Os portions

THIRZAH

I used to buy 8oz of stewing steak for the two of us when we were first married. It's crept up to 12 oz now. I only buy one pork chop per person. My mother used to make a steak pie for a family of five with one of those -15oz ?-tins of stewed steak.

We went on a cruise recently. As well as the usual three meals we could have had afternoon tea and a late night buffet. One afternoon I was waiting for DH in the lounge. A rather overweight woman was having afternoon tea. She tried to get up to go back to the buffet but as she stood up the chair came up with her-she was stuck. She still went back and loaded her plate again once she finally got out of the chair.

Prinzessilein

I bought a piece of beef for dinner yesterday...the packaging said 'serves2'...Mum came round for her Mother's Day dinner and we both tucked in. The beef was beautiful and we both enjoyed our meal...neither of us felt we wanted a second helping, the dinner I served up was generous enough.....I had half the beef left.....I even double checked to see if the pack was 'serves 4' when I bought it because I could see it was a large piece!

I remember when I was young there was a Wimpy in the next town (no McDs back then...the Wimpy was exciting for us though!)...the portion sizes back then were more akin to children's portions today.

We never went hungry at home....but meat portions were definitely smaller....I remember how many meals Mum could make for a family of 4 from one standard chicken! (roast dinner....curry....chicken rice...and enough left over for some sarnies!)...and if we had sausages then it was ONE each. (but they were seriously meaty ones!)

However...in some things the portion sizes do seem to have shrunk.....Wagon Wheels were ginormous when I was young....and Everlasting Gobstoppers would really stop-your-gob - and they lasted for days (suck them for a good while, then carefully wrap in a hankie...no tissues for us...and they would be ready when you needed another slurp!)...and don't get me started on the shrinkage of Curly Wurlys!

[Deleted User]

Shropshirelass wrote: »

Slices of buttered bread were on the table set for most meals. Then we got sliced bread in the shops, I must have been 8 or 9, and remember the housewives - my friends' mums - coming back from the shop (it was 'Maypole') complaining the price had gone up to a shilling (5p) for a loaf.
Makes me feel really old!

When bread went up from eleven pence ha'penny to a shilling a loaf my late Mum predicted rioting :):). I can see her now with the bread knife, she would butter the open end of the loaf and slice it after it was spread. Her bread knife was so old and worn it was almost a stiletto and you could probably have used it in an operation it was razor sharp and we children were warned on pain of dire retribution never to ever touch it .Bread and butter was always on the table with a meal as a 'filler up' Meat was never much more than the size of a playing card ,mainly because it was on rationing, and hard to get hold of.But the butcher usually chucked in perhaps a couple of sausages or a bit of offal sometimes with the meat ration My mum always used the same butcher for years and knew him as a friend as well as a customer.No supermarkets back in the late 1940s just the butcher the fishmonger and green grocer and milk form the horse and cart that delivered mind you we had a baker delivering as well. with no freezers you didn't stockpile food like today it was bought every couple of days because we had no fridge either milk was kept in it bottle in a half filled pail of water in the cellar to keep it cold and meat in the meat larder which was a cold marble slab set in a small wooden box with a mesh front to it for air circulation.Butter was in a dish on the pantry marble shelf as well.Cheese was wrapped in a cloth and stored on the shelf No tin foil or clingfilm it was always grated to make the ration go further as well :):)

Ginmonster

While I totally agree that portion sizes have got far too big pretty much everywhere, I'm uncomfortable with some of the comments expressing disgust for fat people seen at buffets etc. It's not kind and I think we need a little more kindness in the world right now.

Pollycat

dandy-candy wrote: »

I was looking at an old cook book and it had a recipe with four pork chops that serves four people. When I make pork chops everyone usually has 2-3 each.

How big are these chops?
I usually buy good thick chops - and definitely only need one each.
I think the thin chops cook very dry.

As a child we ate well - meat and allotment-fresh veg - but didn't have a lot of crisps (the only savoury snack available at the time - with the little blue bags of salt) and not a lot of chocolate or biscuits either.

Now, we eat well, not over-large portions (I think menu-planning and bulk cooking helps here) and still very few snacks.
I might eat an odd biscuit but never more than one.
We don't have cakes in the house and don't eat puddings.
A 100gm bar of Green & Black's excellent chocolate will last me a month.

And like JackieO, we eat lunch (even if it's just a sandwich) and dinner at the table.

