Os portions

janb5

Well said Mrs LW. I thoroughly endorse your comments. I am a child of the `50`s and we had to clear our plates and that left me with the legacy of having a very generous appetite! I don`t go back for seconds and thirds as sadly the calories don`t magically disappear!

I also remember someone saying to my mother that X was overweight due to "problems with his glands" to which my mother retorted it was more of a problem with an overactive fork!

LameWolf

I was born in 1960, and as a child, I wasn't allowed to leave the table til my plate was empty; my mother used to force me to eat meat_pale_ (thankfully this stopped when I was 16 and started going out to work) and a standard size of meal was 2 or 3 slices of meat (the sort of thing she'd cut off a piece of beef), a tablespoon size dollop of mash, and similar amount of another vegetable like cabbage (boiled to oblivion, but that's another story) and a dribble of "gravy" (actually an 0xo cube dissolved in hot water). I used to struggle to eat this; and was at that time underweight; and actually a very sickly child.

I say all this to put into context a meal for me today: a typical sized meal would be a veggie sausage; a small microwaved spud, a microwaved carrot, and a little veggie gravy from granules. I only serve myself what I know I can manage; if I don't feel up to eating that amount, I make less for myself.

I dread eating out; even a "child-sized" meal overwhelms me, and if my DH wants a celebratory meal out it is nowadays our practise to go to the independent pub we like (and we are known at), he has whatever meal he chooses, and I just have a starter.:o

I confess to drinking tea and coffee in mugs, but I drink both of them black and unsweetened (I have a slice of lemon in tea).

I sometimes read what other people have posted they had for their dins the night before and think good grief, how on earth does anyone manage all that in a sitting??

dandy-candy

Tbh pollycat I went through a phase with DH where I weighed his food and did the calories bit but I then discovered he just gorged when he was out of the house, so I don't bother trying anymore!
I was telling the kids how we only ever had a takeaway or meal out when it was someone's birthday, and we only had a tin of quality street at Xmas time - I'm not sure if they even sold them all year around?

Ginmonster

"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."

What a lovely thing to do Mrs LW. :-) Socialising can feel very booze-based sometimes so i bet she really appreciates not feeling the odd one out.

[Deleted User]

Love her to bits, just wanted her to feel 'normal' and not missing out so I now drink and enjoy fizzy water with some ice and a slice! she's my buddy!!!

mardatha

I've never been to a buffet type place - do you mean you pay a set amount and then you can eat as many platefuls as you like? That sounds very Ancient Roman to me
I struggle to eat a lot and always have. Just a pity that the stuff I don't struggle with is the stuff I should never, ever touch. Like sweeties and meringues - but I'm on steroids now and still the exact same weight I was when I started them, thank goodness, so what I'm doing is working.
I haven't ever noticed what size plates were or are, and the only thing I can remember about my mum's cooking was that she always got a half pound of mince, not a full pound. But there was only the 3 of us.
I do get very shocked at the amount of people who wander around with bottles of sugary pop clamped to their faces.

Prinzessilein

mardatha wrote: »

the only thing I can remember about my mum's cooking was that she always got a half pound of mince, not a full pound. But there was only the 3 of us.
.

I remember going to the butcher with Mum (old style butcher, complete with sawdust on floor)...she would say how much mince she wanted - and the butcher would weigh some and would ALWAYS say 'it's a little over, is that okay?' and smile ingratiatingly. ...and Mum would smile just as sweetly and say firmly...'it is mince...you can get it exact!....and if not - rather under than over!'....she would not buy one smidgin over the odds!

I had a great aunt who would buy cooked sausage from the deli(back in Germany) - it was a slicing sausage and the deli weighed however many grams you wanted and sliced it for you...now the sausage came in a sort of skin/peel ...Great Aunt always asked for the skin to be removed before weighing because she resented paying even one pfennig (small coin...I suppose back then in English you'd have said one farthing) for the skin that was thrown away!

Pollycat

mardatha wrote: »

I've never been to a buffet type place - do you mean you pay a set amount and then you can eat as many platefuls as you like? That sounds very Ancient Roman to me
I struggle to eat a lot and always have. Just a pity that the stuff I don't struggle with is the stuff I should never, ever touch. Like sweeties and meringues - but I'm on steroids now and still the exact same weight I was when I started them, thank goodness, so what I'm doing is working.
I haven't ever noticed what size plates were or are, and the only thing I can remember about my mum's cooking was that she always got a half pound of mince, not a full pound. But there was only the 3 of us.
I do get very shocked at the amount of people who wander around with bottles of sugary pop clamped to their faces.

Exactly that.

Here's something I posted a few weeks ago:

Pollycat wrote: »

We go to an all-you-can-eat buffet place that does all manner of cuisine - mainly India & Chinese with some sushi, Thai, pasta/risotto, burger bar, pizza and a bit of a carvery. Plus puddings/ice cream/pancake/waffles.

I dislike mixed up food & tastes so I'll take a small (sweet) plate and have Indian or Chinese starters.
Then another small plate of mains and maybe another after that.
I eat everything I take because I know what I like and how much I'll eat.

Gob-smacking at the number of people who pile their plates high with food - rice and noodles and pasta etc.
I saw one woman who had a mixture of carbs like that plus some sort of Indian curry, naan bread, a slice of pizza and then went to the carvery station for a slice of gammon. topped that with a yorkshire pudding and a ladleful of gravy.
Gross!
And greedy!

It really is shocking (and sad) to see so much wasted food.

PN - you'd probably like the place we go to.
Prices are reasonable. I'll be paying £10.99 per person for me and my sister next Saturday lunchtime. Even cheaper during the week.

You can even choose raw ingredients - meat, mushrooms,veg - and have it cooked fresh on a giant Mongolian hotplate.

Here:
http://worldcuisinebuffet.co.uk/

@ Ginmonster - re my 'greedy' comment in the quote above - the woman wasn't fat at all.
But when you can go back as many times as you like, why would you want to pile your plate up like that with stuff that doesn't go together?
(well, at least pizza, yorkshire pudding and naan bread don't go together in my book)

usernameisvalid

Seriously 3 pork chops each? :eek:

DH gets two because he's a builder and has been 11 stone all his adult life. He needs the protein and packing.

I myself would be the size of a house if I ate his portion size

I get 800grms packs of good mince. That's six adult meals minimum A chicken is 9 portions

I have a small plate, a salad plate , and I'd only half fill it.

Me and he will often share a meal if eating out because I couldn't cope with a large ' normal ' portion Luckily I'm looking old enough to get away with ordering pensioners meals

Today I got called into work short notice, so out of bed and straight into the car at 7am. I ate at 4pm whilst out in town and ready to pass out with hunger. Too late for lunch, too early for dinner, it was kfc where it was 2 pieces and a small chip. I'm still stuffed full. Not ideal but it done the job

We are having free range pork sausages tomorrow from the butchers. A pack of six between 3 of us. We had steak yesterday, 2 between 3 of us. Not because I'm tight, but seriously half a 7 or 8 oz steak for mainly sedationary people is enough. We don't skip on protein, we eat eggs nearly daily, there's cheese, we have sliced meats or tinned fish in our sarnies

Portion sizes imho are way too big and the habit of snacking on mcDs and subways and Greggs really means we are eating way too much