How, you might wonder, do High WASP women keep their weight where they want it?
For it’s true that we tend more often to the slender. Of course, that renders us prone to shriveling in our later years, but there you go.
Let me say that I understand and have lived the difficult and unfair impact of cultural expectations for women’s bodies. Let me say that I believe to each her own, and health is paramount. But let me also confess that I watch my weight, that I derive enjoyment from the results of that effort, and that I rely on lessons from my culture as secret weapons.
Which I am quite prepared to reveal. I do not diet. I do not torture myself. I am comfortable now with my relationship to food, despite occasional petulance at not being able to eat as much as in days past.
Let us always remember that eating well is one of the greatest privileges of all. Did you know that inner city Detroit has few actual grocery stores? That quality produce is unavailable for many rural or urban communities, particularly of color? You probably did. Here’s a summary of the studies. I find it helps me eat fruit if I perceive it to be a result of good fortune.
10 Sneaky Tricks Of The High WASP Diet
1. Eat breakfast. We like our breakfasts and we eat them sitting down. (Did you see the part in Downton Abbey when the butler was scandalized by the nephew serving himself? Said all meals would be ‘like breakfast?’) Every day of my childhood mom made us bacon, toast, a bowl of cold cereal and a glass of orange juice. Now I just have tea and toast. I know I’m supposed to eat protein, according to various doctrines, but the High WASP Diet says I don’t have to if I don’t want to. And I don’t.
2. Partake of high tea. Eat sweet afternoon snacks. That’s when to indulge in cravings. If things get out of hand, if the cravings surpass your capacity to have only one, or just a handful, the problem is simply solved. Move dinner forward. And please don’t eat dessert. It unseats the savory taste of an evening meal.
3. Develop the capacity to feel pleasure in delayed gratification and self-limitation. This one is hard, and drilled into High WASPs at a very early age. Eat fruit before cookies. Throw away the piece of cake when you’ve only had 4 bites. Physically remove yourself from temptation, telling yourself, “Good job!” over and over again. Or hearing your father’s voice tell you something similar.
4. Rely on hot liquids to combat actual hunger. Tea. Miso soup. Any soup. Good for the budget too. It’s possible High WASPs enjoyed hot liquids to appease appetite without stretching family fortunes to the breaking point.
5. Give lettuce its due but do not expect too much. Lettuce is a harsh mistress. Always eat a salad, never only a salad. Those we see eating solely greenery at midday are often compensating later with something not so kind to one’s weight.
6. During times when one really must get rid of a pound of two, cut out a meal. Pretend it just doesn’t exist. Chin held high. Mom had Fresca for lunch. I replace dinner with a little cheese and bread, a tangerine, and one glass of wine. Diet sodas are the devil’s work.
7. Never learn to fry. High WASPs are afraid of deep fryers. The closest we can get is a sauté pan.
8. Bring your high performance, excellence-in-everything attitude to eating – i.e. learn to cook food from other cultures ahead of the curve, worship salmon, respect the blueberry, culture yogurt. Processed foods are not ingredients. Recipes that include a purchased sauce aren’t recipes for anything but laziness. To say nothing of the salt, sugar, and unnatural fats hidden therein.
9. Fall victim to the vapors, otherwise known as low blood sugar. Eat protein early and often. I often have second breakfast, like Winnie-the-Pooh’s elevenses. It’s always protein. Sometimes even vanilla-flavored whey protein from Whole Foods stirred into 2% milk. I can’t drink milk with less fat, it tastes too weakly sweet.
10. Watch the alcohol. A High WASPs downfall. I didn’t drink regularly until I was over 40. Started with an nightly glass of wine. “How odd,” I thought, “I’ve put on 3 pounds I just can’t take off.” The nightly glass crept up to 2. “How odd,” I thought, “I’ve put on another 2 pounds I just can’t take off.” Then my doctor told me that the recommended 2 glasses of wine should actually be 1, for women. “Oh drat,” I thought, and focused on cutting back. You know how the story ended. With a step on the scale one morning, and a small, quiet, “Huh. There go those 2 pounds.”
