I often think of my great-grandparents as I continue to succeed at weight loss through CICO. There are so many parallels to how I'm living now and how I know that they lived their lives; I was fortunate to know both of them well, but I never thought of their simple lives would someday be a goal of my own when I was around them as a child and young adult.
Not overeating on a daily basis. With so many modern distractions and obligations, we over-complicate our lives in so many unnecessary ways. For me, nothing better demonstrates the best way to declutter than the dietary simplification that CICO drives you toward. Although my great-grandparents would've just called it "watching what you eat" or "not taking more than your share," I think they'd be proud of us using modern technology (online tracking, r/loseit) for the support we need to rediscover these timeless truths.
Simplicity. My family uses our mobile phones for internet, so we don't have or need Wi-Fi at home. We also don't have cable TV or landline phones, and we use the monthly $150 we save to upgrade to organic groceries. We don't have anything against TV (we'll buy or rent shows and movies from the library or Redbox), but controlling our media intake frees up a lot of money ... and time (see next bullet).
Preparing fresh and nutritious foods from scratch. We order pizza once a week, order Indian or Thai every other week, and go out to eat about once a month. But other than that, we use most of our time at home to discuss, plan, shop, cook, eat together, and clean up together. We probably save a lot of money doing this, but even more importantly, we control what we're putting in our bodies, and it's a family project. The situation isn't perfect; my SO still loves to bake, and there's more of that sitting around than I'd like.
Relying on a large garden. My great-grandparents grew a lot of what they used. Or, they traded for it or bought it at the local grocer. Our garden today isn't large, but the satisfaction of growing our own basil, beets, and swiss chard this year--and planting blackberries and grapes for future years--brings us a little closer to the land and the simpler lives that our great-grandparents led. A big plus is that weeding and watering are active, outdoor family activities.
Only eating cake and pies on birthdays and holidays. This one doesn't need much explanation, but sweets then were for special occasions, and they just weren't as cheap, available, or ubiquitous. When I started eliminating 85-90% of my added sugar in late August of this year, it wasn't to emulate my great-grandparents (it was originally part of my weight loss effort). But now I view my reduction of added sugar as an echo of the simpler and more controlled times they lived in.
I wouldn't want to emulate everything about my great-grandparent's lives, of course. My great-grandfather smoked cigars and argued a lot. My great-grandma liked to gamble and was a little too nosy for her family and neighbor's tastes. But they were both rail thin and healthy into their eighties.
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