I too love, love, love food. Yup, there I said it. Funny thing is I love it waaay more now at 168 lbs then I did when I was 287. Back then I ate everything and anything I wanted. And apparently I wanted A LOT. Now, I count calories and am grateful for every little bite that goes in my mouth. I savor and enjoy each and every bite. I was kind of like the spoiled kid with too many toys - he's got so many, he appreciates none of them. Well now I appreciate everything.
I enjoy planning my meals and making myself good, tasty healthy food. I have found great recipes that I really and truly love. I could never, ever in a million years stay on plan if I didn't love and adore everything that I was eating. I think that is really, really key. You must find foods that you enjoy.
I had to set myself up a schedule as to when I could eat. This helps to elminate the "emotional" eating aspect for me. I can no longer eat just because I'm bored, frustrated, lonely, angry or happy. That was a big thing I needed to change.
I just made the chocolate suffle from the latest cooking light this weekend. It was wonderful and only 80 calories! One of our favorites is peanut curried shrimp..amazing, you would never know it was good for you
Wow.. I got up this morning and came to find this thread is really moving! I read each and every one..
Barbara.. you sound like you KNOW your way around a kitchen honey. I hope to some day be that way again.. I used to do exactly that.. spend my entire Sunday - typing up my menu for the week, putting all my menus and recipes in a folder for the week.. making a list and then I would shop at two to four different places that day.. it was like a 6 hour ordeal. but I LOVED it! we had a great wine and cheese shop I would go to and a wonderful gourmet shop. also a wild oats and a normal Publix grocery store.
I just found that this kept my entire mentality on nothing but food, all the time.. all day long.
Did you begin your diet this way? or was it a slow process?
For me I just feel like I have to switch off the constant desire for food.. and the quick (albeit boring most of the time) frozen stuff requires much less mental energy!
I KNOW I can't eat like this forever.. I am sure It will morph into a mixture of this and cooking days.. I am just not there yet..
Heather!
OMG.. we LOVE and have learned to cook several Cajun recipes.. I have a gumbo recipe that takes an entire day.. and I LOVE just good old Cajun shrimp and rice.. AND Jambalaya – my husband’s VERY favorite.. I have this “soaked salad” recipe I got from a restaurant in New Orleans that is SO good (and so fattening)… I think it is just, like I mentioned above, that I have such a LOVE for food that it was taking up way to much of my time. I am having luck with the weight loss right now and I think I am afraid to switch gears!
Jay..
Yea.. you KNOW many flowers are edible!!!
I think I will stay on my lackluster – frozen food diet another couple of weeks (or until I reach my next goal – only four pounds to go for this) and then slowly add a day or two a week of dinners I will cook.. I have to start slow! I think I am just afraid… because this is working right now..
Thank you each of you.. this has made me feel very good today already!
Cary
Preheat oven to 350°.
Coat 2 (6-ounce) ramekins with cooking spray; sprinkle each with 3/4 teaspoon granulated sugar.
Combine 2 tablespoons granulated sugar, flour, cocoa, and milk in a small saucepan over medium heat. Cook 2 minutes, stirring until smooth. Spoon chocolate mixture into a medium bowl; cool 4 minutes. Stir in vanilla.
Place egg white in a medium bowl; beat with a mixer at high speed until soft peaks form. Add remaining 2 tablespoons granulated sugar, 1 teaspoon at a time, beating until stiff peaks form (do not overbeat). Gently stir 1/4 of egg white mixture into chocolate mixture; gently fold in remaining egg white mixture. Spoon mixture into prepared dishes. Sharply tap dishes 2 or 3 times to level. Place dishes on a baking sheet; bake at 350° for 15 minutes or until puffy and set. Sprinkle each soufflé with 1/2 teaspoon powdered sugar. Serve immediately.
Yield: 2 servings (serving size: 1 soufflé)
NUTRITION PER SERVING
CALORIES 79(7% from fat); FAT 0.6g (sat 0.3g,mono 0.2g,poly 0.0g); PROTEIN 3.5g; CHOLESTEROL 0.0mg; CALCIUM 26mg; SODIUM 35mg; FIBER 1.4g; IRON 0.8mg; CARBOHYDRATE 16.5g
thank you!
I am printing this right now..
sounds very interesting.. and I LOVE that this only is for two.. no way to walk to the fridge in the middle of the night and scarf down the last two!
You know something else I think would be the perfect finish to the Souffle recipe...
