Are there any foods that you find are very delicious and calorie friendly that help "the cause". Let's share - it might help others to see them. I'll start:

- fat free cottage cheese
- latte - decaf coffee, 1 t. cocoa powder, one t lf hazelnut nondairy cleamer, 1-2 t splenda
- 100 calorie packs - crackers
- I Can't Beleive it Not Butter Spray
- sf gum
- egg whites
- Kashi waffles
- La Tortilla wraps - 50 calories, 8 grams of fiber
- Weight Watcher whole grain bread
- spaghetti squash
- canned green beans (no salt) - love em with Italian Dressing, too
- veggie burgers (Morningstar Farms are my favorite)
- 2% sharp american cheese
- natural peanut butter
- Kroger lite yogurt - 80 calores (no fat, sf)
- boca strips (taste like bacon)
- fruits - my fav's - banana, strawberry, canteloup, watermelon, grapes, apples, canned pears, canned peaches, sf applesause

I know I'll think of more.

Hello from a former Ohioan. Thanks for the list of ideas. You've done great so far ~ I hope to follow in your footsteps.

Hiyo
I actually eat the same things I always have-- recently I've tried doing the more "natural" substitutes, rather than the sugary/preservative filled versions of the foods. (Trader Joes is my FAVORITE store!!!)

My trick is to eat the full-calorie versions of things, just less of it-- so if I order a burger, wrap, or sandwich at a restaurant, I'll order it with the box and put half away before I've even thought about eating it! (or share my meal with the other person I'm out with!)

When I did my first weight loss journey and started maintenance, I went from eating low-fat foods to eating full-fat/full calorie everything (since now I wasn't restricted--I was "off my diet"!). Needless to say I gained everything back pretty quickly.

I've now come to realize that I like eating, and seriously crave, the "full" version of foods, so my goals are now to limit the intake, rather than substitute and crave!

So--I guess the short answer is that I choose foods that I know I can stick with long term, and if they happen to be low-cal/low-fat foods, then: Nifty!

Ooohhh.. I think I'm going to try your Boca Strips and Kashi waffles that sounds like an AWESOME breakfast!

As weegreenlassie does, I also stick with plenty of "full fat" products that I always ate.. because normally, I prefer those tastes. I just eat less of them. I'm not a huge fan of some low fat/ff products. But, I do have some!! Here are some things that have kept me plugging along...

HOT SAUCE. Yes, hot sauce I love, love, love hot sauce. And, I'm a weird person because I love to put Franks hot sauce over a big bowl of salad instead of dressing!! Yum! Hot sauce has no calories (well, unless you use tons, I imagine- I don't). I love to have a BIG salad and cut up 1/2 ounce sharp cheddar cheese in there and top with hot sauce. Best thing ever to me.

Quaker Chewy Granola Bars! I love these as an afternoon snack. I have a variety pack with choc. chip, PB choc. chip and cookies n cream. 2 of the kinds have 100 calories, the cookies has 90. 25% less sugar ones.

Mini ranch rice cakes. I love these even if not losing weight I think they're so good. 70 calories for a serving!

FRUIT! My staple. I love fruits, most kinds. I'm so excited the summer is approaching so some of the fruit goes down in price a little, and more is in season. I love berries and cherries, especially.

Edy's Fruit Bars. YUM! 80 calories per bar. Good sized! I have the strawberry ones.. they have actual chunks of berries in them. Delicious.

Lean Cuisines. My husband works nights sometimes, so I like to have these on hand when he's not home for supper. I like tons of the kinds!

Reduced-fat cheese its. I have these with my lunch a lot.. love the salt and crunch.

CHICKEN! I could live on a good grilled chicken breast.. so good and low in calorie, too. Sometimes for dinner we grill chicken breasts and put them on hamburger buns... bake some fries on the side, have a veggie. Feels like a restaurant meal.. but better tasting, and healthier.

I'm sure there's tons more, but those are my faves.

2% cottage cheese
Raw veggies: red/orange/yellow peppers, radishes, cherry tomatoes, grape tomatoes, cucumbers, snowpeas (large bag from Sam's - washed and ready to eat), celery, etc.
Roasted veggies: onions, zuchinni, yellow squash, eggplant, broccoli, etc.
Grilled veggies: Zuchinni, yellow squash, eggplant, green peppers
Good lettuces: arugula, romaine, raw spinach.
Babybel cheeses
Low-fat triscuits (serving = 7)
French onion Laughing Cow
Frozen green beans (the ones that are whole) microwaved
Large bags of ready to eat broccoli (raw, roasted, microwaved)
Kashi Go Lean & Uncle Sam cereal (separately or mixed)
Latte with skim milk, splenda and Sweet N Low (if that's the pink one)
Leftover cooked cold veggies on salads or as salads
Whole wheat pasta with tuna and veggies (onions, celery, peppers) (just a little mayo or 2% cottage cheese blended to smooth it) served icy cold.

