I need to lose a few pounds----anyone out there have any recipes for some good tasting food?????

-- cindy baker (dcbaker@2ki.net), April 20, 2000

Answers

Gee Cindy, It depends on what kind of diet you want to follow! I'm on low carb...meals are meat and vegetables, a few fruit, Got loads of recipes if you like. If you're doing a lowfat diet, these will not fit in :)

-- Sue Landress (Sulandherb@aol.com), April 20, 2000.

There's a really good program you can download and try 30 days for free -- it's called DietPower. I liked it so much I bought it, but thirty days use would sure get you off to a good start. It doesn't include recipes, but helps you count the calories, and keep track of nutrition and exercise. (And, no, they aren't giving me a commission!!) :-)

-- Kathleen Sanderson (stonycft@worldpath.net), April 20, 2000.

That is so spooky - I was just thinking today about posting a request for low-cal/ low-fat recipes from other readers....Just goes to show this forum will cover just about anything! Anyhow, I have been on Weight-watchers for over a year, and having lost 40 lbs. so far, I feel a bit qualified to touch on this subject. Both w.w. and cooking light magazine have web sites, usually with recipes and other links. I have found that substituting lowerfat ingredients for the richer versions helps, as well as keeping a container in the fridge filled with "bunny food" (carrots, celery, cukes, veggie-what-have-you)for those munchie attacks helps. I also make a large pot of veggie soup (saute onions and carrots in a pot sprayed w/cooking spray, add chicken broth{lofat}, chopped chard{or cabbage or greens of your choice}, green beans, roasted red peppers, celery, dried herbs of your choice {I will add an occasional chipotle pepper for *zing*} - simmer for a bit -15 mins or so- add sliced zucchini or yellow squash, sliced. simmer a bit longer - add some tomato sauce or even canned tomatoes - heat thru and enjoy - but don't overcook). The soup is "free" on w.w. and it's a lo-cal way to fill up before temptation (and a higherfat food) takes over.Mix and match on the veggies in the soup - other than potatoes and avacados, just about anything goes. As long as it tastes good to you, that's what counts. Email me if you're interested in more suggestions and recipes! good luck - I know from experience that the road you will be travelling will not be easy, but it is worth it!!!!! Judi

-- Judi (ddecaro@snet.net), April 20, 2000.

I would love to know how old the group here is! I know at 42 and yes I am overweight, I have learned that my body is happy with my weight as it is. I am healthy, do strenuous physical activity every day, I raise Dairy Goats for a living, and have figured out that diets don't work. You can certainly make lifestyle changes that will make your weight go up or down, but low fat, no fat, no cholosterol, weight watchers, all have been around for years, and we are still all fat! I am happy to be eating healthier, getting more exercize and not eating junk. Cause you really already know that the whole bag of chips is not one serving, and the whole box of cookies............ If you really want a diet try unprocessed foods. You can eat anything as long as it is unprocessed. Fruit, vegetables, meat, rice, grains... Try it you would be very surprised how much you can eat and still feel good, and how much we rely on all of those little boxes in our cabinets and freezers! Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), April 21, 2000.

Well i have to agree with Vickie, I am 31 and i exercise everyday and do hard work and i am 30 pounds overweight. I feel good and i am happy with myself. I think it all depends on how you feel about yourself. We are all made different and everybody is not suppose to be a size 5. Just eat healthy and stay away from processed foods.

-- Sarah (SCaswell1@excite.com), April 21, 2000.

On this subject - weight loss - I am an authority. Weight Watchers and TOPS worked for me only after I figured some very important things out. You can lose the weight only for it to come back if you don't change your way of doing things. These have to be permanent lifestyle changes. Once I got that firmly entrenched in mind then the rest followed. At one point in my life I weighed #340 and I now weigh less than #200 and am comfortable with that. It took me many years to get to #340 and so it follows that it will take a while to get to my personal goal of #180. How I succeeded at this was to go to WW or TOPS and stay with the program until I hit a plateau. Then I would try to utilize what I had learned and keep it as a lifestyle change and wait until I felt I was ready to start down again. Usually there was about a 2 year wait between sessions of weight loss. I was successful at maintaining the first loss, going up a little - usually less than 10 pounds until I reached #220. At that point my husband commented that he like me right where I was! Boy, that sure can put the skidders on the weight loss! However the last 30 pounds came off with no effort in dieting on my part. I was surprised earlier this year to find myself at under #200 without the effort. A very pleasant surprise it was. I have also found that the more whole grain and unprocessed foods I put in my body the more weight comes off and I don't eat near as much as they are much more filling. I have always been very active physically (raised 8 foster children ) and now have to wonder how I had time to eat all I ate in order to weigh that much! Prisca

-- Kerry Wooster (kerryw@hctc.net), April 21, 2000.

