We are going to try to eat healthy!

We just started eating healthier last week. My husband suggested buying a food steamer, and I love it and don't know how we lived without it before. I put a chicken breast in it (for my husband), throw some broccoli or cauliflower in after the chicken is about half way done and put in a piece of fish for myself. It was the best $30 I have spent in a long time.

We always make sure we have salad stuff on hand, and also stuff for fruit and yogurt smoothies!

Here is a link to a menu plan to eating healthy. No special foods.  No counting calories, fats, carbs or anything. Just eat the number of foods from each food group listed, in the proportions stated, and you will be following the best healthy eating plan you can get. It's the diabetic way of eating and will help maintain your blood sugars

http://www.lofty-designs.net/menuplan

The basic plan in the far left is a 1200 calorie diet. That's quite low, although I tend to follow it because I use salads to add bulk to my meals which keeps me full.  I recommend the 1800 calorie plan, and some days I do go up to that number, but mostly I stick between 1200 and 1500 per day.   To increase your calorie count, just add the number of food groups listed in the far right under the desired calorie plan.  You can add those food groups to whatever meal(s)/snack(s) you want. 

It's far easier than counting points with weight watchers.

Vibes for healthy eating!! I know if can be difficult. They do say it takes 21 days to make things a habit. At the start of January I decided it was time to be healthier, and I've lost 14 pounds since January 1  .. at first it was pretty hard as I wanted to eat chips, fries, fast food, etc. but after three weeks of veggies and salads and stuff you realize how much better you feel and it makes it so much better!! Good luck! 

You can do it, Lana! I know you can!

My sister took me out to dinner this past Monday to a Chinese buffet for my birthday. She and I both love Chinese, but neither Rick nor my BIL are fond of that type of food. Rick will go, but he prefers not to. And my sister's husband simply won't do it. So now, for our birthdays, we treat each other to a Chinese buffet. And it was nice. I was pretty careful, though, and only had one plate....and it wasn't a big plate. So it was OK.

As for trying to eat healthier.....lots of fresh produce for salads, whether it's a good fruit salad or a fresh vegetable salad. Choose dark orange and dark green veggies: sweet potatoes, yams, squashes, etc. Lots of fresh (and frozen) spinach and kale. I dearly love red beets, although Rick won't go near them. Same with brussels sprouts. Lots of whole grains: whole grain pasta is really quite good. I make my own noodles most of the time, so I know what's in them....noodles aren't difficult to make at all and can be fun. My MIL gave me her old pasta maker, plus I have one for my Kitchen Aid. No white breads....period. We tend to eat a lot of grains: pearled barley is wonderful stuff as is bulghur. I use barley in soups and stews, both for the extra nutrition and to stretch meat, particularly ground beef sometimes. I'll use bulghur in my vegetarian chili and in some breads and muffins. No white rice, only brown (I don't use instant rice at all) and I will use Trader Joe's rice mixtures. Skim milk or, at least, 1%. It took me a long, long time to get Rick switched over to skim milk. A long time. And now? He can't drink whole milk; it's just too thick for him. (He dearly loves egg nog and bought some commercial egg nog at the store over the holidays. It was too thick and he had to thin it with regular skim milk.)

Try the meatless thing once a week for awhile. We didn't do meatless this past Monday (the Chinese buffet), so I'm making a white bean and barley soup (see? barley!) tomorrow morning in the crock pot.

I do love to bake, but I'm trying to keep it down to a minimum, for the most part. I still use butter in my baking and I doubt I'll ever change that. It's best to just not bake as much. For me anyway. But I do use low-fat cream cheese, low-fat sour cream, low-fat mayo, things like that. No low-fat peanut butter, though....Rick refuses to touch it. Again, we use it in moderation. I like to experiment with a variety of spices and herbs and we stay away from salt as much as we can. You will not find a salt shaker on our kitchen table. A pepper mill? Yes. I'm a pepper-head. I also love mustards and we have a variety of mustards in the fridge. We do have some commercial salad dressings in the fridge, but I tend to make my own dressings, too.

1800 calories is way, way too much for me...I'll gain weight on that, even with my exercise stuff. I simply have a lower metabolism (yes, I've had tests) and everything is normal, inc my thyroid) and I can gain weight quickly. I stay right around 1200-1300 calories and I'm fine. I'm not stuffed and I don't feel stuffed. And I do keep track of my daily caloric intake....I'm so used to it that I can do it my sleep. Not a problem for me at all.

For your meals, don't use a big dinner plate. Use a salad plate instead. Most dinnerware also come with salad plates, so use them. It's a psychological thing, I think, and I also think it works. We've been doing that quite a few years now. You still have a full plate of food; it's just that your plate isn't that big.

Please don't think, "I'll never go to her house for a meal....it won't be any good!" For the most part, when we have people in for dinner or if we're having a big family dinner or a party, I'll cook differently for you. (Although I have been known to sneak in a few dishes from time to time that I know are lower in calories and fat, and nobody will say anything. My SIL is a diabetic, so I tend to watch it around her because she has to watch what she eats.)  There's a couple who we're really close to and he just loves coming here for dinner. He knows that I love to experiment and he's more than willing to be a tester for me!  At the end of dinner, he'll lean over and say, "You can make this again!"

And I don't cook like that 365 days a year. That will make you crazy, if you can't have a bit of a splurge every so often. For the most part, I do try to watch what we eat and how we eat during the week. But on weekends, we might splurge a bit. And when Rick goes to Oregon for union business, I always make sure he has cookies (usually Snickerdoodles) with him. My husband is truly the original Cookie Monster....that man just loves his cookies.

x2006nkg, kudos to the weight loss!