How tight is your belt?

[rusty_tlc]

I went back to work today and had to move the belt out a notch.

time to eat right and shed a few post holiday pounds.

Anybody have some ideas for lower calorie foods that still taste good?

Reduced calorie versions of old favorites?

 

[hkeller]

I lost ~70 lbs last year. From 225 to under 160! Eat a small whole grain breakfat with a large cup of coffee. Skip lunch or eat like one half bag of almonds (after 3 days you won't miss lunch). Eat sensibly at night. You'll lose 2 to 3 lbs a day. Cut out the booze - - - Sorry.

 

[B-RAD]

Nice work Hkeller! I too have resolved to drop some weight. My first goal is to drop 12 lbs over the next 3 months and then and maybe 10 more by the end of June. Here's the formula that also works. Calories in vs. Calories out. One pound = 3500 calories. Know what you eat, log it and even track it on a site like caloriecounter.com. Exercise. Limit your diet to 1500 calaries a day and exercise/burn an extra 500-100 calories a day and you'll be loosing a couple of pounds a week. Ditto on cutting the booze. A couple of friends of mine have also had success with the paleo diet: lean meat, fruits, veggies. That's it. No carbs, sugar or dairy. Portion control plays into all of this too. One of them lost 20 pounds in 6 weeks.

 

[hkeller]

Agree with all that. Also, a good nights sleep. It is amazing how much faster I lost weight when I was getting a good nights sleep, than when I wasn't. I know it is anecdotal, but it seemed clear to me.

Good luck to everyone trying!

 

[rusty_tlc]

Yeah all that's well and good, but you don't live that as a lifestyle.

What I'm going for here are recipes you can eat everyday forever, still lose weight, and enjoy eating.
EX:

Pacific Cod
Marinade;
course brown mustard
honey
soy
fresh squeezed orange juice

Marinate cod for 30 - 45 minutes
bake at 350° for 25-30minutes

serve with a steamed vegetable ( I like chard with balsamic or rice wine vinegar.) and steamed brown rice.

We eat this at least once a week. Once I lose a few holiday pounds I'll go back to enjoying a glass of Pinot grigio with it.

 

[splitshot]

31x36 slim fit. Calories are irrelevant IMO. Eat what you want and keep moving.
This is becoming more of a challenge with age.

 

[rusty_tlc]

31x36 slim fit. Calories are irrelevant IMO. Eat what you want and keep moving.
This is becoming more of a challenge with age.

It varies from person to person. My wife eats whatever she wants and never gains weight, I put on a couple of pounds just walking by a pastry cart.


Speaking of SWMABO I need to get her meat loaf recipe. It uses 93% lean ground beef, which normally results in a bone dry meatloaf. She adds shredded carrots and other veggies and it comes out moist. The flavor is a little more like eating beef stew than meat loaf but that's not a bad thing IMHO.

 

[spressomon]

You guys have missed the simple solution to this: Sweatpants

 

[rusty_tlc]

You guys have missed the simple solution to this: Sweatpants

IMHO wearing sweatpants to the grocery store is a full admission of defeat. It sends a message and the message is, I just don't give a s*** anymore.

 

[Boone]

Diets are fine and dandy but a lot of people forget that if you just exercise (even a little bit) you might not really have to change your diet all that much. I'm younger and definitely on a tight budget but i still find that as long as i dont eat total junk and do a simple workout once maybe twice a day, if time permits, i cans stay pretty slim and have good muscle tone.

When you wake up drink a half glass of water just to wet your whistle. Do thirty pushups, thirty crunches, and fifteen curls with decent weight. Do that set 3 times. It takes at the absolute most fifteen minutes so even if you do it twice a day its only a half an hour total. It helps you wake up, starts your metabolism off right which is really important to keeping weight down, and it works pretty well. Depending on the time you have you can also add some other things in. I like doing some shoulder and back exercises with that, might add another ten minutes to the whole thing. Eat breakfast when you're done.

If i do that everyday i can eat what i want within reason.

Dont forget the exercise!!!

 

[Combat Chuck]

I began a diet in August, basically it's just cutting out simple starch and carbs, eating lean meat, and I can have as many fruits or veggies I want. It's not the "diet" four-letter word we all know and loathe, just being aware of what I have been eating and drinking.

Also, as Boone says, exercise. I finally started taking my gym membership seriously, and the combination of gym time, eating well, and some "reprogramming" has worked pretty well, I was 235 the first week of September, and now I'm down to 210, belt fits nice and tight, and I don't find myself wheezing on the side of the trail anymore.

 

[tat2matt]

My back story: I had a very very rare cancer at 30 and have spent the last ten years with the idea that there was NOTHING I could do to not get it again so in turn I lived like there was no tomorrow. I have eaten and drank what I wanted have been told by every doctor that I would be lucky to live to be 50. Well at nearly 40 my very dear uncle who also has had a TON of effed up health issues turned me onto a diet. Engine 2 I decided what the hell I'll try it. I can't begin to tell how amazing I feel. I have dropped 40 lbs run three miles a day sleep better than I have in 10 years and at 40 I feel like I have an entire lifetime ahead of me. MIND YOU ALL I'm a big dude completely covered in tattoos and have lived a life ten times over never thinking I would preach to anyone about diet but holy crap I feel amazing. I went from 254 to 215 and I started this November the 1st. If it helps someone else great if you think it's bogus don't do it I could give a s*** but It has changed my view of life 180 degrees.

