Eating everything on your plate is not a good idea - but Moms' rules are hard to break, even as an adult.
Tradition – Moms' Rules
How many of you grew up in a family where mom always said, "young man/lady - finish what's on your plate" or "you should be so lucky to have a good meal" or the many other wonderful pieces of advice mom gave us about food.
So how many of you followed diligently what mom taught? How many of you still follow that advice? Ok, now how many of you are overweight adults or have overweight kids? I thought so.
Mom had good sense, and taught us the essentials that we needed to help us through some tough years growing up – but now we've grown up and it is time for us to make our own decisions and to re-think some of things that were taught when we were growing up. If we don't make these changes to our lives right now, we'll bring up our own children the same way. Don't get me wrong; there is nothing that our parents taught us that did us any harm. But we need to decide, at least when it comes to food, what is good and bad for us.
In my house, growing up we always ate what was on our plate even if we couldn't. The result has been disastrous. Both my younger brother and I are overweight, and have been dealing with weight issues for some time.
Waste Not, Want Not
Cooking can be a passion for some, or a necessary evil for others. Luckily my wife enjoys it. But she grew up in a family where there were 5 brothers and 4 other sisters. Her older siblings had children – and as such there was always an extended family. In a family this size, you always cooked a lot. Thankfully my wife knew how to portion and cook less – but we usually cooked for several days at a time.
That resulted in the same dish for several days – blah, boring. That would also mean that we'd eat more of what was made, even if that meant filling our plate up with more than we should have – remember what mom taught us about not throwing food away?
When my doctor told me in no uncertain terms "Do or die" we drastically changed our eating habits at home. Cooking for one day was a lot of work – but it meant that my wife made less, usually enough for the both of us and maybe a little extra for lunch the next day. You know, we started to both enjoy food much, much more! There was more variety every day. I didn't eat Curried Pilaf with Chicken for three days in a row, but had it one day, then the next it may have been Okra Curry, or Karela Curry, or perhaps a low-fat, low-sodium version of Chicken Curry with low-fat, low-sodium rotis, or a tasty Chicken or Beef Roast with carrots, tomatoes and potatoes. Variety is the spice of life, and we were getting a lot of it!
Not only did we save our bodies, but also we saved money on food not thrown away; on groceries we didn't need to buy because we only bought what we needed. I think our monthly grocery bill dropped by at least 10-20% We no longer bought a 6 month supply of beef or chicken – we bought it as we needed it. It may have cost more – but it was fresh, and fresh food tastes much better than something frozen for 6 months.
Even now when we do cook more than we need (and put it onto our plates), it doesn't go into the bottomless pit called the stomach – instead it will get thrown away (sorry, mom). From this we learned, quickly, not to cook more than we need. There is a saying in my native tongue (Gujrati) that says, "pet chey ke pakachoo chey?" The word "pet" translates to stomach, and pakachoo translates roughly to "garbage" the word "chey" translates roughly to "is that" and "ke" translates to "or" – so what do you have? "Is that your stomach or a garbage can?"
We are now expecting our first child; both my wife and I have been on the heavy side for most of our lives. We are determined NOT to raise a heavy child so we're already planning what kind of sports we will get him/her involved in, how we'll behave around food, where we will allow food to be eaten in the house, what happens if we don't eat all the food on our plates – and it certainly won't be shoveled into the stomach, if it has to go in the garbage, so be it or perhaps it may be saved for later.
Don't be scared to throw away what is on your plate. Why would you want to eat it, if you know you can't? Why deal with the guilt that is often associated with over eating at the dinner table, and with binging? Learn to enjoy the tastes, textures, and aromas of the food you eat – eat less, more often.
With careful planning, and talking with your partner to help you with your weight loss and lifestyle change goals not only will you save money, but you will save the one thing that is more precious than money – your life.
About the Author
Mohammed lost 100lbs in one year without using drugs, surgery or fad diets. He is using his knowledge to help others battle their weight problems by promoting natural weight loss methods, including Setting SMART Goals, and motivation. Mohammed also publishes a PDF newsletter on a monthly basis, sign-up at the website. For more information visit his site at http://www.lose-weight-n-feel-great.com.