Something helpful I read in YOU: On a Diet....

[Mary Ann]

One of the things they offered that helps make for a successful waist reduction is to limit our choices. They said to make one, and preferably two meals the same, every day. Yep, every day. They cited how people tend to eat more when there are more choices. Picture going to a buffet. More picks, more courses, more choices, more total food eaten. Kind of like when you sit down at the Thanksgiving table and there are two meats, three potatoes, all sorts of sides and stuffing and relishes and cheeses and salads---- and after you've eaten yourself stuffed silly you STILL find room for pie??? Too many choices.

I have the same breakfast every day. It's always a slice of my own homemade whole wheat seeded bread with a tablespoon of peanut butter, and a tangerine. Lunch is always leftover soup, or some other kind of leftover, or if we don't have any I'll have a frozen Kashi dinner. (Those run around 250-300 calories.) I have small snacks twice a day and don't eat anything in the evening when supper is done. Supper is simple stuff; a piece of fish and a veggie, or a nice soup so I can have leftovers, or something like that.

Simple really helps me.

[LoriB]

My breakfast and lunch are always the same too!

Breakfast:

A bowl with a banana, 4 strawberries, handful of blueberries, about 7-10 grapes, A sprinkle of Muesli from Wild Oats, and a cup of soymilk. YUMMY!!! Summer adds cantaloupe to the mix.

Snack, usually an organic yogurt.

Lunch is a huge salad with romaine hearts, a small tomato, orange pepper, zucchini, yellow squash, 8-10 almonds (raw), and a protein. The protein changes from time to time, but the salad stays the same. Can't stand low or no fat dressing, so I use Cowgirl Ranch Organic. Most excellent!

Dinner is what changes around day to day, but not much.

[Trailpal]

I am generally like this.... I think mid-afternoon uncontrolled snacking and late evening snacking are my big downfalls. So I have "Safe" goodies for the afternoon now, and have followed their advice about not eating after 8:30 (sometimes I think I'll just skip supper but then nosh out just before bed - very bad!)

[MJ]

MA - the book you are talking about is written by Dr. Oz isn't it? I was at KU Med Center with DH this morning and he is going to be speaking there next month. I thought about going but changed my mind when I saw that it was $175 and $75 a ticket to attend.

I'm going to check the library and see if they have the book there.

MJ

[Trailpal]

MJ - I got the book from Amazon, the normal price is something like $25 and I found someone else on Amazon selling it in new condition for $13.75, it was still in shrinkwrap, so there are deals out there.

They are also being heavily promoted on realage.com - I didn't realize that til I had the book. But there is lots of info about the book at www.realage.com/doctorcenter/intro.aspx if you are not able to find a copy to take a look at.

That's amazing what they are charging for tickets - it must be for a fundraiser of some sort? Having read the book, they seem to be into inexpensive and effective things when possible, although they do talk about some high price medical things if they are necessary.

[Mary Ann]

Yes, Dr Mehmet Oz and Dr Michael Roizen. Dr Oz is a cardiologist, and Dr Roizen is an anesthesiologist. Dr Roizen is also the author of The Real Age Diet, where you select foods for optimum health based on the latest studies. It's pretty kewl. And he's also the creator of www.realage.com, and if you go there you can take the Real Age test. That test (which takes about a half an hour) asks a gazillion questions about your diet and lifestyle to come up with your Real Age. Your Real Age can differ greatly from your chronological age; with excellent care a person of fifty years can have a body that's actually comparable with someone fifteen years younger; and conversely, you can take poor care and have a body that's aged much faster than necessary, comparable with someone decades older.

Both are also on the Discovery Health channel from time to time, and also on XM radio.

[KarenN]

I tend to do this as well. Breakfast is almost always an egg, a slice of whole wheat toast, dab of marmalade and black coffee, along with my ever-present water and vitamins. Some days I just cannot do eggs - so those days it's shredded wheat with low-fat milk and black coffee.

Lunch is usually a frozen meal here at work, or if I have to go out on errands, I pick up a salad from the place across the road - they make great salads, full of flavor and no dressing needed.

Dinner is my biggest challenge with three hungry men to feed in the house and little to NO time. I cannot skimp on their meals - growing boys and a husband who has to eat 5000-6000 calories/day just he doesn't LOSE any weight I try to make a meat, carb, salad and veggie and just leave the carb off my plate, but sometimes it's hard.

[DorothyB]

My breakfasts are usually almost the same - when I'm eating right, shredded wheat cereal w/ 2% milk and a smoothie either earlier or later; when I'm eating bad, a supreme croissant from Jack in the Box.

Lunch varies - sandwich is most frequent, leftovers or a frozen dinner unless there is something good in the cafeteria.

I have a hard time finding frozen dinners that I like that are halfway healthy. The one last week was a dud. Smelled GREAT coming out of the microwave, but the pasta wasn't done enough and the sauce was turning brown from overcooking along one edge. I didn't really try stirring and re-cooking more. The taste of the sauce & chicken was only fair. I usually end up with Healthy Choice dinners. Karen - do you have any favorites?

Dinner, now that I'm cooking, is usually leftovers.

[Sheryl]

That is interesting. I think we all tend to do that to some extent, but I actually try to have a good variety, within certain boundaries. For example, I have basically 3 different quick healthy breakfasts. Lunch is probably 3-4 different options. Dinner follows a formula... vegetable, lowfat meat and some kind of starch, which I limit. I also have sort of a suite of snacks to choose from... I don't always feel like having fruit. If I ate the same every meal I wouldn't get that variety of fruits and veggies that I thought were so important.

I think I already told my story of losing weight eating more or less the same food everyday, and then regained it all when I changed living/work circumstances because I didn't have the same situation and hadn't really learned general healthier eating.

Anyway, I think it is interesting because I thought we were trying to get certain foods in so many times a week (tomato sauces, omega-3 food sources, different colored veggies etc).
Whatever works!

[MJ]

I have always heard, and been told by DH's nutritionist, that we need to have a large variety of different foods to be sure to get all the nutrients/vitamins/minerals that our bodies need. I try to make changes but catch myself still having some of the same things every week or two.

MJ

[KarenN]

Dorothy - BLAME MA, but I tried the Kashi meals and nothing comes close! They are awesome. Yes, they cost twice as much as the Healthy Choice, but they are sooooo worth it.

I like the healthy choice meals, too, or at leat I used to, but I stay away from the pasts ones for the same reasons you mentioned. Those with a meat and veggie are the best to me.

[Mary Ann]

Anyway, I think it is interesting because I thought we were trying to get certain foods in so many times a week (tomato sauces, omega-3 food sources, different colored veggies etc).
Whatever works!

I think you can easily still do that. I said that I have soups every day. Sometimes it's chili (tomato sauce, beans for fiber, onions, yada yada), sometimes it's vegetable, sometimes it's bean. Sometimes beef mushroom, lentil with veggies, split pea, etc. I buy some stock, but I make a lot of it from scratch; I make sure I have lots of colorful veggies in them, and almost always have tomatoes in it, too. (But not for split pea. Blech.) Add veggies as sides, as well as green salads with veggies. Snacks include veggies too; raw cauliflower is a favorite of mine, as are baby carrots and spicy V-8 juice. Working in veggies everywhere you can gives you lots of micronutrients, fiber, and adds bulk for few calories. Fruit for desserts or snacks helps, too. And it crowds cookies and crap right out of your diet!

[Mary Ann]

Oh and Karen, you're so right; those Kashi meals are absolutely delish!!! And they keep me from being hungry all afternoon. I'm glad you like them too.