Everyday Systems

Granny was tiny, 5 foot 2 inches and seven stones - never went up and never went down.

She ate:

2 slices of toast spread with clover and Oxford Marmalade with a tiny bowl of All Bran.

11 am a cup of coffee with one sugar

Main meal of anything with veg at lunchtime followed by an apple.

2 slices of bread made into a ham and mustard sandwich, with a bag of crisps.

bedtime - cup of tea with a rich tea biscuit.

Was wondering, if I ate what she ate (I know because I did all her shopping) I would be bound to lose weight - any thoughts?

Thanks for thinking about it

Anne x

Worth a try

My first thought was that it's a pretty sparse way of eating. Then I remembered how I eat: one or two small meals daily and one larger meal.

I think you could lose weight eating like this. However, if you're using it only to lose weight and not as a way to eat for a lifetime, you'll probably regain the lost weight once you go back to your normal way of eating. It sounds like a great way to eat for a lifetime.

As long as you like what she ate, give it a try! Let us know how it works out.

(My mom was 5'6" and 125 lbs her whole adult life. While she ate different foods than you're grandma did, the amounts were pretty similar. For my mom it was no snacks, no junk and portion control.)

The point is not what she ate, but how.

Three meals a day. Two of them were big enough to carry her through to the next meal. The larger meal had lots of veg. Apparently, eating a rich tea biscuit didn't evolve into two biscuits, then two biscuits at night and one in the late afternoon, and then scones and cream...

You should try it and see.

Your grandmother ate a ham sandwich every day for dinner?

It does sound like many people could lose weight because of the small portions and lack of variety. But people can lose weight on many versions of this.

As someone else said or implied, would you be happy eating this way? Bottom line is you've got to find the balance of pleasure and health that will satisfy you in the long run.