I don't want to be a size 5, I'd be happy with an 8 or 10! And for my height, the weight I'm at is not healthy. My biggest problem was not that the food I was eating was bad for me, as I've always been fairly careful to eat right. I just didn't know what the portion sizes should be, and I guess over the years they'd gotten a little bigger, so gradually that I didn't realize what was happening. Your stomach adjusts to fit what is routinely put in it. So for me, the diet software has helped me keep track of what size portions I ought to be eating. I just started about a month ago, and have lost seven pounds so far. I know this has to be a lifestyle change, or it won't be permanent. Also, it didn't help a bit that for a year and a half I was sewing 8-12 hours a day, doing doll-clothes piecework (wasn't making much money, either -- I just wanted to be able to stay home with my daughter), and was getting NO exercise -- so now I'm badly out of shape. Just trying to get back on track.

-- Kathleen Sanderson (stonycft@worldpath.net), April 21, 2000.

All of the responses have been great. My body is stuck too, at 31 and after 4 kids I would love to be back to my pre-child weight but would be thrilled to lose even 10 lbs. The books "The Zone" and "The Weigh Down Diet" are great and would work if you could stick to them (I'm too lazy). I know it would budge if I would exercise, again, too lazy. I did Tae Bo for a while, if it doesnt kill you first you will lose weight. I gained it all back when I quit. Do you notice there are no men posting on this thread? I read that women will never be equal to men until we can walk down the street with a bald head and our stomach hanging over our belt and still think we are Gods gift.Hmmmmm.....

-- Julie (juliecapasso@aol.com), April 21, 2000.

I speak with the voice of experince-lots of experience. The fisrt and last thing you need to do to lose weight, is be sure you really want to. Being overweight has lots of emotional uses. Know why you're fat. You need to make sure your body is working properly, digesting and elminating. Papaya enzymes and fiber help that. Vicki was right when she said not to eat processed food. The more natural you eat the better. The book of Leviticus tells you the best way to eat. A regular workout 3-5 times a week is good, I know we get a lot of exercise, but you really need to do a specific workout - uscle toning and aerobic. Hot Bean Salad: Spray casserole dish, put abut an inch of lettuce in dish, mix drained and rinsed kidney beans with chopped onion and jalapenos add just enough mayo to keep it together, put on lettuce bake 20 min. or so. The originial recipe has Doritos crumble on top before baking, but that won't help the cause. In cast iron skillet, layer green beans, red potatoes, and vidahlia(sp) onions, salt and little butter, and enough water to keep from sticking. Put on lid, steam til tender.

-- Cindy (atilrthehony@yahoo.com), April 21, 2000.

Just a little comment here. Serving sizes seem to be a key with a lot of folks.

A rule of thumb that works for many is, no more food at a meal than can be held comfortably in both hands together. Seems kind of goofy but it does give you an easy way of judging how much you're eating. Your mileage may vary, of course.

j

-- j (jw_hsv@yahoo.com), April 21, 2000.

I'm over 50 & when I was a teen, my nick name was Olive Oil. I was always under weight, could not gain weight. My hubby would have to put his foot on the scales for me to weigh 100 lbs, for years. I'm 5'8". When I started through "the change" the weight started sticking! I'm the weight I probably should be for my height now--& everyone tells me how much weight I have put on! I'm a vegetarain--I eat very healthy!!!! Some web sites that have good advice & recipes for eating healthy are: www.vegweb.com --- www.cyberveg.org/navs -- www.vegsource.org --www.all4vegan.net --www.iva.org/recipes/ www.vrg.org/links/ ---you don't have to be vegetarain to enjoy some of these good & healthy recipes! Excerise--eat lots of fruit & veggies & whole grains!!!! Then it will be hard to keep a good woman down!! Sonda

-- Sonda Bruce (sgbruce@birch.net), April 22, 2000.

I am 46 and currently weight 55 pounds more than I should. When I was 21 I weighed 118 and am 5' 5". I gained ten or twenty pounds at a time over the years and have gone on several serious weight loss programs one of which was weight watchers. It was successful and I lost the weight but five years later I had it back on and then some. I am currently considering a microbiotics type of diet which includes no processed foods. I do think that is the right way to go because it keeps us away from sugar and processed flour. I'm just starting to read about it. Proponents of the microbiotic diet also make claims that it can prevent/cure some cancers. I figured that couldn't hurt. But I wanted to just make the comment that just being vegetarian will not let you lose weight if you do not watch what kind of veggies you eat. I was vegetarian for seven months and lost zero pounds. I thought eating potatoes and rice were good for me. Wrong! I was not doing it just to lose weight but thought that would be a side benefit. It didn't happen. Good luck all.

