Everyday Systems

So, DH and I went downtown yesterday to go to the main library and to have lunch at a pub next to the library.

I had a *wonderful* grilled veggie sandwich with goat cheese on wheatberry bread with homemade potato chips .... and a beer, because this pub brews its own.

It was great. It felt like an S day, but the food fit on the plate (which was a plate, not a platter) and there were no seconds and no dessert.

But even though this lunch clearly fit the No S guidelines, there is no way I could eat like this on a daily basis on a No S day. Given my gender (female) and age (60), I'd pack on the weight, even though I'm active.

It's nice to know, though, that I can have a meal like this on a No S day from time to time. It felt like a treat.

Love it!

Every so often we get duck curry from our local Thai place - duck, coconut milk, veg and lychees - yum!! I love that this is vanilla No S, but like you I recognise that I couldn't eat it for dinner every night and maintain. I really like that No S gives the boundaries, and within that the common sense is up to us. Makes me feel like I'm being treated like an adult

Both your meals sound wonderful. No S way of eating is definitely the way to go. All within reason.

So true! Enjoying one nice meal out shouldn't be a bad thing. It's a good thing! As long as we aren't idiots about it

That sounds wonderful! Glad you enjoyed a nice dining experience on an N day. My husband grew up in buffalo! We visited a few years ago because I bought him sabres tickets for his birthday.

People who live in slim cultures would get fat on our restaurant food all the time, too, even if it fit on a plate.

Yep, the French would fat on our restaurant food, but I understand they have multiple courses at restaurants, just small portions of each. What is this talk about them eating lots of butter, cream on their food and wine and don't get fat? Do they really do this to their food, but just eat a lot smaller then us?

oolala53 wrote:People who live in slim cultures would get fat on our restaurant food all the time, too, even if it fit on a plate.

Exactly, which is a good reason not to go out to eat very often. The vast majority of the time DH and I go out, we take about the half the food home with us. Restaurant portions in this country skew towards the gigantic.

Noni, I don't think that "everyday" French meals are all full of multiple courses of rich food with pastries for dessert on a daily basis. Mireille Guiliano's "French women don't get fat" books talk a lot about what French people eat. Example--they have cafe au lait at breakfast only; black coffee the rest of the time. A lot of times they will just have fruit and/or a bit of cheese for dessert; pastries are for special occasions. The whole idea is to limit portions, but make those portions really delicious--no fake butter and other monstrosities. Actually, Reinhard says the same thing--that's why he recommends using regular cookbooks rather than "diet guru" cookbooks.

I find smaller portions of really good food made with some fat (olive oil, butter) are a lot more satisfying than stuffing myself with tons of food made with no fat. That is why I stopped Joel Fuhrman's Eat to Live program. I do not argue with his emphasis on eating lots of greens, vegetables and beans--those were already bedrocks of my daily fare. I do argue with his extreme limitation on fat, salt, any sugar, etc. Reinhard points out that a lot of diet gurus don't really seem to enjoy food, and I agree with him. No S is a very sane way to eat ... as is the way people eat in slim cultures.

I realized at one point that even with all my experience here, I actually still feel some trepidation going out to eat. I feel some resentment that it's so hard to be able to get meals you could live on as a routine at a reasonable price, and that I'm likely to have to exert some effort not to eat too much because the food will be there sitting in front of me. I, too, take leftovers most of the time, but there's one place I go that I think serves moderate portions and it's so fun to eat the whole thing.

Ha, if I had a lot of money, I could test it out by eating lunch and dinner there for a couple of weeks and see what happens.

I lived in France for six weeks back when oxygen was forming (late '80s). As I recall, there was one baguette a day which fed the five of us-- so one or two small pieces with meals. We had homemade yogurt and bread for breakast. Lunch and dinner took at least an hour and were served in courses-- wish I could remember the sequence now. I think it was a small piece of meat, and then the salad or veg thing-- my French mom made a nice pile of grated carrot with a vinaigrette dressing often. There was fruit and there was cheese. One thing at a time. It felt like a lot of food to me and of course going from 1 pm lunch to 8 o'clock dinner was terribly hard. There was no snacking, no candy (well, there was amazing Swiss chocolate, but I was the one buying that!) There was no diet pepsi obtainable anywhere in France. My French dad bought me some in Switzerland LOL. Twice while I was there we went out for a meal out, which was fish and chips in staggering quantities with an ice cream dessert the size of your head. I remember feeling slightly desperate because I didn't want to offend anybody but I couldn't eat all that at one time. The dad sometimes had a piece of cheese before he played a couple hours of tennis before dinner. Sunday mornings there were crisp little croissants to eat with excellent jam. Most people were slim although the grandmother of the family would have the occasional ice cream cone and was more grandmotherly in terms of figure It was a lovely food culture.

I'm surprised the meal out was so big! And that that was what the family wanted. I think of the French as turning up their noses at English cuisine, fish and chips in large quantities. Guess I had it wrong. Or did they think you would like it?

Ah, the world before diet Pepsi's reign.

The fish restaurant was on Lake Geneva. It wasn't called fish and chips, but that's what it was.

Now getting through the tough time for me-- after work till dinner. Sipping juice and seltzer but it's challenging!

I still have those moments in the afternoon, unless I have something very compelling to do.