Any other Bakers/Foodies out there??
 

Hi my name is Jessica and I'm a bake-aholic....
I am also a major foodie and a food Blog addict...

So these are two things that DO NOT mix well with the new lifestyle I am trying to achieve.

I try not to devulge in any of the treats I make lately and just rush them right off to a group of people to devour, but I get so much joy out of making food that I can't help but try out my dishes...

I know one thing I have discovered in HungryGirl, great healthy alternitives to most any recipes you can think of. But it doesnt completely fill the need.

Does anyone else here have a love of all things food, beyond just eating it? If so how did you fit it into your weight loss routine without completely giving it up or sucking the flavor/fun out of the recipes?

I think you are going to find that many of us are foodies here. I can sometimes bake for others without trying it, but it has taken awhile, and there are certain favorites I must avoid at all costs.

I live a reduced carb lifestyle, and the elimination (mostly) of processed grains limits what I can cook for myself, but there is plenty left, with imagination.

I still read food blogs--let my mouth water as I sip an elegant tea. I build a 200 calorie cheat into my WOE twice weekly, and my suppers are always presented well, high quality and delicious. In addition, they use REAL ingredients. Fresh herbs, real cream or butter, EVOO, etc. Just not in slathering quantities. I have found that you can eat wonderful tasty "foodie" food with a little imagination.
Some of the substitute recipes aren't quite the same, but after you abstain from the "real" thing for awhile, you just may find them even better.

For me, baked goods are often my trigger foods. I had to find or come up with recipes to make at least some acceptable alternatives. Look around this forum, there are many people losing weight on different plans, I hope you will find the one that fits for you. (BTW, I trained as a chef prior to my current career-many moons ago, lol)

I bake 5 or 6 dozen cookies every week. I take them to my church, at first I just had to sample one or several but after awhile they just became uninteresting to me. I had heard from others that this could happen, I didn't believe it but it is true. I don't understand it because I never met a cookie I didn't like. I guess you just get used to them and think of them as something that you are making for someone else and you just stay out of them. Strangely enough I am OK with it.

I love to bake goodies & make candy. Right now my things are cake balls and homemade marshmallows. But, I give the stuff away. I might try one when I'm done if it's a new experiment. I'll also sit down and calculate the calories that are in a single piece so I know what I'm eating. If it's a "standard" recipe that I do over and over, I typically don't sample.

It doesn't seem as tempting to me these days. Plus, I like seeing other people enjoy my "creations" more than I enjoy them myself.

I have loved to bake and cook since I was a kid. Unfortunately it has been my downfall weight wise. I have decided not to bake until my daughter's birthday in November. I hope that by abstaining that long, I will conquer my sugar addiction.

I am a major, major foodie. Major. Love to cook. Garden. Make my own cheese and can my own jam and bake my own bread.

So, I do a few things.

First, I take joy in experimenting, the same way I would before with full-fat ingredients, with healthier things. I find I get the same thrill from perfecting a baked chicken parm that I do from, for example, perfecting a carbonara. So it's really not about depriving myself of my foodie-ness, but about directing my foodie-ness to healthy foods. There is nothing more gastronomically pleasing than still warm from the sun heirloom tomatoes on a bed of greens, fresh basil, a bit of homemade, still warm mozzarella, sprinkled with sea salt and cracked pepper, a drizzle of balsamic and maybe a tiny bit of olive oil.

Er, excuse me for a second, I'm drooling over here. Point being that the only part of the described above that you really have to monitor portion on is the cheese...and who cares with all of those luscious tomatoes?

Work with herbs and spices, different vegetable preparations, and new local ingredients. Your foodie can be satisfied without blowing away your calorie allowance.

Second, I've devoted a lot more time to finding GOOD healthy ingredients. This means an hour roundtrip of driving on Sunday mornings to go to my favorite farmer's market, where I can get fresh, local goodies on the cheap (seriously, they have tanks from an aquaculture farm where they catch the fish you point at in the tank, clean it, and send it home with you). I revel in the amazing, in-season produce. I get to know producers and what is good from where. I go home and invent things with vegetables I've never tried before (this year, we got some great new recipes because green garlic was a dollar a bunch, and we'd never tried it. Last year was the year we found long beans...oh, long beans, I am sooo looking forward to you coming back into season this month!)

Third, I found people to pawn cooking off on...ONE cookie to sample, the rest to a neighbor or wife's work. I make all of my Christmas gifts, and spend the majority of the year putting up jams, pickles, and sauces. It makes me feel like a minor culinary goddess to can things, the jars make wonderful baskets at the holidays, I save myself a good amount on Christmas gifts by making them in season when the ingredients are cheap, and last year, they were a HUGE hit.

My next door neighbor just lost his wife, and my grandfather doesn't enjoy cooking for himself. I stock their freezers with tupperwares of good, homemade food - lasagnas, pot roasts, handmade ravioli, stews, homemade mac and cheese. I try a bite or two if I want to, then send the rest off. They are grateful, and I get both the joy of cooking AND the joy of knowing those two have good meals ready for them. Way more joy than just eating these things for myself!

Fourth, if a meal is REALLY special at some gastronomic marvel of a restaurant, I eat it. Life is too short to live without fine dining. But its not an every day, every week, or usually even every MONTH occurrence. In two weeks we are going to Iron Chef Morimoto's new restaurant in Napa, and he is going to be cooking. I will be eating every darned bite! But that's SPECIAL.

If anything, losing weight has increased my foodieness. Before, I'd grab fast food all the time. Now? I am COOKING, and it is going to be DELICIOUS.

The best thing about baking is giving joy & interest to others. Its a much more long-term source of happiness, compared of eating a tin of your own drop-dead delicious goods.

I haven't learned how to master not tasting what I make as a go along yet, but I am pretty sure there is a way to create this habit of including baking into your daily calorie count....all new habits take a while to stick but I'm sure it's do-able!

I am also a F4L (foodie 4 Life!) I went to college for cooking, I cook for a living, I cook at home, I cook for events, I love readin recipes and anything really involving food. It makes things hard sometimes. I know my weaknesses, certain foods get me every time! Sometimes i take just a taste of something then throw a mint in my mouth and drink a buncha water to avoid splurging lol.

Ohhhh. Mandalinn82, you make me miss home. (born and raised in Sonoma county, grew up on organic ranch- early adulthood in restaurant business, blahdy, blahdy, blah)

Now I am in Juneau Alaska, no dairy, no commercial agriculture, great fishing, wild berries and seaweed-- everything has to be flown in or shipped in . (or grown- we do herbs and vegies with extremely short growing seasons.) We try really hard to eat fresh and delicious, but unfortunately have had to revise definition of fresh.
However baking is pretty much the same. Can get good stone ground flours, etc. It would be easier if I didn't have a wheat sensitivity, but like others, I am learning to replace it in my life, and having fun in the process.

I bake big time here - Farmer's Market.

For me I love all things with flour, yeast, sugar, butter & eggs. Unfortunately those thing got me close to 300 lbs :(

So now a days, ( except for Christmas)
I never eat my own baking except for maybe a slice of toast once or twice a week with my eggs.
When I start eating that stuff I just can't stop.