The Robinator and I were talking about food yesterday and how we consume food differently. He pointed out some things he's noticed over the years about the way I eat that he says he's attempted to adopt as well.
The main thing has to do with large portions of food. See...I don't feel the need to clean my plate no matter what is on it once I've had enough. I hate that "full" feeling so I never do that. It's uncomfortable for me and well, honestly, it upsets my tummy if I'm too full and that's no fun for me.
Well, there is a bit of a setback from this in that it means I don't have a lot "stored" so when I'm hungry...it's pretty much an unbearable feeling for me. Like...I HATE IT! Robby can get hungry and get over the "hungry hump" and be okay. Not me. If I'm hungry...I have to eat NOW. It's an all consuming feeling I have from my head on down. I MUST EAT, I MUST EAT, I MUST EAT. I get stupid cranky and downright evil. Once I eat, however, I'm fine...but yeah...when I'm hungry? Shut up.
When Robby and I were dating and he still lived down South, I visited him. He was so excited to show me around he'd planned all kinds of stuff for us to do. He'd planned on taking us out to lunch but we got off track and I got FOR REAL HUNGRY. We were in one area and he wanted to take me to lunch specifically in another area.
I told him I was hungry.
Him: Okay. We're going to lunch at blah, blah, blah.
Now see...me getting hit with the hungry happens pretty much immediately. It doesn't gradually creep up on me. I'm like...doody doody do...HUNGRY.
So he keeps driving to this next place he wanted to show me and then we get out of the car. I thought we were getting out of the car to go eat.
No.
We were sightseeing some more of the things he wanted to show me in that area.
When I realized there wasn't any food I tried to be charming and all but yeah...that didn't work out cuz I was HUNGRY. After about 20 minutes or so I snapped:
Me: Look, if you're not going to take me somewhere to get something to eat right now you need to take me back to your apartment so I can get my stuff and take my butt back to my house hell.
Him: *BLINK* Um...okay.
And we drove to the restaurant in silence. After I ate a hunk of bread (back then I didn't know I was allergic) I explained my food thingy to him.
Him: Duly noted. Won't happen again.
And it hasn't on his watch since then. It's to the point when I'm traveling solo that he'll call me and remind me to eat so I don't go hungry crazy wherever I am.
Another thing I do is eat a LOT of fruit. If my choices are any type of packaged snack versus fruit...I always choose fruit. I buy fruit several times a week because I eat a lot of it.
I'm not a late night snacker nor do I do dessert. After dinner...I'm good. I very RARELY eat something after dinner. I always feel like it will just sit there while I'm sleeping and well...no. I don't like the thought of that.
I never eat something just because it's there. I eat because I'm hungry. Not just to have something to do.
I guess the MAIN thing about my eating is that I won't eat just anything. If I'm somewhere and my choices are fast food restaurants ONLY...I will make do with the bars in my bag and water. In fact...when traveling, I'm quick to buy a bag of apples and a pack of water for my room just in case cuz yeah...you never know.
The Robinator has lost about 30 pounds this past year by doing a lot of the stuff I do as well as upping his workouts. I don't know how it finally clicked in him but I guess all these years of watching me just finally rubbed off on him. Yesterday we were in an airport we didn't plan on being in (missed a flight and had to be re-routed through goodness knows where) and I went to find food. When I returned with water only, Robby pulled out our bag of snacks and we each had a pear, some grapes and munched on some mixed nuts.
I was proud of him.
He's figured out it's better to wait for some real body fuel instead of filling up on junk.
My dude.
Have YOUR eating habits changed since you've gotten older? What do you do that you believe is beneficial?
