I was thinking about how I'm going to hopefully be in maintenance soon, and I started making a list of things I would like to eat that I can purchase a healthier version of, and I thought why not start a thread to get ideas from everyone, especially the veterancs and maintainers of the program.
Well, first of all, I love cheese <3 very much. Some of the cheeses that I researched that are healthier options are:

Laughing Cow Lite cheese
Lite Mozarella cheese (lite string cheese)
philadelphia fat free cream cheese
feta cheese

Some other products:
I Can't Believe It's not Butter fat free (5 calories per tbsp!)
Best Foods Mayo with EVOO
fat free sour cream
sugar free jam (suggestions on brands?)
whole wheat noodles, bread ( I already ate these before ^_^)
egg beaters (these, too)

This is what I have so far. I love all of these products, and any way I can lighten them is a good thing. Anyone else have things they maintain with that are good and healthy?

Hi Scofflaw,

I use all those things. I also like:

-Fiber Gourmet Pasta (18 gms fiber, 7 gm protein, 1 gm fat, 130 cals per 2oz dry serving)
-Polaner Sugar Free Grape Jelly (10 cals, 4 carbs and 3 fibers per 1 Tbsp serving)
-Alouette Crumbled Goat Cheese (Not feta) (80 cals, 7 gms fat, 1 carb per 28 gm serving)
-Mini Baby Bell Light cheese rounds
-Julian Bakery Smart Carb Bread (100% sprouted) (109 cals, 12 gr protein, 13 gm carbs, 12 gm fiber, 1 gm fat per slice
-Krema Natural Peanut butter (Ingredients: Peanuts)
-Genisoy Tortilla Chips (110 cals, 14 gm carbs, 2 gm fiber, 8 gm protein, 3 gm fat per 1 oz serving)

I'm sure there are others I can't think of right now. I always look for high fibers, higher protein and lower fat.

Thanks for starting this thread. I'm always looking for new products.

Lynn

WF strawberry jelly is pretty good- especially when nestled atop a Tablespoon of natural PB spread on a piece of WW (50cal/slice)/ Bodywise (50 cal/slice) or Rye (60cal) toast...
Found an absolutely awesome chicken burger (200) and sausages (160) at Costco- super tasty/ low cal/ low sodium/ low carb & fat. Janet & Greta's is the brand.
Grimm's Turkey Sausage (80 cal/ 5 fat/ 0 carb/ 410 sodium) is a round breakfast sausage that fits perfectly on an English muffin- with egg & lite cheese is a great breakfast. Or can stand alone...
Turkey Bacon is always my choice over regular bacon (cause I get more of it ). I like Lilydale at 25 cals per piece it still has all the taste...
I have been sticking to quinoa or barley for my evening carb if I have it.

Has anyone taken not worrying about anything but carb counts? All these products are good in some ways, but there are alot of artificial ingredients and less than healthy additives.
I like the added fiber in alot of products, but am wary of anything with lists of ingredients that go on forever and have lots of difficult to pronounce words!

Being thinner is healthy, but it isn't a stand alone. How about lists of foods that are low carb, but natural? Less doctored up by a chem lab? There must be some great finds out there that would be good.

Just as Purrfect said, I would be really careful with the "low fat", "fat free", "sugar free" products. They usually add other chemicals/additives/preservatives/substitues that are not healthy for you. For example, if you check the label of a "low fat" product, it might have the same calories, less fat, but actually be higher in sugar or sodium, etc.

My recommendation would be to stick to the full fat/calorie versions but watch your portions, and eat them with whole, natural foods, instead of other diet products.

I just found these really good OLE Extreme wellness tortillas at Wal-Mart the other day. There are 71 calories, 17g total carbs, 12g fiber and 8g protein. Lowest carb tortillas I saw at the store, and they have regular, whole wheat, tomato basil, and spinach and herb. Yummmmy...goes great with my ground white meat turkey tacos.

So, aside from the sugar-free jellies we listed, what product worries you? I'm not going to drink whole milk instead of fat free milk. I agree there are a lot of artificial ingredients out there (have you looked at your little silver packets?) but not all reduced fat/reduced carb products are bad for you. I am always open to suggestions.

Here's my thoughts:
Eating organic is very expensive. I would LOVE to eat organic; when I can make the money to sufficiently do so. I feel like there's a lot of things out there that are bad for you: Being in the sun, smoking (which I do NOT do), coloring your hair, etc. You could die at any moment. So yes, there are chemicals in the lower fat food and sugar free food...but are chemicals going to effect you more than having a heart attack from obesity? Who knows.
I'm going to research for some organic foods that are lower fat, or sugar...(Did you know Stevia is natural? And 0 calories!) And try to make a list. But as far as a few things with chemicals...I'm not too worried about it, until I can go organic

Based on what I used to eat prior to IP, my go to foods for maintenance will be:

Ezekiel Bread (for toast @ bfast)
Fage 2% Greek Yogurt
Eggs
Berries
Apples
Almond Butter
Sweet Potato
Brown Rice
Quinoa
Coconut Oil
Chicken
Turkey
Beef
Salads
Veggies
Black Beans

I try to avoid pre-packaged / processed foods, wheat & wheat gluten and corn. IP is the most packaged foods I have ever eaten.

jennydoodle, is coconut oil better than evoo? or are they kind of similar? And how come you avoid wheat? what is ezekiel bread made of?

I don't know if coconut oil is BETTER then evoo, but it is another great source of healthy fats. They are no where near similar. Coconut oil is something you add to food after it is prepared, evoo is used for cooking. I usually add a tablespoon to my brown rice or quinoa and it really enhances the flavor.

I avoid wheat because it doesn't agree with me. I blow up like a balloon and I get very lethargic, it's almost like I am drugged. Ezekiel bread is made of sprouted grains and contains no flour. It agrees with me much better than regular breads.