Do what works for you. I have changed a few things and I can tell you it has helped myself and my family. Instead of chips and dip we have carrots and dip. Nobody can tell you why you were FAT...if you're losing, you're doing something right. Keep on doing what you're doing and enjoy yourself while doing it :)

I live by the belief that eating foods in their most natural state is best... I try not to eat things that have been altered, so no low fat, sugar free anything, really. It's worked well for me so far!!

Originally Posted by rose madder:
I live by the belief that eating foods in their most natural state is best... I try not to eat things that have been altered, so no low fat, sugar free anything, really. It's worked well for me so far!!

Agreed. I try not to eat too many processed foods, but I do use some lowered fat foods (ie low fat dairy that is actually "skimmed" and not chemically processed) and turkey bacon that is chopped and formed as opposed to mechanically separated.

I have come to a place in a long weight loss journey where I pretty much just eat whatever food I wish to eat but I count the calories. I am currently trying to cut out refined sugars and flours and lower carbs and I try to stick somewhat to a low glycemic way of eating but really, for me it is calories that count. I had a nice corndog for lunch lol.

I only eat 'diet' type foods when I prefer them to the full fat version or can't tell the difference. I use reduced fat shredded cheese and sour cream (can't tell the difference) and I LOVE diet pepsi. (Regular soda is waaay too sweet to me.) I drink skim milk b/c I prefer the taste- I'm not a big milk drinker anyway so it's mainly used for my coffee or recipes. I enjoy the taste of Lean Cuisines and they are convenient, so I buy those often.

Other than that I eat what I want, I just keep track of the calories. I eat white rice, flour tortillas and pasta on a regular basis and still lose weight. I've tried having brown rice, whole wheat tortillas and whole wheat pasta and all it's done is left me wanting the more delicious 'real' thing. Today I had a half a pint of take out shrimp fried rice for lunch and still have stayed under 1500 calories for the day :)

:hug::hug:i know exactly how you feel.
Although I now count my calories. I have a morning protein shake and a before bed protein shake and eat alot more fruits and veggies. I still love all my junk and still have it. Just dont have all of it. If i come home to pizza and i still have calories ill have a slice and if i dont have calories shoot then i will grab two pieces to save for lunch the next day. i still have pizza and stuff just instead of having 4-5 slices i have one or maybe two. There are many places i dont care for anymore. Such as Panda Express and most chinese places. For me two bites isnt worth 400 calories and at many of these places it really is like that. but i will get tv dinners that are chinese food because they make it with less calories. Instead of having every desire as i used to everyday. I now probly have the equivelent to 1day of desires in a full week. :) and this way work for me and i can stick to it. It is something i can do for the rest of my life. I dont want to limit myself so far that i decide to quit.

So what im trying to say lol. is do what you are comfortable with. Ive been doing this for 5months and have lost 37.6lbs. : ) :hug:

Meeeeee. Sometimes.

Like, today I had: a cup of coffee, a lean cuisine, a slice of pizza, and some low-fat ice cream. Not the most nutrient-rich day, but well within my caloric limit and I'm not hungry.

I try and eat normal foods as well. I figure I'm unlikely to do well on a very restricted diet & I want to continue eating what I ate before, but less of it, less often, and possibly with substitutions.

We have semi-skimmed milk in the fridge at home because that's what DH prefers - I'd have whole milk, but I can deal with semi-skimmed as I only use it for cereal. I don't do diet sodas because I think they taste horrible - I'd rather have the full-fat Coke but I rarely finish a can and that's not very often at all, so I don't worry about it becoming a habit. We eat lower calories yogurts because they taste just as good as full fat ones to us, and we do use some lower calories dressings, but not fat free ones.

I don't like brown bread & never have, so I'll stick with sourdough, white bread, marbled rye - anything tasty really! We've changed our pasta & rice to brown/whole wheat, but that's fine because don't notice a difference in taste.

Basically if we can't taste the difference we're happier to move to lower calorie versions of things, but other then that we'll just adapt our eating habits so that we can still enjoy the taste of full-fat things, and just attempt to work on our portion control to have less of them. :)

We do still eat out, we just do it less often, try to make healthier choices and eat less then we do. It's just gradually retraining ourselves to make better choices, and we do still occasionally fall off the wagon, but we get right back on it the next day.

I eat normal food all the time. I moreso look at portion control and ration it that way. I'll eat what I want, but very VERY minimal so it doesn't really affect me much.

I'm allergic to artificial sweeteners, so I CAN'T have a lot of diet food. I mostly stick to "regular" food as well, just watching portions :)

I find most low-fat food to be horrid, but I do use reduced fat sour cream and mayo. I mostly eat what I like, just smaller, more controlled portions. I get annoyed with people who act like Medifast is the path to sainthood. I like food and don't want to make eating something shameful. If I want to have popcorn for lunch every once in a while, I'm going to do it and enjoy it!