11. Eating disorders. The which I cannot and should not refer to lightly, having battled the little fiend of bulemia in my youth. Although I came away relatively unscathed, I feel it would be ill-mannered to banter at all about something so excoriating. Let me just say, show better judgment than I did. Food is, first and foremost, something you put into your mouth to keep yourself alive. With abundant resources, we have the good fortune to be able to enjoy what we eat. I try to merit that privilege.
There you go. Eat like a High WASP. Or not. Entire civilizations live on rice with vegetables, and a little meat. Or pasta, salad, and a little fish. This is how my culture does it. And I left out kippered herring, although they are deeply-rooted in our food stuffs, just because I don’t like them. You’ve got to like the food you eat or you forfeit one of the great joys of life.
80 Responses
I too was raised on many of these beliefs, although I definitely do not lean toward slender. Maybe because I always fall victim to #5…
Tea is necessary for the afternoon. Especially matte kinds such as chai. My mother will never fry anything, and breakfast is definitely the most important meal of the day in my family…in which we surely do take our time…such as now. This is all very true and creative!
So sad it is all in the wine!
Interesting how many of those mirror the food rules of my father’s family. Two of my grandmother’s rules were:
–Only one starch with each meal. If you serve potatoes, no bread. She was often heard to say that “starches will make you fat”, which turns out is probably true. (She did often enjoy a *small* dessert, like a single cookie or very small scoop of ice cream.)
–Protein, protein, protein. Something with every meal, even if just a soft-boiled egg.
–“Afternoon tea” was usually a glass of sherry, but just one. Scotch on occasion. She wasn’t much of a wine drinker otherwise.
I agree with everything! While I’m able to maintain a reasonable discipline throughout most the day, when I’m at home in the late afternoon I tend to cave. I usually have a cup of tea and a biscotti, but if I’m not satisfied, I’ll start on a “healthy” snack of hummus and pita chips. Healthy, maybe, but full of calories! What is your high tea?
LOVED this! had to chuckle at the downton abbey because, much to the beau’s chagrin, i’m on round 3 of watching this series. and i would like to e-mail #8 to everyone in america. SO SO true. i’m a soft-boiled egg on wheat toast with tea for breakfast kinda gal. tres high-WASPy.
Thank you for the reminders.
Whole Foods is coming to Scotland this year – I don’t think i have ever been more excited about a shop opening in my area – I love it so much I might go stack apples for them.
Breakfast ah what a joy – it’s makes my morning every day, I can nve rhav along lie because I am always just too excited about breakfast.
I don’t know if I’m a WASP, but I am afraid of the deep fryer. Not good for living in the South!
Fabulous suggestions, for sure. I have recently begun to carbonate filtered tap water using a Sodastream machine. A glass of this bubbly water will give you a feeling of fullness and allow you to prolong eating for a bit. Also, no more plastic Pellegrino bottles to lug around!
I adore the way in which you began this post – a reminder that so many people don’t have access to fresh ingredients at all – namely the most urban and rural among us. An important reminder, particularly for those who do have access to fresh food but continue to eat sugar and processed items at every meal. This posts is exactly how my husband’s family eats. Mine? Not so much. Our future children will have to figure out how to navigate that one…
I so agree. I embrace my 3x a day tea habit and avoid deep frying at all costs. I’m fascinated by Paula Deen and those who actually have one built into their kitchen.
Well stated. I can relate to #2 and #10, in particular.
A very enjoyable post! I’m focusing on eating more colorful vegetables, and fruits, less protein, more nuts for fat, and occasionally a bite of dark chocolate. Do you take any supplements such as calcium and vitamin D?
Great suggestions Miss Privilege, each and every one. Having battled some of the same demons well into my twenties, it took quite awhile to stop allowing food the power to destroy all pleasure associated with same, so your thoughts on that topic are appreciated.
