This is how a slim person eats

[photocop]

I have never been overweight, apart from post-baby. Would it be helpful for me to tell you how I stay slim?

Disclaimer: I consider myself very fortunate to have been raised by a mother who a) gave us a love of healthy food and being active and b) never had food issues herself, so I have never learned to be an emotional eater.

I really think emotional eating is a huge issue for a lot of my friends. And I don't claim to have the answer to overcome this. I do know, however, that it's a lot harder to "binge" on healthy food. And I believe the food "industry" manufactures food that is addictive, precisely so that you'll buy more.

My self-imposed rules, because contrary to what people around me believe, I'm not "effortlessly" slim. I work at it.

• nothing is banned, because that would create cravings (I love cake, but I eat it 2-3 times a week not every day)
  
• food is neither reward nor punishment
  
• vegetables at every meal
  
• I don't count calories but I do count fruit & veg - aim for 7 a day
  
• eat for health not weight - look at the nutritional value and eat mostly whole foods
  
• carbs are fine but 90% of the time they are brown not white
  
• drink mainly water or green tea, apart from one coffee & milk a day and approx two glasses of wine a week
  
• eat mainly dark chocolate (70%), soon milk chocolate will taste too sweet by comparison
  
• walk everywhere if time permits
  
• plan ahead so time does permit!
  
• do a form of exercise you love, 2-3 times a week (I am not naturally sporty but enjoy swimming and cycling)
  
• snacks are to tide you over till a mealtime, not fill you up (nuts, fruit, yoghurt)
  
• don't starve yourself, if you're hungry between meals have a healthy snack
  
• no low-fat or diet anything, it is usually full of sugar or nasties
  
• cook from scratch every day - not necessarily fancy, jacket potato and tuna is fine, with some green veg on the side! if you cook from scratch then there will be no secret addictive ingredients to make you binge eat
  
• lean protein with every meal
  
• don't buy biscuits or crisps (if you're desperate, bake some, it'll probably not be worth the effort)
  
• don't buy sweets for your children, that way they are not there to tempt you (and your DCs don't need them)
  
• eat seasonally
  
• meal plan all the time
  
• eat at roughly the same time every day
  
• eat dinner earlier rather than later (for me 7pm)
  
• if you need something upstairs, get it now, all activity is good (I potter a lot)

[Enlli]

Your Mother brought you up to eat healthy food and had no food issues herself. Not sure of that. Food is food. What is healthy depends upon what each person perceives healthy to be. From what you have said though you seem to have a lot of food hangups yourself and seem almost afraid of food and class foods as good and bad aka healthy and unhealthy. Are you sure your Mother didn't have any food issues though? To feed you healthy foods sort of implies that she also felt that there were good foods and bad and therefore avoided foods she considered bad. Crisps might not be the best thing in the world but they are ok in moderation. If you never have crisps, sweets etc in your house then your kids are more likely to grow up with food issues and overeat them when out of your control.
A slim person who has no issues at all with food eats whatever she wants when she/he is really hungry.

[woollytights]

I wonder what the swarms of people triumphantly declaring how much shit food they are happy to eat are doing reading the weight loss chat board then? That goes to both the thin ones and the fat ones.

I didnt like the tone of the OP really but I'm far more put off by the nasty responses from some posters.

I lost weight and am maintaining my low weight by eating vaguely similarly to the OP. But sometimes I am hungry. I don't snack. And that's not sucking the joy out of food, in fact its enjoying food more than ever because now I actually let myself get hungry without having to bloody snack if I havent stuffed something in my mouth in the last half hour.

So my advice is to have normal size meals, eat them slowly and fuck snacks off altogether.

[recall]

I read it in "Active" - not "Weight Loss Chat"

It's still a condescending load of shite

[DialsMavis]

I think that the OP is getting a hard time, she has posted a normal healthy diet, not extreme or restricting. I liked that the op addressed the issue of emotional eating.

I do however think that for many slim people it's hard for them to understand that it is much easier for some than others. I simply can't eat cake 2-3 times a week, I balloon. I have to work very hard and be constantly vigilant of my diet to stay on the very top end or slightly over a healthy bmi. I can't consume gluten, dairy or sugar in anything more than tiny amounts.

[WowserBowser]

Well bumping the thread will help...

[AskMeAnother]

OmnipotentQueenOfTheUniverse -I was slim for years and years, here's what my diet consisted of: 20-40 marloboro red a day, cheese, 2 botts white wine per day, coca cola, occasional recreational drugs, plenty of casual sex, I looked great and it wasn't that hard to stick to it either

Oh my! I've been looking for the right diet for me for forty years. Roll on January 1st, I've found my new regime!

[sanfairyanne]

god i was so slim til i hit 40 and my thyroid packed in

[BsshBosh]

I remember that thread where an overweight OP asked naturally slim people what they ate. What struck me about the responses was that there was little consensus (people ate a wide variety of foods including junk). However, most commented how they tended to only eat when hungry and that portion sizes were perhaps smaller.

[DontGotoRoehamptonUniversity]

I have always been struck by the fact that my DC stop eating when they are full, even if that means eg leaving two chips on a plate or a small piece of meat. I couldn't do that, I would feel somehow compelled to eat those two chips! And so I never told them to clear their plates. And used to drive me doolally when my parents tried to insist that their GC finish what is on their plate. Given that meals are plated up - how is the plater a better judge of the right amount that the eater? Wonder how many of are overweight because of being compelled to clear the plate by parents and dinner ladies and ignore their own judgement of having had enough.

[Enlli]

I totally agree with you Don't. Many adults are victims of the clean your plate upbringing and don't know how to tune into their own hunger and satisfaction any more. Maybe if we could all relearn that seemingly simple step then diet clubs would die a death overnight.

[Enlli]

Dont

[Enlli]

Bsssh interesting. This is how I try to eat now.

[TalkinPeace]

Hi there Bssh Are you still looking amazing and fit?

[atticusclaw]

I can see that you were trying to be helpful but there really is no one size fits all. I am slim and in my early 40s. I have always been slim and am only slightly heavier now that I was when I was 16.

I have an appalling diet. I live on diet coke and eat junk.

Today I've hardly moved from my computer (working) and my diet has consisted of:

four cans of diet coke
two slices of cheese on toast
two bags of wotsits
five jaffa cakes
a drumstick lolly
roast chicken and chips
two slices of chocolate cake.

I shall be having a glass of wine in a couple of hours too.

So your post is not "how a slim person eats". It's simply how you eat.

[BsshBosh]

Hi TiP. Still size 8-10 :)

[TalkinPeace]

Epic.