sorry to bother you all, but I'm having a hard time following any "diet plans" I've searched for. I'm a 'meat-and-potatoes' woman. I don't like salads, they aren't filling or satisfying. I can stand one maybe once or twice a month. Every time I eat fruit I get an acid stomach reaction. I don't even like a lot of fruits. I eat an apple for a snack, and I'm still hungry. I don't like fish, can't stand to eat most of it. Whole wheat pasta just tastes wrong. Vegetables I can eat once or twice a day, but only one serving, not 3 or 4.
I don't eat processed foods, I make everything we eat for meals. My husband makes bread, so we dont' buy processed commercial bread. I don't drink sodas.
Yes I'm a carb-oholic
How the heck can I lose a few pounds? any ideas?

I'll toot my own horn and suggest intermittent fasting. I do 5:2 (in a nutshell, 2000 cals 5 days a week, up to 500 cals the other two days). There's other options where every day you eat within a certain eating window (that may be 4, 6, 8 hours) where naturally you end up eating less than you would without that eating window.

For me, it's been a good way to continue eating what I already eat, but just eating less. I also cook a lot from scratch, and I found a few meals I can eat on my 500 calorie days (figuring out the calories can get annoying without having some go-to meals that you know are within the calorie range) and then I eat "normally" the rest of the time. Just my two cents. I'm sure you'll get plenty more ideas.

How about adding some sort of fruit/veggie smoothie to help you get more nutrients though? You could use fruits that don't give you any issue as far as acid, and then add green veggies (which you don't really taste unless your taste buds are super sensitive to them) and it would be more filling than just eating an apple.

wow, I don't think I could do fasting. I'm starving every morning when I wake up, I don't think I could go all day on 500 calories. Yikes. You have more will power than I do I guess! I get naseous when I don't eat, and sometimes get headaches too, if I don't eat.

the smoothies don't look very appealing, but maybe I can try some. I don't like bananas at all and I don't like most fruits. I used to try a protein powder in my orange juice but could only stand to use about 1/4 of the recommended mix, the texture and taste was awful.

I wish I could get more venison steaks, they taste wonderful, and are low in calories and fat. I'm out for the rest of the year, now.

I would suggest calorie counting. Eat the foods you like, figure out the calorie count, and then tweak your meals (smaller portions, less calorie dense foods, etc.) so that you're getting a calorie deficit.

I think that's a good starting point. Eventually you should probably venture into some new foods for better health and nutrition but.....baby steps.

By the by, imo, there is no such thing as "diet food" - there's healthy food (nature-made stuff like veggies, fruit, lean proteins, dairy, good grains) and there's unhealthy food (man-made chemical-filled overly-processed junk). If it comes from a field, it's healthy. If it comes from a factory, it's not healthy. You can lose weight eating either, as long as you have a calorie deficit, but you're gonna feel a whole lot better with a whole lot less of the crap food.

I don't think anyone who has done fasting ever thought it would be easy at first lol IT WAS HARD. But now I look forward to it. Headaches galore the first week, but those went away. It resets my digestive system (I used to have IBS) and I've noticed a huge difference in how much I can eat on normal days now (no where near as much).

But yeah, the key really is calorie deficit. How you make that happen depends on what you think will work best for you.

I agree so much about venison! It's the only reason I wish I hunter or knew anyone who hunted.

thanks for the encouragement. I've been calorie counting for the last couple of weeks, and trying to keep the portions smaller. I grow most of my own vegetables. As I said I don't eat processed foods or any soda. We don't eat chips or "junk food", no cookies in the house either. It's simple: breads, meats, potatoes, pasta, some vegs. I take yogurt for lunch, or oatmeal.
I'm impatient. :-)

If you want to play by those rules then you will need to eat less and work out a whole lot more.

I would also suggest trying to adjust the balance of your diet if you are not willing to change its composition.

Eat lean meats like chicken and turkey. And eat more meat and vegetables with less of the carby stuff like potatoes. Oats are great though. Keep those going. Bread. You need to ditch that.

Agreed. You may find that you're very hungry if you just try to cut your food instead of changing the composition. Little things like adding finely chopped onions, peppers, mushrooms, spinach (or whatever) and adding it to your marinara sauce to put over pasta will add bulk without adding calories.