The hot liquids is always such a good idea, as is the delayed gratification and self-deprivation on a small scale. But I must disagree with the lettuce, lettuce is my friend, one of my best pals, I love it!
Hope you are having a divine time inside the beltway!
tp
Ah wise advice…If I had a printer I’d copy this and keep it close by to help me on my journey to wellness.
I can always count on you Lisa…you are a woman of fine qualities.
Hugs,
Hostess
“High WASPs are afraid of deep fryers. The closest we can get is a sauté pan.” – this one had me laughing because it’s so true.
I loved your list and it distilled much of what I’ve learned through my family about eating. Sitting at a desk all day sometimes challenges these rules, but they have served me well. I my mind the word was moderation – but your list is good at laying it all out.
Another factor in WASPs and their weight is exercise is considered an ideal leisure activity. Tennis, skiing, fly-fishing, biking, a brisk walk were all promoted as good – virtuous, healthy, fun – no excuses! There are recent additions of yoga, rock-climbing among others. A good vacation is sailing, snorkeling, skiing – not a lounge chair by a pool. Oh yes, WASPs may spend a week by the pool but they feel guilty about it and need to justify it.
I do like these do´s and don´ts lists. There is much on your list I accept. However, every now and then, I reward myself with a piece of cake, but in return, skip a meal. Desserts seldom belong to our menu.
very nicely explained. i live in the South, and am frequently appalled to find deep fryers in action at high WASP cocktail parties. Seriously, there was a fryer churning out onion rings at a Christmas party. It was meant to be kind of *wink wink* as there were elegant hors d’oeuvres upstairs, but it made my silk blouse stink. I had a 2nd party to go to and felt completely repulsive.
Loved this post today, Lisa.
I am a graduate of culinary school and also board certified in integrative nutrition.
I also have a shady past of being a bulimic for seven years… my suite-mate in college taught the whole suite to throw up (she was a nursing student!) and I was the only one who decided that it was such a fine idea! Well, that was the early 70s when no one knew the horrid effects. One day, I just said, “This is the stupidest thing I’ve ever done.” I quit and never looked back.
I try to do the 3 bite thing (how Nancy Reagan said that she enjoyed desserts).
For a sweet food in the PM, you don’t have to have a homemade cookie, although that sounds pretty good. You can really rationalize eating it if it has oatmeal or chocolate and if it’s baked with lots of homemade love! Yes, there are studies that food tastes much better if made with LOVE! You can eat sweet potatoes, (plain) yogurt with local honey, or fruit.
I, like Belle on Heels, agree that everything I put in my mouth needs to be of highest quality (as you stated with everything we do in all aspects of our lives).
But the most poignant comment you made was in the beginning. Obesity used to be a disease of privilege and now the opposite is true. The poor and destitute only have “privilege” to processed foods and don’t know how to cook any more. They don’t realize that they can cook a big pot of beans and/or rice for the week, add a quick saute of greens and they can have a great meal. Less expensive than that processed poison. If they want to add some animal protein, that’s fine. Broil a piece of fish or chix. Add spices and herbs… it doesn’t have to be boring! Quicker than processed, too!
OK, now I have done my lecture for the day. Thanks for allowing me to proselytize! And enjoy that hot tea!
What a perfectly timed post for Fat Tuesday! ;)
I agree wholeheartedly on the hot liquids idea, and also that as WASPs hold onto our clothes for so long, it can become clear quickly without a scale if one gains or loses a few pounds. :)
“Diet soda is the devils work”!! Truer words were never spoken.
I too follow your rules pretty much exactly, though my background is not High Wasp. Very sensible tips and it certainly is too bad about the wine, that one glass does flow nicely into two. My family is French and wine is big.
Very well written and sensitive too, thank you.
I needed this today.
Thank you for the reminder – beautifully written as always.
I like your emphasis on whole foods! So often eating too much is because food doesn’t “taste big”. For the sake of accurate WASP terms: “high tea” is, in England, a substantial meal involving meat, served around 6 p.m. (High tea is in fact a working person’s early dinner.)
