almeeker

I agree that using substitutes is a great way to go. I've made baked "breaded" fish by dredging fillets in egg whites and then in bread crumbs and popping them in the oven for 10 minutes/side. French fries are easy too, you just slice up the potatoes, spritz them with cooking spray and roast them in the oven for about 30 minutes. Not too hard really. If you've tossed out cheese for the calories, then you might want to take a look at some of the fat free cheese products, personally I love Greek yogurt and the Kraft fat free slices, it's 25 calories/slice and it even MELTS!

Rubystars

Most of the Greek Yogurt I've seen in the grocery store looks like a big calorie bomb. I would try it if not for that.

I like Kroger Carb Master yogurt, not too sweet and 60 calories per serving.

Galdrar

Man does it seem hard to live elsewhere!
Here where I live we don't have the priority to have many brands, but instead we got good tab-water. And no one local buys bottled ones.
If you know any kind of organic brand that's actually healthy, start buying their stuff. And now I'm not a fan of "not eating any unhealthy food". Since some food can actually help with something else.

For example Danish Dietitian discovered that dairy products helped isolating fat out of the body. Now I'm not sure if it's related by the genetic pool, but us Scandinavians are fairly used to dairy products.

Isn't there any brands that just do "simple" food down there in wherever you are? No chemicals or anything? (dairy that is)
There are a lot of products like Sour Milk and Skyr that if eaten unflavored are very good for you! (recommend skyr and oat meal!!)

almeeker

Yes, you have to be careful with Greek yogurt, in it's plain state it's like sour cream, so many of the flavored varieties have a ton of sugar added to them. I buy either Oikos or Chobani, plain, unsweetened, 0% fat. It's about 70 calories for 4oz serving, and has 13-15 grams of protein. I usually add flax seed meal and frozen blueberries with a little artificial sweetener to it for breakfast. It's not a calorie bomb so much as a protein bomb. Sure tuna has more protein, but I just can't eat it every morning for breakfast. And since plain it tastes like sour cream, we actually use it that way.

Rubystars

That's a lot better than the 200+ calories I've seen on other Greek yogurts. If I can find the low calorie plain version I'll try it. Thanks for suggesting it.

It would be nice to have options when I don't shop at Kroger (which is less and less these days, their produce section is really not the best at the location I go to and produce is more important to me than it used to be.

RunbikeSki

It is a bit of an aquired taste, but I have grown to love the Oikos or Chobani plain yogurts. I will add my own fruit to suit and it tastes better than any of the pre-fruited yogurts.

Rubystars

I did try the Oikos. I loved the texture of it, so thick! Mixed with some onion soup mix I bet it would be a great potato topping.

I put sugar free chocolate syrup in it and sweetener.

Rubystars

My hunger has been THROUGH THE ROOF today. Growling, growling, growling stomach, and I eat but it doesn't do any good for more than a couple of hours. calories are higher than usual, still technically in deficit. Why does the cold weather make me so hungry?

wysiwyg295

I had a day like that last week. I just could not get enough food. I went over on my calories but went right back to proper eating the next day. Last night I realized that on that particular day I was eating because of stress. When it happens again I have to remember to ask myself if I am really hungry or is there something else going on to make me want to turn to food.

In response to your original post:

I had my first meeting with a dietitian today (I'm a new diabetic so I am going through the motions) and she spoke to me about cravings. What she suggested is that I eat using the 80/20 method. 80% of the time I behave myself and the other 20% I indulge myself in the "forbidden" foods.

It makes sense to me because by allowing myself the fries and gravy or a piece of cheesecake I won't feel deprived and I can go right back to proper eating the next meal.

Ultimately you will have to do what you feel is right for you. We can only offer suggestions.

Linda

Rubystars

Thanks for the post. I will be having a cheat meal if you can call it that because my family is celebrating Thanksgiving a week late so that my sister and her boyfriend can join us. Also I had to work on actual Thanksgiving that night so I had to sleep during the day...

but usually I don't do cheats. For me most of the time that would be self defeating. I try to find substitutes and stay between 1200 and 1800 calories.

I just wish it was summer again. I wasn't hungry at all in the summer.

Now hunger is always in the back of my mind and my stomach is actually growling more often, I feel weak more often, etc. every time it's cold. Dressing warmer seems to help but doesn't completely solve the problem. Since the weather got cold it's been non-stop hunger/cravings.

I had a giant frito pie dancing around in my head the past few days. Thankfully it wasn't actually being eaten.

If I didn't know how important this was for my health and general well-being to keep going and keep losing weight, I'd go get a bunch of pasta and mexican food right about now.