Tag Archives: eating

Good table manners help dieting

If only I had known first I’d have paid more attention to my mother when she persistently tried to teach me and my siblings good table manners, but when you are a child you can’t see the point of not getting a bit of fun out of flinging crusts of bread, making a mashed potato snowman or getting my brother and sisters’ hair red with tomato sauce (my mother would have never allowed ketchup to enter her kitchen).  

My mother was educated in a nun’s school. It was a time when subjects such as Maths or Languages were not as important as knowing how to knit or embroider. In a way it wasn’t as different as the education received by the female characters depicted in “Jane Eyre” by Charlote Brontë or in “Pride and Prejudice”  by my very much admired Jane Austen.


One of the things my mother was taught was good table manners and since me and my siblings were very young we were insistently reminded of  things such as keeping elbows off the table, eating small bites, sitting straight, placing the napkin on our laps and …. a long etc I’m not going to bore you to death with.
What I didn’t know and have just found out is that good table manners can help you lose weight so as I’m a bit on the plumpish side my mother might not have taught me so well.
That’s why I have paid careful attention to this video where Jill, Duchess of Hamilton, an Australian and an etiquette expert, explains how good table manners can help you lose weight.
Watch the video here and do the activity

If you are interested in this theme, Click here to see a whole lesson plan I have prepared for my pre-intermediate students on Restaurants and Food.

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What’s a “veggie”?

…a pescatarian

… a pescatarian!!!

Yes, exactly. This is what I am .
You surely remember that some time ago I wrote something about the different kinds of vegetarians , namely, vegan , ovo-vegetarian , lacto-ovo… and I remember that I didn’t know what to call myself, although it was crystal clear to me that I was not a vegetarian.
Well, I am a pescatarian . New word , by the way. So new, that some British people don’t even know what it means, at least , yet.
It was my teacher in London who taught me this new word. I was so happy with my new acquisition that I jumped at the first opportunity to use it. So, there I was, at a cafe asking for a sandwich.
“What is in there?” I asked the waiter, pointing suspiciously at a sandwich.
“Chicken” he said .
“And this other one?”
“Ham”
Every single time he told me the contents of the sandwich I said “no, no..”
I imagine he was getting quite tired of me when he asked :
“What the hell are you… a vegetarian?
“No, I am a pescatarian.” I happily admitted.
“What on earth is this? “he snapped at me
And, there was a girl behind me, probably as angry at me as the waiter who explained to the man behind the counter that a pescatarian is someone who abstains from eating all meat and animal flesh with the exception of fish.
So this is it… you already know what a pescatarian is.

Now , this is homework …. What is a flexitarian??

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