I use full fat salad dressing. I don't like the fillers and crap they put in the low fat or fat free ones. Some of it is scary stuff!

Just make it one made with healthy oil, like olive oil. That is nothing at all, not even close, to eating a couple of candy bars.

Whatever you choose to eat, make it something that you really enjoy, not something that you are forcing because you are on a "diet". It cannot work that way, since you cannot live that way.

Discover foods you love AND that are healthy for you, and it will work easily, easier than you think it will.

Ok...so my food choices of today may not be perfect. But I am still giving myself an A- for all the effort. I'm learning.

As for the salad dressing...I can't wait to try the lighthouse one. Sounds YUMMY. But even the full fat ones are not too bad because I can not stand to have a little salad with my bowl of dressing...in other words I only use a little dressing. I want to taste the veggies.

As for no prepared salads,...why not (if I stick to grilled chicken or the side salad with no meat)?

Any ideas for low fat veggie pizza?

I can see how you might want to throw in the towel, but most of us (I think) would agree that it is also a new mindset that you need. I don't look at my eating as a 'diet' anymore. Each day I try my best to eat healthy foods and combine them in ways that I love to eat them... don't like plain ol' cottage cheese? Mix some with crab meat and a little ketchup and dip some soy chips in. Need some chocolate for a fix?....put half a pkg of no sugar added hot chocolate mix into your morning coffee, sit back and relax. Its how you feel about yourself and the foods that are healthy that make all the difference. Small baby steps are the key. Plan one meal at a time and if you are really hungry?...make a better food choice than you normally would. I use the fitday site to plug in my foods for the day and see my carb/protein/fat ratio's. Everyone has there own idea, and mine varies from day to day but is usually 40carb/30protein/30fat. I was amazed at some of the totals at first,( I wasn't even eating 1200 calories, and then it struck me....I wasn't eating enough!!) but now know what foods are better for me. I don't dread each day anymore, wondering what to eat. Good luck with whatever you do.....but know that you need to eat to live.....not live to eat!

I think that some really valuable info could turn up in this thread.

http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/show...ighlight=clean

Cut down on the carbs--they don't keep you as satisfied as long as proteins, and infact your body's process of breaking down carbs is what ultimately spikes your hunger.

For instance, I've had the same exact salad from the local salad bar, once with their FF raspberry dressing (lots of sugar) and once with ff ranch (v. little sugar)...I was RAVENOUS after 2 hours after the sugary salad dressing, whereas I was still full about 4 hours later after the ranch (really, it was time for my snack and I still felt full)....and the ONLY difference was in the sugar content of the dressing (and I had eaten the same breakfast before both).

I used to be really skeptical about just what an effect eating carbs can have on my hunger levels, but the difference is amazing. It's what lead me to roughly start following South Beach...and I haven't been hungry at all while losing weight. I'm not necessariy saying jump on the SB wagon (although it's worked for me), but anyone should keep an eye on the amount of carbs (especially simple) vs. protein levels if anything to keep that starving sensation--which often leads to bad food choices--at bay.

Small world! I was raised in the Sandpoint area! :-)

Awesome....Going to try all of the tips & figure out what works for me.

Couldn't wait to try my tracker...just set it up!! Have a feeling it will move as slow as a lady bug.....hmmm, maybe I should have used a turtle (Generally moves slow....but can snap food up in a heartbeat...HA-HA!!).

That's cool about the Litehouse story--it's so nice to know there are REAL people behind some of these labels! I like your tracker jumpd! They do get a bit slow at times :-) Some people use a second tracker with short term goals--like 5 or 10 pounds. You'll see a lot more movement on that if that's a good motivator for you (like...the more ladybugs, the merrier!).

I would PREFER some things in my diet--like a full fat bleu cheese dressing say, or whole milk--but over time I do better and better on the healthier choices. It makes me think of boneless, skinless chicken breasts. I remember years ago when I was trying to switch to those (all the rage--who else can think that many eons back?) and I HATED not having a boned, chicken breast with skin. Those pink, flabby things didn't look like REAL chicken to me. But...now those are more than habit--the others are freakish things. Granted, that is a habit developed over more than a decade, but I like to hope that some of these newer habits I'm working on will become "the norm" without me having to think about it. But....baby steps.

Oh, on the prepared salad thing, they are OK for sometimes, but here is the thing.

MOST (not all) of them are chock full of iceberg lettuce, which is little more than just water. You also don't *really* know when they were prepared, and how old they are. The other remaining ingredients on most of them are cabbage, and thinly sliced carrot slivers. Not much of actual nutrition in it, and very low fiber. So, basically an empty food. You are better off with the nice, richly green, red and orange salads. You know, Romaine, spinach, tomatoes, red and yellow peppers, all that good stuff!

