I’m just not that strong. I stared at those baguettes with cream cheese and smoked salmon (in fact I made them) – they were in my face for ages – but I held out. I was weakening though. As supper preparations were underway my plan started evolving to just having a tiny piece of beef, and just 1 Yorkshire pudding. The sweet potato and steamed broccoli were of course a go (thanks Mom for not adding a cheese sauce to the broccoli, and pulling out my sweet potato before adding the sugar).

I tried to resist it all, but the idea of moderation seemed more and more attractive. And then there’s the fact that my Mom’s a good cook and surely I didn’t want to insult her (well, that is a bit of a stretch cause Mom is not that petty, but it seemed like a good excuse). Plus there were Yorkshire puddings and the package said just 30 calories each (not including the 1/2 tsp of butter). Yorkshire pudding is one of my favourite foods.

So I did it. I loaded my plate up with salad, squeezed on some broccoli and sweet potato, added a tiny piece of meat and one Yorkshire pudding. And enjoyed.

When I logged the meal I saw that it stayed within reason and aside from the high fat and cholesterol it wasn’t all bad. Except for the ice cream and cake. They made the meal topped out with around 48 grams sugar, most of it added (that’s 12 teaspoons gag).

You know how everyone thinks red meat is the best source of iron – compare 4oz of prime rib with the mixed baby greens. Also compare calories and fat. Which is the healthier choice?

Thankfully I had my smoothie and salad to keep the daily totals in reasonable ranges (except for calcium and potassium). I did go over calories for the day, but not much (assuming my estimates were good).

You can see the problem I have with sticking to a diet – there is always something to foil me. I should make a chart to track which days I stay on course – it might motivate me? (I love charts and graphs!)