Fat Folk

[Symptoms]

Symptoms current scoffing regime:

 

Breaky (usually mid to late morning) ... porridge with a licking of milk*, followed by some 'rough' bread toast with a smearing of butter** topped with set honey***

Lunch (early pm) ... half the week I don't bother but the rest of the time taken in the local boozer ... bagette and cheese, a bag of crisps  washed down with some ale.  It's a good excuse to walk the woof to the boozer - exercise!

Dinner (usually 7 ish) ... home-made soup**** with bread dippers (much to MrsSym's disapproval), home-made meat & two veg*****/tattie****** combo, washed down with a home-made fruit smoothy for dessert.

Supper ... I used to have cheese on digestive biscuits with a side order of half a raw onion and a couple of tomatoes washed down with a glass of milk but I stopped doing this when I turned 60.

I don't graze between meals, I don't have monster portions, no sugar in my tea, and no processed nosh is allowed in the house, plenty of exercise with the woof, hence the fine figure of a man you see before you (6'4" x 14 stone = BMI of 23.8 ... constant since the age of 21). 

 

* full cream milk

** unsalted 'cos I prefer the taste over salted

*** the thick white stuff

**** MrsSym's finest

***** Death by a thousand broccoli stalks

******variation of the tattie/couscous/Quinoa/brown rice

 

As to my parent's scoff and the stuff they served when I was a nipper.  Standard fare for the time ... I can only clearly remember Sunday lunches, generally meat & two veg with mash and roasties followed by something like rice pudding for dessert (funny thing is the rice pudding was usually singed).  I do have fond memories of Saturday afternoon tea of Cheshire cheese, tomatoes and Ritz crackers served up while we watched Hawkeye and the last of the Mohicans on the telly.  The grub was always fresh ... we had a large garden that my Dad grew tatties, all sorts of veg, eggs from our hens.  Lots of tomatoes from my Grandad when in season followed by lashings of Granny's chutney made from all the green toms.  My Mum was a good, adventurous cook whose Bible was Good Housekeeping's Cookery Compendium.  She bought her copy in 1952 from the Co-op in Wallsend,  as it cost 5 shillings she could only afford to get it on 'tick'.  I still have this book and it's remarkable for its time with colour photos on every page of all the menues and flipping through it for this post I'm reminded of all the stuff she made (I've attached some photos of the cookbook below).  Happy days. 

 

So, in summary.  Home-made grub and plenty of exercise

 

 

[Tonyp]

That's sounnds very good mind the salt LOL

[Tonyp]

Otherwise you'll put a strain on nhs can't behaving that can we

[Symptoms]

No salt in any of the cooking and none chucked over my plate ... apart from when I have chips (rarely) as these always need salt.  It's funny, MrsSym is an avid viewer of all the cookery programmes on the telly where all the chefs chuck pounds of butter, lashings of cream and tons of salt into everything they make but when she attempts recipies it's olive oil, yogurt and no salt.  When I cook I copy exactly what the telly boys do and it does taste better.

 

Oh, I forgot to mention my Mum's Yorkshire puddings with the Sunday lunch and all the baking she did;  she also worked full-time so I don't know how she managed it all.  For years and years when I used to drive up to the Toon from London, maybe 4 times a year to visit my Mum, she always had a 'traditional' meal ready for me (an exact copy of the boyhood Sunday lunch with lashings of gravy over the top but without the rice pud to follow as I'd bucked-up enough bravery to tell her I didn't like the stuff, so she always made me a lemon meringue pie instead) ... she'd spend a day in the Green Market getting stuff then the whole day preparing the meal for me. 

[ex Bedlingtonian]

I agree with Mrs Sym, olive oil, yoghurt and no salt is much better.

[Tonyp]

Sym guess the crisps were saltnshake & you open the blue bag then throw the salt over your shoulder I guess there no salt in the lashings of gravy lol

[Symptoms]

I do like the odd bag of crisps with my bait in the boozer but I only like the ready salted ones ... yuk to all those chemical flavour scabs.  As to MrsSyms gravy ... only meat juices reduced in the baking tin to a thickish, but runny gloop (no salt, no gravy powder, no OXO cubes).  Yummy, yummy, yummy.

[Maggie/915]

I miss my mothers cooking.

My guess is others feel the same.

Steak and Kidney pie , roast dinners, home cooked fish and chips, ham shank and pease pud, beetroot cooked and eaten hot no vinegar.

So many more and not one word about healthy eating.

[Malcolm Robinson]

Nowt like Mother's cooking........Maggie.

[Symptoms]

Oh no!  Those Eurofools are proposing to make self-stuffing fatties join the ranks of the disabled.  I think that's a terrible slur on the 'genuinely' disabled and I'm sure will lead to precious resources being snaffled off them and be re-directed towards the pie eaters. 