Don't pour the dressing over the salad, dip your fork in it, then pick up the lettuce with the fork. Just enough taste without the saturation.

This is not about perfection. It never will be, and never was. You are making changes! And, every change you make for the better will have a healthy impact on YOU!

Allow me to tweak your menu a bit.

Your breakfast is still too low in protein. Try a whole wheat english muffin (100% whole wheat) with one slice of 2% cheese, one egg white and one egg scrambled.

Snack: I have nothing against trail mix as long as it is made with healthy ingredients. I make my own with 1 pack of heart healthy planters nuts (no trans fats and less sodium) and 1/2 serving of craisans. Very filling. In fact, I had that for breakfast. But it IS high calorie. Might want to save it for after a workout and have a piece of fruit and cottage cheese or jerky.

LUNCH: Drop the pizza. I do have pizza occasionally. I use a Mission or Mama Lupe brand low carb toritlla as crust, a serving of turkey pepperoni (17 slices and tastes GREAT), and a serving of non-fat mozzerella with a tablespoon of italian seasoned tomato paste as the sauce. That with a salad on the side and a serving of low fat dressing would be a meal for me (I use lighthouse lite ranch or make my own with low-fat sour cream and ranch flavored season packet). As a side note my kids love this pizza and even their junk food eating friends love this pizza. Turkey pepperoni is really fantastic tasting.

Snack: How bout a string cheese with your fruit? Protien with carb decreasess insulin levels and helps you stay full longer.

DINNER: I eat delicious filling dinners. Staples for me are baked wild Salmon and shrimp, Spaghetti with lean meat and whole wheat noodles (weigh your portion size), Turkey meatloaf with brown rice, fried chicken breast (lightly breaded and fried in a non stick pan with 1 tsp olive oil) and always a big serving of greens or broccoli. I usually have 5 to six ounzes of whatever lean protein is in my meal. My carb may be one of the following: whole wheat pasta, brown rice, baked pototo with 1 tsp. smart balance spread, 1 oz low-fat sour cream, whole wheat bread (my own homemade), etc... I measure precisely so I'm not getting hidden calories.

Good luck! And don't give up. I eat DELICIOUS food. I'm not usually hungry and if I am I can eat something. It just takes knowing which foods to eat and how to prepare them to taste good. It's really not much harder for me than it was to prepare the junk.

Karma

There is NOTHING wrong with prepared salad mixes as long as you know what you are getting and supplement accordingly. You can see quite clearly which ones are mostly iceberg and which have darker greens. I also don't rely on the added vegetables, if any -- I use the mix as a base and add my own vegetables on top. Buying whole greens and washing/preparing them yourself is cheaper, and some people prefer not to consume the mild preservatives that can sometimes be in the bagged mixes. But, that aside, if using the mixes will help you eat more healthfully overall due to the convenience, go right ahead.

At the beginning of my diet, I felt starved. As time has passed by and have lost 70 lbs, the hunger has diminished tremendously. The calorie counting diet I have followed seems to have worked pretty well. For breakfast, I try to have the most food. For example, today I had a mayo-free, grilled chicken sandwich on wheat bread, and lots of ketchup (not good, but at least it's fat free). Along with it, a cup of skim milk, and a small handful of croutons instead of the accompanying fries. In between meals, I drink a diet soda and a about 3 carrots and an apple. I occassionally have some baked cheetos or pretzels. For lunch, I have a small fruit salad and my slim-fast. For dinner, I have some chicken with steamed veggies, an apple, some milk, and a tortilla. All in all, you do have to make better choices in what you eat to keep yourself satisfied and not too hungry. I saw the Lipton instant soup at the market the other day and refrained myself from buying it; the sodium content is ridiculously high. Don't forget to drink lots of water throughout the day.

Funnie, I am not referring to the salad bags at the market. My post was specifically aimed at the packaged salad you get at your typical fast food restaurant, or pizza place.

For my breakfast I eat a small amount of Special K with a couple handfuls of All-Bran on top with 2% milk plus some full-fat plain yogurt on the side. I know the full-fat part sounds weird but my doctor in France put me on this diet and maybe they know something we don't! I very rarely get hungry before lunch; for me it's the afternoon that's challenging. So, I'm experimenting with spreading out my snacks more so I never feel really hungry.

Ann

I'm literally starved (well, okay, not literally, but you know what I mean) by 10:00am if I eat ANY kind of cereal, hot or cold, including Kashi. Now, if I have my egg whites and turkey sausage and my low-sugar chocolate milk, I'm good till lunchtime.