-- Colleen (pyramidgreatdanes@erols.com), April 22, 2000.

For those of you who are interested in the high-protien, lo-carb diets, please, please investigate the relationship between bone loss and excess protien. It's much easier to maintain bone density (through a low protien diet) than to try to fix the damage down the road. A macrobiotic diet can be much healthier than the Standard American Diet (SAD) but it is very limited and can be difficult to follow. You may have trouble finding ingredients. (E-mail me if I can help, I have lots of experience with this one!) I think portion control is the answer, at least for me. I live alone, so most of the time I don't take the time to "fix a plate". I'm always rushing around, and although I usually make healthy choices, many times I wait too long to eat, then I feel like I'm starving and I overeat. I've been vegetarian for many years, and slowly continue to gain weight. I love to cook and I love to eat. I think I'll make a pot of Vegetable Soup, and keep the container of cut-up veggies handy. I like to take whole wheat tortilla shells and make bean and rice burritos. You can use salsa from your pantry, add whatever cooked beans you like and brown rice. Fill the tortilla shell, wrap with plastic and freeze for a quick, easy meal. I usually cook in quantity, and freeze in containers for future meals. Maybe I should use smaller containers! LOL!! I just bought a used pressure canner and I can't wait to try it out. P.S. I'm 42 and would love to lose 20 lbs. and be a size 10 again.

-- Cathy Horn (hrnofplnty@webtv.net), April 23, 2000.

I heard a photographer say that the super models drink a cup of tomato soup 1/2 hour before a meal. Fills them up so they eat less.

I don't know what it feels like to be thin. I was a fat baby, a chubby child, a pudgy teen and now I'm a fat baby again. Twice I have lost a lot of weight- by starving myself for more than a year each time. I did myself more harm than good. Now I eat healthy, am very active, have low blood pressure and excellent cholesterol (according to my doctor). On another thread several people were trashing overweight people. I suspect they have never been overweight. It's genetics, folks. If you can't change it, do the best you can.

-- Peg (wildwoodfarms@hushmail.com), April 23, 2000.

Seems to me that different things work for different people. I was overweight as a child and early teens then I basically stopped eating and started running and lost 40 pounds in four months and have kept it off thus far, (I am now 35).Not really a good way to lose weight, but I have always been an extremeist!

A good friend of mine turned me onto the book "Eat Right for your Type" which has diets for each blood type and he lost 25 pounds in three months and says he feels really energetic and healthy.

I have been following the diet pretty strictly since September and feel pretty good overall. The diet is supposed to help you reach and manintain your ideal weight, not someone else's idea of you but the one God designed for you.

None of my friends who say they want to lose weight will try the diet, because they are against some of the suppositions, like Type O needs to eat lean red meat, and NO chicken. I was lucky because I am type A and a vegetarian anyway, but had to quit tomatoes eggplant, pepper and potato, I have only lost three pounds but I am 5'8 135, so I guess that's where I am supposed to be!

My Pastor has been doing the diet, and he has lost 35 pounds in four months, he says he is only mostly following it. I think it's a great guide combined with typical diet logic, it seems to work well.

-- Doreen Davenport (livinginskin@yahoo.com), April 23, 2000.

I'll admit that I have not carefully read all of the above postings, but I have again noticed that there is again a preponderence of responses from the ladies. Or there are a lot of guys with unusual names. Nonetheless, my observations. If you ask 100 men if they are more attracted to a lady 10 lbs overweight, or one 10 lbs underweight, 100 will answer overweight! Further, there is only one woman in the entire world who is the ideal weight, and she is presently dating Sasquatch, having dumped Yeti, but she does have her eye on the Pope! Gals (OOPS!, ahem!). Ladies ~ most of us guys like you the way you are. Physical is nice, and many, many years ago, Maggie and I had SOME fine bodies, or at least we thought so! We still do, though a few (OK, lots) more lbs have snuck up on us in the dead of night, in spite of not having eaten in days! Point is: WHO thinks you need to be thinner? You or hubby, or boyfriend, or newscaster, or neighbor, or who? My guess is it's you, and you're probably wrong! If you are comfortable doing the physical activities you enjoy, maybe you are fine. If not, yeah, lose a few. But don't get weird about it! Brad, the unconventional, but right again!

-- Brad (homefixer@mix-net.net), April 27, 2000.