Revelations, or, Duh, I knew it all along.

Well, this was interesting, in a nice, snarky way:

http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/health/5-simple-mistakes-that-ruin-diets-2438610/

Anyway, I'm just checking in because I am so bad at checking in. . . every time I eat, I keep a running tally in my head that I MEAN to write down on here, but I forget.  I think I need to cart around a little notebook to write these things down in, and then I could transcribe it.  Or else be like one of those foodie ladies that takes a picture of every single thing they eat.  I have to do something different, in other words, because this ain't workin'!

In other news, I have had a few revelations.  It appears that portion size is one of my killers - I have established that at any given meal, I eat probably twice what I should eat, but my stomach is so stretched out that I only feel half-full.  That feeling of fullness is important - it'll keep me from grazing all day.  I do not have time to graze all day, nor do I like that feeling of being empty and trying to fill it up, so it's going to be important to work on this.  Like this morning - I have had an "egg in a basket", which probably is not completely healthy, but it was portion controlled:  one egg, one piece of bread, one tablespoon of butter, salt.  Poof.  Done.  I topped it off with a nice glass of orange juice, and I'm trying to convince myself that I should wait a few minutes for my body to digest it and recognize that we are full.  Well, it's been a while, and it is not happening; mentally, I keep looking over my breakfast plate and thinking, "Is that it?  I need something else."  So what do I do?  Do I sit here feeling deprived, do I have a bowl of cereal, or do I make myself another egg??  The leftovers from last night in the fridge are looking really good - there is some squash and zucchini saute with my name on it. . .

Speaking of leftovers, I have found that eating out is a real problem.  We eat out a lot.  If we are in our routine, we eat out on Tuesday and Friday nights for sure - Tuesday is Date Night (McD's for the kids, and sit down something for the newlyweds), and Friday is Golden Corrall Night (although lately it is Ryan's night because the last time we went into the GC, they'd had a plumbing problem and the whole front entry smelled like a sewer.  I refused to eat there, but the Ryan's next door was much nicer.  Personally I was hoping for Mexican, but the other members of my family like themselves a good buffet.)  It's a given that one at least one other night, we're going to have something to do or someplace to go that will preclude an hour for cooking at home.  Occasionally, it is possible that we will eat out 5 days of 7.  Financially, this is bad, and nutritionally, it is worse - claiming that you get your vegetable needs met spending money at Ryan's is just wrong.  But how do you counteract the fact that sometimes, you're just too tired to cook, and you don't want to bother having to clean up the kitchen?

Also, I eat out a lot for lunch at work, and occasionally for breakfast.  If we don't go out, we bring it in, and while it's rarely burgers and fries, you just have to imagine the portion sizes at a meat&three and you'll know what I'm eating.  I do bring food from home occasionally.  I have found that I am in love with the Amy's line of frozen foods - they are generally organic and gluten free, which is a plus, but basically they just taste good to me.  I despise frozen foods generally - there is something about seeing twee people self-righteously eating their Lean Cuisines that annoys me, and that microwaved-plastic-box-smell turns me off.  Plus, there is the Satiety Problem - those things are small!  Fortunately, the Amy's meals pack some sort of filling wallop, because I'm usually ok if I have them.  I'd eat leftovers from home, if only I had them, and I despise sandwiches in all but the direst extremity (I hate Subway, for example, and if the family goes there, I go to the Chinese joint next door or I have a salad - which, if you've had Subway's salads before, you know they are shredded iceberg lettuce - another turnoff for moi - with sandwich toppings, but at least there's no bread.)

Add to this that the kids eat school lunch and breakfast, and Big Daddy frequently eats nothing all day long, and you see that again, we are in some nutrition trouble and we didn't even realize it until we got here.

There are a few bright spots, carefully calculated with guile.  I do not allow the children to eat anyplace except the kitchen table, except for one thing:  I let them take apples upstairs if they promise to throw away the cores.  This is such a treat that they are eating the apples and throwing away the cores.  Success for moi!  I haven't touched a single damn apple, nor has BD.  Also, we keep bananas handy, and they usually disappear rapidly.  I have replaced the Debbie cakes in the snack jar with Fig Newtons, which everybody but me seems to love.  I threaten the kids with death if they drink anything but milk, water or juice at dinner; otherwise, Bubba would mainline Coke.  Yours truly has given up sweet tea since New Year's, and I have only fallen off the wagon twice.  We are at least aware that we are in some Food Trouble, and we are identifying problems and solutions.

Oops.  I didn't identify any solutions yet, did I?  I mean, they're obvious.  Duh.  Control portions and shrink your stomach, eat out less, eat at home more, make the kids cook and clean the kitchen at least once a week, take lunch to work, make sure you have at least one veggie and one fruit every day because there are days that go by with nothing fruit or veggie passing your lips.  Pack lunches for the kids, so at least you know what they are eating.  Simple stuff - duh.  Of course, it's stuff that means I can't sit on my butt at the computer typing blogs, or sit on my butt at the TV because BD likes to have me near while he watches movies and I kind of like it myself. . . oh, wait, we have to get off our butts, too???

Dang.  This is like reworking my entire life!  ;)