Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Ugh...men.

Why is it that men become more set in their ways than women?  Especially about food.  I think I need to begin by defending my husband a little and giving him the credit he deserves.  Josh will do ANYTHING for me.  He is wonderful about that and I love him deeply for it.  Being willing to do something and enjoying doing it are two different things, though.  He's never criticized a meal I've prepared and he's almost always eaten every morsel on his plate (and then some morsels still in the pan on the stove).  Still, it's easy to know that his heart is just not into this new way of eating.

Over the last few weeks, I've been hearing the subtle protests of my husband.  I went grocery shopping and came home with nothing except the foods needed to prepare each meal I had planned for the week.  The first thing Josh said, "You didn't get me any Cheez-Its?"  THAT MAN AND HIS CHEEZ-ITS!!!!  While I'm making dinner he'll walk up to the stove, look at the pan, and say, "Are you sure that's enough meat?  It doesn't look like it's going to be enough for me."  It's suppose to be enough for the WHOLE family, not just him!!  Oh, and my favorite was when we met up unexpectedly in town and decided to switch cars for the rest of the day. "Um, don't pay any attention to the McDonald's bag in the car," he says to me.  Really?!?!  Honestly, I just have to laugh every time, but it got me thinking that I can not be alone.  I've already talked about my responsibility to feed my children healthy foods, but I also prepare my husbands main meal of the day.  I'm sure many wives do the same.  So how can we help the guys stay on track with us?

First I wanted to understand why men prefer the foods they do.  I did a little Google-ing and found out that quite a bit of research has been done on this topic.  The most prevalent theory is that men prefer things like meat, potatoes, pasta, etc. is because of psychology.  Specifically, American society and it's views on masculinity.  That's right, you're more of a man if you eat "manly" foods.  Across the globe there is significantly less gender-segregation in food choices.  The other theory is also very interesting.  Many studies suggest that men prefer meat and other "hearty" foods because of our ancestors.  When men hunted daily, meat was a reward for their efforts.  Also, they needed the increased protein consumption to accommodate their higher activity level.  This even carries over to times of "comfort eating."  Men are more likely to comfort eat when they are already feeling happy and will more often choose a meat product.  Women, on the other hand, will comfort eat when they are sad and will choose food with fats and sugars.

No, I am not quoting sources today. :)  These are all just theories anyway, but it's nice to have a little idea of what might be going on with the guys.  Now I need to get to ideas to help them.  The first thing I noticed is that Josh will not go out of his way to choose a healthy food item like a piece of fruit.  This means that if the grapes are still on the stems in a produce bad in the fridge, he won't touch them.  If I take them off the stems, rinse them and put them in a bowl, however, he will pop it open and snack on a few here and there.  The same goes for basically every fruit product: strawberries rinsed and cut, cantaloupe removed from the rind and cubed, etc.  Also for fruit, if it's put on the table at dinner, he won't take any, but if I put it on his plate (some nights I just dish up everybody's plate at the stove), then he'll eat it all.  Crazy man!!  Maybe doing this will help with your man, too.

The other thing I want to do is help him adapt to the decrease in meat.  First of all, meat is expensive!!  Secondly, everything should be in moderation and the more meat he fills up on, the less fruits and vegetables he's getting.  I know that he is making sacrifices in diet just to make me happy and support my weight loss efforts.  So it's only fair that I make some sacrifices of my own.  He may not get as much beef as he likes, but he's a huge fish/seafood fan.  Those things do fit in with health and decreased caloric intake, so I can add them into our diet more.  I'm not a huge fan of fish, but if prepared well, I can choke down a little tilapia, salmon, or tuna on occasion.  He even gave me a big thank-you kiss after last night's salmon dinner.  That made it all worth it. ♥

Here's my recipe for today.  I found it on www.allrecipes.com.  This is a great website for user-submitted recipes.  Some of them even have nutrition values.  I suggest serving this with some rice (see my recipe in the previous post) and steamed asparagus.  Enjoy!










(This is not a picture of the food I prepared, by the way! LOL)


Maple Salmon

Ingredients

  • 1/4 cup maple syrup
  • 2 tablespoons soy sauce
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • 1/4 teaspoon garlic salt
  • 1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
  • 1 pound salmon

Directions

  1. In a small bowl, mix the maple syrup, soy sauce, garlic, garlic salt, and pepper.
  2. Place salmon in a shallow glass baking dish, and coat with the maple syrup mixture. Cover the dish, and marinate salmon in the refrigerator up to 30 minutes, turning once.
  3. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
  4. Place the baking dish in the preheated oven, and bake salmon uncovered approx. 20 minutes, or until easily flaked with a fork at thickest part.  
 (Side notes: Do not marinade fish for more than 30 minutes.  Nutritional value is for all of marinade which may not be entirely used in preparation.)

Nutritional Information
Servings Per Recipe: 4 (4 oz. each)
Amount Per Serving

Calories: 265
  • Fotal Fat: 12.4g
  • Cholesterol: 67mg
  • Sodium: 633mg
  • Total Carbs: 14.1g
  • Dietary Fiber: 0.1g
  • Protein: 23.2g

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