The event of tea (or sherry) and finger sandwiches tea, served in late aft. is “afternoon tea”.
A “cream tea” or “Devonshire tea” is afternoon tea featuring scones, clotted cream and jam- fabulously delicious but very calorie laden.
See reference: http://coffeetea.about.com/cs/culture/a/aftervshigh.htm
I REFUSE to have a deep fryer. Yes, I am a southerner and enjoy a fried green tomato or two….but I fry them in a pan with olive oil (can’t be having those trans fats now). Oh me, oh my, I hope my SLPS readers don’t read this comment and think I’m dissing my southern heritage! Tee-hee-hee.
I love tea and drink one every afternoon. Iced sweetened tea that is (not high tea and thus accounting for my form of the extra pound or two). Makes me think, can you be a WASP and a southerner at the same time? I am both, though I am more southern as that’s how I was raised. I didn’t even know what a WASP was until several years ago but my family heritage, we can track back on both sides to the Puritans(Lallie even has a “witch” in her heritage on Husband’s side, I find that very interesting). Tradition mixing the two would be an interesting post. But I digress….
Loved this post today!
There is a proud tradition of Southern WASPs! You *must* read “Confessions of a Real Southern Lady,” an autobiography by WASP (and self-described misanthrope) Florence King. The eccentric household in which she grew up included her bookish British father, her tomboy mother, her maternal grandmother’s maid, and the grandmother herself, a doughty Virginia dowager who frequently expounded on the family’s origins in the Colonial elite.
“And please don’t eat dessert.” ~gasp~
I know you said please and all, but I simply.can.not.give.up.dessert. Nope, no way, no how. It’s hard enough to talk myself out of having dessert after breakfast.
Have you heard of the book Hungry Planet? A photoessay with slides from the book showing what middle-class families or their counterparts in several different cultures eat in a week was published in Time a few years ago (http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1626519,00.html). It’s absolutely fascinating and eye-opening. I frequently find myself poring over the book before I make a weekly grocery store run. Ugh, the Anglo-American diet is appalling. :(
And sorry for the double post, but I meant to add that I agree with you most strongly about the “food desert” effect, with which I was very familiar when I lived on the south side of Chicago. We lived a few blocks from the Hyde Park Co-op, but it tended to be pricey even for grad students who knew to prioritize eating well. To stock up on bulk goods we usually had to make a run out to one of the big supermarkets on the Far West Side, which usually took us about half an hour each way. And we were lucky we had a car. People living in Englewood, North Kenwood, and Bronzeville (before it started to undergo gentrification) had mostly convenience stores and liquor stores…incredibly hard for women relying on food stamps and public transportation. Now the Hyde Park Co-op has closed and their options are even more limited, as no large grocery chain has yet to take its place on the Southeast Side. (And if anyone wonders why this issue is so near and dear to Michelle Obama’s heart, there’s your answer.)
And this is equally true of the small, dying rural towns of Illinois and Indiana, where people now have to travel twenty or thirty miles (or more) to the nearest Wal-Mart for fresh produce, often on back roads. It’s a dirty little secret, the link between poverty and obesity. Sorry–I’ll get off my soapbox now.
And walk. Walk everywhere, in all kinds of weather. WASP women (especially the Sturdy Gal type) rarely belong to a gym or do some concerted form of exercise for the sake of exercise, but they pursue their sports, walk their hounds, ride their horses, dig up their gardens. They move briskly, a great difference between those who are heavy and those who aren’t.
And they tend to get up early and do their walking or riding or gardening in the morning. This not only raises the metabolic rate for at least a few hours (until the next chore or errand requires them to walk fast once again), but it also can diminish hunger.
I am slender, so heavier people sometimes look at me and think it’s easy for me. It is not. I gained nearly 70 pounds when I was pregnant and lost it again, so I know what it’s like to be heavy. Staying slender and healthy requires some discipline.
LPC – You have managed to walk the fine line between the Puritanical “virtue in self denial” and excellent dietary advice.
