tw326at41 - definitely do not worry about perfect! As I said, when I started I knew that I heaped on the extras on my salad and in my coffee. I ignored those pieces for the first few weeks/months, then developed plans to tackle those 'extras' in my calories. Also, all along I have allowed myself a beer or wine with Sunday dinner, or dessert or something. And I slip up! The most important thing is not the slip up, but the ten minutes, two hours, and two days afterwards. Do you say: oh well! I'll restart on Monday, or do you restart right then? (Hint: it is the second.)

For me, I usually grocery shop on Saturday and do food prep on Sunday. I prep my salads ahead of time: chopped romaine keeps very well. I through in various veggies too. Then I supplement the chopped up salads with bagged salad greens as necessary to 'extend' the life. I find the chopped salads keep through at least Thursday just fine in a Ziploc container.

I make my soup/salad for lunch for the week the same day. Soups keep better than salads? but even salads will usually last a week. I package them in individual plastic containers to take to work and freeze the extras.

Peppers and cucumbers will keep chopped for just a day or two, so if you prep these ahead of time eat them quickly! Celery, cauliflower, and broccoli chopped will definitely keep a week. Also, I buy those pre-packaged bags at the grocery store if I'm feeling lazy.

Dinner I am less likely to prep ahead of time like that! Usually I'll make a big thing one night (pasta or enchiladas or whatever), and then alternate leftovers of that with other quick(ish) things. If I need a quick meal I throw a veggie burger and a couple of kinds of vegetables into the oven. I always have some sort of veggie I can throw in the oven and everything tastes better roasted. Try roasted broccoli, cauliflower, asparagus, brussel sprouts, or even rutabaga. I think that quick oven meal thing might even be easier if you aren't a vegetarian, since you can get more variety with the meat you might use?

Oh, and I like making things with cauliflower, like cauliflower rice.

Cabin - thanks! yes. Food is most important for weight loss. You can't exercise your butt (literally) off until you get control of your calorie intake. I am not sure how strong the hunger pangs are, but hot tea might help as much as water? Also, I keep some sugar-free hard candy in my desk (I like caramel creme flavors and the Werther's apple-caramel sugar free) and have a piece or two in the afternoon.

Buffy / Sam - thanks! It is entirely doable. I cannot believe how far I've come in a year. Yesterday, my neighbor told me that her husband asked her, "who is that in her yard?" and she said: "huh. I /think/ that's mnemosyne!"

What an awesome compliment that your neighbor didn't even recognize you. Wow!
I wish I liked a lot of the veggies you mentioned. I am VERY limited on what I like and I even try things sometimes thinking that maybe now I will like them. I do like lettuce, tomato, green beans, asparagus, and spinich. I need to get back to adding those more frequently in my meals. at least that would be a start. What kind of soup do you make? I usually do canned soups but I did do a veggie one I liked...now to just find that recipe. Lol

I LOVE spinach salads, I do those quite a bit. I also do a veggie soup with lots of veggies and a low sodium V8 base. Mnemo I'd love to hear yours too! That is so amazing that they didn't recognize you! What a feeling that must have been! I hope everyone is having a good day! My snacking is the hardest Part but I'm making healthier choices there. My calories are around 2100 the last few days and I feel good about that, its progress. I hope everyone is doing well!

Definitely focus on getting more veggies into your meals. You might even try some new ones, like jicama and see if you like those better? Sometimes my 'treat' for the week is a new or unusual veggie.

This is my basic bean/lentil soup recipe. If making it with dried beans I soak the beans overnight and cook them for a couple of hours on the stove beforehand.

Otherwise, I sautee an onion, then add lots of chopped up carrots, celery, peppers (if I have them), maybe other veggies like zucchini in a big pot.

Then - I decide what sort of seasoning to add. Do I want it Mexican? Moroccan? Greek? Italian? Curry? - and season accordingly. If I'm making black bean soup, I use cumin, garlic, a bit of oregano, and maaaybe some chili powder and/or ancho spice. If Moroccan: I put in Ras El Hanout (a spice blend you can find in the grocery store) with some lemon juice and probably some sweet potato and chopped mint to finish. Greek: I have a Greek spice blend shaker that I use. Italian: oh, oregano, maybe basil, some thyme. French: a couple of palmfuls of Herbs de Provence to taste. Curry: Garam Masala (spice blend!) and curry powder.

Depending on the soup I add a can of tomatoes. Sometimes I throw in a potato or sweet potato.

Then, I add either dried lentils (washed and picked over) or the cooked dried beans, or one of those soup-bean-and-grain packages, as well as a good bit of water and some vegetarian bouillion cubes.

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For me it is perfect. I bring it to work, it has vegetarian protein, I control all the ingredients, and since I know how many total calories it has, I know how much each serving has. I enjoy it and look forward to it and find it more filling than frozen foods!

But, you could do the same thing with something like shredded chicken and extend the life of chicken like that. Or, maybe make a mayo-free chicken salad by combining chopped up veggies and herbs and shredded chicken and a nice citrus based vinaigrette.

Heh. Snacking is really hard. I used sugar-free low calorie popscicles especially early in it. So when I had a snack-urge I could have a popscicle. Also, I like apples as they are satisfying to snack on!

I definitely need to try making some of my own soup again. I forgot I do like zuchinni in some things and while I do not like carrots or cabbage in general, I do like them cooked in soups. Hmmmm, you got me thinking. This is good! Thank you!

How do you eat jicama? Do you cook it or eat it raw.

Yay! Yeah, I think experimentation and finding things you like that also work is the best thing. It is all so individual.

Jicama: I eat it raw generally. It doesn't have much flavor, sort of plain, a bit crunchy and sweet. I like to top it with this Mexican spice mix, Tajin - which has dehydrated lime and chili pepper in it. It is marketed as a fruit seasoning, and goes REALLY well on jicama.

You can also cook it. Slice it up and sautee it in some PAM spray with maybe cinnamon and Splenda?