Weight Loss/Exercise Updates? Post Yours Here!

[christa]

I have shared this list with some of you before, but thought that it might be a good idea to post again. If you want to start eating healthy, you HAVE to adjust your grocery shopping list! Thought I'd give you a few ideas!

Milk: If you drink milk, make sure it’s SKIM! We always drank 2% before so we made a gradual change, drinking 1% for awhile and eventually, the skim milk tasted just as good as the 2% ever did! If you don't like milk or can't have dairy, try "Silk" . . . I hear it's good!

Butter: No full fat butter. "Smart Balance" is my favorite. There are other low fat butters in the grocery store. Just check the label. Anything is better than full fat butter. I don’t really even use butter much anymore, so I only buy the small tubs.

Lunchmeat: If you eat lunchmeat, remember that the deli cut meat is less processed than the packaged meats. And try to get something that is 99% Fat Free . . . we eat turkey!

Cooking Oils: Use Olive Oil when cooking rather than corn oil or Crisco. It has a high content of monounsaturated fat, which control “bad” cholesterol levels and raises “good” cholesterol levels. You can also get Olive Oil PAM, which I cook with all the time. And if you want to be even healthier, you might want to try Enova Oil, which is made from Soy and supposedly, less is stored in the body as fat.

Some things that you might want to add to your grocery list:

Dairy:
Skim/Fat Free Milk/Soy Milk
Eggs or egg substitutes
Cottage Cheese (fat free)
Fat Free Sour Cream
Lite or Carb Smart Yogurt
Shredded Cheese (fat free/low fat if you can afford it!)
Hard cheeses sparingly

Meat:
Ground Turkey & Ground Chicken --> replace all of your ground beef with ground turkey & ground chicken! A much healthier choice!
Chicken Breasts or Frozen chicken breasts (great for meals through the week)
Turkey Tenderloin
LEAN beef - like steaks
Fresh or Frozen Fish fillets (Cod is our fav!)

Produce:
ANYTHING GREEN!!!
Sweet Potatoes (instead of regular potatoes!)
eggplant
squash
cauliflower
peppers (any color)
mushrooms
apples (GREAT source of fiber!)
bananas
fresh or frozen (w/o syrup) berries
peaches
grapefruit


Frozen/Canned Veggies:
Sweet Corn
Sweet baby peas
Sugar Snap Peas
Green Beans
Pepper Stir fry
Veggie Stir fry
Diced Tomatoes/Sauce
Black beans
Dark kidney beans

From the baking aisle:
PAM (I like the Olive Oil Pam)
Enova Oil or Olive Oil
Whole Wheat flour

Other stuff:
Peanut Butter (get natural if you can afford it!)
100 percent fruit spread (like All Fruit)
100 percent Whole Wheat bread (I love Sara Lee)
Almonds (a handful makes a great snack!)
Whole Wheat or Low Carb fajita wraps
Brown rice
Whole Wheat Pasta
Low Sugar marinara sauce
Oats
Tuna
Tofu
Nutella - for those chocolate cravings (just watch how much you eat!!! A dab will do ya!)

Have any questions or wanna know if something can be added to the list? Let me know. Thought this might be helpful for some of you.

[mruffruff]

So where's the chocolate?

Actually, I know where it is.......I'm sitting on it!

I've just started counting calories and eating less. Like half of what I used to. I'm keeping to 1500 calories a day and it's not too difficult so far. I keep a list of everything I eat. Even the 3 soda crackers after work.

I have no idea what I weigh. I don't have a pounds-lost goal. I'll know I'm successful when I can tie my sneakers and breathe at the same time.

I'm really impressed with all of you who have come so far. It certainly is not easy, but all life changes take effort. You have encouraged me. Thank you!

[christa]

So where's the chocolate?

LOL . . . funny you should ask! I have always been ADDICTED to chocolate! But for the past year, I have begun to have MIGRAINES so chocolate is starting to become a trigger for me. I am having to cut back big time!

Hubby & I did find an awesome product called NUTELLA! You can find it on the top shelf near the peanutbutter. Actually, it is a nutbutter, I think it's made from hazelnuts . . . but it has cocoa in it. It tastes JUST LIKE chocolate icing . . . but it's so rich, just a dab will send you over the edge! I can hardly eat but a little, so when I'm craving chocolate, I get a dab of Nutella and it curbs my craving!

You all might wanna try it. I'll put it on the list.

And BTW, mruffruff, you don't HAVE to have scales in the house . . . you can tell you're successfully getting healthy & loosing weight when your clothes start falling off of ya!!!