If I have a substantial breakfast, I’m not hungry again until late afternoon.
Yeah, well…I don’t do desserts, or indeed anything with refined sugar, or grains, or vegetable oils, or soy. Know, though, that if you’re frying hotter than a saute with olive oil, you’re turning it into a trans fat. Try pastured lard, or if you just can’t bring yourself to eat animal fat, then use virgin coconut oil.
I, too, suffered from bulemia in my younger years. Unfortunately, I did not come out of it unscathed…maybe that’s why I tend to be food obsessed.
I’d call this the Nancy Mitford régime, and it pretty much describes how I go about things. With perhaps a bit more wine. All I could possibly add to it is to eat chocolate when you need it (need, not want, thought ‘need’ may be a bit pampered here) and keep busy.
Cool, I learned something and did some research online and like to share:
It takes several hours to turn heated olive oil to trans fat, which is unlikely in home usage. But its not recommend to use olive oil to fry things as it will lose its nutrition.
http://www.livestrong.com/article/446570-does-overheating-olive-oil-turn-it-to-trans-fat/
Oh dear here in the UK naughty habits…Shrove Tuesday Pancake day,even Kate Middleton was out and about tossing them…but neither of us ate them(laughing)
Breakfast is my favouite meal of the day,followed by lunch, later a large bowl of fresh fruit.
Chocolate is my downfall….but I have given it up for Lent! Ida
Simple. That is the key, overindulgence is not. Well done!
Well said, as always.
On reading the suggestions I think my mother was a H.Wasp. Probably still is in an English kind of way! My parents still practise self denial etc. “One biscuit and one biscuit only” is a saying in our family which we now all use as a joke but Mother used to say it to us in all seriousness. I think I may have rebelled which is why I am always battling with 7lbs!! XX
I love the awareness raising you do for WASPs! I’m not one, but I’ve been known to pass :-) I love your rules – they are sadly effective. Strangely, I wrote a post about diet today too…
i am a victim of #10 as well. something about 40 and a nightly glass of wine: they go so well together.
will see if cutting it out has the same effect. fingers crossed.
Wise advice, if only I could follow it!
Mom always said to cut everything on your plate in half. Makes a big difference in my +40 years. Also no alcohol Mon-Thur. Exercise five days. I lost 22 lbs last year!
Dear Lisa, I am printing this post so I can read and re-read it. You write so wisely. Bringing up two little girls, I am keenly aware that the food I serve them and how I talk about food and my body can have long term effects on them. They are perfect. Truly. Their lithe little bodies and perfect skin are completely lovely. So I focus on ensuring they have plenty of vegetables and fruit, that they eat good quality protein, that the drink of choice is water and that treats are infrequent, or ‘sometimes food’. As for me, I have more curves than I used to. I am concentrating on eating smaller quantities of high quality real food and savoring every delicious morsel. However, you have given me more to, dare I say, digest. Lindaxxx
Fresca is diet soda.
Just saying… :-)
From my experience, it seems that many WASPs are thin because they just don’t really enjoy food that much. They’re too busy playing golf, splitting firewood, playing tennis, or taking their retrievers out for a walk. Sturdy gals, clearly.
That being said, wholehearted agreement with many of these tips.
“Diet sodas are the devil’s work.” My mother’s words exactly!
Great advice. I love Miso soup and find it works a treat. I shall also never own a deep fryer. It’s harder after forty to keep the same weight and I do try to eat a proper breakfast with varying results.
Hope you’re having a good week xx
Loved this post. I think genes play a huge part- my parents and extended family are all very slim.
The main trick is a fast metabolism, activity and discipline.
Cannot wait to have this baby and get thin again xxx
Oh, Elizabeth, I don’t think we WASPs “don’t enjoy food all that much.” We have the same physical responses anybody else does–we love food. Go to a tailgate at a steeplechase or a hunt breakfast, and you’ll see a great spread, with lots of delicious cooking and no shortage of alcohol. But most of the time we’re abstemious and disciplined, in part because we’re raised to be disciplined, and in part because it’s -so- socially unacceptable for a WASP woman to be more than a little overweight. When everybody else in your social milieu is pretty slender, there’s a lot of social pressure to keep the pounds off.
