I left off the last post with a description of how habits work. As we keep repeating an action we wear a neurological groove, making the action easier and more automatic every time we perform it. If you read Charles Duhigg’s book that I referenced yesterday you’ll learn about one way to disrupt a habit: basically, you have to figure out what the reward is and then substitute a new routine that will give you the same result without the negative consequences. For instance, and this is quite relevant here because it’s about eating, Duhigg analyzes the habit he’d formed of going down to the cafeteria every workday afternoon and getting a cookie. He gained five pounds, his wife let him know that she disapproved, and he set himself the task of changing the habit. What did he really want as his reward? he asked himself. Was it satisfaction of true hunger? Then he could eat an apple. Was it a shot of energy? Then he could get a cup of coffee. Or, perhaps less intuitively, did he just need a break, a chance to interact with people after sitting in front of his computer for several hours? He decided that last one was it. So he started getting up from his desk and looking for a chance to chat with people when the mid-afternoon munchies hit. (I haven’t gone back and re-read the relevant section, but I don’t believe he just started interrupting his co-workers as they were trying to concentrate.) He successfully changed his cookie habit. You can also simply remove the cue, if that’s possible. So that bag of cookies in your pantry that tempts you every time you open the door should just go. If the cookies aren’t there, you can’t eat them.
Food
A Keto Case Study, Part One
What I’m going to do in this post and at least a second one is what is called a “case study.” I’ll divide up the material because I want my readers to be willing to consume all of it. Sometimes I read others’ posts that are pages long, and if it’s a subject in which I’m interested I’ll probably at least skim it all. But I think it’s far better to write material that can be read in 5-10 minutes and then follow up with later posts. You don’t read blog posts the way you read a book, coming back to the place you left off. Instead, you usually just go on to the next post when it comes up. I want you to get the whole enchilada here and so always try to limit my individual posts to 1,000 words or less.
Keto Diet Conniptions
This is the first in a series of posts in which I present some common-sense rebuttals to the various fad diets out there; I picked the “keto” diet to begin with because it’s pretty hot right now. Something else is probably coming or has come down the pike already and I just haven’t gotten clued in yet. In reality, though, it doesn’t matter too much what the diet of the moment is, because all of these fad diets fall into some basic, broad categories: you can restrict fat, or carbs, or a specific food category (such as meat or gluten). Or you can just restrict calories in general. (Note that people with specific medical issues such as celiac disease or allergies, or people who eat a certain way as a matter of conscience, such as those who abhor the killing of animals, are not included in the fad diet category.)
Making Menu Signs for Your Party
Another one of those fiddly things that I do. I’m giving it its own post. If you’re just hosting a small gathering you can do the handwritten folded-in-half card, although for a small event you probably don’t need the signs in the first place. For anything serving over, say, 25-30 people, and definitely if you’re serving the masses, menu signs are very helpful. People really seem to appreciate them. You can just write the item’s name and any descriptive words (“vegetarian,” “gluten-free,” etc.) on a blank 3 x 5 card with a Sharpie, or you can go all fancy and do it on the computer, even adding graphics, even adding graphics that match the color scheme of the event. (I often get my son or husband to do the graphic design and printing for me.)
It’s a good idea to have the signs printed on two sides, the process of which can be rather frustrating if you don’t fully understand the vagaries of your printer. Since I’m often managing events that have duplicate serving tables, I just do two of each sign, in landscape mode, two on the top of the page and two on the bottom, and then I don’t have to worry about flipping the images for the second side. Actually, now that I think about it, I can just do two-sided printing, making a copy of that first page for page 2, if I’m doing the duplicate signs. (If you don’t want to do this yourself, get someone to read this and then do it for you.) So the illustration given is from a big wedding reception, and the bride’s colors were, obviously, drawn from the blue palette. I did ask about what specific blues she was using and then went onto Pixabay (a free image service that I use all the time; there are others out there) and searched for something like “blue background” under “illustrations.” I like the one shown here; you have to put a text box over the image in order to have the two-layer effect. Again, get someone to do this for you if you don’t know how yourself. Or, if you don’t want to bother with all this, you can just make your font appropriate in style and color. (Take a look at the fonts available already on your computer; the one shown is something I purchased but there are many sites online for free fonts.) I freely admit that all of this design work is completely unnecessary and that I do it mainly because I enjoy it so much. Just don’t leave it until the last minute! Then the task becomes decidedly unenjoyable.
