Brown Plate Special with a Little Green, Brown Ale and Brown Bread

secret is portion control, lots of fruits and veggies to fill up with low cal fiber and low carbs, a little cheese and very little meat - chicken and fish mostly with a little pork (6oz max of any of it), some beans and whole grains.  Hardly any fried food of any kind.  No snacking.  No more than 1 beer a day!  Well, 2 when you are splurging on a special occcasion.  I used to walk 4 miles a day in an hour and 15 mins, after the markets closed,  even when it was hot as Hades.   Did it for a year right after I retired,  to get from 245 lbs down to my current 180.

Now I just eat and drink right - to walk a heck of a lot less :-)  It's really all about fruits, veggies and portion control on everything else.  Did you notice the plates I use for my meals are all salad plates instead of dinner plates?  Salad plates force portion contol.  It's better to eat a little of something bad for you and a lot of something good for you - instead of the other way around :-)  Works for me.   Except for the deserts which I love to make but also have leasrned to eat sparingly - every day.  It looks like a lot of food on this plate but everything weights a total of 14 oz.  The mac and cheese is the worst offender but it is only 2" square.   The 2 tamales weight 5 oz total and the chicken and beans 2 oz each.

Here is that 7" diameter plate with 2 tamales on it sitting on a normal size Fiesta dinner plate.  Also learned to eat slow so one could get full without over easting.  When the food is good it is better to eat it slow to enjoy it more.  That is why we want our bread to be the best and most flavorful that we can make it.  I'm only having one slice at a time, or one slice cut in half for a half sandwich for lunch.  I say live long without having to exercise because of a weight problem.  Don't know about you but we plan on living forever or at least long enough for medicine and science to extend the normal life span for very sick people to 125 years.