In my opinion, based on the information we have, Erizek is just under estimating her caloric intake.

Evidence - "...big chunk og my calorie amount for the day containing 300+ calories and 30+ grams of sugar."

Erizek you're dealing with vanity lbs. When doing so you can't hope to be successful by estimating calories. Works great when you're 300 lbs, not so much when you're barely over 100.

Also, just my opinion, I find it rediculous that around 30% of your caloric intake is coming from ice cream and then you're asking for advice.

How is that a weird concoction? It's a great recipe to get your sweets/desert fix without the extra tons of calories that ice cream has - plus you're getting a ton of protein too.

I woud disagree with you that creating "substitute" foods hinder people from learning how to eat healthfully. In fact, it means they're thinking about the ingredients that go into the recipes they make/eat which is saying a lot considering the eating habits of a lot of people out there. I mean, if you're eating a pound of Splenda to get your sweets fix there may be a problem but there's really nothing inherently unhealthy about Greek yogurt, stevia or cocoa powder, especially if it's just a snack once in a while.

Speaking of "weird" concoctions, has anyone tried the cocoa powder/avocado "pudding"?? It's kind of odd at first but definitely hits the spot when you're looking for something chocolatey with that smooth nice texture that pudding has.

That sounds delicious!

Since you raise it kaybee, I think if you want chocolate, eat chocolate. IF you want sweet, eat fruit or eat a genuine sweet thing.

I don't agree with things like stevia. I'm not saying you shouldn't do it but it is better to learn to live without sugar if you don't want to eat sugar. Its not that hard. I tried the artificial sweeteners for a while. They can't replace sugar or honey for me. All you achieve is a reduction in flavour quality.

Greek yoghurt is delicious. Chocolate greek yoghurt is just wrong. For me at least. Chocolate ice-cream is not wrong. I think there is market support for this idea in that our supermarket shelves are not full of chocolate yoghurt.

Chocolate stevia yoghurt is like trying to deny you are eating yoghurt. They are not compatible flavours.

What is so incompatible about chocolate, sweetener and dairy, ever heard of chocolate milk, chocolate pudding, chocolate ice cream, chocolate cheesecake? So what's so incompatible about chocolate and greek yogurt?

Flavor compatibility is nonsense, it only exists on the tongue and in the mind of the beholder. We're often taught that certain flavors are incompatible, but that's mostly nonsensical cultural bias. Vinegar on french fries in England, mayo in France, ketchup in the USA, gravy and cheesecurds in Canada, any and all might seem gross to someone else.

Stevia is a plant extract sweetener, as are some of the fruit and plant sugars such as xylitol, and are more natural and less processed than granular sugar, and I even honey, I would argue.

Liquid honey also should not be considered a natural food in my opinion, unless it's raw honey, consumed WITH the honeycomb and bee larvae, while being stung by at least a few bees and no more than once or twice a year, because that's the only way it can be obtained in the wild.

The idea that sugar and honey are somehow superior nutritionally and for weightloss to low-calorie sweeteners, even the artificial ones, is self-righteous, fadist, food snobbish propagandist bullpuckey.

Natural sugars are nutrient poor and calorie dense. Artificial and natural low-calorie sweeteners are also nutrient poor, but at least they're not calorie dense. They also don't promote tooth decay or leave that nasty, thirst-making film coating in your mouth or spike blood glucose levels.

And as for cocoa powder, even a mediocre cocoa powder has more "bang for the buck" (antioxidantant other micronutrients and nutrients per calorie) nutritionally than chocolate in any form except whole beans and roasted nibs (which taste more like coffee than chocolate).

Greek yogurt is delicious. So is fresh cream. Adding sweetener and flavorings to greek yogurt is no more (or I suppose no less) wrong than adding sweetener and flavorings to cream to make icecream.

Neither is it wrong to choose a flavor or sweetener that occupies less supermarket shelf space than alternatives. By that logic vanilla icecream is "more right" than chocolate, and butter brickle icecream is "wrong" because it's harder to find than chocolate greek yogurt (which, btw I've never personally had difficulty finding in the supermarket).

Not only have I never had any problem finding chocolate flavored yogurt (greek or regular) I've also had very little difficulty finding pomegranate, chocolate cherry, chocolate raspberry, blood orange, red velvet cake and dozens of other flavors that take up less shelf space than chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry.

By that logic, spaghetti is right and Pad Thai wrong, unless you happen to live in Thailand, in which case spaghetti is wrong.

Many of favorite foods can't be found in grocery stores, and even when they can be, my own homemade recipes and food concoctions are better (even if it's stirring cocoa powder and the sweetener of MY choice into my own homemade yogurt or storebought greek yogurt).

And if chocolate stevia yoghurt is like "trying to deny you are eating yogurt, then wouldn't eating sugar-sweetened chocolate icecream be like "trying to deny you are eating milk and cream," and wouldn't drinking sweetened chocolate milk also then be like "trying to deny you are drinking milk

Actually those arguments make more sense to me.

I actually like chocolate, low-cal sweetener sweetened greek yogurt more than sugar or corn syrup sweetened chocolate icecream because my mouth feels cleaner afterward, I don't have to worry about my blood sugar, and the flavor is often as good or better because the chocolate (or vanilla, or whatever flavoring I choose) is of higher quality than in most brands of icecream (certainly better than the brands taking up the most in-store shelf space).

I make my own yogurt, and could strain it if I wanted greek style, and add whatever flavorings and sweeteners I want, be it dark cocoa powder, fruit puree or natural and artificial flavoring extracts from rootbeer to pomegranate to blood orange or ranch dressing powder or herbs to make a veggie dip. Somehow this is supposed to be less wholesome, less natural, less nutritious, or less flavorful than buying the garbage that our supermarket shelves are most "full of?"

