| Do you have a go-to item that keeps you on your diet? Either sweet, salty, or just plain filling? |
| Arctic Zero Ice Cream |
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Miracle Noodles and/or rice
Cauliflower rice |
| Forte Gelato. Lots of Protein. |
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Here are my mainstays, but I mainly eat them all the time cause I don't believe in diets:
PICKLES Popcorn Crystal Light (I buy the cherry limeade flavor and add lots of ice- tastes just like a slushie to me) Zoodles (zuchini noodels) with tomato sauce- or for an indulgent but low carb treat "carbonara"- pieces of bacon and a raw egg mixed in) Protein powder "milkshakes." My favorite is mint chocolate chip- I use GNC Go Lean chocolate protein powder, and add a couple drops of pure mint extract with some milk and water. Delish. Coffee with a little bit of milk and splenda. Sometimes I even get the coffee mate stuff and use that- it's not healthy but it is low cal Go to recipes: "Eggplant lasagna." Use plenty of tomato sauce, sliced up eggplants, and a very sparing amount of ricotta cheese. Fantastic. Greek salad. Plenty of lettuce, with a small amount of feta cheese, sliced up kalamata olives, onion, and some olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Can be very filling, low cal, and indulgent tasting. "Taco salad". Brown turkey meat (can use taco seasoning or not if you are really trying to be low cal.) I add adobo spices to the meat (which is zero cal), brown it and then serve over lettuce. Garnish with plenty of salsa and plain greek yogurt (as a sour cream subsitute). Can add avocado if you want. Lots of cilantro, possibly some chopped up black olives if I'm feeling indulgent. |
| Also: chocolate covered frozen bananas. I buy them at Giant. |
| Cut up veggies and onion dip made with Greek yogurt. It's a VERY satisfying and filling snack for less than 100 calories. |
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Egg white omelettes
Greek yogurt Started in July at 31.5 BMI. 29.9 BMI as of this week. No longer clinically obese. |
Congrats!! I second the chocolate covered frozen bananas (giant sells Diana's Bananas) |
| Pickles! |
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Mashed potatoes. Chocolate. Bread. Pasta.
Once I started eating whatever I truly wanted, in moderation, along with filling up on veggies and lean protein, I lost weight and kept it off. For me, the diets themselves (yeah, plural, over the course of 10 years) were the triggers to bingeing and other terrible food/exercise habits. Bethenny Frankel's "Naturally Thin" was a revelation, for me! |
x2. Maybe I will read her book... it certainly seems to have worked for her. |
I think she takes her own advice too far/too seriously sometimes, but I've adopted probably 80% of her advice (to a lesser degree, probably, than she intended), and it truly has become second nature. I now feel that this sensible, healthy, positive way of approaching food and exercise is how I am naturally! I don't feel like I'm fighting against myself anymore. My very nature has changed. What caused me to comment here is the title of the thread...no one should have to "survive" a diet. We're not meant to diet. We're meant to have a healthy and enjoyable relationship with food and with our bodies. No one can sustain "survival." |
Exactly. I will definitely read it, cause this is the advice I have been trying to live with recently. A few years ago I decided to be hardcore about dieting. As a millenial, the first place I turned to was online, looking up dieting advice and motivation. I was 127 at 5'5, and felt borderline obese. So anyway, I started dieting hardcore and was pleased when the weight came off. Over a few months, i restricted more and more, delighting in the changes. I eventually dropped down to 100 pounds, but was still grossed out by some of the remainign fat around my thighs and hips. Anyway, to make a long story short- I had developed anorexia, and eventually that turned to bulimia. Getting over those eating disorders has been the most difficult task of my life thus far. So, so difficult. Any time I go on a diet, I felt triggered, and would eventually binge and purge. Finally I reached a point where it was too exhausting. i decided to truly let myself eat whatever I wanted and felt like I needed, even if it was- GASP- the "bad" foods- bread, ice cream, whatever. Interestingly though, the weight has begun to come off. I am slowly (not the dramatic results you see on a restictive diet) getting my weight down, and without really thinking about it, other than- I dont allow myself to binge or overeat to the point of discomfort. It's been revelatory, but I definitely would love advice on how to better do that, and how to manage it for life. I know no one ever heeds the warnings, i certainly didn't- but diets can be genuinely dangerous, especially if you have a balls-to-the-wall, perfectionist personality- which is pretty common in the DC area. |
Thank you for sharing this. This pattern (dieting, leading to extreme perfectionist dieting, then an eating disorder), is exactly what happened to me when I was in law school. |