1950s Diet: Day 5 (Dining Out and a Fifties Fail)

Well, the day started out positively. 

Here's what I had for breakfast:

Black tea (no milk or sugar), fresh mixed fruit, 1 slice of marble rye (no butter), 1/2 an avocado, and 1 scrambled egg (no oil), salt & pepper

This ended up being my favorite breakfast thus far, SO yummy. Avocados and I are BFFs though so I pretty much love them in any way they come. I doubt avocado for breakfast was very common in the 50s but I wasn't feeling the milk so I allowed myself a few extra calories elsewhere. 

Lunch was black bean soup and salad from the work cafe. I used balsamic vinaigrette on the salad which I thin would have been 50s acceptable since in the book they suggest "vinegar dressing" with your dinner salad. The black bean soup not really 50s at all.

Dinner was a complete Fifties Fail. There's just no way around it. I had Chipotle. No picture needed. 

But if I were a teenager in the 50s eating out with my folks, here's what it might have looked like:

Italian - Dago Mike's Italian Restaurant 

Polynesian - Trader Vic's

French - Le Gai Pinguin Restaurant

Chinese - Guey Sam's

American food/coffee shops/diners aside, these were pretty much your choices for dining out in the early-mid 50s. Italian, Polynesian/Tiki places, French food, and Chinese were the most common choices if you wanted something "exotic." Japanese food was around a bit but didn't really take off until the mid 60s when it was brought to Los Angeles. Indian food really gained popularity in the 1960s as well, with the  huge spike in interest for Eastern culture. I'll touch on Mexican food a bit tomorrow. I tell ya what, I would have been (and still am) all over those Tiki places and Mai Tais, given the chance. 

The Tonga Room, San Francisco, 1950s

I mean look at that place, a water tank in the middle of the room?! A floating band?! The best. Speaking of the best, a a huge thank you to my Amy who helped me loads with inspiration for today's post (P.S. Her blog is my favorite).

So hopefully today's fail won't accept my weight loss, Day 6 should be better. See you then! xoxo

P.S. If you missed any of the fun click here to read from the beginning!

1950s Diet: Day 1 !

Like most girls who struggle with their weight, I feel as though I've tried just about every diet out there in order to shed those pesky pounds. Slimfast, portioned controlled food delivery services, and various protein meal replacements all work, given you rigidly follow them, don't mind the "fake food", and the unsatisfied feeling you get after eating. Yeah, I can't hang either.

So after reading about the lovely Maya Van Wagenen who wrote, "Popular: Vintage Wisdom for a Modern Geek" , after deciding to follow the advice given by model/author Betty Cornell in "Betty Cornell's Teen-Age Popularity Guide" (circa 1953) for a school year, I was inspired myself. Now obviously I am not and haven't been considered "teen-age" for quite some time now, but if you read my last blog post, you know that I am really attempting to better myself this year, starting with my weight. So why not combine the need to diet with what I love most?! 1950s how-to's are right up my alley, so for a week (starting yesterday, Feb. 22nd) I will follow the "Figure Problems" chapter of Betty's book, and doing the "Teen-Age Exercises" listed at the back of the book, just for the heck of it.

Here is what the book has to say in the way of breakfast: (excuse the iPad "Library" links etc)

(click to enlarge)

I was home yesterday so I was able to follow this pretty closely, here's what my breakfast looked like:

I had to substitute half a banana for the half a grapefruit (couldn't find any at the store), but other than that, I followed sample breakfast #1 pretty much to the T. I took a "small amount of butter" to mean about 1 tsp (it felt so skimpy! oink). I'd say the hardest part about this breakfast was having my tea black. I'm used to some milk milk/sugar/honey/something in it, but it wasn't awful, and I should get used to less sugar in my diet anyway.

Well as cute as this was, I ended up being hungry about 2 1/2 hours later :(   So I consulted the book for lunch recommendations:

Here's what I went for, a sandwich on whole wheat bread, subbing Monterey Jack for Swiss (didn't have any but M. Jack was still around at the time) w/ lettuce and nothing else (!), the other half of that banana, and for my "small container of cottage cheese" I used 1/2 cup of 2%. That was one dry sandwich, let me tell you, but surprisingly yummy (maybe I was just that hungry?!), but anyway this meal kept me full for much longer thankfully. 

Dinner was a bit more of a challenge, I'm not into eating meat for moral reasons so I definitely had to make some adjustments for these very beef-centered suggestions:

I can relate, grumpy hungry girl.

My din: 2 "meatloaf" slices from Gardein (with 1 tbsp of their "gravy"), prepared on the stove I might add (no microwaves!), about a cup and half of spinach, a few chopped pearl tomatoes, with a lemon juice /salt dressing, and of course, another glass  (8oz) of milk. 

I had one last glass of milk before bed in an effort to try and reach their recommended 32oz, but I was still a glass shy. 

So there's the day's food (that clocked in at a total of 1, 532 calories in case you're wondering). It really wasn't that hard, just took some planning.  I'm ashamed to admit that as I was preparing breakfast, getting out the pan to boil the egg, toaster etc, I thought ,"Geez all this stuff, just for breakfast!", and right afterwards eye-rolled myself for being such a princess, it's really not that bad, get a grip! But it hit home just how much we as a society (me included!) are driving the packaged/convenience food industry, if we can't even be bothered to wash a few dishes for the sake of having a fresh, home-cooked meal. So note to self: cook more. 

Till tomorrow Daddy-Os, see ya then for a review of Day #2!