Originally Posted by stellarosa27:
I'm allergic to artificial sweeteners, so I CAN'T have a lot of diet food. I mostly stick to "regular" food as well, just watching portions :)

How did you find you were allergic? I have been curious if I am allergic but didn't know the symptoms, etc.

As for the OP, I am somewhat the same way. Had a cheeseburger last night on a whole-wheat bun, still eat Mexican food (just change the portions), etc. I try to keep my breakfast, lunch and daily snacks the same with a tad of variations thrown in. I do like non-fat yogurt (like plain, natural and non-fat). I have grown up with skim milk so that is what I drink/use. I hate the taste of whole fat milk or even 1% milk. It tastes so much better when it is skim. :D Other than that, I just count calories and watch portions. It also helps me to eat a lot of "real" foods (i.e. whole wheat products, raw veggies/fruits, dairy, etc.) But that is just me.

I think it's important though not to get too hung up on which foods are "normal" and which are "diet" and which are "weird."

I've learned not to tell people (unless asked) about certain ingredients in my food, because they say "Ick, that's weird/gross..." It's not as if there are crickets in my chili, but people sometimes have preconceived notions about what is and isn't "normal" food.

A few years ago, I was making dinner, when we had unexpected guests. I was making tacos, so I just added dry tvp and extra spices to the ground beef I was browning (textured vegetable or soy protein - essentially a dehydrated version of the main ingredient in Boca burgers).

When one of the guys asked for my recipe, I explained my "secret."

He was surprised but said, "I wondered why they tasted so good, but weren't at all greasy."


When I tell people before they start eating, there are always people who don't want to try anything new or different, or who decide they don't like it, because it has an unfamiliar ingredient (which I find kind of funny when I know the person has eaten it before at my home and had liked it).

When I started using viatnamese fish sauce in place of worcestershire sauce, I started getting a lot more requests for my recipes from meatloaf to spaghetti sauce. These were from people who had eaten these dishes before and had never asked, so I knew it was the "fish sauce" that was making the difference. But when I gave my recipes and had to explain the fish sauce, people would give me a look as if I had poisoned them (keep in mind that the main ingredient in worcestershire sauce is the same - fermented anchovies).

I've always been a "foodie" so fat or thin, I always enjoyed the unusual food experience, I've just switched from high-calorie "weird food" to lower-calorie "weird food."

Basically, if it's not moving when I eat it, I don't consider it weird.

I guess to me my food is normal because it's the same kind of stuff I ate before. I suppose I do make compromises on certain types of things like using reduced fat/calorie spread instead of butter and skim or almond milk instead of whole or low fat yogurt instead of the full cream stuff. The thing is I do these things so I can have things I REALLY like instead. E.g. I'd rather have an extra piece of chicken than whole milk with my cereal or I'd rather use ICBINB than real butter so I can have an extra piece of toast. I'm not really a big enough fan of whole milk or real butter that it makes that much of a difference to me to use substitute, but if I was really into those things, then yeah I'd definitely eat them.

I hate diet food, I eat everything I love to eat but just make sure to stay within my calories :)

And it's been working fantastic so far :)

So glad to see this thread!

I have A LOT of weight to lose, which translates to being on this 'diet' for a long time. That said, I decided I wasn't going to do a specific plan, but calorie count. Psychologically, not having anything off limits helps a bunch! There's a difference to me between I "can't" have that and I don't want it. It give me back the power and the control. I also haven't been hungry at all. I try to eat whole foods, though veggi burgers, whole wheat buns, and my beloved Skinny Cow are my salvation for quick bites or sweet cravings (of which I'd not had too many).

I think, for me, this is a better way of eating because it prepares me for the long haul for both weightloss and maintenance.

I won't do low fat or fat free. Certain things naturally have fat in them and I don't want to know what they are doing to alter real food. And a lot of nutrients are fat soluble which means they need to be take at the same time as fat in order for them to bind and be absorbed by the body. Our organs, like our brain need real, natural, and healthy fat. I grew up on real butter and in my mind there is nothing better. I sometimes even make homemade butter. I wish I could do whole milk but it hurts my teeth. I think it just gets colder than lower fat mile or something and I have a cavity that has never had a filling stay in it. But I do have it in my cereal.

I also feel like the richer the food the more satisfied I feel with a smaller portion. I binge more on crappy food because I think it takes a lot more for me to feel satisfied.

I like to save a bit of my calories for an evening treat. Like last night I had homemade tapioca prepared with whole milk. All I needed was half a cup to feel truly satisfied and it was only 130 calories.

Oh, yes! Granted, I am trying to be vegan now, so many people probably wouldn't consider my menu very "normal" since it doesn't include meat or dairy or eggs. But in terms of food that is "diet", I try to stay away from that and stick with whole, minimally processed foods.

