I Hope This Helps Someone

I got an email today from a member asking about my success with being on a low calorie diet. I wanted to share my answer with all of you, but before I do, I'd like to tell you why.

I haven't lost a ton of weight, but I'm still losing and I think I'm losing gradually this time because for once in my life, I'm losing weight the right way. Once this concept clicked in my head, it just all made sense! Weight loss, especially considering how much I have had to lose, is not a "diet" or a "trend" but it needs to be a lifestyle change. Yeah, I know we've all heard that thousands of times before, but really think about it...

1. How many of you that pay for prepared meals and/or suppliments, or even pay for diet snacks can really consider that a "lifestyle change"? Will you be doing that all your life?

2. Meetings, and starving your self, and crash diets? Is that going to happen for the rest of your life? It will, IF you dont make the "lifestyle change".

When I think of lifestyle, I think of how I live my life, simple enough, right? The word change means making a difference. So Lifestyle change means making a difference in the way you live your life. DUH! Right, but keep with me here! Are you doing things right now to lose weight that are going to be something you do for the rest of your life? Maybe you've learned to eat healthier and get exercise in your life. If so, you dont need to read this any further, but if you are still doing fad diets, and diet pills, and god knows what else... Please keep reading.

(Let me say here that I'm not writing the way I am because I think anyone out there is stupid. I'm writing this in a way that I would write to my past self, the one who just didn't "get it", so if anyone is the idiot here, it's me.)

Ok, I don't want to deprive myself of my favorite foods for the rest of my life, so why would I do that now to lose weight? As soon as I start eating those foods again, I'll gain all that weight back! Here's where change comes in. Have your favorite foods! But make them healthier. Get creative in the kitchen and tweak your recipes so they are tasty AND Healthy.

So, This whole rant started with an email. Just in case you forgot, The question I was asked was:

'How has the low cal diet been working for you? Are you having any success with it? I used to be able to eat whatever I wanted but I'm gained alot of weight in a very short amount of time.'

...And here was my reply:

I've been doing the low cal diet since december of 2008. I think it's a great diet but I personally have a hard time sticking to things. Lately I stopped counting calories and just started making different lifestyle choices. I walk with a friend 3x a week, she's just as determined and fanatical about losing weight as I am. For some examples of what i do, read on:

Yesterday I went to whole foods and found these noodles. They were packaged in a bag with some kind of liquid. I read the label and realized they were tofu noodles made to look similar to fetticini noodles. My husband is anti-anything healthy so last night, instead of using a canned or bottled tomato sauce, I chopped up 7 roma tomatos, 2 small cloves of garlic, and 1/2 of a yellow onion. I used some herbs like parsley and oregeno and let it cook in a pot on the stove until it turned into a marinara sauce. I drained, rinsed and heated up the tofu noodles and poured the marinara on top! Voila! Spaghetti! My husband loved it and I refuse to tell him it's tofu!

I went through that whole story just to show that I wanted spaghetti, but did it in a healthier way. I could have used premade sauce full of who knows what and normal noodles full of carbs and gunk, but chose the healthy route.

Tonight I make Burgers and fries. Also while at whole foods, I bought a box of frozen yellow fin tuna burgers and some sweet potatos. I made the burgers like a regular burger but without cheese or mayo. I even topped it with lettuce, tomato, and white onion. I cut the sweet potatos into fries and seasoned with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and olive oil and baked. I thought they came out great and kind of tasted like bar-b-que, but my hubby said they were sweet and he didnt like them. He's loyal to his normal fries.

Anyway, I just try to eat whatever I'm in the mood for, but I try to invent healthier versions of it. This has been working for me lately because I'm still making positive changes to my normal eating habits, but it makes me feel like I'm not really on a diet. I've lost about 10 pounds since I stopped counting calories, so it's working so far.

Sorry for the long, drawn out answer to your question, but I hope it helps!

Have a great day!!

OK, the point I'm making here is that you can still have whatever you want! Just be smart about your choices. My answer to that email showed you CAN still have pasta (heehee) or burgers and fries. These changes to my recipes are causing changes in my waist line! Good changes.

Once again, I don't mean to offend anyone. I just wish that someone would have grabbed me and shook me years ago and told me this!

I hope this "clicks" in someones head like it did in mine.

I hope this helps someone.

