My husband and I have committed to trying every recipe in the daybook at least once, even if we don't think we'd like it at first glance. So we're having the squash soup tonight. We're also having tomato-mozzerella-basil panini and salads.

Ok we (my family and I) all managed to do well yesterday. My mom is horrible about not eating anything but junk when she is stressed. She had thawed a turkey, but wasn't going to cook it (she had thawed it before dad got sick again). We made her cook it, and took turns going to the hospital so someone was home with the turkey while it cooked. We just did up some mashed potatoes (with skim milk) and steamed some veggies. Now there is a healthy meal they can all pick at when they are home.

A big step for me this moring... I know someone was talking about their inner child the other day. Well I won a big battle with mine today. I woke up and there was no way she was going to exercise. She tried everything she could, but grown up Laurie made her do it anyways. I feel so much better having squeezed it in. I also posted in my blog (skipped yesterday). So I feel on track. I will not use dad's illness as an excuse to neglect myself. His floor isn't open for visitors until 11:00 anyways so i had plenty of time to fit it in. So I'm well on my way to hitting my goals this week.

Laurie

I did really good my first week! Looking forward to making a couple of recipes from Kathleen's cookbook, Getting Thin and Loving Food. Have an awesome week everyone!!

My hubby is just merely tolerating our new eating plan. He still wants his meat and potatoes so I have been finding ways (cookbooks) to make those dishes more healthy. I am really watching my portions on the not so low cal. stuff. I was just watching food network today and realized that I havent' seen "Cooking Thin" for awhile. I checked the website to find a listing but couldn't. Where is the show? Diana

Although my hubby is basically on board with our new eating plan I'm still taking it slow when changing our old stand-bys. For instance, our favorite soup is French Onion and I make it as the base for most all my soups for the rich flavor. I made it yesterday. Instead of sautéing the onions in all the butter the original recipe calls for I used only a portion and substituted chicken broth for the remainder. I also added about a 1/4 pound of smoked turkey sausage instead of the normal 1/2 pound. I added a can of garbanzo beans to replace part of the sausage protein. I added lots of veggies; celery, peas, carrots, kale, etc. My hubby raved about the soup. He didn't miss the sausage or butter I left out of the soup and the flavor was still wonderful without them. I've learned on this forum to make changes slowly, baby steps, and it works.

Another thing you can do with resistant family members is to make some additional healthy side dishes along with the "old standbys" and let everyone build their own meal. This way they can try some new things but also have the comfort of their old favorites without the fear of weird veggies floating in the spaghetti sauce or tucked into their meatloaf. This would work better for picky eaters, I think.

If you were making baked chicken and mashed potatoes, for example, you could also put some mixed veggies in the oven to roast and cook some brown rice. I will post my easy way to make brown rice in the "Recipe Swap" folder. Then you could focus your meal on the healthy sides with just small portions of the chicken and potatoes. Your family members may get curious and try the new stuff, but if not, you will have leftovers for your next lunch or dinner.

This way you're not forcing them to change just because you want to. I think you might get more support this way.

Oh, my hubby is a meat eater and he knows everytime I try to "fool" him and he does not like it!

When I make spaghetti I do ww noodles for me and regular noodles for him. He also gets his own real meat sauce and I do a veggie sauce.

When DH barbecues he does his own burgers and do veggie or turkey burgers. He is okay with ww buns and baked fries.

I use very lean hamburger for meatloaf since he hates ground chicken/turkey.

The only thing I've ever made with ground turkey that he will eat is chili.

I make diet coke sloppy joes that he loves and I put mine in a ww tortilla or make a taco salad.

My guy doesn't love chicken (which I could have everyday) and so we have that twice a week max.

Once a week we have baked potato night and he loves putting his full fat yummies on it while I put veggies and salsa on mine.

I tried switching him over to my way of eating, but he complains way tooooo much so it is much easier for me to make 2 versions and it really doesn't take that much longer.

It does surprise me though that I go out of my way to make him happy with his kinds of foods, but when it is his ONE night a week to be in charge of dinner I usually get things HE likes, because he doesn't really think about how I eat.

Go figure!

quote:

Originally posted by DianaB:
A few of our standbys are Spaghetti, Meatloaf and hamburgers and fries. Diana

Spaghetti can be very healthy - we do whole wheat at our house with tomatoe based sauce loaded with veggies. If your family is veggie phobic, you can puree a number of things in with your tomato sauce and no one will know the difference - eggplant and mushrooms puree really well! Use a microplane grater to grate some high quality parmesean cheese so you use less of it and you've got a really healthy dinner. Pair it with a salad for even more healthy calories.