I have as my "treat" every day around 4pm a homemade cappuccino.. I use skim milk and this great hand held frother to make very thick "whipped cream" that I put on top.. this is something that would be VERY good on top of the souffle and only add about 10 calories..
you take a tall glass (ice tea size) pour 1/4 cup (enough for two) of skim milk in and use the frother to whip the cold milk (mine looks just like this
you can find them on line..
the milk whips up allot - like about four -five times in volume. (it is interesting.. the skim milk whips up much more than the full fat milk).. you then put it in the micro for about 25sec (watch it as the foam starts to really rise.. I have to do several 10 second times) - I just watch it and when the foam gets almost to the top -stop the microwave and let it rest down a little and heat a few more seconds.. repeat until you have 25-30 sec..
something about the microwave makes the whipped milk much more dense.. like a meringue consistancy.. it is the perfect topping for LOTs of things from fresh strawberries to coffee.. sometimes I add a teasppon full of one of my Divinci sugar free flavors before I whip it..
you should try it..
thanks again for the recipe!
Cary
Barbara.. you sound like you KNOW your way around a kitchen honey. I hope to some day be that way again.. I used to do exactly that.. spend my entire Sunday - typing up my menu for the week, putting all my menus and recipes in a folder for the week.. making a list and then I would shop at two to four different places that day.. it was like a 6 hour ordeal. but I LOVED it! we had a great wine and cheese shop I would go to and a wonderful gourmet shop. also a wild oats and a normal Publix grocery store.
I just found that this kept my entire mentality on nothing but food, all the time.. all day long.
Did you begin your diet this way? or was it a slow process?
I started this way. By the time I started dieting, I was already into cooking. I already did meal planning on the weekends and shopped at both Trader Joe's and Safeway on most weekends. I first starting doing it when my SO and I moved in together. At first, I considered it a chore but eventually I began to enjoy it and started subscribing to cooking magazines (although I've never typed up a menu, I just set the recipes aside). After I started trying to control my weight, meal planning became even more important. I had to do it to survive on my calorie plan. I don't know how you manage on Lean Cuisines, et. al. I definitely rely on convenience meals (frozen or vacuum-sealed) for lunch a couple of times a week, but for dinner we almost always have something homemade. Most frozen meals are not satisfying enough for me; I rarely even eat them for lunch (my convenience meals are usually seafood, Indian meals, or tuna, along with brown rice all from Trader Joe's). If I ate LC's, etc., for dinner, I wouldn't be able to make it to bedtime without needing to eat more.
I didn't add the weekly trip to the farmers' market to my grocery day until after I started my diet and good quality fresh produce became critical. I swear, fruits and veggies taste better to me now than they did before. My biggest complaint is that we don't have any gourmet grocery stores within easy driving distance, so unfortunately I don't get to shop at those venues. I would love to have a Whole Foods.
I do think a lot about food. Not every minute of the day, but quite a lot. But I like it, so it doesn't bother me. Other people have hobbies that they spend a lot of time on (for my SO, it is a computer game) and people rarely question whether or not these interests are healthy. In my case, one of my hobbies is food.
Both the chocolate souffles and the whipped skim milk (esp. with sugar-free syrup) sound awesome.
Just a note about those Lean Cuisines. I'm not someone who's into a lot of meal planning and cooking, and LCs tell me exactly what and how much I'm eating. Yeah, there is a certain sameness to it that I get tired of after MONTHS of doing this, but it works for me. Would I rather be eating whole foods and wonderfully prepared meals? Sure! Did I gain weight doing that? Um, yeah. So maintenance is going to be an interesting time for me, and I'll probably have to do more calculating and portion control than I do now.
I do sometimes want a snack in the evening, but often it's because I'm still under 1200 cals for the day.
So my current relationship with food partly has to do with convenience.
Another food lover here! Most of my fondest memories have been ones when I was cooking with my grandma and my aunt in my grandma's kitchen as a kid. My sons were always interested in cooking and baking, too. Our youngest is eighteen and often makes complete dinners for us and for his girlfriend and her family at their home!
I refuse to quit cooking and baking! First of all, I like the idea of knowing EXACTLY what is in the foods I eat. Secondly, it is A LOT less expensive. Thirdly, and most importantly, I really ENJOY doing it!
Like many of you, I have quite a few cookbooks. Recently my future DIL has been diagnosed with Celiac Disease, so I have been experimenting with various gluten-free flours as I bake. Often I make a sugar-free version AND a gluten-free version. My husband is diabetic. Additional challenges for me are my future DIL and my mom are vegetarians AND my husband and youngest son LOVE meat! I often make two versions of entrees, too, which takes a bit of extra time but is TREMENDOUSLY APPRECIATED by my family with special dietary needs!
Wild Oats Market and Trader Joe's have been INVALUABLE to me as I secure special ingredients to use. I have also been buying organic foods whenever possible.
For me, the trick has been cooking smaller amounts so that I have either just enough for that meal OR just enough for my mom or DIL to take home with them for leftovers. I have some of every food, but I use a dessert plate or fill my plate with more vegetables and have a bigger salad. I never have seconds now! (I USED to have thirds and fourths!!!! ) By having some of everything, I find that I don't feel deprived. If I ever feel deprived I can usually expect a binge within the next day or two!
