Increased choice and availability of food in modern life make us even more vulnerable to overeating. If we lived one hundred years ago, most of us would not be overeating nearly as much as we are today. There wasn’t the expansive choice and certainly not the convenience of many foods. If you wanted some ice cream, you had to crank for it instead of simply reaching into the grocery store freezer for one of many varieties of ice cream. These days, food is everywhere, just waiting for us to plunk down our money and carry it away to eat.
New food products hit the market every week to jazz up our lives, keep us interested, and keep us consuming. Endless variety fosters confusion and weakness in the overeater. We easily become distracted from our self-control decisions when faced with too many choices. We all know what it is like to feel full, then suddenly able to eat again, when a new and interesting food is offered. Even normal eaters consume more when faced with a buffet table laden with food.
Too much variety also complicates the everyday task of deciding what to prepare for a home-cooked meal. Should we have meat and potatoes? Italian pasta? Chinese stir-fry with rice? A potluck casserole? Mexican bean burritos? How about that new BBQ recipe I found online? Choices and recipes abound in our modern world.
The confusing variety of meal choices gave rise to my third decision. I began to rely upon a simple meal guide to cope with the increased choice and availability of food in modern life. I distributed the easy-to-manage foods over the usual three meals of the day and told myself to focus on those foods at that time of day.
Breakfast
Focus on fruits. For protein, I rely on whole milk or whole milk yogurt. Usually, I have a bowl of fruit consisting of chopped fresh apple and canned peaches. Occasionally I have small portions of typical breakfast foods. I used to have a bowl of hot cereal along with the fruit, but I kept skipping it. Thus, I began reserving starches for suppertime.
Lunch
Focus on salad vegetables. For protein, I rely on whole milk or 4% cottage cheese. Usually, I assemble a bowl of vegetable dippers like carrots, celery, and cauliflower. If this seems too spartan, I should disclose that I occasionally add a sandwich, and I usually have an afternoon snack of cottage cheese with canned pineapple chunks.
Supper
Focus on cooked vegetables and whole starches. For protein, I bring in meat, cheese, or eggs. My favorite supper is a bowl of hearty soup or stew. But I like to eat the family supper, and they don’t always want my favorite. I look forward to a fruit-filled dessert after supper like a small slice of pie topped with mildly sweetened vanilla yogurt.
My meal guide is not meant to be restrictive. Sometimes I only eat the easy-to-manage food suggestion, but I'm never strict about it. If I need to pack a lunch, I usually include a small sandwich. When I’m in a restaurant, I choose the small or regular size of the standard fare of that establishment. When someone invites me for a meal, I simply eat what is set before me. If the family meal is filled with difficult-to-manage foods, I use a supporting strategy to stop eating. First, I eat a moderate portion, and after pausing for a bit, I then take a half-size portion as a second helping if desired.
A meal guide should be like a comfortable suit of clothes, not a straightjacket. It should be a valuable aid rather than an annoying restriction. The meal guide I settled on fits easily into my lifestyle and culture. It helps me cut through all the clamoring food choices. It reduces the number of food decisions I need to make each day, thus allowing me to turn my attention to other matters and pleasurable pursuits.
You may have noticed that my meal guide features food served in a bowl. I greatly enjoy the simplicity of the one bowl meal. And there is something spiritually appealing about it.
