The Octopus eats a meal
I'm continuing my exploration of weight, wellness, and what it all means by taking a look at what makes up a meal.
I'm continuing my exploration of weight, wellness, and what it all means by taking a look at what makes up a meal.
First, a request: If you feel that this exploration would be unhealthy for you, please practice good boundaries and unsubscribe or stop reading. I know for many of us, and this certainly includes past-me, ANY conversation around weight can be triggering and upsetting. I don't want to cause problems for you, and would much prefer that you unsubscribe than find yourself in an unhealthy place because of something that I've written.
Here's what I've covered already if you want to catch up:
The Octopus wonders about weight… (introducing the series)
Body.Work: Deficiency and Congestion (thoughts on the flow of nutrients)
The Octopus sees nothing but knows all (calories aren’t real for your body)
The Octopus eats more than 400 calories (you’re allowed to eat until you’re full)
The Octopus can’t get no satisfaction (how to feel full and satisfied)
Now, onward to what makes a meal.
My kids have always been independent, since they were wee little things. Figuring out their own breakfast and lunches were high priorities for both of them. As a result, we’ve had many conversations (which often became highly technical and legalistic explorations about the meaning of words, because Juno, the youngest, was all about the arguments) about what constitutes a meal.
No, a bowl of cereal isn’t a meal. Yes, if you drink all the milk and have a piece of fruit you can consider it a meal. No, I’m not buying Sugar Frosted Cocoa Bombs. You can have Fiber Yums.
No, an apple isn’t a meal. Yes, it’s a meal if you have peanut butter with it. No, it’s not a meal if you have Nutella instead of peanut butter.
And so on, and so forth.
Basically, I wanted them to be feeling full and satisfied, which meant that I was steering them towards option that contained both fiber and protein. Fat helps with satisfaction as well. And people with higher energy needs, like growing children (and physically active adults, and those in the menstruating years), need carbohydrates. Fruits and veggies are helpful sources of vitamins and minerals.
Since we homeschooled plus had dinner together most nights, I could give them a fair amount of leeway on breakfast, knowing that we could always have an early lunch if things started to go haywire. Dinner was (usually) a pretty balanced meal to round off the day.
If they’d gone to school, getting protein and fat and fiber into them first thing in the morning would have been critical to help them work all morning long. I would have been most concerned about having breakfast be as perfectly balanced as possible, and focused on finding satisfying lunch components that they would actually eat. Dinner, then, could have been a bit more flexible.
I have no idea how many calories kids need, although I imagine it’s quite a bit. They always had a good sense of when they’d had enough to eat, something that a lot of us adults work at relearning. Making sure that the meals were balanced between food groups kept the kids going with fewer hunger crashes. And, I’ve found, it works for me as well.
I keep it simple when I’m meal planning, and focus on getting something from each group: 1) fruits and veggies, 2) grains and starches, and 3) “meat” (beef, pork, poultry, fish, beans, nuts, and dairy—it’s my general catch-all category for protein + fat). Meals, then, work out to being meat, plus a vegetable and something starchy. I’m not super rigorous with the categories, and tend to be flexible in how I do things, but following the general principle keeps things simple and straightforward.
So, some examples:
Roast chicken, mashed potatoes, and green beans.
Ground beef, rice, and sauteed spinach.
Grilled chicken, corn, and a green salad. (Here, I treat corn as a starch—other times I’ll consider it a vegetable.)
Rotisserie chicken, bag o’ salad, and rolls.
Basically, it’s the four food groups that I grew up with, but simplified even further (particularly since I can’t have dairy). Keeping things simple makes it easier for me to get a balanced meal on the table without feeling overwhelmed with managing a whole bunch of moving parts.