Oops forgot fruits:
Pink Lady apples cut into wedges
Black grapes
Cherries
Strawberries
Blackberries
Blueberries
Cantaloupe
Ripe pears & peaches

Turkey breast, which I roast for use throughout the week
Chicken breast
Shrimp
Salmon
Tilapia
Tuna
Smoked Herring
Blackening seasoning, very low cal and flavorful!
Wasa Crisp n' Light
Genisoy Soy Crisps
Good BBQ sauce for grilling and flavor
Pickled Beets
Sugar free, fat free Cool Whip
Greek yogurt for smoothies
2% cottage cheese (I generally don't like fat free cheeses)
Tomatoes
Canned stewed tomatoes
Dried beans- a staple!
Salsa
Asparagus
Microwave steam veggie bags (so easy)
Big mama bags of veggie mixes, fresh and frozen from Sam's
Acorn squash
Baby carrots
Onions and garlic! Low on cals, big on flavor!
Fresh spinach
Frozen berries (fresh are so killer expensive), blueberries, blackberries, raspberries
Watermelon
Grapefruit
Tangerines

Caesar's low carb lavash wraps
frozen veggie mixes
dry pastas (I use Barilla Plus)
canned tomato products (paste, sauce, crushed, diced, etc)
Boca original burgers
fully cooked frozen chicken breasts
laughing cow original flavor lite cheese wedges
fresh veggies: romaine lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, baby carrots, broccoli slaw, celery, bell peppers, radishes, broccoli, spinach, onions, mushrooms, etc.
deli meats: low fat or FF, low sodium varieties
natural peanut butter, unsalted & super chunky
Smart Ones desserts
bananas and whatever other fruit is in season
eggs and egg beaters

So many other foods too, but those are my "staples". I also like using strong full fat cheeses (a little goes a long way).

Thanks for sharing all these food ideas. They have been helpful to me.

Glynne - Hi! Where did you live in Ohio?

Not depriving myself of too many regular foods helps me to stay on my plan. I go low cal/fat on some things like:
2% cheese
Non-fat or Low-fat cottage cheese
Low-fat Triscuits/Wheat thins
Light Whipped Cream
Light Sour Cream
Skim Milk

But otherwise, I eat regular foods, I just watch my portions. I don't drink a lot of alcohol, but I do like red wine. So I still have it. I just make sure to count those calories.

Some things that feel like a splurge (even though I still watch portion size and count the calories) are:

**Plain Baked Pita Chips (Stacy's or Trader Joes)
**Bellagio Sipping Chocolate (add 1 cup of skim milk and 1 ounce of light whipped cream and it is some of the richest/chocolaty goodness you have tasted)
**Red Wine
**Avocados (great diced on salad in lieu of dressing -- I rarely ever use dressing)
**Hummus w/ cucumbers/water crackers/baby carrots
**Dark Chocolate (a little goes a long way)
**Strong Cheeses like Feta and Blue Cheese (again, a little goes a long way)
**Light Whipped Cream (great on top of sugar free strawberry jello, hot chocolate or just fresh berries)
**Butternut squash soup with lots of onion and curry seasoning

Ooh, so many good ideas!

Some of my most satisfying staples are:

• Hummus
• Laughing Cow Cheese
• Teddie's Natural Peanut Butter
• Lindt 85% Dark Chocolate
• Kashi Cereals, Bars and Waffles
• Stonyfield Farm Vanilla Frozen Yogurt
• European Style Nonfat Yogurt
• Chicken Chili Lime Burgers and so many other things from Trader Joe's
• Canned tuna
• Canned beans & chickpeas
• Joseph's Flax & Oat Bran Pitas
• Baby carrots
• Grape tomatoes
• Cucumbers
• Fresh and frozen veggies
• Edamame

I have found the only thing I sort of "miss" that I don't eat anymore is ice cream. I quit using artificial sweetener so sugar free ice creams are of limits. This weekend I tried something new...well new to me.

Soy Dream Lil Dreamers Vanilla Ice Cream Sandwiches 100 calories, 15 carbs YUMMY!!

Other Foods I have found that I LOVE are

Salmon fillets (NOT canned salmon though!!)
Natures Path Pumpkin Flaxplus Granola
Roasted Sweet Potatoes (the only way I had ate them before was canned with marshmellows on...and I hated them that way!!)
Organic Salt free sugar free almond butter (WONDERFUL with apple slices)
Kashi TLC Honey Oat Flax Granola bars
Light string cheese
frozen dark sweet cherries
Newman's Own Dark Sweet Chocolate Bar


My FAVORITE "Mock Dessert" Kashi Waffle toasted topped with 1/4 of a grated Newman's Own Dark Sweet Chocolate Bar some frozen dark sweet cherries warmed in the micro and a dallop of ff french vanilla yogurt!!!! SOOOOO YUMMY!!!