But you’re right that lots of exercise helps keep the weight off. Most of us are very active.
On the other hand, WASP men can apparently get away with having a belly, and there seems to be no stigma attached to this. Interesting…
The bit about tea was most insightful and new to me. I tend to be a cookie monster…so had to stop keeping them around unless there was a grandchild nearby.
Haha! Nr 7 reminds me of my time as an Au Pair in London: I was so afraid I might put on weight during my stay (Au Pairs usually gain 5-10kg in 2 months), I told the mother I must not eat anything fried due to some intolerance-metabolism-issues. She set the meat loafs aside, after grilling them. She always deep fried them after having grilled them.
Oh, and the Nr 9 makes me wonder if you exercise? I drank/ate whey only once in my life: the year I went to the gym and worked out on my muscles.
Kristen – You fall prey to lettuce? Oh no. Grilled chicken strips are the best antidote:).
Kalyn – Thank you! How lovely to take one’s time as a family.
Heather – Oh I know. Drat.
deja – We had the same starch approach in my house. Interesting.
Patricia – High tea usually turns into dinner. Because I’m home, I will often eat dinner at 5pm, and not eat again until morning. But I’m an early to bed sort.
Belle – I often wonder what the point is of purchased sauces. It’s just not that hard to add spice to a can of tomatoes, for example.
Susan – You are very welcome.
Tabitha – Me too! I jump out of bed thinking of tea. Congrats on Whole Foods. It is sort of a brilliant business.
Alesya – How do you get around the ubiquitous fryer?
teaorwine – Thank you. I am very tempted by Sodastream. Carbonation does ad celebration and substance to tap water, I agree.
Maggie – Oh thank you. I sense that your husband’s family shares a fair amount with mine.
Kat – I am also scratching my head.
Olivia – Thank you.
Candy – I take fish oil. That’s really the only supplement. I eat a fair amount of yogurt, and get a little sun, so I hope calcium and Vitamin D are handled.
TPP – Oh, I did not mean to mislead you. I love lettuce too. Just have found that I can’t expect it ever to make a meal, not without some real help.
Hostess – I thought of you. Let’s share a cup of tea:). Thank you and hugs right back.
Alex – My sister reminded me of that one:). Moderation is the word. And all that striding about is key.
metscan – I have chocolate. I just don’t eat it after a meal. So I understand.
kate – Ha! I hadn’t even thought about that aspect.
Jo-De – Thank you very much. I cannot believe your suite mate TAUGHT you all to do that. I was terribly ashamed of the process when I was in the midst. And I too just had a revelation one day that it was stupid and I should just eat what I liked. Please feel free to proselytize that way whenever you like.
Glitterista – The timing was complete serendipity. And you are right about the holding onto clothes and that result:).
DaniBP – You are more than welcome. I think the French approach to food and wine makes for great happiness.
Claire – It’s my pleasure. I mean that.
Duchesse – Exactly – taste big is good. And thank you for the correct terminology. All of what I say here I have derived from my experience. As you might expect, none of this was ever stated out loud.
Jennifer – Oh yes one can ABSOLUTELY be a High WASP and a Southerner at the same time. There are clear regional variants:). Witches are part of it for most all types however. I’d love to hear your thoughts on the culture, because I know New England, New York, and California only.
Patsy – I respect conviction. That said, I eat chocolate in the middle of the day.
Staircase Witch – I haven’t read it. I will try to remember to take a look. Thank you. It’s a very worthy soapbox.
Miss Janey – Thank you
Sarah – I have no doubt:). I think finding joy in one’s own self-limiting is one of the hardest tasks of adulthood. I fail all the time.
K-Line – I’m traveling, so haven’t seen much of anything in the blogosphere except my own little corner. I will absolutely look up your post. Thank you for appreciating my goofy rules.
jane – They do go so well together:). *sigh*
Susan – I am hoping your current projects all go well:).