You want to have signs that are easily seen, so some kind of stand or holder is very helpful. I started out with a dozen, and there have been times when that wasn’t enough–if I had duplicate serving tables and was serving more than six different items I’d be over the limit. So I got another set. These are often called “table number holders”–if you buy something called “menu holders,” they’re usually too small/short to be useful. I think those are designed to be used on individual tables, but you want your signs to be easily read as people move through the line, especially if it’s an event at which the lights are somewhat dimmed, as they may be at an evening party. The shopping below link is to the 12″-high ones–you need that amount of height for visibility. These are not as heavy-duty as my first set, but they’re perfectly adequate: Using the nice clear signs and the holders that make it easy for people to see them help fulfill some of the principles I outlined in the hospitality post from last time: Give the people what they want and need. They will be so appreciative!
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Where are you on the food-choice pyramid?
I plan to do a series of posts on some of the fad diets floating around out there, many of them on celebrity websites, but today I want to write in more general terms about what guides the food choices that many people make. Let me say a couple of things first:
1. Making choices is better than not making choices. If you just eat what’s in front of you without thinking, snacking on the candy bowl at the office, always getting the soft drink/chips/cookie combo with your sandwich for lunch, cleaning out the popcorn bowl as you sit in front of the TV, that’s just mindless eating. At least if you’ve decided to follow some strict regimen you’re paying attention.
What I Ate for Lunch Today–And a Great New Recipe
I have a subscription to the New York Times mainly because of Melissa Clark, a cookbook author and food writer who is absolutely the most charming, delightful, quirky, quirkily delightful, delightfully quirky . . . well, you get the picture. I periodically go onto her website to check out any new stuff. (It occurred to me while I was writing this post that I could subscribe to her updates, which I just did. However, the stuff she writes specifically for the Times goes over to their website, so not all of her stuff is available directly through her.) I asked for her recent cookbook The New Essentials of French Cooking for Christmas from my son, and he is now tasked with picking out a recipe from the book for me to make before he heads back to college. (I say “recent” because Clark is such a prolific producer of cookbooks and so if I said “new” or “newest” I would probably be incorrect by now.)
I Cheer For (but also Fear For) Someone Who Lost a Lot of Weight in 2018
First, some catch-up info: For some reason, several of my recent posts did not get sent out by MailChimp, my e-mail service. So you probably missed out on my review of Michelle Obama’s memoir, my fascinating story about my own weight history, and two posts (parts one and two) in which I take issue with an article in the New York Times. So take a look if you’re interested.
Now for today’s post:
I follow someone named Tom Nichols on Twitter, mainly for his political opinions, but last night as I was doing a quick scroll-through before bedtime I saw this article in his feed:
“I am proof that you CAN reach your New Year’s weight loss resolution — here’s how I did it.”
A Festive Dinner to Keep in Your Back Pocket
We always have a special dinner around December 30 to celebrate my sister-in-law’s birthday, and for a number of years I made my special double-the-meat double-the-cheese lasagna with cheesecake for dessert. Then I moved over to prime rib. This year, due to my being so impressed with the beef tenderloin served at our church’s Christmas dinner, I switched to that. I have to say that I’ll almost certainly never go back to prime rib. The tenderloin is cheaper (around $11.99/pound at
My Weight History–What’s Yours?
Well, the post that was going to be written on Christmas Eve is being written today. What with cooking, and running around madly, and game playing, and movie watching, all with our guests in the house, my beloved sister-in-law and her husband (my brother-in-law-in-law), not a whole lot of blog posting has taken place. I have some time this morning, though, and want to get some more material down before the start of the new year.
I may be re-plowing old ground here, but I’m not going to go back through all 500+ articles on this site to find out. My point here is to encourage you to do what I’m doing today: go back and look at your weight history. Let me emphasize again: this blog has not transitioned into some rivulet of Weight Watchers. But your weight is an indicator of how you’re eating, and I am obsessed with the subject of eating well and healthfully. The more we can see our weight as an end result of behavior that can be changed, the better off we’ll be.
In Which I (Sort Of) Disagree With the New York Times, Part Two
How do ya like the new look? We don’t have everything in place yet, but I was determined to get the new banner, title and colors up and running. As I chip away at this in the next couple of weeks you’ll see new tabs appear on the menu bar at the top of the page. At some point I had decided to split off my hospitality posts into a separate website, “Intentional Hospitality,” and now I’m re-merging them into this material and re-naming the whole thing. Got that?
Anyway, let’s get the to actual subject of this post, another idea from that infamous New York Times article. I’m zeroing in on one phrase, but let me give the entire sentence for context:
Whatever the combination of factors at work, something about the environment is making many people as fat as their genetic makeup permits.
Here’s the phrase: “as fat as their genetic makeup permits.”