Food & drink habits: maintaining discipline

[Ronstar]

I average about a beer a day now retired, but probably drank 4 times as much when I worked. My diet fluctuates from bad to good and back to bad. But probably about the same as when I worked.

 

[NW-Bound]

I am going to get meself a cup of ice cream. The last time I had ice cream was 4 nights ago. I think it is safe to have another one now.

 

[Scuba]

Great topic. I FIRE'ed 19 months ago, DW is still working until 2021. We LOVE to dine (in or out) and enjoy fine adult beverages as well. For me, what has changed is that I am preparing much more of my own food at home, getting creative and striving to find the really good stuff that isn't really all that hard to make. Also, for things that have a short shelf life, making only 2-3 days worth at a time. I HATE wasting, throwing away food. DW has generally always eaten a bit healthier than I, and goes on and off all kinds of diets, but really is only marginally overweight, and exercises a ton. I don't eat junk often, but cannot imagine life without a Wendy's #2 combo maybe every month or two.

Since retiring, I have taken up walking at least 6 days a week, weather permitting, 1-3 miles, shooting for a 12-14 mi weekly average. Our two dogs LOVE this, and STARE at my every move after lunch every day. We walk/hike in conservation and land trust lands, lots of woods, fields and some ponds to stop and swim in. We go in New England winters no matter how cold, as long as the snow isn't too deep. I have lost 24 lbs since FIRE.

While I always liked cooking, it seemed like it was always low priority, never enough time. But now I LOVE it and DW and I have a really fun weekly tradition. She goes on Friday nights to two back to back aerobics/zumba classes. Usually adds an errand or two on the front end, so I get usually 3 hours, and I prepare a dinner we call "Friday Night Test Kitchen". The idea is that I can't make anything that I have made before. A few days prior, I surf the online grocery store circulars to see what is on sale, and scour the fridge to see what needs to get used up. Then I surf recipes online, usually taking one and twisting it a bit. She comes home around 7:40 and I usually escort her to the seat at the dining table and off we go. I have evolved it to usually start with a "Cocktail Special", again, a drink recipe that I have not made before but might use a favorite spirit of ours. Usually that day earlier, I scour the clearance and sale aisles at the liquor store for a Chardonnay that we have not tried, always looking for a great value-find (any wine lovers use the Vivino app?), but again, can't be anything that we have had before is the rule. Chardonnays because I am a huge fan of grilled seafood and chilled Chardonnay.

It's tons of fun for both of us. She giggles about "FNTK" all week, her friends ask her about it. I do everything that night, including clean up. I have made some killer dishes, and some so-so (is there a recipe thread here somewhere).


So to the OP's question, I think we have morphed our dining a bit, but not much. We still have a stout dining out budget and do a lot of that as well.


With respect to alcohol intake, about 10 years ago we decided to not drink M-W as a self discipline measure, and we have stuck to it since (vacations and holiday exempt). Interestingly, it has skewed the cooking/diet also, as I refuse to cook grilled seafood on M-W since white wine will be absent.

Lastly, I'll say this, and I am sure other's already FIRE'ed will agree: don't get all bent trying to figure out what it will be/not be. Sure, make some loose plans, have some ideas, but retirement is about finding your "zone" and it takes a little while. We are all different, but you won't know what it is like, and what you will want it to be, until you get there......!

I love your post and your FNTK idea! What fun!!

 

[ncbill]

Nobody gained weight after retirement?

I didn't plan it as my "retirement" but I ended up eating most of my meals out of vending machines after leaving MegaBank to take care of mom & gained a ton of weight that I still haven't managed to lose (losing 50 lbs. would be a good start)

 

[The Cosmic Avenger]

Nobody gained weight after retirement?

I didn't plan it as my "retirement" but I ended up eating most of my meals out of vending machines after leaving MegaBank to take care of mom & gained a ton of weight that I still haven't managed to lose (losing 50 lbs. would be a good start)

My guess is that that was more from the caregiving than from retirement. I gained back more than a few lbs. when I was looking after my dad. I was still working full-time, and stress-eating.

Ideally, I'm hoping my food & alcohol intake will be a lot like doneat54's! Although mine will probably be centered around scotch instead of chardonnay...

 

[Chuckanut]

Great topic. I FIRE'ed 19 months ago, DW is still working until 2021. We LOVE to dine (in or out) and enjoy fine adult beverages as well. For me, what has changed is that I am preparing much more of my own food at home, getting creative and striving to find the really good stuff that isn't really all that hard to make. Also, for things that have a short shelf life, making only 2-3 days worth at a time.

+1

You have hit the mark.

