Can it be done? No Artificials and still stay within your
Can it be done? No Artificials and still stay within your calorie count? Is it possible to eat all natural and use real foods without all the chemically laden/ sweetend - processed foods and still have a low calorie count? Is anyone actually trying to do this?
Absolutely. There is a section at the bottom of the forum called "Whole Food Lifestyle" that addresses this. It's totally possible, and I'd argue it's ideal. I'm not a perfectly clean eater, but I eat clean about 80-90% of the time and I'm on a 1200 calorie diet. I post my daily food on the Featherweights accountability forum, as do several other people who eat almost exclusively clean. In case it helps: http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/feat...ntability.html. I do indulge in order-in pizza, boxed brownies, and my occasional crutch, Slim-Fast from time to time, so I don't want to give the impression I think I have the model diet. . However, when I do eat processed/package food it's out of preference or convenience, not to reduce my calorie intake. In other words, if I were not permitted to any eat processed/package food it would not be difficult to adapt.
I think the major challenge to eating clean isn't staying under your calorie limit (fairly easy to do if you focus on proteins, fruits, veggies, and a few whole grains). It's the time factor- ensuring you have enough time to prepare your meals. Some people have very limited time for food prep and that's definitely a challenge to eating "clean."
I do...with the exception that I'm hooked on splenda! I usually end up using both "real" sugar and splenda in my recipes...but I actually enjoy the taste of splenda more than real sugar in my coffee...hmmm..go figure.
Last edited by joyfulloser; 03-17-2011 at 02:27 PM.
Yep. I wouldn't say I eat the cleanest on the planet, but yes.
Artificial sweeteners give me migraines, so I do not have them. When I eat sugar, I eat the real thing. It's only 15 calories per teaspoon. I'm ok with that.
As for HFCS, I have eliminated that as well, for the most part. I'm not militant about it. I switched to an all natural brand of Ketchup and I purchase Meijer "Naturals" WW bread when I buy bread. No HFSG.
I'll eat anything, really, and stay within my calorie count. But my normal foods are fruits, vegetables, lean meats and yogurt. I find it really easy to stay within my target zones.
I just thought about something. If you switch to artificial food to lose weight, I would say don't lose weight. I am sure you are healthier being overweight but eating good, natural food than slim and eating artificial stuff (= can't call it food).
Of course I am not talking 100% always and ever natural (not possible this today's society I guess). But mostly cooked-from-scratch, unprocessed, natural diet should be the way to go. Too bad we didn't learn more from our (great-) grandmothers!
I'm also not a purist by any means, as I also a few artificially sweetened products, but none are actually foods. I mean they're things like sugar free jello, and soft drinks. Easily eliminated stuff.
If I eliminated them, the difference would be minor. No more jello or sf pudding (considering I make them about six times a year, that wouldn't be a huge sacrifice). My salad dressings would be a little tarter (I don't usually keep real sugar in the house, as both my husband and I are diabetic), and I'd have to switch to only water (because I do like Crystal Light and diet Wild Cherry Pepspi and don't like unsweetened tea), and I would eat yogurt less often or would have to learn to like it unsweetened.
I count my calories via an exchange plan (approximately 1800 calories give or take), and for me, it's easier to use whole foods, because they're the easiest to count. Even the occasional frozen dinner is a bit of a pain to calculate (a few do the calculations for you).
But whole meats, fruits, grains, dairy, and veggies are the easiest to count (Combination foods I have to look up or estimate, or calculate from the nutrition label).
Except for the sf products mentioned, I don't use any "light" products because most don't taste like food to me. For example, I think the light and fat free cheeses taste more like plastic than cheese. I find that you can generally get more flavor for fewer calories, by using very strong tasting cheeses. If you use a very sharp cheddar rather than an American cheese, or use a high quality asiago, romano or parmesan rather than the stuff in the round paper tube, you can use far less cheese and get more flavor.
Sure reduced fat cheese has half the calories, but it has 1/4 the flavor. For flavor (and with cheese, if you're not eating it for flavor, why bother at all) you can use a lot less if you pick a strong cheese.
Even if it's a cheese that you find too strong to eat plain, grated and used sparingly can give you almost the same flavor as a liberal amount of milder cheese. You save money and calories by using the stronger cheese.
I also find it harder to stay on plan eating processed foods, because whole foods are more filling. "Light" foods often don't stay with me (or worse make me hungrier).
Most light salad dressings are horrible, so I make my own. There are a bazillion recipes online, but most make at least 2 cups of dressing. There's nothing wrong with that, but the great thing about salad dressings is that they're very forgiving. I used the online recipes for inspiration, but make only enough salad dressing for one salad using the "splash and dash" method. Asian rice wine vinegar is wonderful. It's so mild, that very little if any oil is needed.
I love real food. I stay on 1500 calories a day and use real butter, real cheese, real salad dressings, real oil. The trick is that I use them sparingly. I won't claim to eat a completely "clean" diet--I like occasional artificially-sweetened foods and frozen dietetic entrees sometimes--but most of my kitchen's contents look a lot like stuff my great-grandma would've had in her kitchen.
