The first week in the May Weightloss Challenge is over. Time to weigh in: no change. But that’s okay. I did really well all week long until the weekend. Saturday was centered around eating a big lunch and birthday dinner, complete with a Bruster’s Ice Cream cake (chocolate cake and chocolate raspberry truffle ice cream, if you are interested). Yummy!!! Sunday was Mother’s Day and I just didn’t have a plan. That was my downfall there. I’m just happy I didn’t gain anything, and I’m back on track this week.
The biggest challenge I am facing, and it’s not the first time, is cooking dinner for the family. My husband likes down-home-cookin’. He thinks a fresh picked green bean has the same nutritional value as one that’s been simmering in a pot of bacon grease for 2 hours. That’s how he eats his “vegtables” (can they even be called that at that point?)
I like to cook for him. I think it’s a nice thing to do for him, having dinner prepared when he gets home after working all day. The house smells warm and inviting. But we don’t see eye to eye on what to eat. And who am I to say, “No meatloaf and mashed potatoes for you Dear, I don’t care if you have been working outside for the last 10 hours. Here, have this nice crisp lettuce salad and a raspberry vinegrette.”
So this is truly my issue to own. I have some thoughts going forward for the week ahead. Tonight I am fixing him his favorite roast with potatoes and carrots. There will be creamed corn and yeast rolls on the side. I figure I have 2 options. One, I can try to eat a small portion of the meal. But that will be hard. Especially with the rolls.
Two, I can just simply fix the dinner for him and leave it alone. I think dinner time is one of my weaknesses anyways. I eat out of GUILT most nights. I feel like I should eat it, because I fixed it and there are starving people in Africa (thanks Mom for that one). I feel like society tells us that we should sit down together as a family and eat dinner, even though I have already eaten breakfast and lunch with 2 outa 3 of them. And lots of nights I eat dinner soley because it’s dinner time, regardless of the fact that I was only able to eat my lunch an hour before.
So moving forward I am going to try to get these preconceived ideas out of my head and eat more sensibly. As for what I will be preparing, well I’ve had to talk to Jeremy about his food preferences recently anyways because a close friend of ours had a stroke. He made the comment, “I’m afraid that will be me someday”. So I took that opportunity to plug some healthy meal options and basically explained that he could wait until after having a major problem and let the doctor completely restrict his diet, or he could add some healthier choices in the week now, and maybe get a taste for some different foods.
He agreed and I have found one recipe that he enjoyed so far. I’ll post it here in case anyone else has a meat-n-potatoes man in their house they are trying to please as well.
I call it simply Chicken Pasta Salad: Take Betty Crocker’s Suddenly Salad (Classic flavor) box mix. Prepare it according to box directions (I use olive oil in place of vegtable oil for some health benefits). Then add cut up, cooked chicken breasts. Then I throw in whatever fresh vegtables we have in the fridge. Last time I added zucchini, yellow squash, cherry tomatoes (halved), carrot shavings, and broccoli. It’s very tasty!
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