Silver, I am fascinated by the different mealtime terminology. Perhaps you could annotate your meals with times and we can compare? Here's what I think of as standard meals in the US. The name of the meal is dictated by the time of day, not by the formality level.
Breakfast -- typically anything you eat after you wake up and before 10am
Lunch -- eaten between 11am-2pm
Dinner/Supper -- eaten between 5pm-8pm
Brunch -- eaten between 10am-2pm in place of breakfast and lunch
Anything else is just a "snack." Also there are some parts of the country where lunch is called dinner I think? But in my neck of the woods lunch was the only thing at noontime and dinner and supper were both words for the evening meal.
In other news, I'm back from my business trip +1 lb. Not terribly bad. I did keep up with my workouts at least. Andrea, I like that one bowl idea. I've been toying with a similar idea since it stresses me out to calorie count all my recipes. I have been wondering if I could lose weight if I just said I will cook a healthy meal and not have seconds, and limit my snacks. Maybe adding that extra factor of the meal having to be 50% veggies would help.
1530 - small amount of cottage cheese with prawns, one apple, cup of rooibosch tea. (I am planning to drink the rest of the pot.) Oh no ... I think that prawns might be shrimp over there. The SO calls this mid-afternoon snack (he is younger than me and can speak more American than me - not hard.) I have no idea what I called this before I met him - if I even ate it! I think I didn't. Aaaaah - that's an interesting finding!
Prawns are indeed shrimp there. If I see the word "prawns" in a store ad or on packaging, I think of a particular mode of shrimp -- restaurant size, bigger than usual, deveined but otherwise intact.
And the less said about my weight, the better. Suddenly, I'm up to 157.4 without really being sure how this is happening.
I've always been a bit mystified about dinner and supper. All sorts of contradictory info on the web and also from Oxford and Webster. DH firmly believes it's a class distinction. I tend to use it more as an informal - we're having supper at home - vs formal - let's go out for dinner - distinction. My other two meals are breakfast (7 - 9 a.m.) and lunch (which for me happens during the week at 9:30 a.m. but is closer to noon - 2 p.m. for most folks I think), and I have an afternoon snack and an evening snack. That mostly accounts for the daily food intake for me.
Natalie likes to eat supper any time after 2 p.m. I'm trying to hold out until 5 so she won't come crying at 3 a.m. as she did this past morning. For someone who weighs 3.08 kilos/6.8 lbs. she sure can eat! Another labrador in a cat body?
I was at a big lunchtime meeting and afterward I was still sitting at the table with one other woman, a stranger, as we were the slowest to pack up our things. There were still a few trays half-full with the sandwiches and cookies provided. The other woman pulled out a big canvas lunch bag and piled a few of each food item inside. Then she looked at me as I stood up to go and said "I really shouldn't be doing this". I said "Why not, it's just going to waste?" She said "Well, I was really good for a long time and I lost about 50 pounds. But then I gained it all back, plus a lot more".
I didn't know what to say, I felt quite sad for her. I hope that she didn't think I was watching her put food in the bag, and therefore feel self-conscious and required to say something. It was a reminder to me that most of the time that we feel like we're being watched or judged, we're not. It's our own insecurity. Her use of the word "good" also made me sad. My recent foray into intuitive eating books has made me conscious of the ramifications of this type of "food police" thinking about food.
She wanted you to have mercy on her, to not judge her harshly: I am not what you think I am, from seeing me at my weakest moment, falling prey to my compulsion. I was once "good" and healthy.
Or she wanted reassurance from you: No, you are not a "bad" person for regaining weight or gathering up leftovers.
So when did someone's weight become a moral judgment on them? We act as though weight means we're carrying around a sign: "I am slothful, undisciplined, impulsive -- I am not a self-regulated mechanism worthy of the educated middle class."
Sometimes I just want to cry for us all: It isn't easy getting through this life.
Me, I'm down by a pound, as working in the office often does that for me, since there's no fridge or pantry nearby. I'm just relieved that my doctor didn't say anything about my weight at yesterday's appointment. They left me alone in the examination room for too long and I looked at my chart with my heart rate, which they always check with electrodes. I could see my weight has gone up yearly from 144 to 150 to 155 -- and this last weigh-in was 159. That was enough for me to see, without my doctor commenting.
Saef, amen to the moral judgment. Working here in an intensely competitive medical school environment can be a bit harsh. I've heard several researchers and students in the labs make disparaging comments about overweight people, in the "why do people CHOOSE to be unhealthy?" vein.
Ironically, that woman yesterday was talking to someone (me) who has nearly-unlimited sympathy for food and weight issues. I wish that I had said something to convey my understanding of her turmoil.
She wanted you to have mercy on her, to not judge her harshly: I am not what you think I am, from seeing me at my weakest moment, falling prey to my compulsion. I was once "good" and healthy.
Or she wanted reassurance from you: No, you are not a "bad" person for regaining weight or gathering up leftovers.
So when did someone's weight become a moral judgment on them? We act as though weight means we're carrying around a sign: "I am slothful, undisciplined, impulsive -- I am not a self-regulated mechanism worthy of the educated middle class."
Sometimes I just want to cry for us all: It isn't easy getting through this life.
Sorry for jumping in on this thread because i don't think i ever post on this one particular one, just kind of lurk but i agree..... i am exactly the same as that woman piling food into her bag, ONLY I'M SKINNY. I am the same.... wish there wasn't so much judgement, also.
JZJ, which med school? Are you near Michele in Davis? And, if you care to divulge, what is your area of research?
Nice thought re painting metaphor but it's a whole lot easier to paint with a brush that's cleaned and reshaped after use. IE being fit and healthy is preferable IMO to being out of shape and eating junk all the time.
Notice I didn't say we had to be thinner - just fit and healthy. I am now judging myself by that. It's not what my scale says but how I'm behaving - am I eating properly, trying to get enough sleep, staying away from the beer, taking breaks, etc. etc.
Down another pound this morning. My ticker is now true again.
The difference is, yesterday even though I worked from home, I felt less under pressure than usual and I didn't wander into the kitchen randomly. And I had something to look forward to at the end of the evening that had nothing to do with food, which was starting watching Season 2 of "Breaking Bad."
Been doing "no seconds" this week so far and my weight is trending down. At least, the weight from my business trip is gone and I'm at 165 today so hopefully Friday weigh-in will have me at 165 or below. I tweaked my knee in Monday's workout but it felt fine during today's workout, so that's good.
I ran into a woman in my work gym who was telling me how she had read some article that said that if you run just a little bit every day it's equivalent for your fitness to running multiple miles less frequently. She said even 1/2 mile is enough. Anyone know what this article is? I'm curious.
There was a report of a study last week about HIIT and, I think, older people and weight loss (but cd have been overall health). Probably on BBC website but not necessarily. Will look.
time to make supper