Love,

Cyrillia

P.S. If this does "click" with someone: If you ever need someone to brainstorm how to make a recipe healthier, feel free to ask me. I'm not a professional chef, but I'm a heck of an eater!

What an inspiration! When I have cravings, I will try alternatives like you...

Thanks for sharing.

I agree completely! Now that I am getting wiser about what to look for, I think that reading (and understanding) the package information has made a huge difference in my calorie intake on items that I don't want to stop eating. There are healthier alternatives to lots of things - today when everyone at work was having an ice cream sundae, I had a fruit & yogurt parfait (half the calories and only 2 g of fat). It was DELICIOUS!

Another example, we went to Wendy's for dinner tonight - I'm just not ready to give up fast food occasionally but I am making better choices. I had a chili and side salad, total calories 270 (great), 15.5 grams of fat (that's a little high but the rest of my day was low-fat so it was okay). It was good, and filled me up just fine. My husband had a Baconator, baked potato and a shake and it was almost 1600 calories!!! Bleah! 71 grams of fat!

Right now I am being very conscious of everything I eat, but because my main focus has been to eat healthier by including a lot more fruits and vegetables and making better choices, calorie-cutting just happens naturally. I'm hoping that a lot of these choices will just become second nature eventually and I won't have to think about it so much.

Cyrillia, congrats on your progress! Keep it up, I think that you've got the right attitude. I consider my new way of eating and exercising to be a lifestyle change - not a diet, but a healthier way of life. And I hope to continue it always because it *is* healthier. The occasional lapse (once I've reached my goal) will be fine as long as overall I stick with healthy choices.

Thanks so much for responding. I'm glad I'm not alone in this, even though it feels that way sometimes. Tonight my husband was monstrously hungry and wanted taco bell. (We've been known to spend almost 40 bucks at taco bell and eat it all!) I usually get a crunchwrap supreme and a spicy chicken quesadilla and a taco. Today I ordered 1 taco off the fresco menu, (so as not to deprive myself of fast food. I mean, fast food is a part of life, right?) and came home, made a large salad out of lettuce, tomato, cucumber, a little bit of feta cheese, lemon juice and olive oil. I ate the salad first, then savored the taco afterwards. I'm stuffed and still got my taco bell! I'm snacking on dried cranberries for dessert. yum!

And thank you, knowing I helped one person means the world to me!

I'm so proud of you Cyrilla! You know how to make it work, girl! thanks for posting this. It helps a whole lot

Way to go girl. Like you I have recently discovered that I needed to do a lifestyle change to get the desired results and then maintain those results. I have been on many diets through the years and did not have a clue on what I was doing. The results were disappointing.

However this time, with the thanks to fellow FS'ers such as yourself, I have learned what to look for. There are many things that I have given up through this journey but I am finding great alternatives. Even when doing fast food I have learned to ask for their nutritional information and then make a wiser choice.

One of my biggest problems was controlling the portions I took and going back for seconds. Now I make sure that I know the nutrional value of the things I eat. This tells me when it's enough. Plus by eating smaller portions I find that I can eat more often thus taking the edge off of hunger pangs.

Tracking everything I eat is very important. Sometimes it's a hassle but well worth it. I fooled myself for along time thinking I was not over indulging calories. Now I know what those calories are.

Well enough on that. I just wanted you to know there are alot of people out here in the same boat.

Thanks to FS and the great people here I am making my journey a success. Thanks for the inspiration. You can never get too much.

I jes realized I sent you that email.. and wondered why u didn't write back.. Now I see u did.. lol.. But I see what ur saying and I'm def gunna try 2 change things up.. I made pizza quiche the other day it was healthy and I enjoyed it.. Thanks for the advice..

That sounds great! I'm so glad you liked the advice! It means the world to me! I'm a huge fan of pizza so I made some alternatives too!

1. I found low cal tortillias and used that as my crust. After placing it in the oven to crisp up, I made a marinara sauce out of roma tomatos, onions, garlic, and spices. I used that as the pizza sauce. I topped it with sliced mushrooms, olives, turkey pepperoni and some soy cheese shreds. It was delicious and you can cut it up like a pizza or roll it up like a pizza wrap, (without toasting the tortillia first, of course!)

2. I found these things called sandwich thins at target. I chose the multigrain varitey and use them as a pizza crust to make mini pizzas! Same great pizza taste but in a low cal, portion controlled way.