Lots of guys I know have found a joy in cooking good. Maybe there is a little Basque in us? When in Basque country I had the privilege of eating at a Txoko - a traditionally male only cooking society. It was easily the best meal of that trip. (Sorry, ladies, in modern Txokos you are allowed to join in a meal, but you can't enter the kitchen.)

I have to give the Friday Night thing a try.

 

[Pellice]

I am a month into FIRE. I had worried about getting back into exercising, as I had ONLY exercised on work days as part of a routine (except i had dropped it the last 8 months). Well, that worked out fine. I am back to my inclined treadmill for my goal time of 45 minutes more days a week than before. I've also started up some home yoga stretches, and I plan to add some light free weight work. I feel better already!! And I'm not wearing myself out. I was never one who experienced those tremendous "highs" that people report. And I am not planning to set a goal of running a race or anything competitive.

I enjoy cooking and planned to do more of that after FIRE. That's worked out too - except in that final 8 months I developed high blood pressure, and I probably will have high cholesterol when I visit my doc next week. I DON'T want to reach retirement and be told to eat 80% vegetables and water. I like the taste, cost, and challenge of "cook like a peasant, eat like a king," and that involves, dare I say, potatoes, and other carbs, in modest amounts. I've always believed there are many paths to a healthy diet. I want to eat with no forbidden foods, but controlling portions and calories. I am happy to increase the proportion of vegetables. I have not given up one small dessert a day - right now it's homemade blueberry coffeecake, but I carefully watch the portion size, keeping calories to no more than 125. We'll see. I've lost a lb. without deliberately trying (the exercise wasn't to lose weight). I find I am not needing the mid-morning or mid-afternoon snacks I had when w*rking, small though they were (e.g. single slice of bread with 1 tbsp peanut butter for a mid-morning snack. Don't seem to need them now. I wonder if they were a coping strategy?


Doneat54, I love your "Friday Night Test Kitchen" idea. What fun! I used to follow a blogger who experimented once a month with a recipe from one of the high quality cooking magazines, and would comment on its ingredients, challenges, and final outcomes.

 

[Pellice]

BTW, check out this NYT article on "The Obesity Crisis," throwing the kitchen sink at the issue, with (to my mind) wildly overconfident prescriptions of what is to be done, given how fallible nutrition science has turned out to the present day. (There is no winner in the carbs vs. fats heavyweight contest, for example - the most recent and largest research projects have shown no long-term difference.) What does "a tax on processed food" even mean? And the comments! People go off the rails on this subject.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/09/opinion/cost-diabetes-obesity-budget.html

 

[NYEXPAT]

Retired 31 years and was a heavy drinker for most of them. I listen to my body on most things and after 62 did not have much wishes for Bourbon/Scotch. I am liking salads and veggies more and still crave a Porterhouse at a Steakhouse, but rarely go, maybe 3 times a year. Hiring a good cook has stopped me from eating out much and I eat healthier as I eat whatever is prepared that day.

 

[Seagirt]

It's been just over 2 years: I've gained weight and have yet to lose it. It's not much but I have a small frame and I've increased a clothing size.

Some has been stress leading to bad eating: reno'ing, selling, moving, looking, buying, moving in, and my mother's decline and death.

Also, where I lived when I worked was lots of stairs and steep hills just to get around, and it was hard to find parking. Where I am now it's all flat, and I drive more.

I want to create better habits of exercise, and lose a few bad habits around food, especially eating snacks in the evening.

I'm really interested in the technique of 'mini-habits', setting goals that are so small, it's easy to do every day, and then after 66 days, or whatever it takes, you've got it down automatically and can start using the habit to make a difference.

I'm starting with other habits first: keeping a very clean kitchen, since it's also the entryway, and daily meditation. I'll move on to exercise and eating if I can nail down these.

 

[doneat54]

Thanks for all the props on FNTK, if you are so inclined, you really should try it! It works well for us because DW is out of the house for 2.5-3 hrs every Friday evening and we do not "co-cook" well together!! Friends of ours found an old cooks jacket in an an antique store we were in earlier this year and I had to have it. I "stenciled" the FNTK on it with a sharpie marker. Look close, there is a wine glass on top of the "K". Lots of fun, and have made some great dishes. Grilling lobster a lot recently as it is in "cheap season" now here in New England ($4.99/lb).

I keep a word doc with "keeper" recipes, but really don't write a lot of stuff down (probably should).

