Despite what some people may think I do most of my eating, & cooking to eat, at home. To some extant I do that to keep my weight in control. (that’s another post—not that I am weight obsessive but I can tell you what I have weighed every Thursday—and Monday-- since the last Thursday of March 1967!!! Who says I have a problem?)

I cook very simply for myself unlike when I use to ‘entertain’. I eat a lot of fish and change the taste by using a variety of spices. I will also use sauces but very limited—maybe a tablespoon at the most—as even hot sauce is high in sodium and I have to watch my intake of salt. I have even experimented using cinnamon or vanilla beans on fish! I do use unsalted chicken broth mainly to cook vegetables in.

For 50 years I have kept a food chart—revising it in 1999—keeping a record on calories, fat, fiber, protein, sodium, saturated fat, carbs and cholesterol intake for health and weight reasons. I weigh everything I use. I hear people moan and groan about all the work it involves and, I’m sorry, it takes, maybe, 3-5 minutes to weigh and write down ALL I eat.

Along with fish my basic diet at home is turkey and chicken with a little variety here and there.

For snacks I have unsalted mini pretzels, a couple of apples a day and for a lunch break it is 2 rice cakes with peanut butter. I end every evening with what use to be called a Weight Watchers milkshake and is now just a low cal smoothie!

I usually spend some time Saturday making up the meals for the rest of the week. I have stopped using my oven and stove doing most of my cooking in the microwave, a Crockpot, a George Foreman grill, a toaster and an electric teapot.

My basic evening meal consists of: a salad made with a whole Romaine lettuce, a tomato, 2-3 ounces of onion and a salad dressing I have made up of vinegar (various kinds), garlic, additional spices and 2 tablespoons of oil per 32 ounce jar. My main course consists of 6-8 ounces of protein, a pound of assorted veggies like broccoli, cauliflower, peppers, carrots, onions and/or tomatoes. I top it off with the shake consisting of 16 ounces 1% or reconstituted dry milk, 6 Sweet ‘n Low, vanilla extract, a 12 ounce frozen bag of various fruits such as peaches, all kinds of berries, mango, pineapple, etc.

My whole day of food intake for, usually, 5 days of the week, is under the maximum amount of nutrition intake allotted for men. By the way I have years and years of food charts and at the bottom of this post is a picture of the revised food chart I came up with in 1999 if you want to give it a try!

Food pictures

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVjayLdUepk

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