Friday, May 13, 2011

How creative can you get?


How many times have you tried to lose weight and think to yourself; “ok today I’m going to be good?”  Only to find that you eat like there is going to be a shortage of food in the world and you must store what is left on earth in your stomach?  What about using the word “treat”?  Have you found yourself saying ok I ate well today so I can “treat” myself?  How about restricting yourself?  Have you limited what you can eat and placed many food items on a top shelf to collect dust because they are not diet friendly?  Only to find months later you dust them off and eat them feeling guilty you have blown months of hard work?

The problem is when you treat food this way you immediately set yourself up for failure.  Sometimes there are foods that trigger us to over eat, and until we manage our eating habits its probably best to stay away from it.  But there is a whole big world out there and lots of ingredients to explore.  When I began weight watchers the word lifestyle was thrown around a lot.  I questioned what that meant.  What I discovered was it meant a way of life.  When you really think about that statement and then think about your way of life with food, how exactly do you want your life to be with food?  Do you want to feel like a puppy that gets treats for good behavior?  Do you really want to feel like your moral compass is in question swinging from bad to good with everything you take a bite of?  Can you really see yourself living on bland boring broiled food for the rest of your life?  I know I couldn’t.

If you are like me then you want your life with food to be satisfying, exciting at times and comforting at others.  You want it to taste well, and not feel like if you ate a Twinkie today that you have now swung the moral food compass to bad.  This is personally why I love weight watchers.  Everything is made easy by using the points system.  I have a certain amount of points a day and extra for the week.  I balance out what I am eating and strive to make healthy choices.  Occasionally I don’t want just the “healthy”, I assess what I have in points and then decide what I want to use my points on.  Even if you are losing weight in other ways you can still do this too.  The trick I find is to make no food the forbidden fruit.  Less temptation and less feeling deprived. 

In thinking about a lifestyle change I began to experiment with food.  I love going to restaurants finding new things on menu and coming home to see how I can make them healthier.  Thanks to one of my favorite burger places I have reinvented the turkey burger in numerous ways.  I make a buffalo turkey burger with fresh blue cheese on top it saves me many calories instead of using dressing and the taste is fresher.  I simply cook the turkey burger then take a tablespoon of buffalo sauce drizzle it over the turkey burger and then add a tablespoon of blue cheese over it.  If I choose to use a bun I make sure to choose the healthiest option at the store by reading labels.  Other times for just some more fresh and crispness I serve it over lettuce for my own turkey burger lettuce wrap.  I have also made my own cowboy turkey burger.  Using a just under a tablespoon of bbq sauce 2 slices of crisped turkey bacon and 2 baked onion rings.   I keep a bag of frozen onion rings in my freezer and I use about 2 onion rings at a time so the bag last me forever.  If I’m in the mood I add a slice of reduced fat cheddar cheese and I’m on my way to cowgirl city.   I don’t eat red meat but you can do many of this with lean hamburger.   When you learn on how to make many of your favorite foods but in a much healthier way you don’t feel deprived or like you need to treat yourself.  If you think about it this way, Of course you will lose weight eating broiled chicken steamed plain veggies and a plain baked potato but can you really see yourself eating that way for the rest of your life?  Remember losing is one thing, maintaining is another.  If you take the time to learn healthy habits and recipes explore different options and reinvent some old favorites while losing weight you are setting yourself up for a lifetime of success not just a moment in time of weight loss.

One site I absolutely love to get recipes from is http://www.skinnytaste.com/.  Gina has a recipe for pasta fagioli which is my personal favorite.  Then again it could just be the Italian in me being partial.  I also learned from this site that adding a can of diet soda to cake batter instead of all the other ingredients it calls for, saves an amazing amount of calories and still taste great.  I made red velvet cupcakes this way and they were great!  Take the time search the web for more recipes too!  I take many of the recipes and play with them a bit to adjust to my liking. 

Remember starting a weight loss journey doesn’t have to mean you are giving up the foods you love it means you learn portion control ways to reinvent favorite foods.  For me it also meant I got to learn my kitchen and buy little kitchen gadgets I always wanted.  It can be as exciting as you make it and the discoveries you can make are countless!  For those of us maintaining the weight loss, is it time to get out of a rut?  Is it time to reinvent the cheesecake?  Don’t stop exploring!  I would like to challenge you all to take a favorite recipe you have and try to make it healthier.  See what you can come up with.  Share any ideas you have or recipes you use here I would love to read them!

14 comments:

  1. Following you from the FNF blog hop!
    Hope you visit me and return the follow!:0)

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  2. Oh...dieting! My mortal enemy. Ive never had to diet and nver really had a problem with losing weight until I turned 30....now I might have to start looking into it.
    thanks for stopping by my blog. :)

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  3. Ok, I am so excited I found you through the blog hop!

    I joined Weight Watchers several weeks ago and am down 17lbs. I would love to get tips from you and motivation. Lunch is hard for me. Your picture looks great how long have you been doing WW? I had found Gina's site and I was very pleased. Love to know some recipes you loved and were within points!

    Can't wait to visit!

    Now following!

    Megan

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  4. Welcome to my blog Megan....I have been doing ww for over 10 yrs. I truly believe it is the best program out there. Congrats on the 17lbs thats awesome! I will post more recipes soon and Ill try to put some lunch time tips on here for you too.

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  5. Fighting my own post-baby weight - thanks for so much inspiration! Following from Finding New Friends Weekend Blog Hop - hope you'll come by and say hello! http://www.thecaffeinecoquette.com

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  6. Thanks for grabbing my button!! I grabbed yours too! I'm definately going to check out the recipe site..thanks for posting it.

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  7. Hi! Following you from the Blog Hop til You Drop Blog Hop!

    Hope that you will stop and visit me too :-)

    DebsHere
    http://debshere.blogspot.com/

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  8. Hi! You look fabulous! I'm so glad that I found your blog on Blog Hop til You Drop Blog Hop. I can't wait to read more. It is important to learn how to make your favorite foods healthier. You won't feel like you're being deprived. http://www.grandmasguidetolife.blogspot.com

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  9. Hi! Found you through the Mom Bloggers Club and am now following you on GFC. I hope you can follow me back also; I'd appreciate that so much ;-) Have a lovely day!

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  10. I found out there are actually many choices of "fatless foods" around there once you started it out.

    Following your lovely blog. You may also visit Olah Momma! (http://olahmomma.com), or our Momma's Lounge (http://olahmomma.com/momlounge) to join and mingle with moms.

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  11. New follower. This post is wonderful and insightful. Glad I popped by.

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  12. i can be very motivated at one point to lose weight, but easily slide away from goal when someone offer me food. I mean, food i can't resist. I hate this. I am stay-at-home mom trying to lose baby fat. Last week I renew my on-and-off weight loss goal which only last for four days. I am become uncontrollable when I came to visit my parents this week because there always foods in their home. I have to stop complaining and planning again how to encounter my weaknesses. anyway, thanks for sharing your story. Good post.

    http://www.healthybeautifulblog.blogspot.com

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  13. Looks really good, I love the art style. As for delayed projects, I know how that goes, just keep pushing :)
    duromine

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  14. nice blog ,thank u for telling about this it will really help others.
    www phentermine

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