Here's a sample menu for me:
Morning: Big salad with 1 tsp olive oil and 3 rice cakes spread with homemade roasted red pepper; ginger tea
Mid-Morning (if hungry): 1/8 cup baked chickpeas (this is something I could never find in the States - dehydrated chickpeas that are made without any fat and crunchy - but in Israel, it's a popular snack) and fruit
Afternoon: 3 oz extra firm tofu in a homemade marinade (no fat added), sauted with 1 tsp olive oil and 3 cups veggies over 1/2 cup cooked whole grain
Mid-Afternoon (if hungry): same as mid-morning snack
Evening: Big salad (with different veggies from morning salad) with dressing of 1 tsp flaxseed oil, vinegar, mustard, dash of maple syrup, and garlic, with 1 small baked sweet potato chopped in it and 1/4 cup corn kernels
Nighttime snacks: 1 oz whole wheat pretzels and 1/2 oz vegan 70% dark chocolate

My calorie range is about 1300-1400 per day.

Tam

Esofia, you should be able to buy Stoats Pinhead Oatmeal from Amazon (dotcodotuk). Sorry I can't post the link yet.

I've never tried Stoats. I love McCann's, but Amazon won't ship it to the UK. Best of luck. :)

Me too. I love food way too much. I love the way it looks, tastes, the textures, smells...EVERYTHING! I even enjoy cooking. So I know depriving myself of the foods I love (which is basically everything, there isn't much I won't eat!) I would binge which is a huge problem for me. I do count calories (but I don't record, I make mental notes through the day before I put something in my mouth) So I don't know exactly how much I'm eating a day I'd say around 1500 give or take. But it's working for me. Plus portion size is big thing for me too. The other night we went to a friend's house for dinner she made spaghetti with cheese garlic bread and pecan pie!!!!! OMG. I saved up some calories in the day cause I had no idea what she was make cause she wasn't sure until last minute. We got there and she was just starting to cook. I really try to avoid pasta and eat that in moderation like once a month if that cause it's my downfall. I just did portion size kept it small, had 2 small pieces of garlic bread (the end pieces cause 2 of those made up basically 1 slice) and had a sliver of peacn pie. Now granted I don't eat like that everyday but the portion sizes I believe keep me in tact. I didn't have 2nd's either. I'm enjoying healthier foods now and try to make that most of what I consume. Making healthy choices for instance if I go to Starbucks I get a small made with soya milk and sugar free syrup. I can still have things I enjoy but either tweaked to reduce the calories or reduced portion sizes. And I will continue this when I hit goal.

This is what I'm eating today:

breakfast: oatmeal with blueberries and a tea with almond milk no sugar, 1 activia yoghurt
snack: 1/2 protein bar
lunch: 1 medium apple, corn torillia wrap with chicken breast and salsa
Snack: 1/2 protein bar
Dinner: Salad, salmon on basmati rice
Snack: apple

Originally Posted by jessica2231:
Instead of having every desire as i used to everyday. I now probly have the equivelent to 1day of desires in a full week. :) and this way work for me and i can stick to it

Yes! You articulated it perfectly. From the looks of the posts here, it seems like we all choose our own sacrifices. I eat "normal" food, but I do make substitutions sometimes if those substitutions don't impact the taste. For example, someone on the "Food" forum here posted a delicious recipe for Butternut Squash & Pear soup (can't remember who---but THANK YOU if you're reading this). The original recipe calls for 1/2 cup heavy cream. I substitute 1/2 cup of half and half. Now, the latter isn't exactly "diet," but it's still a substitution for a higher fat ingredient. And the soup was GREAT! The best butternut squash soup I have ever tasted.

Originally Posted by lin43:
Yes! You articulated it perfectly. From the looks of the posts here, it seems like we all choose our own sacrifices. I eat "normal" food, but I do make substitutions sometimes if those substitutions don't impact the taste. For example, someone on the "Food" forum here posted a delicious recipe for Butternut Squash & Pear soup (can't remember who---but THANK YOU if you're reading this). The original recipe calls for 1/2 cup heavy cream. I substitute 1/2 cup of half and half. Now, the latter isn't exactly "diet," but it's still a substitution for a higher fat ingredient. And the soup was GREAT! The best butternut squash soup I have ever tasted.

For soup and such a small amount, I often use the same amount of evaporated skimmed milk to give it the creaminess without the fat and calories.

When I post I try to say what works for me, and not preach to others what they should do. I believe we should do what works best for us individually and not try to copy someone elses plan. I calorie count and I believe I eat normal foods, that is why I like calorie counting. I do prefer Skim Milk and FF yogurt but I also love butter, that is why I do not eat much bread as I can't limit myself on butter portions, I haven't eliminated it but just don't eat it often.I like some FF products and find others to be terrible. It is all a matter of personal preferance.

I, myself, am more of a volume eater. I prefer to have a lot of food vs a little amount of food that tastes a little bit better. Granted, I don't really mind the taste of low fat or even fat free foods (mostly dairy products). I guess I'm just used to them. I guess for me, if I can have more food for the same amount of calories as a smaller portion of "normal" food, then I'll take the diet food. I end up being more satisfied that way. Of course, the only "diet" food I really eat is low-fat/fat-free dairy and diet soda. Otherwise I stick to lean meats, whole grains, and fruits and veggies. I try to stay away from 100 calorie packs and such.