Dieting For Food Lovers?

I'm in love with food. I love everything about it. the taste, texture, smell, and people who I share and enjoy it with. So how does one "diet" if she also warships and the Holy House of Crazy Good Food?

I'm not overweight, I already have very healthy eating habits*, and I exercise frequently and at a moderate to high intensity. So what can i do to kick this up a notch while maintaining my lifestyle?

Any bright ideas out there, interwebs?


*no meat, no soda, limited alcohol, limited flour. LOTS of veggies and fruits and legumes.

I don't see the problem, honestly, unless your love of food is "love of unhealthy, high calorie food".

You say you live healthy, so it shouldn't be that big a thing to do.

I would suggest you count your calories, and find room for nice, tasty meals on a regular basis. If you know you're having a meal that is heavy on the calories, compensate elsewhere in your diet. Or work out more.

I am in love with food myself. Eating is one of my favorite hobbies.

I think the challenge is to find exciting ways to prepare and present the ordinary healthy day-to-day food so that there is still room for the occasional over-the-top indulgence. It's a tricky balance, and one that I, frankly, haven't managed yet, but there's got to be a way. Life is too short and some food is too good for anyone to try to be the perfect eater every day at every meal.

Counting calories is the main thing, a lot of foods are a lot higher in calories than one would think or expect. Many people want a diet that won't make them have to make sacrifices to loose weight, but the fact is that some foods just need to be knocked out of the diet, or eaten occasionally instead of frequently.

I am a major sweet-a-holic, and I personally find that I have to set a 10g of sugar limit or else I'd be eating chocolate cake and cookies all day long.

Find some neat recipes to try that are low in calories but high in taste. Try brownies made with zucchini instead of oil. Create your own granola bars. The looneyspoons cookbook has some wonderful ideas. Take the time to be inspired.

I'm an unabashed foodie. For me, that means that I focus on eating high-quality food rather than mediocre stuff or downright junk food.

I love exquisitely-prepared, inventive food. Last weekend I had tea-smoked duck rolls, beef cheeks in orange sauce, and kung pao pastrami. Everything was excellent, and I could respect both the passion and the creativity of the chefs who run the restaurant. I was in my food happy place.

I love quality food, and pay attention to what I eat and where my food comes from. My weekly CSA box just showed up at my desk, and it's full of organic, mostly locally-sourced goodies. I have an onion, two apples, three oranges, a carton of strawberries (yay strawberry season!), brown beech mushrooms, nantes carrots, chard, and a bunch of mint. I'll channel my love of food into turning these things into delicious meals.

I too worship at the Holy House of Crazy Good Food. For me, that's about quality, though, and less about quantity.

If you're already in a pretty good place then maybe the thing to do is to find a few key areas that you can cut back. For example, use a lighter dressing on salads, or use less of it. Maybe eat the same food, but cut back on the total amount by 10-15%.

Thanks for the awesome ideas and advice, everyone! I'm really enjoying being able to cook some new and creative stuff.

You need to eat the best stuff.

Did you give up meat because you thought it was bad for weight loss? It's not.

nope. I have been veg for 13 years. i just never really liked the taste or texture. i have nothing against it at all, it's just not for me.

I have The Hairy Dieters cookbook (I'm sure some of their stuff used to be on the BBC website, might still be if you ask google). They love food, but went on a diet so it is rammed full of low calorie recipes (with calorie count included) but they're all really tasty! I have tried a number of them and everything turned out great (the instructions were good) and it didn't feel like 'diet food'. It was just scrummy food that happened to be low cal. I would highly recommend having a look. It's not a vegetarian book, but some recipes were veggie friendly I think, otherwise I'm sure you could use substitutes like quorn etc in many.

Never forget that no matter how much we may feel we love food, it can never love us back.

eKath,I love that statement!