And as if FNTK isn't enough, me and a couple friends started "Friday Beer Club". We all enjoy trying new beers. So we meet around 4 at one of our houses, each bring a couple new beers and we split each one 3 or 4 ways (depending on how many of us there are) so we all get a decent taste. Then we rate them, take a picture of the cans in order of preference on a Facebook Group chat as a record. So I can taste 4-6 Beers and only have the equivalent of about 1.5 in volume. I'm done by 5:30-6:00 and head home for FNTK.


Cocktail special I am holding in the pic is a grapefruit martini, made with Ketal One grapefruit Rose, juice made by boiling some grapefruit pith and sugar, with a salted rim.

Life is too short to eat crappy food!!

 

[Shanky]

Retired a little over 2 years ago. Weighed 285 when I retired, 280 now. Active , no meds, good BP and low resting pulse. Don’t drink or smoke, but I did not do that when working either. Stress is much lower and my complexion is better. Sleep habits stayed about the same other than an occasional nap. Wife has been out of the workforce for 30 years, so no big change for her other than putting up with me.

 

[JakeinChina]

Great pic and cool jacket @Doneat54

 

[athena53]

BTW, check out this NYT article on "The Obesity Crisis," throwing the kitchen sink at the issue, with (to my mind) wildly overconfident prescriptions of what is to be done, given how fallible nutrition science has turned out to the present day. <snip>And the comments! People go off the rails on this subject.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/09/opinion/cost-diabetes-obesity-budget.html

Thanks for this link. It's something I've mentioned on FB every time someone posts things about the "greedy" pharma companies, insurance companies, hospitals, etc. The "prevent what's preventable" message is NOT popular.

And it's interesting that all I could see were a half-dozen "NYT selected" comments, all pretty much agreeing with the article. I can just imagine what the rest were like, though.

 

[Chuckanut]

BTW, check out this NYT article on "The Obesity Crisis," throwing the kitchen sink at the issue, with (to my mind) wildly overconfident prescriptions of what is to be done, given how fallible nutrition science has turned out to the present day. (There is no winner in the carbs vs. fats heavyweight contest, for example - the most recent and largest research projects have shown no long-term difference.) What does "a tax on processed food" even mean? And the comments! People go off the rails on this subject.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/09/opinion/cost-diabetes-obesity-budget.html

I think we have to keep in mind that we each has to do what works for us.

There may be no difference in the carbs vs. fat contest in a large population, but there many individual winners that I know of - me. Having tried both, lower carbs work far better for me than lower fat diets. As I mentioned before, I lost and kept of 20 pounds just by ditching sugar and various highly processed carbs - no going hungry, no special shakes/bars, no expensive meal plans. Others do well on low-fat. Some do well on being vegetarian or vegan - a real failure for me.

 

[Dtail]

I think we have to keep in mind that we each has to do what works for us.

There may be no difference in the carbs vs. fat contest in a large population, but there many individual winners that I know of - me. Having tried both, lower carbs work far better for me than lower fat diets. As I mentioned before, I lost and kept of 20 pounds just by ditching sugar and various highly processed carbs - no going hungry, no special shakes/bars, no expensive meal plans. Others do well on low-fat. Some do well on being vegetarian or vegan - a real failure for me.

Lower carbs work better for me too. I think that is the "latest" general thinking vs. a lower fat diet, but to each his own.

 

[Teacher Terry]

We each lost 40lbs and exercise more. We usually eat our bigger meal at lunch and something light for dinner. We like good beer and most wine. We eat out about twice a week.

 

[RAE]

Lower carbs work better for me too. I think that is the "latest" general thinking vs. a lower fat diet, but to each his own.

What works for me is to basically try to eat mostly whole/real foods. I try to minimize consumption of highly-processed foods that come in a box/bag/container with a list of ingredients on the side. That ends up being a relatively low-carb diet (compared to the typical Western diet), because a lot of processed foods are made mostly from refined carbs (typically grain-based carbs). I don't restrict consumption of any veggies, regardless of their carb content (I eat potatoes and carrots as well as leafy greens and other stuff).


It is easier to eat this way now that I'm retired, and have the time to prepare meals from scratch. When I was working, with two kids in the house to feed, meals were always more rushed, so there was a tendency to eat more processed convenience foods that took less time to prepare.

 

[Chuckanut]

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/09/o...ty-budget.html

One of the authors of the above article, Dr. Ludwig, wrote the book Always Hungry that has helped me. However, I do think we should be careful when considering his five steps:

Step 1 - well, it's certainly better than having eh Dept of Agriculture recommend what foods we should eat and how often we should eat them. All inputs and outputs to this commision should be public, easily found online.

Step 2 - More funding in different areas of obesity research would be helpful. It's not just calories-in/calories-out. It's also the 'foods' that come with those calories and the effect those foods have on our body chemistry.

