is "What's for dinner, Mom?" unless I happen to be having an extraordinarily organized week where I've gone to the store, planned the menus for each day and have those ingredients handy. Dinner time is a great time for the family to gather and catch up and I have to say when I look back on the years gone by with the kids I'm glad I made the effort most of the time. I've
already confessed that my menus have had to change over the years. If you look at the picture on the left it's chicken kabobs with couscous and nectarine salsa and was from a Weight Watcher's recommended cooking light site. It was hard finding
a picture of a healthy meal but let's talk about what's for dinner.
You know the drill by now so what you need to incorporate in your evening meal will be the following:
DINNER
An entree
2 servings of veggies
Either a salad or a fruit serving
If you haven't had your fat you can save it for dinner. So what we're talking about here is maybe a deck of card sized portion of lean meat, say, chicken, fish, lean beef, or turkey. You can make a salad to go along or under it or you can have two veggies and add a fruit on the side. Since I'm not a big veggie lover and because I had a problem not grazing while I made everyone else's dinner I used one of my veggies while I was making dinner. Campbell's sells a six pack of small tomato juice which I think is about 30 calories. I poured it chilled into a glass and sipped it while I made dinner. No vodka either! It helped give me something to put in my mouth and kept me out of the other food I was making and got one of those darn veggie servings out of the way, yeah! I prefer fruit to salad - I could do one salad a day but two was pretty much too much on most days. So a little meat, a little broccoli, 1/3rd of a cantaloupe or 1/2 banana and I was good to go with the tomato juice and water. But that's really a strategy if you've got the patience to do all that and stick to portion control while also making enough to feed others. When I started out I didn't have that kind of resistance so I used my pre-packaged portion controlled meals to start until portions were second nature to me and the "big dinner plate" was a thing of the past. If you're not on a plan, one thing you can consider is the gazillion entrees in the grocery store that are prepackaged. Lean Cuisine is pretty good and has a good variety. There are several other choices in those freezer sections. I happen to know Lean Cuisine is cost effective, generally under $3 - $4/meal and sometimes significantly less if you have coupons or hit a sale and you don't have to think except to add a veggie if it's short one or add your fruit depending. You need to watch things by reading labels like total calories - something below 300 is good, closer to 200 is better if you're adding stuff, and watch the salt too. Hopefully there's some real protein in those meals because you'll need that to feel satisfied.
I also want to encourage you to get creative with recipes. There are a ton of sites out there that offer lean cooking and new ideas for what to put on your plate at night. Maybe now is the time to search out a new recipe once a week and try it for the family or maybe there's a site that has a whole week's menus planned out for you. However you go about it watch the portions! My cereal bowls always got me in trouble at breakfast and when I served a big bowl of chili with cornbread in it on a cold evening not only was the one serving too much, I used to have 2 servings. Those big dinner plates hold an awful lot of food and not only is it bad for you to eat that much at the end of the day and then sit in front of the TV or computer but it costs a lot too! I'm pretty lazy so when I want to control what I'm eating I just switch back to Lean Cuisine and it's fast, easy and inexpensive.
I did continue to cook regular meals for my family while I managed my weight loss but some of the things that were more healthful found their way into our eating habits as a family and it really took off when my husband reached an age where he couldn't vacuum the table and not gain an ounce any longer. My youngest started on healthy eating early on due to football, weight training and just watching what was going on around him and I'm proud to say that the calls I got from school when he first went about what foods were the healthy ones were really gratifying. He hasn't gained any weight at school - in fact he's lost some but that's because he's crewing - already an exercise addict and don't you wish you started that when you were a teenager!!
By the way if you're not feeling overwhelmed I'd be surprised. Even when everything I ate came in a big box with instructions from my plan and I just had to add a few side items it was pretty overwhelming at first. Learning anything new generally is and typically the things that are most valuable require the most input by you. This is by you for you and you're worth it so take the time to figure some things out. Yes, it's much easier to just do what you've done for a thousand years, I should know! It's been more than six years for me on the "new way" and certainly things have evolved over time for me but I have generally been successful because I realized how much better I felt as a human after I got that extra person off me. I have clothes I like to wear now not the endless black skirt or slacks habit. I can go up and down stairs with ease. My B/P is normal. I don't have to listen to the ugly voice inside my head making me feel bad if I reach for a cookie or a snack at a party that wonders if everyone else is wondering how I can not notice that I've gained a lot of weight over the years. So hang in there and celebrate your successes when you lose 5 lbs and 10 lbs. Do find a way to reward yourself but not with food. Those days are behind you. Do you like earrings? What about some cute shoes? Maybe a new lipstick or hair ornament? Whatever tools you can use to make it easier, do it and smile because you can beat this and change! You're awesome so let yourself be your most awesome self.
When you add up your servings of fruits and veggies for the day you should be getting about 3 fruit servings a day and 3-4 veggie servings a day along with protein and dairy which is terrific! Don't forget your water. Oh and dessert's on the way!
Enjoy! Talk with your family, laugh, share your days news and eat well. Get right up after you're done and go do something more active than you're used to. You'll be so very glad you did!
HV-13
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