My greatest challenge in baking is when I am anywhere near COOKIE DOUGH! I can't even lick the spoon or I am DONE! I find that if I make a nice cup of strong coffee OR if I go brush my teeth and swish with Listerine, I am OK. Then I can be around cookie dough...but only if I never sample even one bite!
It would be easier for us all if our food addiction would entail something that our body really didn't NEED...like cigarettes or alcohol...but every day we MUST eat food, and we must CONTROL the amount of food we eat. It gets to be EXHAUSTING!!! I'm sure you all have felt/still feel that way!
Barbara,
It sounds like you have a much more healthy relationship with food..
I think Jay sort of hit it on the head.. a HUGE part of it is convenience.. My life is a bit overwhelming right now (last year I lost a VERY good job and decided to start my own business)... it's going well but I have a VERY hard time having "real" food in the house all the time as I am working at home. I would go to the store..buy this great food for the week..and eat WAY too much of the good stuff...
I am sure it's not great to be afraid of my food.. but right now this is how I can manage to stay in control.. I DID decide to make a wonderful pasta primavera (I like whole wheat pasta actually and the spring veggies are wondereful right now) for dinner one day this week.. but having no bread is important.. I just can't have it right now..
In my family, food has always been associated with love. I take after my dad's side of the family and my grandmother LOVES to cook and make those wonderful southern meals. It is how she gets every person to gather at the dining room table and having us all there at one time.
I don't know if anyone has ever read "The Five Love Languages" by Gary Chapman, but one of the love languages talks about receiving gifts and that is how people feel loved and show their love. I have always been a gift giver and food was a big gift. I would spend all this time preparing gourmet meals to show my friends, family and my husband that I loved them. Food was my gift to say "I love you, I have prepared this great meal for you, here is my gift for you!" I love having people over to eat, dinner parties, etc. My husband always jokes that nobody ever needs to bring anything because I'll go overboard with the food anyway! Still, to this day, when I try to think of something nice or romantic to do for my husband, the first thing I always think of is food.
Unfortunately this has also left me very FAT. And when I had my first job out of college, commuting 2 hours a day, it became convenience, too. I was too tired to cook anything when I got home from work, so we ate out a lot. It's funny that the easiest foods to make aren't necessarily the healthiest foods to eat.
Things started to change when my dad was diagnosed with diabetes (not type 2). Every time my parents came to visit, I wanted to cook meals. Well, now I had to modify everything so that it was still tasty but "legal" for a diabetic. I used to love going on allrecipes.com and searching for meals. I hardly ever do that anymore because I have our healthy "staple" meals: chicken and veggies, pork and rice, turkey and potatoes, etc. Tonight we are varying it a bit and having greek lamb pitas. I am slowly learning how to modify my favorite fatty meals into healthy ones, but it's been hard and it seems like it takes so much more time and money.
Heather!
OMG.. we LOVE and have learned to cook several Cajun recipes.. I have a gumbo recipe that takes an entire day.. and I LOVE just good old Cajun shrimp and rice.. AND Jambalaya – my husband’s VERY favorite.. I have this “soaked salad” recipe I got from a restaurant in New Orleans that is SO good (and so fattening)… I think it is just, like I mentioned above, that I have such a LOVE for food that it was taking up way to much of my time. I am having luck with the weight loss right now and I think I am afraid to switch gears!
Hey, why would gumbo take a whole day? It only takes me about 2 hours from start to finish, and I make my roux from scratch, I don't use that crap in the jar.... YUK ...
PS... Gumbo, Jambalaya, Etouffee, Sauce Picquante, Boudin, Fried Catfish and Shrimp, Stuffed Shrimp, Crab Casserole.... we make all this stuff...
But, most of us were raised on meat, rice, and gravy... Thats why most of us here are fat...
I don't know why, but the individual milk frother (battery operated, non steam) doesn;t cut it for me as well as the steamer frothed milk. The froth doesn't stay too long!
okay...honestly...I don't really like food that much. Probably because I am bored with the things I cook but I really hate to cook. I'd be happy just making a frozen dinner everyday if I could get away with it. I don't enjoy the effort it takes to look up reciepes, and I dont' have the money to buy alot of herbs to make things taste better. Most days I'm probably lucky if I get 1200 calories because I am really bored with eating. Nothing...even fast food really appeals to me. I never seem to know what I really want. But I must be getting enough calories to break even or else I am not eating enough and my body is hoarding the calories I take in because it thinks I am on a starvation mode. I don't know.
Most of my fondest memories have been ones when I was cooking with my grandma and my aunt in my grandma's kitchen as a kid. My sons were always interested in cooking and baking, too. Our youngest is eighteen and often makes complete dinners for us and for his girlfriend and her family at their home!
) By having some of everything, I find that I don't feel deprived. If I ever feel deprived I can usually expect a binge within the next day or two!