Step 3 - a tax on processed foods. Hmmm... I see this as the Feds choosing winners and losers. If I can get my competitor's pasta sauce to be labeled as processed while mine is not that would be quite a competitive advantage. "Hey, Ms. Congresswoman, did you see how much I contributed to your last election campaign? I could use some help."

Step 4 - School lunches. I agree that they are just awful. As a teacher I was shocked at the amount of sugary, highly processed junk food we serve our kids in these programs. But, it is the Feds who currently tell schools that low-fat sugary chocolate milk is healthy, while whole milk is not and can't be served. That eggs are bad (to much cholesterol), but pancakes (made from highly processed pancake mix and with lots of sugary syrup on them) are good (after all they are low-fat). And lots of fruit juice loaded with sugar is healthy for some reason. This is good advice from the Feds? Getting past that will be tough since there is a lot of money involved.

Step 5 - Not advertising junk foods to kids. Yeah, go for it!

 

[HadEnuff]

I have a few rules, among them: No afternoon TV during the week. No alcohol before 6PM.

Like all good rules, certain circumstances demand they be broken, but for the most part, I follow the rules.

Daily exercise 5-7 days/week. Walking 3 miles, or riding my bike 15 miles, or walking 9 holes of golf. Daily back exercise regimen, includes some pilates and yoga and stretching.
I have a Chuck Norris Total Gym I pull out a couple of times/week.
I haven't lost any weight, but I feel like I'm in better shape. I like to cook, especially grill.

We eat some junk, but not much. I try not to bring it in the house. I have to exercise my self control in the store, because once I bring it home, I can never seem to forget it's in the cupboard.

 

[Rianne]

I am going to get meself a cup of ice cream. The last time I had ice cream was 4 nights ago. I think it is safe to have another one now.

Ha, that is 2-4 servings, depending on how rich the ice cream is. 1/4 c is often the serving size of a rich delicious ice cream. No one has mentioned portion size in the analysis of weight loss.

 

[mpeirce]

Portion control (like any other form of self control) is great it it works for you.

For some people (I'm looking at me!) portion control doesn't really help. For example, I'll have a nice small plate dinner. OK, I'm still hungry, what's next?

Sure I could power through the hunger. But frankly, that doesn't work for me. I end up eating something later. Why? Because I'm hungry!

So for me, low carb works because I can eat and not be hungry. So I don't go back for another round of food later.

Try different approaches. Find what works for you. Don't assume others are simply weak willed.

 

[Rianne]

For some people (I'm looking at me!) portion control doesn't really help. For example, I'll have a nice small plate dinner. OK, I'm still hungry, what's next?

Sure I could power through the hunger. But frankly, that doesn't work for me. I end up eating something later. Why? Because I'm hungry!

Yes, then eat a little portion of something else. You get a better variety of flavors and vitamins. I'm hungry all the time and eat little bites of lots of different things and cookies included. DH gets mad when I put 1/2 a cookie back.

 

[Winemaker]

Not to pick on the lowly potato, it is a nutritious tuber in moderation, but as I travel around the country, I am amazed at how it is "pushed" into our diets. Hotel breakfast bars with home fries (with sausage gravy!), super sized french fries, and loaded baked potatoes for dinner. I'm low- moderate carb, but your body doesn't know if you're eating a bowl of sugar or a potato.

 

[Chuckanut]

For some people (I'm looking at me!) portion control doesn't really help. For example, I'll have a nice small plate dinner. OK, I'm still hungry, what's next?

Sure I could power through the hunger. But frankly, that doesn't work for me. I end up eating something later. Why? Because I'm hungry!

Yes, then eat a little portion of something else. You get a better variety of flavors and vitamins. I'm hungry all the time and eat little bites of lots of different things and cookies included. DH gets mad when I put 1/2 a cookie back.

It's hard to fight one's built in body chemistry. And we all have different body chemistries. If one is blessed with a body that is satisfied with a breakfast of a bowl of oatmeal with skim milk and a piece of fruit, that is great. But, like others, such a breakfast would have my body screaming for more energy in a matter of a few hours. I would be sorely tempted to grab that leftover doughnut in the staff lunch room. For me a breakfast of bacon, eggs and maybe a whole grain pancake will keep me going to lunch and I will have no need to grab the doughnut.

Alas, some people who are happy with the bowl of oatmeal think everybody must be the same as them. And, if they grab the doughnut, it is because they are a gluttonous, lack willpower or are defective in some other way. But, that's not true. We are all different and what works for me may be a disaster for you.

So find what works for you, and let the bowl of oatmeal folks do what works for them.

Note: no offense intended towards those who enjoy oatmeal.