 

[sparkplug]

My back story: I had a very very rare cancer at 30 and have spent the last ten years with the idea that there was NOTHING I could do to not get it again so in turn I lived like there was no tomorrow. I have eaten and drank what I wanted have been told by every doctor that I would be lucky to live to be 50. Well at nearly 40 my very dear uncle who also has had a TON of effed up health issues turned me onto a diet. Engine 2 I decided what the hell I'll try it. I can't begin to tell how amazing I feel. I have dropped 40 lbs run three miles a day sleep better than I have in 10 years and at 40 I feel like I have an entire lifetime ahead of me. MIND YOU ALL I'm a big dude completely covered in tattoos and have lived a life ten times over never thinking I would preach to anyone about diet but holy crap I feel amazing. I went from 254 to 215 and I started this November the 1st. If it helps someone else great if you think it's bogus don't do it I could give a s*** but It has changed my view of life 180 degrees.

No meat. No thanks.

 

[tat2matt]

No meat. No thanks.

I was so with you on that one. I can't say it's for everyone but I know how I felt after nearly 40 years of eating meat and I know how I feel now and they aren't even close. I was on the verge of type 2 diabetes my cholesteral was BAD and I was LOVING pork belly and having a chef as a wife wasn't bad either. But I'm loving being able to do much more than I was able to before being able to sleep thru the night and Honestly I don't miss much. Again NOT FOR EVERYONE but if you are faced with any health concerns and over weight it may be rite for some.

 

[vipergrhd]

liquid

Stop drinking soda,energy drinks,high sugar content juices and expensive coffee.drink a lot of water during the day and before you go to bed.the pounds will start to melt away.

 

[rusty_tlc]

I was so with you on that one. I can't say it's for everyone but I know how I felt after nearly 40 years of eating meat and I know how I feel now and they aren't even close. I was on the verge of type 2 diabetes my cholesteral was BAD and I was LOVING pork belly and having a chef as a wife wasn't bad either. But I'm loving being able to do much more than I was able to before being able to sleep thru the night and Honestly I don't miss much. Again NOT FOR EVERYONE but if you are faced with any health concerns and over weight it may be rite for some.

I actually eat a lot of veggies and enjoy them. Last summer we planted our first garden in the new house and even though we were late planting we had a huge crop of tomatoes, beets carrots, basil, green beans, etc.

Stop drinking soda,energy drinks,high sugar content juices and expensive coffee.drink a lot of water during the day and before you go to bed.the pounds will start to melt away.

I rarely drink soda, never drink energy drinks, or pricey coffee, the only juice I drink is V8.

My down fall in the beverage department is Hop Pop.

Over the holidays I supplemented that with wine and a few shots of brandy, whiskey etc.

I've already dropped a few pounds since I started this thread, but kind of did a little back sliding last night. We went out for my Birthday dinner, sushi is not a low cal meal, especially all you can eat.

 

[tat2matt]

" the only juice I drink is V8."

If you enjoy V8 and have a garden there are some really great juicers out there and you can enjoy really fresh juice for cheap. We do a regular juicing and have fresh fruit and vegi juice all the time. It may come as a surprise but Kale and Spinach are some of the best tasting juices. It takes several pounds to get a couple pints but worth the time.

Long Live Pliney the elder!

 

[Combat Chuck]

" the only juice I drink is V8."

If you enjoy V8 and have a garden there are some really great juicers out there and you can enjoy really fresh juice for cheap.

I'm in the habit of blender + strainer + silicone spatula, it works, and I can't bring myself to shell out for a juicer.

We do a regular juicing and have fresh fruit and vegi juice all the time. It may come as a surprise but Kale and Spinach are some of the best tasting juices. It takes several pounds to get a couple pints but worth the time.

Long Live Pliney the elder!

Huh, that's a new one, but it's worth a try.
I drink alot of smoothies (fruit, ice, juice, yogurt, protein shake mix), and I've found that throwing some veggies in the mix doesn't hurt the flavor. I started with carrots, and I've experimented from there.
I can safely recommend
Peaches, apples, pears, grapefruit juice, carrots, and plain yogurt.
Mixed berries, apples, pineapple, OJ, cucumber and plain yogurt.

While I'm here, yogurts seem to have become rather popular for the fad dieters, and it's hard to argue that they're not healthy in many ways, but they can be pretty deceptive, be sure to read the ingredients.
Many of the big factory yogurts are pretty much milk with starch, chemical stabilizers and huge quantities of sugar, many are not live culture either, meaning, they're pretty much the ignorant health nut's Pop Tarts.

Ideally, they should be just cultured milk, perhaps some additional proteins and enzymes for the culture.
I eat alot of yogurt, and I wasn't aware of how many simple sugars and starches (which are just slightly more complex sugars) I was taking in. For a while, I was eating alot of Yoplait and Dannon because the cases were cheap
from Costco, but I finally reached a point where I was feeling the effects of it (I get horrific heartburn from sugary foods) but I didn't know where it was coming from until I looked at what I was actually eating.
Since then, I've switched over to a "traditional style" plain yogurt in tubs from a local dairy, to which I flavor with a (sugarless) protein powder, and it's been great. It's also been more cost effective, buying one tub of yogurt a week is cheaper than buying two cases a month, and generates far less waste.

 

[tat2matt]

We made our own yogurt for a long time. I have a wood fired oven that I do naturally leavened breads in and Pizzas and my lady would do creme fresh and yogurt in at night. She would mix th ecoulture with milk and let it sit overnight in the warm oven and we would have fresh yogurt in the morning. I'm not a big yogurt fan so it was more her thing but it wasn't bad and CHEAP! She traded my bread for whole fresh milk from a dairy that sold at the farmers market.
http://www.makeyourownyogurt.com/print/how-to-make-your-own-yogurt.pdf

 

[rusty_tlc]

I eat Fage Greek Yogurt, great stuff. I use it in place of sour cream as well as mixed with fresh fruit for a snack. I'll even eat it plain.

My favorite way to eat Greek yogurt is tzatziki sauce. We haven't made it at home yet but it's on the list of stuff to try.