there have been so many temptations around my house.....cookies, candies....which sucks because normally I can control that as I know many of you can't, being moms or having SO's that eat and eat but don't gain weight.

I was talking to my DD the other night and I was telling her that I really didn't want to use FF mayo for the rest of my life....or low fat "butter", FF cheese...etc etc...I don't really like them for the most part (I DO have a love for Almond Breeze, however)

I said that my wish was to get myself to a place where I could enjoy those things IN MODERATION......not DAILY or at every meal.....but to have a healthy diet that allowed for those things in small amts on occasion.

she raises an eyebrow at me and says, "so.....? you want to be French?"

I said, "YES! I want to be French!".

Hahaha... I know what you mean and I agree. For most things, the "no fat" version just doesn't cut it. I would like to be in a place where I am eating only "real" food, in small amounts. I do think that the French are a lot better at this than North Americans (I'm Canadian and we're the same). I think it's about really appreciating every bit of your food so you don't have to stuff yourself to feel satisfied. It's easier said than done, though!

I love it! That is so funny You will get to that place I use normal butter, cheese etc and just use a bit. 2 tsp of butter is 70 calories so I use it wisely. And not every day. I do however have an oz of cheese every day but it's only 120 cals and I usually pair it with an apple or something. You'll get there!!!

I went to France last July and I decided to be French too! Here is my new thing: I eat raw vegan food all day til 6:00 and then Frenchie dinner (nice food in small amounts.)

Yes! Salad dressing! (a little) SAUCE! (on a small portion of something) WINE! (ONE GLASS) DESSERT! (teeny tiny plate teeny tiny spoon.) And my clothes keep getting looser.

Ugh when I think of all the dry salads and dry chicken and Diet Coke and other not-worth-eating stuff I ate during my long career as an unsuccessful dieter.....I'm too done with all that! Honestly I'd almost rather be fat than put up with one more Lean Cuisine.

I'm taking much the same approach, or trying to anyway. Tonight I made bean burritos for the freezer, and instead of getting ff or lowfat cheese I just used 1/2 an ounce of the real stuff. I'd rather have 1/2 an ounce of real cheese than 1/2 a cup of fat free cheese.

I did find a fat free mayo that isn't totally grossing me out, it is Nayonaise, which is a soy based mayo. They have a low fat one and a fat free one and all the ingredients are 'real' by my standards. This time I'm also eating real sugar, just in moderation. Its kinda cool.

Jen

I can't trust myself to eat that way now...but I am definitely working toward being in a place where I have a healthier attitude toward food, and don't feel like I have to eat everything NOW.

when I quit smoking, one of the things that scared me was that people I knew that had quit said that they still had the urge to smoke. I was afraid of going thru the withdrawal only to find that the urge never went away. well..I quit in 2003 and I am now a non-smoker. there have been times that I forgot and felt like I should be doing "something" ,but I have no desire to smoke at all.

I approaching my weight loss with the same methods and hope to have a similar outcome...obviously I HAVE to eat, so it's not exactly the same....I just don't want to use food as a crutch or an addiction. AND....I would like to ENJOY a meal....I never enjoy food anymore.....it has become the enemy. I would like to be friends again.

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Well of course the other component is exercise -- my Euro relatives walk everywhere, or at least to public trans, one of them has a 3 floor walk up in a real cool old building.... It's like doing StairMaster every time she leaves her place, here it's so easy to go from chair to car and back again, you have to really work to fit in the activity.

I don't eat any artificially nonfat/lowfat stuff but then again I don't eat cheese, mayo, sour cream, etc.

If I drink soy milk, its the unsweetened but regular fat kind. As for salads, my favorite salad dressing is salsa although galeo miso wasabi ginger dressing is really good and low calorie. I would agree with europeans walking everywhere and encountered the same thing in china, people would bike/walk everywhere.

OH boy i cant live without my real Mayo BUT i did find a Real Mayo thats made with Olive oil...the calories are 45 per 1tbsp,4g fat, cholest is under 5mg., carb is 2g......and its not a bad taste...

I think it depends on how you're planning to use the food, and whether the lower-fat version has the same ingredients as the full-fat version or whether the fat has been replaced with weird additives/thickeners etc.

For example, I'm perfectly happy to make lattes with 1% milk instead of whole, and when it comes to Greek yogurt I'm perfectly happy using the 2% at 130 cal/200 grams instead of the regular at 290 cal/200 grams. It's still just milk and yogurt cultures - just less fat. On the other hand, there is no way I will use fat-free "half & half" . . . that is actually skim milk with a lot of added corn-derived thickeners, stabilizers and sweeteners.

Yes. yes, yes that is EXACTLY what I want to be. I want to live in a European city and not have a car and walk to the store daily and climb stairs and eat reasonable portions of REAL food. But I guess I can't move so I'll have to try to pretend.

Sigh, me too. But it's not gonna happen. But I keep working on small changes in the right direction. I'm definitely on the quality food thing, although my taste isn't exactly French.

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Yep, that's why city-dwellers are statistically less likely to be obese that those of us out here in the hinterlands. That and all the tight-squeezes everywhere you go.