I make my own spaghetti sauce--I've learned it's a lot easier to control the sodium while having it still be tasty. I make sure I find the lowest-sodium canned tomatoes and tomato paste that I can find, and it ends up not being that bad sodium-wise at all.

Here's the recipe I use:
http://www.food.com/recipe/healthy-marinara-sauce-5415

I like my marinara sauce kind of chunky, so I don't puree the tomatoes, though I do kind of mash them up in the pot after they've been cooking for a while. I will also add chopped mushrooms, and sometimes add zucchini or summer squash. I also tend to use dried parsley (amount adjusted accordingly) because I rarely have fresh parsley around.

It makes quite a bit, but it freezes really well, too.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Tamikl
I found some spaghetti sauce that is very low in sodium, but it tastes lame I need to find one that is a happy medium...still use MRC Tomato Basil for my stuffed peppers...because I like it.

Tami..

I make my own sauce.. Most of the time, I do it in the crockpout, and put in some turkey meatballs or turkey sausage I have made. It freezes very well. I cannot have salt,as I am off HBP meds, but do use no salt.

Patzi

Sounds like I may have to get adventerous and make my own sauce. Never made it before, but there's a first time for everything.

I will certainly check out the recipe...I am not real great in the kitchen, so I may be better off having regular spaghetti sauce on a very rare occation and flushing the salt with water consumption!! LOL

Hey all! Had my first potluck experience since maintenance. Salad supper. All salads...most of them not healthy. So my plan was to fill 3/4 of my plate with healthy fruit and veggie salads, allow myself 1/4 of plate of goodies...which I did. And if I wouldn't have went back for this amazing shrimp pasta salad and a cookie (first cookie in 6 months) it would have been fully successful. Before it started 2 of the gals said "you made it look so easy losing the weight...it must have been easy." I said "it was saying no to a LOT of food through Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, potlucks..." and they're like "oh, I don't want to do that." Afterwards one was saying how badly she wants to lose, but doesn't want to give up unhealthy foods. Well, there are no magic pills so we all have a choice, right?

Another said she could lose but could never maintain. I told her I had basically been stabilizing/maintaining for 2 months and my plan has been to have specific meals planned for breakfast...my two meal options for b/f, lunch, and snacks and just varying my supper. They looked at me like I had 3 heads And when I said I was happy where I was weight wise they also kinda looked at my strange, you often don't hear a woman say that. Sure, what I see I'm not 100% happy with, but I'm not going to chase skinny forever. I've seen too many of my athletes go down the eating disorder path.

I met my Waterloo last night...I think I've said before that I knew animal crackers (of all stupid things) would send me out of control. I bought them for my daughter's preschool...then ended up taking something else. So here sat animal cookies. We opened them yesterday...ends up kids don't really like them and mom loves them...so much that I got up in the middle of the night and ate some I haven't done something like that for a long, long time. Thought about throwing them away, so instead send them with DH to work. They could not stay here. And they cannot come back. I can easily say no to fast food, cake & cookies (there was amazing chocolate cake & cookies yesterday at work and it didn't eve tempt me)...but I can't say no to animal cookies???? Geesh.

But today's a new day. Back on track. And I have a long walk and strength training workout at the park planned.

Good morning ladies

Oh Gina..you are so funny! I can relate...My weakness aren't animal crackers..but we all have weakness where food is concerned, don't we?! You are maintaining the right attitude...get back up and keep on keeping on!

I had my Maintenance WI yesterday and stayed the same...actually a lb lost from last week...but last week was TOM, so made sense. I guess this means that what I am doing is working at the moment! I praise God for that!!

That book..."Made to Crave" is awesome. I refer back to it often.

We are planning a trip for around Thanksgiving time...and I am worried. I seem to do just fine at home, even with a few eating outs each week, but being away for a whole week, off routine, is scary for me. In Mexico I ended up gaining 2 lbs in a week..and that was after a few days being back at home when the several pounds up (water retention...etc) settled down to 2 total. I have never taken those 2lbs off...because I hit Maintenance right away after coming back and stayed the same weight since then...so for about almost 3 months now. So...my point is...when I get closer to my trip in November, should I try to lose a few before I go or wait and face the music when I return?

What would you all do?

Tami, as crazy as this may sound, I actually find it easier sometimes when I'm not home to stay on plan because I don't have a big fridge of food or pantry of goodies staring back at me.

I had to travel several times last fall and I had a routine/habit that I would always follow. I guess you could say I'd go on auto-pilot. Since I didn't want to be tempted by breakfast items in the hotel, I'd stop at a local convenience store, grocery store, Wal-Mart, whatever, and get sharp cheddar cheese sticks. Enough to last the duration of the trip (2 oz. per day). Also, I'd get some fruit and then I'd be set for my breakfasts. Lunch and dinner were usually at a restaurant and I'd know what I was getting before I walked in the door, usually a grilled chicken salad or grilled chicken with veggies. I wouldn't even look at the menu. If I looked at the menu, I'd be tempted so my thought was, let's not even go there. It took a change in mindset for me to realize that just because I wasn't home, it didn't mean I'd have to be off my routine. If I didn't eat on plan while I was away, for me, it was because I didn't want to eat on plan, not because there weren't choices.

