So, in this strange, strange weight-loss process, I've experienced a lot of lifestyle changes.

I don't feel quite as sluggish because I don't eat as much crap. I drink more water. While I still have HUGE cravings for fast food and such, I find myself constantly craving veggies as well.

However, the weirdest change I've made is this...

My college requires that I have a meal plan. So, I went by the cafeteria today. I had a huge, leafy honey mustard salad with croutons, lunch meat, broccoli, sunflower seeds, cauliflower, and regular lettuce. It was tasty. I also grabbed a diet soda.

I knew I wanted something a little heavier, so I looked around at the selections I had. I saw alfredo pasta, with parmesan cheese you could sprinkle on top of it.

Knowing that I wanted it really badly, I grabbed one of the small side salad bowels instead of a plate. I think filled this bowel more than half-way full with my caf's green beans. I THEN put a few pasta noodles in there. I added some sauce and cheese. I eventually craved more, but I got another bowel of green beans and had a small amount of sauce on that instead. I think my calories are going to be okay for today... but wow.

I just find it weird that I made green beans a pasta substitute. I'm constantly eating salad now, because I don't completely trust my caf's cooked veggies...they're pretty greasy. The green beans were better than the pasta...but still. I constantly eat tofu. I avoid pizza like the plague. I eat sushi with low fat animal crackers.

I feel like I've been eating the STRANGEST stuff and the strangest combos.

Does anybody else find this whole process to be surreal?

Oh, the thing you did with the green beans? I've done the same thing with steamed broccoli. A lot of broccoli, a tiny bit of pasta and lots of tomato sauce with grated cheese. Gives me my full-plate-of-pasta fix, without the calories & carbs.

Weirder - I used to mix my water packed tuna fish with salsa (yes, tomato salsa, hot and spicy) and eat it with a piece of toasted pita bread and maybe some lettuce on the side. That was when I had to pack lunches to eat in my office. LOL the reactions from my co-workers were priceless. But it was tasty and it kept me on plan.

I think that was a brilliant way to handle the choices you had at the cafeteria. Go you!

I've always made my tuna with salsa. I like it that way! When I was in college I didnt have a fridge to store mayo but canned tuna and small cans of salsa were available.

Yeah, you do some unusual things with food to stay on plan sometimes, but sometimes you come up with great combos.

Sometimes its just about finding what it is about a dish you really crave and adding it to other things. I LOVE spaghetti, but I realized it isnt the spaghetti, its the sauce and cheese. So I have that over veggies. Even on treats, I regularly CRAVED hot fudge sundaes. But one day I realized what I was craving wasnt the whole sundae, really it was just the whipped cream. dh still looks at me like I am insane for eating plain whipped cream, but I can have a bowl of whipped cream for 60-80 calories and satisfy the craving or I can have the cream and the icecream and the chocolate for 450. hmmmmm.


Oh and plain unsweetened yogurt, fresh orange slices, a dash of cinnamon and a bit of your sweetener of preference...creamsicle heaven. My son discovered that one. He wanted his oranges in his yogurt. I thought that was odd, but SO good.

This sounds AMAZING.

I know one time I didn't feel like making dinner and I didn't have enough of any of the leftovers in my fridge to have a full meal. So I took all my leftovers and sauteed it in a frying pan. The items were cucumbers soaked in rice wine vinegar, a spicy homemade chipotle sauce , broccoli, chicken and a little bit of mac n cheese. If it wasn't for the vinegar soaked cucs it wouldn't be that weird, but it is what made it a great leftover meal.

Mother of Invention! I love new combinations of food I would never have thought of eating before! Loving it!

I mix dry instant oatmeal with plain, unsweetened apple sauce + cinnamon and artificial sweetener. It's chewy and sweet and very satisfying. It's also easy to eat on the go.

I like the combo of oranges in yogurt with some sweetener and cinnamon... I have all that in the kitchen right now, I'll have to try it later.

I never got the hang of cooking spaghetti squash just right, so I've been using this trick I got from watching the biggest loser; I mix in sliced zucchini (I microwave it for a minute to cook it a bit) with pasta to help bulk it out. There's slicers out that can cut the zucchini into spaghetti like noodles, although I don't have one yet. I really like it with the tomatoes sauce and a little cheese... the zucchini tastes better than the pasta to me