Gablesgirl – Congratulations! I am so impressed you manage to exercise 5 days a week. That’s invaluable. I am not so good. I am trying to up my activity level.
Linda – Having daughters brings this all home, I agree. I’m honored that you want to reread this. xox.
ange – I know! Those were the old days. Before we knew….Oh the horror.
Elizabeth – WASP women are supposed to have no appetite. Of any sort. In reality, we do. It’s a long story. If I ever write that book, I expect this question may play a big part in my motivation.
sarah – Smart woman, your mom.
Christina – It’s a good week, thank you. And thank you for saying hello. I love that expression, works a treat. Very bracing:).
FF – No question that genetics have a lot of impact.
Andrea – So true. It’s socially unacceptable for a High WASP woman to be all sorts of things that we frequently are anyway…
Terri – Thank you. I have to watch what I bring into the larder too.
Paula – I exercise, just not enough. And I put on 7kg my summer working at a camp in France:). Luckily I was young and it came off.
Fresca is always on my shopping list. I just love it! And it’s great to substitute it in a Pimm’s Cup…but, from this list, I’m supposed to avoid alcohol too, right?!? Oh, but I’m not a WASP!
diabolical laughter ensues
Andrea – I do get up early. I do love to walk. And I do love to garden:). So true.
DocP –
Jan – I didn’t know you had the bulemia troubles. I’m sorry. Dreadful stuff. I so appreciate your food writing now.
mise – How fitting there’s a literary name:).
Ida – I need to give up many things for Lent…
Raulston – Thank you so much.
SORRY I MISSED YOU GUYS FIRST GO ROUND!
Jill – I will turn in my High WASP card when you and I meet for dinner. OK?:)
My fridays involve fasting during lent. Clear liquids and Juices and then the reward is the weekend glass of wine.
Fasting and praying for a thinner waspier me.
pve
Fabulous post! Love your WASPy and logical dietary wisdom! After a day of grilled cheeses, tomato soup and brownies, it’s just what I needed to read (the weather made me do it)!
Welcome home…
xo J~
Lisa, I’m spending a lot of time these last few days telling myself “Good job!”
Last weekend, I bought the vanilla whey protein from Whole Foods. I’ve mixed it with Lactaid skim. Delicious! It takes like vanilla cake mix. Yum!
I can’t say I’ve ever had vanilla cake mix, but a vanilla malted has long been my sweet to go:).
‘During times when one really must get rid of a pound of two, cut out a meal. Pretend it just doesn’t exist. Chin held high.’
Hilarious. And good advice! Instantly flatter stomach. Constant struggle for me, as I’m only 5’4″, so easy to accidentally err on the side of barrel.
xx
Barrel. Ha! Thank you.
TEA? HIGH TEA? This mayflower mama was taught to
drink tea behind closed doors and P.S. you better be sick.
Ha!
I thoroughly enjoyed this post and agree with your views above. I rarely eat meat, but I adore salmon, baby herrings and so forth. I eat fruits daily; mornings only before breakfast. Lunch is usually fish with some sort of vegetable or potatoe salad. I do enjoythe odd croissant though. And I sip green, white, jasmine tea throughout the day. I enjoy jogurt, too. Excellent for calcium. I also have a handful of walnuts and peanuts daily. XX
I love your article but I do not like eating. I eat for the same reason I put fuel in my car. My breakfast is a lemon squeezed in hot water and a couple of bananas. I often skip lunch but have a “main meal” each days. My problem is, I love cooking! since my husband died last year my eating and drinking habits have been awful, particularly as I love entertaining.
If I do have a drink, it’s probably my allowance for the week, I am overweight but still fit into Marks and Sparks size 12.
Living in Africa I have an abundance of fresh fruit straight from the orchard, the same with fresh vegetables from the garden. I do take advantage of all this but long to cook beautiful meals for people who enjoy eating.
I’m so sorry for your loss. I imagine your friends love to come to your dinners.
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