Ginmonster wrote: »

While I totally agree that portion sizes have got far too big pretty much everywhere, I'm uncomfortable with some of the comments expressing disgust for fat people seen at buffets etc. It's not kind and I think we need a little more kindness in the world right now.

TBH, anyone - regardless of their weight - with a plate piled high at a buffet looks greedy to me.
It's a real education at these all-you-can-eat buffet places.

[Deleted User]

Kindness definite yes but also a little honesty too? I've never been so aware of size until the past few months when in a bid to improve health and reduce medications I have put both of us on a healthy eating plan and we've both now reduced by more than 2 stones. I'm finding that on those very rare occasions that we now eat out I can't finish the portion given even with a jacket potato, I get to the point where nothing else will fit so I leave the rest. I'm very familiar with the breakfast buffet scenario and have also been staggered by the number of times some of the diners go back to refill another heaping plate of food. I've always had a good appetite and have had good portions myself thus becoming more than a little overweight. I loathed being classified as obese by the GP and came across a small quote from Kate Moss the model who said that 'nothing tastes as good as being slim feels' and having got down to a size 12/14 I begin to see what she means. We eat nice food but have smaller portions of carbs and protiens and lots of fruit (unsweetened or with stevia) and fresh veg. Nothing is off limits we have the odd piece of chocolate and I adore dried fruit and nuts but not in the quantities we used to and not every day and not 'go back for more because they're nice' any longer. Losing weight isn't easy and I hope we'll have the sense and determination to stay eating this way for the rest of our days and if we can do the weight loss so can you!

Ginmonster

MrsLurcherwalker wrote: »

Kindness definite yes but also a little honesty too? I've never been so aware of size until the past few months when in a bid to improve health and reduce medications I have put both of us on a healthy eating plan and we've both now reduced by more than 2 stones.

Honesty is good if applied to oneself and I'm glad for you that you've been able to be more healthy. I just think we need to be careful to only apply this honesty to ourselves and not use it to judge others. People overeat for a whole variety of reasons and just because we have managed to be healthy doesn't mean everyone else can do it as easily. And we may have other areas in our lives where we're not doing so well and could improve. None of us is perfect. I know I'm not.

[Deleted User]

No ones life is without vexations and problems, and perfection isn't something I think it is healthy or wise to strive for, that is the way to failure because we're all only human. All any of us can do in reality is to be honest with ourselves and do the best we can in any given situation, if we know that is what we do, give all we can no one can or should ask for or expect more, our best IS good enough!

I'm a comfort eater, my previous answer to the woes of this world was to eat, usually bread and cheese and to hide in a glass of wine both of which actually added to my woes. I can only speak for me and say , hand on heart, that the weight loss hasn't been hard it has just been staying focused and not letting the day to day upsets and dissatisfactions distract me by running to the fridge or finding the hidden chocolate. The wine went 4 years ago when my lovely sister in law was diagnosed diabetic and I stopped the alcohol entirely so she wouldn't feel awkward when we went out. Life isn't easy for any of us, it's sometimes tedious, sometimes grey, sometimes downright stormy but we all get by somehow don't we???

dandy-candy

Pollycat I buy the thin cut loin chops from MrT because they are my ds1 favourite- he likes them BBQ with lots of sauce so not too dry.

Well done Mrs LW on the weight loss! I'm a comfort eater too but I've just discovered chocolate gives me terrible down moods and have almost cut it completely out ( no logic in eating it at all, but just goes to show how addictive it is)

Very interesting about the wimpy burger, I always had a hamburger and chips back then. Nowadays when the menfolk of this house go to mcDs they get a big burger meal AND a separate cheeseburger on the side! Only my ds1&2 get away with staying skinny whippets because they are so active.

Pollycat

dandy-candy wrote: »

Pollycat I buy the thin cut loin chops from MrT because they are my ds1 favourite- he likes them BBQ with lots of sauce so not too dry.

Well done Mrs LW on the weight loss! I'm a comfort eater too but I've just discovered chocolate gives me terrible down moods and have almost cut it completely out ( no logic in eating it at all, but just goes to show how addictive it is)

Very interesting about the wimpy burger, I always had a hamburger and chips back then. Nowadays when the menfolk of this house go to mcDs they get a big burger meal AND a separate cheeseburger on the side! Only my ds1&2 get away with staying skinny whippets because they are so active.

Eating 2-3 pork chops and ordering more than one burger at the same time seems a lot.
Have you ever totted up the calories they are eating in this single sitting?