[Maggie/915]

Insults to those poor pies !

No one needs to eat all of them as the saying goes.

[Symptoms]

I think we need to be cruel to be kind to fatties.  Let's all commit, here and now, to challenge those piling their trolleys high with pies, crisps and cakes to look at the healthy options available to them.  Something needs to be done ... they're even appearing on the telly fronting-up news reports about health issues.  The irony of it all is unbelievable!

[Maggie/915]

Symptoms were you on the Radio 4 PM programme tonight.

If not someone was echoing your views.

[Symptoms]

Maggs, all sensible people share my views.  Wise old owl Sym has spoken.

 

Doors are going to have to be widened, floors reinforced, furniture modified at great expense, an army of shoelace-tying technicians will need to be recruited and specially demarked reserve lanes assigned on footpaths.  Crackers, complete and utter crackers .... wow!, there's a thought - feed them on crackers.

[Tonyp]

Of coarse lots of people share your views but it doesn't mean your right about who should get treated at a hospital & who shouldn't as I

said if people are paying the same NI as you there entitled.As for the gravy were can buy some meat that has fat free stock they don't sell it were I live the roast potatoes do you just stick them in the oven & the mash what do you put in for the creamy texture water!!,

Lol.

[Maggie/915]

Need I say more than this card.

[Bedlingtonian]

Love the post Maggie

[Malcolm Robinson]

Ha ha ha

[Symptoms]

MrsSym's secret roastie recipe:

 

prep the spuds (peel then cut into quarters ... about the size of a matchbox)

plop them in a covered Pyrex dish and nuke them in the microwave for approx 5mins (or parboil them in a pan over the gas/lekky 'till almost softish - poke with knife to check)

glob a drop or two of olive oil into the dish or pan, put lid on then shake, rattle and roll* the dish/pan to cover the spuds with the oil, - this creates a fluffy outer surface to the spuds ... a mild sort of batter effect after the roasting

tip out onto a baking tray and chuck into the oven (200 stoneage, 170 fan) 'till golden

 

You'll never do roasties any other way again!

 

*shake, rattle and roll also helps the fatties on the exercise front.

Edited December 23, 2014 by Symptoms

[Tonyp]

Olive oil is that fat free...What costs the most to the NHS Sym? Somebody who has heart trouble cos there overweight or somebody

who has lived the Sym lifestyle but has been suffering from dementia for the last ten years & needs constant round the clock healthcare

As I said you pay to be in it its horses for courses,just some people need it earlier than others.judging people because of there size is

Not right in fact it's a bit prejudice.. By the way I'm not overweight so I doesn't bother me & I don't care who uses it as long as they have paid

Into it...

[Symptoms]

Tony, you know fine well I've never promoted the notion that the morbidly obese be denied NHS treatment,  all I've ever said is that they should take some responsibilty (like the rest of us) to attempt living a healthier lifestyle.  By doing this perhaps they'll have to call on those precious resources less often.  I do, however, continue to maintain that whenever they seek NHS support they should be asked (actually, it should be demanded of them) to go some way in reducing risk to themselves.  Ditto, the puffers ... none of would expect a guy due a lung op for Big C to continue puffing away or taking it up again post op.  Ditto, the druggies ... none of us would expect those about to enter rehab voluntarily to pack a stash. 

 

Yep, there are folks who, as a by product of their illness (ticker problems, for example) or their disability (wheelchair after bike crash) put on weight, well these folks can go to the 'front of the queue' for support and NHS resources as far as I'm concerned.

 

You've mentioned in a couple of your posts about NI contributions;  what about those who haven't contributed?  Two fat folks, one's paid in the other hasn't ... same health problems, same hospital - do they both get the same treatment?

 

It 'aint a bottomless pit of resources, is it fair that some are taking more just because their lifestyle has come to bite them in the arse?

 

Perhaps we need to start a discussion about voluntary euthanasia and none-voluntary euthanasia?

Edited December 23, 2014 by Symptoms

[Symptoms]

At last!  The NHS bosses are seeing the sense in wise old Syms mission:

 

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/dec/26/nhs-target-obesity-nationwide-programme

[Maggie/915]

Who Gains from the NHS and Government targeting obesity.

It would be great to think there was money available and people really wanted help.

Sadly it is just a 'headline' and time will tell whether anything makes a difference..

Sorry I should not be so negative.

After all it is the season of goodwill.

[Smudgeinthebudge]

Thirty thousand years ago three hunter gatherers sat around their campfire talking. One says, "You know, all our meat is free range. All our fruit and veg is organic, the air is fresh, The water we drink is fresh and clean. We get loads of exercise. So how come we've got an average lifespan of just thirty years?

[Tonyp]

Infection disease don't think there was much medicine around in them days mind you apparently your appendix was useful so they say