Dieting Club: 50 - 100 Lbs Community

Your problem is a common one, Helene!

My aim is to learn to love the lower calorie foods, so I can eat them, and then that way get to eat what I want/like plus get the lower calories. But it doesn't always work perfectly, because one or two weaknesses always remain (for me at least).

Eg I love veg, fruit, lean meat, eggs, skim dairy etc. but the love for candy doesn't go away.

I guess we have to figure out our compromises so that we can remain within our calorie allowance and get good nutrition but allow for that little treat too. Best of both worlds!

Hi Helene. I like yogurts too, but for me, they just don't fill me up enough anyhow to consider using them very often. I use my Vanilla Light and Fit as a fruit topping rather than a base. I have gone to using Fat Free Cottage Cheese, I mix in some stevia to take the "tang" away, then top with Skinny Fruits Pineapple chunks and some of its juice. Comes out to about 100 calories, is sweet enough to curb my sweet tooth and has enough fiber and bulky, chewable dairy to fill me up and satisfy me better.
Cravings for salties are continuing to haunt me durning this ongoing heatwave. I have never been in a situation where the heat just goes on and on and on like this summer. There is really no break in it. Last weekend we had a heat advisory called for thru Tues night, which extended thru, thurs, which then extended for ANOTHER 10 days..... as in, this week is also temps to 98 with dew points as high as 80.
Did you know that it's not the temp and HUMIDITY that makes it feel so hot? It's actually the Dew Point and the temp. Anything over a dew point of 50 makes the temp FEEL up to .5 degree hotter. So when the DP hits the high 70s we are adding another 10 plus degrees of how hot it feels outside.
So this week it'll be feeling about 110-115 deg f. again all week. I'm so not looking forward to it.
huggs, just do a little more at a time Helene. Eat a little lighter and do some Commercial break crunches or jumping jacks and you'll get back on track.
I'm right here with you, hon.
Lotsa love
K

You should love food. It gives the things we need to live. You just have learn to like better choices. A lot of the food I eat now I wouldn't have touched. Now I love all the stuff I eat. Yes I may have a dessert here and there but we are not perfect. The key is to give your body what it needs. Yes those cakes, cookies, ice cream, or any other junk that's out there taste good but they have no nutritional value to help our bodies. The key is to eat what you need most of the time so when you do eat something bad you have already healed your body to prevent all the bad that could happen if you ate those bad things all the time.

Helene, I recently started buying and eating plain Greek yogurt because you said how good it is. It has a high protein value so I think it is a very good food (nutritious-wise). But I do measure it sparingly like all the dairy I eat. If I don't measure it out I would just keep filling a bowl.

Yeah, about the Dear Husband(s) without a weight problem....I mean, mine does eat everything, but can control his portions.

What I have been doing lately is to have about 2 cups of fresh cut veggies (cukes, carrots, celery, mushrooms, etc.) and makes a dip w/Greek yogurt (2 tbs) and salsa and garlic powder. Maybe a tbs. of fat free re-fried beans. This can be a meal or snack. This gets me full and makes me happy to have my "crunch", too.

Barb

P.S. Here's to making our food choices better each day!

Ooooh, Barb, that dip sounds awesome. I'm gonna try it.

Yeah, I had/have cans of the ff/refried beans and got to thinking what can I do. So, I made a low carb tortilla and used 1/4 cup on that. To make that, I sprayed the tortilla w/ff spray and got it crispy in oven. I then put a mixture of the beans and salsa it, then Mexican cheese, black olives, red onions and heated this. I guess this was my version of Mexican pizza. Very low carb, crunchy and tasty.

Then I used the rest of the beans for that dip.

The good thing about this, too, is it is cheap, healthy and yummy.

You could add leftover chicken on these "pizzas" and most any veggies.

I make these pizzas with imitation lobster/crab (I get on sale and store in freezer. I don't use beans when I do the seafood. Parmesan cheese garlic powder, basil (fresh is best) and Roma tomatoes (blot the liquid). If you ever had Red Lobster's appetizer lobster pizza, this is really close to it. Use the low carb tortillas and spray w/ff spray and crisp up before adding the toppings.

Barb

those sound really good. There used to be a restaurant called Chi Chi's , anyone remember that place? They had the absolute BEST seafood nachos. I cannot figure out what that cheese was, maybe that creamy mexican cheese that looks like mozzerella (?) But those things were to die for.
xoxo
K

Kim, I think it might be asadero cheese. Sort of like mozzarellla. Seafood nachos...I'lll have to try making those.

I recently made an interesting shrimp dish. I noticed a bit of freezer burn on some frozen shrimp and decided they might be ok if I "jazzed them up". I sauteed a red onion and green pepper and added garlic powder and the shrimp and then alot of salsa. I put this on top spaghetti squash. But this would be good over cauliflower or spinach.

Yeah, whatever happened to Chi Chi's?

Barb

I've got it! HAPPY DANCE! go here for the seafood nachos recipe from Chi Chi's , I too seem to remember them being "creamy" like with the sauce they discuss lower on the blog questions, go to that suggested site for the Sherry sauce if you remember them "creamy" too.

http://thecookingblog.blogspot.com/2006/07/chi-chis-seafood-nachos-recipe.html

I definitely remember the tortilla chips as being pretty flat, served on a big platter and covered with the seafood mix, the cheese and a little of the sauce, then cooked till bubbly and sorta "done" around the edges and sprinkled with paprika , served with ff sour cream this is a dish you would slash your way through a jungle for ..... Add a regular NON frozen marguarita and.... BLISS

They actually went bankrupt some years ago. I remember they were closing restaurants right and left, something about money mismanagement or fraud in the upper management.... anyhow , that's the story I remember.

The creamy white mozzarella like Mexican cheese is probably Oxaca cheese. It comes in big long ropy strands and is a lot like string cheese. I love the stuff. I could go off on a real tangent about all the fresh Mexican cheeses around here but I don't want to make anybody hungry. Salsa is an awesome food, full of flavor and even some nutrients.

Your veg dip sounds great, Barb.

I agree, salsa is very versatile and tasty. I use it with so many things, like grilled meat, fish, chicken, with boiled eggs, stirred through rice etc.

I am thinking of making my own - I always just buy the ready-made salsa. Any salsa recipe ideas?

Hi , Judy
Salsa
3 large firm tomatoes, 1 chunky pureed, the others diced
1 med vidalia onion, chopped
1-2 cloves garlic chopped super fine, number depending on taste
1/2 -1 whole, jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped fine(or more , to taste)
Dash of cayenne pepper
Dash of black pepper
AT LEAST 1/4 C finely chopped fresh cilantro, more to taste
Mix altogether, cover and refridgerate. DO NOT ADD SALT until the flavors have melded at least a couple of hours. You may find that you don't want any, otherwise salt according to taste.

Hi Kim Thanks fr the salsa tip I stopped useing salsa because of the salt in it last time I bought some I couldn;t eat it because it tasted too salty... so makeing my own might be the answer...
Hugs Judy:)