A French Girl Friday Post

Eating on the run and not
paying attention to how much you eat
can lead to that little black dress no longer fitting.

If you are flipping through the pages of The French Twist by Carol Cottrill, and came across the chapter seven, "Sept", and saw the title "Les Parties" and then the word "Portions" , your first reaction, if you could not read French might be that is the title and it's translation , that was my first thought, then I translated it and well nope that is not the case. I am not entirely sure, after reading the chapter what the correlation actually is between the two words... except that when we go to parties, as Americans we do not watch our portions. I know it is a stretch, only the author knows for sure. But what I just stated is the truth isn't it?  I know it is for me, no matter how hard I try! 

Never eat more than you can lift.

-Miss Piggy , Muppet Character 

I live in a family of skinny fat people. They can eat all day long, and whatever they want and their weight does not go up. I look at the food that they eat and MY weight does. I call them skinny fat, simply because they are still so stinking skinny but eat all the foods that make me fat. I know not politically correct, but it is fact. Take yesterday, Thanksgiving at our household, and it was an all day food fest.  There is the normal meals, to stave off hunger, then there was the large, though very pretty cheese platter that my daughter prepared, and I knew that I was eating far more than I should and dinner had not arrived. When dinner finally was served we had enough food for a small army, although there was only four of us. I piled on the mashed potatoes, fully loaded, sweet potatoes, with the marshmallows melted on top and brown sugar and butter within , stuffing, a roll and then of course the turkey and gravy and then to top it off, I had a pumpkin bar and whipped cream, oddly enough those last two were the only things portioned out! I never thought once about portion control , or the lack of it and what it would do to my waist line or how would feel after consuming it all. 

Like mentioned in previous posts it is often about quantity and not quality for us Americans. Although in this case the food was of very good quality, it seems when this holiday rolls around or other celebrations, it is also very much about quantity. Eating too much, other than for my family, myself not included, leads to weight gain and poor health. So how then do the French eat what they do, what we see as indulgences and maintain their weight? Well, as discussed in other posts and within the pages of the book, we know that they eat real food,  good quality food, they take their time, slow down and savor each bite, putting down their fork in between, and then there is the seventh secret, and one we all know we should do, but often do not, they eat smaller portions. Should not be that hard right? Sounds logical, and yet we ignore, or most of us do, this very basic rule to weight loss and weight management. 

In eating, a third of the stomach 

should be filled with food, a third 

with drink, and the rest left empty.

-The Talmud

So how does this factor in to what else has been covered in the book. Well it is not just portion control of the indulgent foods, but it is of the day to day foods as well. They eat quite a bit of fresh fruits and vegetables, far more than any of us typically eat, I know I am guilty of this. When filling their plate they follow this simple rule " Fill your plate with three- quarters plant foods and one -quarter animal food, plus a serving of healthy oil, avocado or nuts. Enjoy a glass of wine and top off the meal with an ounce of fine chocolate, and you're well on your way to optimum health and a smaller waistline." ~ The French Twist. Sounds simple enough if we can get ourselves to do it, that is the challenge isn't it? So are you up for it?  I know that most days that is what I aim to do, sadly only seems to happen during the dinner hour and not other meals and certainly not on holidays. I think I need to change that. 

It is wonderful, if we choose the right diet, what

an extraordinarily small quantity would suffice.

-Ghandi 

Chapter seven of course contains far more that I am including here to back up the reasons we should watch how much we eat, and I do not mean watch while we eat HOW much??? I do my best to peak your curiosity, but not to give away all the books information, that would not be fair to the Author or quite legal I am sure. There is in this chapter as there is in every past chapter a wealth of good practical information. I always walk away feeling that I have learned something new, but also that I have reminded myself what I already knew to be true. When I reached the "Practicing Your French" portion of the book this I found to be very true. The author gives the homework of eating only half of what is on your plate when you go out to eat, and taking the rest home. I do this, most times, or I share my food (split an order) with my husband. Often if I do bring home leftovers, I do not eat them. I no longer, at least most times feel I have to be part of the clean plate club. She has other tid bits to try out as homework, but you will just have to buy the book to find out what they are. 

It is not only good for the body,
but good for the soul to take your
time while eating, enjoy what you
are consuming and when you do that,
you will find you can consume much less,
but get so much more from the food you eat.