9 October 2008
You'd think as a nutritionist I'd know straight away whether a food serving was too big or too small. After all, that's what I'm trained for right? But, sometimes I have no idea... sometimes I visit a cafe or restaurant and I'm served a meal in their fancy large crockery that leaves me wondering - is that too big or too small?
Stingy Cafe Salad Portions
Take yesterday's lunch for starters (no pun intended). I was absolutely ravenous after a four-hour session with a photographer that produced many of my website images. I met two friends at a cafe in Greenlane, Auckland, for a late lunch. Surveying the cafe menu I was desperate to find something quick and healthy to fill the massive void that was my stomach. On the blackboard was a nice sounding pumpkin soup, but the descriptor "creamy" set off alarm bells so I decided to give it a miss. In their chilled cabinet I spotted a nice looking smoked chicken pasta salad. "That looks lovely", I said to myself (and yes I do talk to myself a lot) so I ordered it.
Well imagine my horror 10 minutes later when a stingy little pile of pasta spirals with about 2-3 tablespoons of smoked chicken was delivered to my table. The plate was huge, with these little spirals of pasta lolling around in the middle of it. To say I was surprised was an understatement, but given I'd never visited this particular cafe before I sort-of doubted my own eyes and thought perhaps its just the big plate and there's actually quite a bit of pasta there. Well a few short minutes later I'd eaten it all and it didn't even touch the sides. But, like a good nutritionist I thought I'd wait for 10 minutes or so to see if my stomach would register the arrival of the measly pasta salad and send back a "yes we're all full now thanks" message. Unfortunately it didn't. My stomach sent back a short note that went something along the lines of "thanks for the starter, what are you sending down for lunch now?". Hmmm.
Unhappy Chocolate Afghan Ending
The unfortunate thing is that there wasn't a happy ending to this particular part of the story. Still ravenous I returned to the cafe counter to find a little something else to shut my stomach up. All I could find was those massively oversized scones and muffins - no thank you. Crumbly little measly biscotti - no thank you. Chocolate afghan - ooh yes. I'd endeavoured to take the healthy route with the pasta salad but by 2.30pm all self-control was gone so I ordered that chocolate afghan! Thanks to my dining companions stern looks (peer pressure's a wonderful thing) I announced that I was only going to eat half of it and take the other half home for Billy - which I did do.
You might now be thinking - big whoopee! One chocolate afghan, what's the big deal?! But, the truth is that I know once I start letting a few extra treats slip into my eating habits it's like opening the flood gates. It starts happening more and more often. Small treats become big treats and before you know it you find yourself making poor eating choices day after day after day.
All or Nothing Attitude Isn't Helpful
Anyway, this really doesn't sound like a happy ending, particularly not for a nutritionist. But, just because you fall down at one hurdle doesn't mean you give up on the race. You get back up off the ground, dust yourself off and carry on with the race and you finish it the best you can! For me that meant sticking to my plan to deliver the other half of the afghan home to my husband. Then I served myself a plateful of fruit and nuts (a tamarillo, some grapes and a small handful of almonds) which was enough to shut my stomach up until dinner time.
Most nights I have a dark chocolate biscuit after dinner as a treat - its great to have that treat to look forward to at the end of each day. So yesterday after falling at the chocolate afghan hurdle I decided to forgo my evening chocolate biscuit and just have a cup of tea. The great thing about this was:
a. I sort of balanced my day out by the end of it - forgoing my normal treat in exchange for my cafe mistake.
b. I felt more positive and in control of my eating again, I recognised that I regretted what I'd eaten and fixed it by making a compromise the same day.
The moral of the story for me is that an "all or nothing attitude isn't helpful when it comes to healthy eating". Just because you make one mistake doesn't mean the whole day's efforts and your best healthy eating habits are shot to pieces now and should be binned.
Don't give up because you made one mistake. Learn from it, alter your lifestyle so it doesn't happen again, make a compromise that day or the next day to balance it out, go for a walk that night to exercise a bit of it off (every little bit helps), just don't give up - don't ever give up! For every mistake you fix you're a whole lot further along than if you'd let that one mistake sink you. Get up when you fall at the hurdle and run with patience the race that is set before you.
Jennifer's blog is produced without sponsorship or pay-offs by any of the chocolate afghan manufacturers. Time spent blogging is time not spent earning money to pay for big pasta salads. If you'd like to help fund Jennifer's blogging please click here to make a contribution.
The material provided by Thinking Nutrition Ltd on this website is for information purposes only. It is not a substitute for appropriate health advice from a qualified medical practitioner.