If popularity determines which foods are "right," that pretty much is a kick in the nads to health and weight loss, because that would make high calorie, processed crap better than low+calorie nutritious food in many areas.

http://www.delish.com/cm/delish/imag..._chocolate.png

https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/i...qIalyY_sdJLWNg

https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/i...4hOzOnq6tLz1KS

Just so you are aware. :)

Yes i Looked it up myself. I found an article about them being taken off the shelves because they did not sell well. Or something like that. Perhaps its only popular with dieters. sorta like Carob. That never really took off either. Because its just horrible to most people's taste.

Kaplods, i mean wrong from a gastronomic sense. I don't mean wrong as in right or wrong. Only a food technologist would do something like this to food. I can't imagine a chef would.

Not to my mind because chocolate and milk and cream have always gone together, they compliment each other. They are a good fit. Just as fruit and yoghurt have always gone together.

Some things go well together, some things don't. IMO and i suspect for most people chocolate doesn't go well with yoghurt but it does go well with milk and cream. Stevia is not food and i believe its questionable whether it can help you become a more healthy eater.



http://www.livescience.com/39601-ste...ts-safety.html I have found going without is not difficult. I used to drink sugar in my coffee. Stopping was no big deal. I have done it twice in my life now for long periods. Its as easy to get used to as it is to get used to having sugar in my coffee. I think people should give it a try. Remember for most of man's history, we did not have sugar available to us. Even a lot of fruit was less sweet than it is now. We can live without sweeteners very well. I believe that learning to go without would have a massive effect on general health and weight. And weightloss is much easier.

This morning for breakfast i had 1/2 cup of natural yoghurt (no added cream or sugar, not even reduced fat, just whole milk yoghurt), 1/2 cup stewed green apple with no added sugar, honey or anything. I sprinkled on 1tsp of mixed seeds - sesame, linseed and sunflower seeds. It was amazing. And guess what? Its loaded with vitamins and minerals. I can't believe anyone would prefer chocolate stevia flavoured yoghurt if they could have tasted it.

Seriously, am I on candid camera? *glances around suspiciously*


Erizek - as already suggested, with those last few pounds you may have to count up everything as accurately as possible to make sure you're really where you need to be.

Sometimes it's hard to know when you should just stop talking.:dizzy:

Enjoy this post while it is still here. :D

John you're absolutely right, but unfortunately, I've never been accused of knowing when to stop talking or even of actually stopping when I did know. The words come out of my fingertips and mouth before my better judgement can intervene.


I also meant wrong in the gastronomic sense. My husband is a classically trained chef (through apprenticeship rather than culinary school), trained not only in European traditions (French, German, and Italian), but also in a prestigious four star Chinese (Cantonese, Szechuan, Hunan...). He's also self-taught (and through networking with other chefs) in Japanese, Indonesian cooking (Hmong, Viatnamese, Thai....)

My husband has no gastronomic objections to my "cheesecake substitute" (geek yogurt with cocoa and/or sugar free jello pudding powder mixed in). He's diabetic and agrees with me that it satisfies a "cheesecake" craving quite nicely.

He does make fun of some of my "trailer park" combinations, but admit's ther are delicious.

He's also not opposed to artificial sweeteners. He actually prefers sacharine to either sugar or aspartame, or Splenda because of its bitter note (he's a bit snobbish about the lack of appreciation most Americans have for bitter flavors).

He especially loves impressing friends with unconventional flavor combinations. He loves hearing (and hears often from friends), "I never would have thought to combine.... I wouldn't have though these flavors would "go" together, but this is delicious."

I'm a home cook with the same love of unconventional ingredient pairings, and hubby and I are constantly being asked for our recipes.

Some people are horrified when they actually get the very recipes they requested, because the ingredients weren't what they were expecting becauses of their biases about what does and doesn't "go" together. Such nonsense when they already tasted and loved the recipe, but then are horrified by an odd ingredient even if it's something they eat regularly in another context:

Peanut butter stirred into an asian noodle soup.
Viatnamese fish sauce used in place of worcestershire in American dishes
Fruit spread/jam/jelly used as a glaze for grilled chicken or stirred into a pasta sauce
Chocolate in chili
Black pepper on ice cream
Desserts made with beans (red beans, black beans, white beans)


Most chefs are much more open to unconventional flavor pairings than you assume (and the chocolate/yogurt combo is far from unconventional).

There's no accounting for taste. :lol:

My best friend loves frozen pizza and Wendy's burgers. That stuff makes me gag! It just tastes salty, greasy, and bland to me. I also get the horrors looking at the novel length ingredient list. He is horrified by my drinking kombucha and eating tons of vegetables. To each her own! If you are happy with yourself and what you eat then go for it.

What is "gross" and "weird" to one person is good to another. We don't all have the same tastes, and I think the poster who suggested the Greek yogurt mixture was simply trying to give the OP a viable alternative to a higher calorie treat. That's often helpful when one is eating low calories and sometimes has a craving for something beyond the usual fare. Besides that, what is unhealthy about Greek yogurt, cocoa and stevia? I see nothing unhealthy at all there. Greek yogurt is high in protein & contains healthy probiotics. Cocoa powder has antioxidants. Stevia is an all-natural sweetener. Sounds like a healthy treat to me.

And I'm really glad that they do. You make a lot of sense, often giving me (and I'm sure many others) some wisdom to consider, and I can't count the number of times I've had the impulse to say, "Amen, sister!" when reading your posts (as I have to the ones on this thread).



To the OP, I agree with what John said about vanity pounds. That's why people often complain about how difficult it is to get "those last five pounds" off. When you get down to a low weight, you have to really, really watch it---e.g., weigh and measure food. You have to decide if getting down to that really low weight is worth the sacrifices that go along with it.