Kaplods is dead on about the cheese--a few shavings of real parmigiano reggiano cheese adds twenty calories and a ton of flavor. It's got about half a zillion times more flavor than the stuff in the green can. (It also looks better--that green-can cheese looks exactly like the stuff my husband scrapes off his feet with his Ped-Egg. Ehwwh!) I like the taste of butter, but not its calories, so I use it as a flavoring agent and not a cooking oil. When I cook with butter, it's a small amount combined with a spritz of non-stick cooking spray.
If you want to keep your diet completely free of artificial anything, you'll have to give up something, either by reducing your portions of the real thing or doing without certain flavors altogether. You'll also spend more time in the kitchen--food from scratch naturally takes longer than opening a can or a box. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, though; if you like cooking, you'll probably enjoy the opportunity to get creative with lightening up recipes and using unfamiliar ingredients.
I love real food. I stay on 1500 calories a day and use real butter, real cheese, real salad dressings, real oil. The trick is that I use them sparingly. I won't claim to eat a completely "clean" diet--I like occasional artificially-sweetened foods and frozen dietetic entrees sometimes--but most of my kitchen's contents look a lot like stuff my great-grandma would've had in her kitchen.
I totally agree. Real butter, real salad dressings (I thin with water, vinegar, or skim milk=less calories, use less, or spreads easily) and real cheese. But my grandma liked to drink Fresca!!
For me, sweets are a totally different thing - Hail skinny cow!! Hail south beach fiber bar!! Hail truvia!! Hail protein powder!!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nola Celeste
Kaplods is dead on about the cheese--a few shavings of real parmigiano reggiano cheese adds twenty calories and a ton of flavor. It's got about half a zillion times more flavor than the stuff in the green can. (It also looks better--that green-can cheese looks exactly like the stuff my husband scrapes off his feet with his Ped-Egg. Ehwwh!) I like the taste of butter, but not its calories, so I use it as a flavoring agent and not a cooking oil. When I cook with butter, it's a small amount combined with a spritz of non-stick cooking spray.
Yes, yes, yes!
ACK!!! The green can - It smells like feet too.
I dislike how quickly the store shredded parmo goes moldy once its open. I need to get one of those cheese mill thinga-majigs.
I have a Misto for spraying olive oil instead of non-stick. Poor man's Pam.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nola Celeste
If you want to keep your diet completely free of artificial anything, you'll have to give up something, either by reducing your portions of the real thing or doing without certain flavors altogether. You'll also spend more time in the kitchen--food from scratch naturally takes longer than opening a can or a box. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, though; if you like cooking, you'll probably enjoy the opportunity to get creative with lightening up recipes and using unfamiliar ingredients.
Thats what keeps me from going further. I live alone and I don't like to spend all day in the kitchen. I make lousy WW bread. I'd rather buy it and other prepared (not processed) foods.
I dislike how quickly the store shredded parmo goes moldy once its open. I need to get one of those cheese mill thinga-majigs.
Freezing it would solve that. I do that with shredded mozzarella and shredded asiago. I generally in the past have removed shredded cheeses from their store packaging and put it in a larger ziploc bag (so I can freeze it "flat," this may be an unnecessary step, but I think helps prevent the cheese from freezing in large clumps. Then once it's frozen, I remove any extra air that's in the bag), and I only take out what I need (even if I'm going to put it on a salad it thaws quickly in a few minutes. If I'm going to add it to something already hot, or put it under the broiler it can be used right away).
Even if it does freeze in clumps, usually it requires no more than the pressure of your hands to unclump it, so more and more I just freeze it in the bag or container it came in>
Freezing it would solve that. I do that with shredded mozzarella and shredded asiago. I generally in the past have removed shredded cheeses from their store packaging and put it in a larger ziploc bag (so I can freeze it "flat," this may be an unnecessary step, but I think helps prevent the cheese from freezing in large clumps. Then once it's frozen, I remove any extra air that's in the bag), and I only take out what I need (even if I'm going to put it on a salad it thaws quickly in a few minutes. If I'm going to add it to something already hot, or put it under the broiler it can be used right away).
Even if it does freeze in clumps, usually it requires no more than the pressure of your hands to unclump it, so more and more I just freeze it in the bag or container it came in>
Hmm, its been years since I froze cheese and I remember it got mealy and kinda dry/flaky but that was block cheese and it was a deep freezer.
Does it do anything like that? Does it depend on the form and type of cheese? Are there some that don't do so well in the freezer?
Can it be done? No Artificials and still stay within your
. However, when I do eat processed/package food it's out of preference or convenience, not to reduce my calorie intake. In other words, if I were not permitted to any eat processed/package food it would not be difficult to adapt. 
I usually end up using both "real" sugar and splenda in my recipes...but I actually enjoy the taste of splenda more than real sugar in my coffee...hmmm..go figure.
I wouldn't say I eat the cleanest on the planet, but yes.
