Finding the chase and cutting to it

Food.  Boring for many but as a type 1, I need to understand what I eat when.

I left home and believed that I knew what a portion looked like.  I got takeouts and shared rice or noodles and used that as my yard stick.  I bolused reasonably and had cerals in a similar manner.

When my boyfriend, later husband, moved in, we cooked at home pretty happily – I was 25 at the time and he was 32 – we knew what we were doing.

I got a bit of a shock when I realised we’d eaten a 5kg bag of rice in two weeks.  Let’s say we’d had rice for one meal each of those 14 days – that’s eating 178g of dry rice each a meal.  I suspect significantly more.

I looked on the back of the Tilda rice bag to find we should be having 50-75g each a serving.  So that’s what I did, 50g each.  The portion looked tiny when cooked.  I mean, seriously, seriously mean.

I served it up: my lover gave me a look.

It was a shock though, we were full at the end of the meal.  I did the same with pasta, 50g dry pasta, and not only did we feel satisfied but actually enjoyed the meal more.  It wasn’t an effort to eat.  We even slept better.

When my son was born, we sized up his meals accordingly and never made a fuss if he didn’t finish it all.  My son has puddings most meals, we don’t every meal.

I measure all my grains and dry carbs (pasta etc).  I guess the rest.  My liquids are all against a set of 250ml glasses or out of 150ml cans.

Cereals are always measured.

We cook Yorkshire puddings from recipes not from frozen or precooked ones.

Everything?

OK, if I eat out, it’s not measured but if we eat out, I compare that to home and it’s unusual if I don’t get the bolus near the right value.

I’m finding, I don’t really enjoy puddings.  The ones I cook at home don’t follow the recipes completely: I’ve cooked a fruit crumble tonight and I don’t put sugar in with the fruit.  I don’t “dust” the top with extra sugar.  It’s got more flavour and bite as a result which I cannot get out from a restaurant.

I make my own lemon meringue pie: again no sugar in the lemon and I use a lower amount of sugar in the meringue.   The result is a pie that bites back.  The meringue is soft and caramelled.  It’s morish, tasty but not sickly and doesn’t need so much insulin.

That’s not to say I do this once a day.  I make lemon meringue pie twice a year at most.  On a Sunday for after Sunday lunch.