DH & I had an all day (9-5) board meeting for a nonprofit we support. I had previewed the possible restaurant we might eat at as well as roasting up a bag of green beans (20 cal) brought this along. For breakfast, I had my filling and delicious 3 egg white omelet with veggies, salsa and strawberries. Kept me full until lunch.

As we were on a roll, we stayed at the hotel, and ordered off the bar menu. After much practice with starchless and grainless soups, I ordered the tortilla soup (very few tortilla strips, no cheese, and loaded with veggies and chicken as it turned out). This turned out to be much better for me than heading to nearby Mex place.

I have discovered that loaded with chicken in a bowl is about 2 ozs. I was again quite content. Mid afternoon break rolled around, the other members were making an M&M run, while I pulled out my roasted green beans. One lady, who has health/weight problems thought they needed salt. Others thought they were quite tasty and sweet. I probably find them sweeter than them because my sugar has been cut way back.

The upshot of all of this is: 1. I really like seeing how strategies and tools developed in one setting (soups with no carbs, bringing own food instead of depending on others, detaching events from food) can be applied to many other scenarios; 2. Glory87 insight that maintanence is successful when the thinking is permanently changed; 3. I really and truly was content and happy; & 4. It was a blast looking good and feeling fine in my black jeans and trim burgundy top. I really did not given a hoot what others thought or not of my healthy eating.

Good deal- those roasted green beans sound yummy! So you roasted them till they were crisp?

It's funny my husband also says that thigns always need more salt- but I'm like no you just eat too much salt

rockinrobin turned me on to roasted green beans (and kaplods the soup). Roasted green beans travel better than fresh and I wanted to plan for all day. i wasn't even sure if we were going to end at 5 pm going in. They also taste more trat/decadent to me. Nothing to feel sad about.

The lady needing salt, asked if I had anything else in my purse, and indeed I did, string cheese, and 100 cal prepackaged nuts and I showed one and all. I did NOT need those extra treats. The sweet beans were plenty for me.

It helped that we had excellent beverage selections, from my point of view. I haven't gotten hohum about this lifestyle yet. It will come but for now, I am rockin & rollin.

Karen, you are rockin' maintenance on SO many levels. And I'm sure you will continue to do so for years and years to come. You are on to something!

How do you roast the green beans?
Tell me more! Do you season them? What temp and for how long? I'm not much of a cook but I can sure follow a recipe.
Thanks!

I have a miso sprayer of olive oil. Pam would work the same. Spray the pan, I use pre-prepped green beans, but you can use fresh bulk ones, trim the ends. Spread on pan. I cook convection bake 350, turning them over with tongs after about 10 minutes. Cook another 10 minutes, taste see if this is how you like them. It takes a few tries to get them to personal taste. I guess sprinkle with sea salt if desired. I really like the sweetness, so a touch of evoo is good enough for me.

I remembered this morning about my post awhile ago about bringing in my own lunch to meetings. How it was a stress reliever. This same salt lady oversees those lunches- one month pizza, next subs, she is always interested in my alternative choice, not that she does anything different, and she makes a very small joke of it. This too is for a charity event so cost is always an issue.

However, my lunches are superb, with a Splenda coke couldn't be happier or look better.

I do them a tad different than Karen. I spread a tsp of oil (canola or olive) on a roasting tray that I've covered with aluminum foil (easy clean-up). I than lay out the beans, and spray generously with Cooking spray.

I bake them in a 350 - 400 degree oven (depending if there's anything else in there or not) for about 12 minutes. At this point I add thinly sliced onions and fresh chopped garlic, some sea salt and turn. (in a pinch, use garlic and onion powders, but the fresh is REALLY good). I then roast another 15 minutes or so, till they get a little brownish and wrinkly. Karen's right. It may take a while to you get it *right* or to your liking. They're fabulous!! I make about 5 lbs worth when I've got my family over for a meal.

It's just the best!! I can see that you, like me, get such a big *kick* out of eating well. Of course the wonderful benefits and rewards, but just the sense of, I guess pride, that comes along with it.

RR copied your recipe to my recipe file for future enjoyment. Delish!

I'm enjoying seeing how maintenance is done! Two things that stuck out to me, Karen:

1) "Detaching events from food." (This may be difficult for me. Fiance and I are both food-lovers {actually, who isn't??} and we love to plan what we are going to eat for certain times.) I'll have to give that some thought.

2) "I really did not given a hoot what others thought or not of my healthy eating." Yep, I'm getting there, too.

I am going to try the roasted green beans! I hear cauliflower is awesome, too.

Totally and completely awesome. As is brussel sprouts, turnips, broccoli, zucchini...

You see, I too am a food lover! Food still gets me excited, in fact, I probably get more excited over it now, then I did prior. It is essential to me that I eat fabulous tasting foods. Nothing boring, bland and dull. Getting pleasure from the foods that I eat is very important to me. I just found different foods to love. Ones that taste really, really good and are good for me.

When you're in maintenance and have an extra calorie or two to spare, you can plan out your splurges for those certain times with your DH. But not at a work conference and the such. For *special* times.

Ditto, ditto, ditto. Nothing glamorous about work meetings, but heading out with DH to a nice Italian restaurant, that is something to splurge on.