If I make beef burgers, I finely pulse mushrooms into the mixture and you can't taste it at all, but we're eating the same size burgers with the same taste and fewer calories. Meatballs get a good dose of shredded zucchini, chicken nuggets get shredded squash, mashed potatoes mixed with cauliflower puree, etc.

I'm not necessarily eating a bowl of vegetables, but just incorporating them into the foods I already eat. This makes them inherently lower in calories so I'm full, but able to lose.

good suggestions, thanks. I try to cut out the potatoes, I seem to gain weight if I eat those too much. I'd rather have pasta.
Once the garden starts producing in the summer I can eat tomatoes and cukes, summer squashes, zucchini. My diet does get better in the summer. Winter and spring is tough. I'm getting more active now too, with wood to stack and the garden to tend.

Good on you for not eating processed crap. That puts you several steps of other people on this journey. It's a mainstay - and a downfall - for many.

You said you don't like salads. I have a couple questions about that.

What kind of lettuce do you use? Iceberg lettuce tends to the most popular and, imo, is the reason a lot of people don't like lettuce. There are a lot of different varieties of lettuce, with various tastes and textures, that are a thousand times better than iceberg.

I'm not a big fan of side salads - a small bowl of lettuce and some veggies. But entree salads? OMG. Have you tried entree salads? There are countless combinations you can try of various meats, cheeses, veggies, fruits, nuts, dressings. I find them enormously satisfying because they're such a huge sensory experience.

For me, pasta is far trickier than potato. 200 calories of pasta is a lot less food and far less filling than 200 calories of boiled, baked, or microwaved potato.

If you can only tolerate gradual, comfortable changes, you MUST learn patience, because your weight loss will be slower. Sometimes tremendously slower.

It can help to focus on "not gaining" and on the small acheivement themselves (Woohoo, I ate a half serving more of veggies today. Yeah, I walked a quarter mile further than yesterday!)

You can get just as far walking as you can by running, but you can't get there as quickly. If you get frustrated, you either have to pick up the pace or learn to be satisfied with your pace.

I'm definitely in the latter category. I've never lost weight more slowly than I am currently, but I've also never kept it off this long. I'd like to lose faster, but I like the small changes MORE than I want the faster weight loss.

You have to decide what's more important to you, speed or comfort. EITHER is perfectly OK.

These are really great ideas. I think I'll try the burger one on my boyfriend. Most of the "veggie-sneaking" tips I see are geared towards kids but these are great!

WOW you guys are good!
I haven't made an "entree" salad lately. In the summer I sometimes make them because they are light and cool. I grow buttercrunch lettuce - yes I agree, iceberg lettuce is kinda 'blah'. I choose romaine if I'm buying lettuce. I may try to add a small salad to my lunch routine and see how that goes.
I was previously happy with "not gaining" but every year I'd add a pound ... or two. Not much, right? well, now all those pounds are still here and a few more too. I only need to lose 10 to be happy, but it's tough. You guys have all accomplished much more than me. You should all be doing the happy dance :-)

I would suggest you try to cut back on the breads/carbs and beef up on the meats and things you do enjoy that are filling, but keeping the calories reduced.

NOTHING says you have to eat food you don't like to lose weight. If that were the case, most of us wouldn't be able to hack it.

For me that means I have a bunch of Jif peanut butter for lunch (with an apple sprinkled with cinnamon). Or, a sausage patty cooked with two eggs and a pat of butter. Stuff like that.

To keep myself from starving, I just have to limit the breads, cereals, sugars, etc. I can have them once in awhile (like Sunday I had rhubarb pie and ice cream) but it needs to be an every few weeks treat, not a daily consumption.

But... that is ME. A carboholic in remission... or on the wagon. When I was eating tons of sugars (bread, cakes, cookies), I was eating 3000-4000 calories a day and I still felt hungry. Now I'm eating around 1200 calories a day with TONS of fat and some proteins and least carbs, and I can manage the hunger without going out of control. I NEVER could do that with a carb heavy diet. I would be gnawing off my arm in that case.

You don't have to go all the way to Atkins to lower carbs either. It can even be gradual, but it might help. It has for many of us with carb issues.

Thanks! We have an entire volumetric thread for more ideas Join us!