I haven’t weighed myself since Monday and don’t plan to until next Monday. If fact I have spent the week being quite gluttonous. Each time I finished a whole bag of pre-packaged food products I thought, “I can’t believe I ate the whole thing”!
So what food item was so important to me that I ate entire packages in the midst of a diet? It was vegetables. I don’t normally cook or eat vegetables. This is not because I dislike them, but because I don’t like seeing them go down the garbage disposal. Instead, I hide what I can in soups, casseroles, and meatloaf, hand out vitamins, and hope for the best. A few days ago, however, as I was gazing at the bags and bags of veggies in my freezer, I decided to cook them, and eat them all.
Instead of eating a large bowl full of spaghetti with sausage and onions, I filled my bowl with steamed string beans instead. On top of that, I put just one large forkful of wheat pasta, and the usual meat sauce. I ate it all, and loved it. My kids pretended not to notice. After a couple of days of this, the kids got curious. Tonight, I opened a bag of broccoli and steamed it. I planned to eat the whole thing again with a little brown rice and teriyaki chicken. My kids however wanted some. They wanted some of my broccoli.
I started eating the bag full of vegetables with dinner because I wanted to fill my stomach with healthy food so I would eat less junk, and because I was determined to eat vegetables in spite of my families boycott. The wonderful benefit that went along with my gluttonous behavior was that the kids decided to try vegetables again and ate them. It is also a good source of fiber.
Here is some more data for those brave enough to eat a bag full of vegetables on a daily basis.
5 servings of string beans (1 bag) is 150 calories
1 serving of whole-wheat pasta is 189 calories
5 servings of broccoli is 150 calories
1 serving of brown rice is 216 calories
1 bag of Dole Salad is approximately 150 calories
1 serving of baked potatoes is 278 calories
So you can see what I have been doing this week, is forgoing the second serving of carbs for a large amount of vegetables instead. Then I do not have any room, or any cravings for desserts.
Andrea Hermitt is a homeschooling blogger on families.com. Read her blogs here.