Given that you have so much time before the trip, you could start conditioning yourself and build up habits when you eat out so that's it's not so hard when the time comes. You can do this!

Tami-I"m contemplating the same thing...we have a trip the end of May. We'll be spending part of the time at "the lake" which generally means alcohol and food (snacks & eating out). We'll also have a wedding and going out to eat at my favorite Mexican place. So here is what i plan on doing:

1. Back to metabalance for May to get a buffer (I still have a pound to hit my goal, so want to get there anyhow...)

2. Plan, plan, plan. Plan the meals I know I will have control over...planning what we'll eat on the road (10+ hours of travel each way), breakfasts, healthy snacks for munching times (having my grocery list ready before we even get there), lots of water, and PLANNING the meals that will be treats. I mentioned the Mexican restaurant and a piece of cookie cake for my sister's bday. Beyond that I'll probably have one other meal that will be a "treat" (either pizza or another mexican restaurant).

3. Get my little booty moving while we're there. The lake is a great place to run and walk, so just moving, moving, moving so I'm not sitting around eating, eating, eating and drinking, drinking, drinking

4. Get right back on track once we leave, beginning with the drive home. Will probably eat on the green menu during travel. On any given trip back home I gain 5 lbs (no lie), generally sodium weight that comes off within a week if I'm intentional about water and my choices.

5. Give myself grace to enjoy myself. I've sacrificed to get here so I'm not going to start living in a way that will put the weight back on, but I'm also going to have a few times a year when I know that my calorie choices will be higher. This will be one of them.

My trip home might happen even sooner. My gpa is in the hospital with...well, they aren't sure what all...infection in his spine, cellulitis in his legs, something with his lungs...I'm trying to decide if I should go home to see him...which is a 600 mile trip. There are actually on a few things i'd have to clear from my schedule to make it happen. I don't want to regret not going (they haven't determined the source of the infection so they don't know if it is life threatening, etc.)...and that family has had a lot of old crap come up from the past in recent months so that's why I think I should go. There's a lot of wounded relationships. I know I can't fix them, but I can be there for my gpa and gma even though most of their kids are very mad at them. That's why I hate living this far away...

Still struggling with weekends. My issue is starches (carbs) are my triggers and given that I'm home on weekends, that makes them more accessible than when I'm at work. Cereal, bread, etc. They're gonna have to stay out of the house for now.

Anyone else feel like they've been given too much freedom?

Yes Jen...I went through that. I was so overwhelmed at one point that I looked at Weight Watchers point system thinking that might help me stay focused at each meal...goal not to go over my daily points. But, I shared that with my counselor, and she says..."do you really want to have to count points forever, or would you rather just learn how to eat so as not to gain?" Well, that spoke volumes...I absolutely don't want to count points, calories, or anything else...I just felt like I wanted that magic maintenance menu that I could follow daily...sorta like I had been doing for months and that worked!!! LOL Well, there isn't one But you will figure this out...I am slowly getting into a routine, while trying a variety and it appears to be working at the moment...slow, easy, baby steps The freedom really is wonderful when you think of going back to the strictness of "green menus." It is then that you appreciate the freedom we have now.

Well gals, I made it back. It was a long weekend of sitting at the hospital. I got protein bars and fruit for most of my meals then would eat out with the fam in the evening. I did mostly okay...and just going to move on from the few bad choices I did make.

Jen & Tami (and all)...yes, I struggle with having too many choices. I started by using MFP and having some basic meals. It worked basically well, but 1) I spent way too much time on my computer with the tracking and when just counting calories I can make some bad choices and develop bad habits and 2) I don't want to enter that way the rest of my life. I know I'll need to track for accountability. So today I started using my fitbook...basically a paper journal where you can track food and exercise and set goals. I also made a rough outline of the types of foods I should have each meal. And I"m cutting out the little chocolate I was letting myself have until I hit 150. My basic outline looks like this:
breakfast: a starch, a protein, a dairy
am snack: a protein and a starch or fruit
lunch: starch, protein, fruit, veggies
pm snack: same
supper: protein, starch, veggies

I'll stick with that basic outline until I hit 150, then start trying some new combos again. A basic outline similar to being OP, but with a bit more freedom and flexibility (and a bit more food). It's actually been hard today...I wanted my dark chocolate to reward myself from finishing a huge grading thing, instead I got on here I need to check in over at the April board, maybe that will be my reward when I finish all the grading.

Thanks, Ladies! I didn't plan my menu this past weekend and that's what did me in. So I'm sitting down today and planning as much as I can for the next week. Today starts week 5 of stabilization. My first reaction when I saw the sheet..."That's a lot of food!!!"

ETA: Was setting up my menu for the week and just realized I brought everything but a veggie with me today for lunch. Ding Dong me! Running at lunch so I won't have enough time to run to the store. I guess I'll eat a little extra at dinner time unless anyone has a different suggestion.

I love lurking here on this "maintainers" page ~ reading about all your success give me hope. I'm also learning a lot of great information for when I hit maintenance. Thanks everyone for sharing ;0) Kim