I have been eating regular foods in extreme moderation. I don't know how I have been able to actually do it (as it was always so hard to stop eating in the past), but I think if I would be restricting myself it would make me want it more. However, I do not eat any sort of cookie, candy, high fat/high sugar anything (and this is what I practically used to live on). I also stay away from pre-packaged anything. I guess I made a mental change in myself that this is IT.

Kate, I like the soy ice cream sandwiches too! I'm am not eating meat anymore and working on cutting out dairy too so the soy ice cream sandwiches are great.

I like most FF or low fat stuff---my taste buds gradually changed as I ate less fat, and I am able to enjoy food more (it's like high fat foods coats the tongue or something). So now Fat free cream cheese is just as satifying as full fat to me and whole milk tastes like cream--I can't drink it at all. yuck... prefer 1% or Fat free. But that's good because I live alone and it's easy for milk to spoil, so I buy the ff powdered, keep a bottle of cold water in the fridge and "make" the milk as I need it for cereal or chocolate or whatever.

I LOVE chicken--eat lots of that... And Pork...pork MEAT is very lean and isn't "marbled" like beef, so it's about the same calories as chicken if you watch the fat.

But probably one of the strangest things that keeps me on a diet is "Pickled Pigs feet". There are about 360 calories in a small bottle of them. For me, they are so rich and so strong (they are packed in vinegar), that I can only eat a little, and I'm VERY satified. I can eat from a bottle for several nights. So for 80 calories or so, I can have a very satiating snack and stop.

Also, baked potatoes are, according to various studies, the most "satiating" food there is. One large baked potato, generally fills up most people. So I have them alot--usually a small one with ff sour cream and ff "butter", a veggie and meat--and when I finish, I am more than satisfied.

I also like Fat Free and low fat chips and various "dip" type chips. I like to put salsa and lf cheese on the low fat "dip" chips and zap them in the microwave to make Nachos.

Oh, I bought one of those "oven fry pans" with the holes in the bottom and WHAT A DIFFERENCE! My "fries" and "fried chicken" cook soooo much faster and come out so crispy on it! Very happy--didn't think that it would really make a difference in the crispiness, but it did.

"Perimeter" foods (ie, lean meats, dairy, and produce, all found around the perimeter of the store), including my personal staples that show up in my cart in some combination almost every time I shop. I try to make these the bulk of the foods I eat:

Staple veggies: asparagus, broccoli, cabbage, carrot, bell pepper, zucchini, onions, garlic

Staple fruit: watermelon, pineapple, apples, oranges, strawberries and blackberries

Staple meats: Chicken breast, ground turkey breast, chicken sausage, pork tenderloin, london broil/top round, 4% fat ground beef

Staple dairy: Nonfat greek yogurt. I've tried cottage cheese, again and again. I just don't get it. I don't understand it at all.

Non-perimeter foods that still play an important role in my food plan:
Laughing cow wedges (so much so that I buy them at Costco)
Western Bagel Alternative Bagels
Healthy Harvest whole wheat pasta
Dried beans and lentils
Whole grain blends (Near East whole grain rice pilaf, whole wheat couscous, Lundgren brown and wild rice blends)
Soy, teriyaki, hoisin sauces - for building stir fry sauces
Wishbone Salad Spritzers (I think I have 4 different flavors in my fridge at the moment - I keep them in constant rotation)
Organic Chicken Broth (again, so much so that I buy it at Costco - I use it instead of oil in almost everything, plus to make soups, plus to make marinades go further...)
Basic, plain ice cream cake cones (15 calories a piece!) and No Sugar Added Breyer's Neopolitan Ice Cream. The ice cream is 80 calories for half a cup, so I measure myself 3/4 cup and have a satisfying, portion controlled dessert for 135 calories, well within what I allow myself. It's my nightly treat and I love it.
La Tortilla Factory 50 calorie whole wheat tortillas - a great alternative to the alternative bagels for breakfast. You can also make a great 100 calorie, incredibly high fiber/protein snack by spreading one of these with a laughing cow wedge and topping it with chopped cucumber and grated carrot. Roll it up and it's like a veggie tea sandwich - so good, so good for you!
Sugar free syrups by Torani and DaVinci - I have 6 flavors and use them to flavor coffee and to make italian sodas with sparkling mineral water. So good, no calories.