As for the meatloaf, you can use ground turkey or white meat chicken or just really lean ground beef. Watch what fillers you put in but you can definitely make a healthy meatloaf.

As for burgers and fries - we really like the garden burgers brand veggie burgers. We use whole wheat rolls (no cheese usually) and bake the french fries. Garden burger makes a char-grilled flavor that tastes just like beef. I would doubt that your kids would notice that it wasn't ; )

Okay, this is day two and I'm doing okay. Not great...but not too bad. Yesterday I was still hungry after dinner and had a bunch of crackers with yogurt cheese and 2 handful of M&M's. The M&M's are now in the trash.

Today started out well, but darn if I didn't eat one too many blueberry muffins. That's okay though! I've got the rest of the day to make up for it. Looks like there's a big salad in my future.

I also wanted to put in my two cents about meal planning. This isn't about the meals themselves, but rather how to organize yourself. ..

I used my word processor and made a list of meals I make on a regular basis. I organized them on separate pages by poultry, beef, pork, fish, and miscellaneous. Then I printed them out, put them in page protectors and into a 3-ring binder. Every month I print off a monthly calendar and use my lists to plan my meals for each night. I don't plan a month ahead, usually only 4-5 days but the lists have made the planning so much easier. There's no more searching through cookbooks (unless I'm looking for something new) or racking my brain for what to fix. I have lists for breakfast and lunch as well and plan them the same way. I have to, otherwise I'll just eat unhealthy things all day long. It really didn't take as much time to make the lists as you'd think. Maybe an hour. I didn't include any ingredients in the lists just the name of the main dish and the side dishes I serve with them. I did note which cookbook it was in if I didn't already know for sure. When I find a new recipe I like, I just write it on the list. It sounds complicated, but it has made my life sooooooo much easier!

Thanks for the great suggestions. A few of our standbys are Spaghetti, Meatloaf and hamburgers and fries. Notice a meat theme here? I personally am sick of these menus. I have a Sat. goal: to clean out my cupboards. I am going to purge the unhealthy stuff. I hate grocery shopping but that will be my next step after cleaning the cabinets. I just realized (now that it is in print) that I'm really happy eating food but not in preparation. I am going to change that. You're right I need baby steps. I was going to take today off from exercise but I think that I should get that in too. Maybe something really fun. Diana

quote:

I guess now I have a goal of better meal planning. Got any ideas for me? My family really likes the old standby meals and really resist any changes in the menus

You're probably starting to sense a baby-step theme around here. Here's another opportunity. Think about only making a limited number of changes per week. Decide on where you want to focus. Less red meat? More veggies? Lower fat? Higher quality carbs? There's lots of directions to choose but your challenge is to pick just one at a time. For example, if you chose less red meat you would want to identify one fish, poultry or vegetarian recipe to try each week. Pair them with things that you know your family likes. As KD would say, rinse and repeat. If you find a winner, add it to your list. If you got a dud, maybe you can do something fun with the family like putting a copy of the recipe in the shredder or fireplace (if you can get them to tell you if there was any aspect of the recipe they DID like, that might help you pick your next try). Once you feel like you are replacing 'enough' red meat meals per week (and that number is going to be your call and your families), move on to the next goal you would like to do.

Make sense? Hope that helps.

Peg

PS) Bee and others on this board are REALLY good at revising old favorites to make them healthier. I encourage you to post some right away and maybe try to that beside whatever goal you pick above if you go for that suggestion.

quote:

Originally posted by DianaB:
I guess now I have a goal of better meal planning. Got any ideas for me? My family really likes the old standby meals and really resist any changes in the menus. Diana

Diana,
I agree with Denise. Start with posting your old standby meals and we can help you make them healthier and even sneak in some more veggies.

Another good place to look for meal ideas is the "what's for dinner thread" where people post their meals.

You may also want to browse the recipes on the website and see what appeals to you. I've never made one of KD's recipes that wasn't a winner.

Hi All,

Another struggling day for me yesterday. See my thread on COOKIE CONFESSION. But I have big plans today. Starting to drink my water now so not to wait too close to bed time. Exercise will be stationary bike and purging more stuff. Our fitness room is almost ready. Meals since its the weekend going to plan and cook for next week so we have no excuses for FF. We did really good so far and haven't eaten out at all this week. Which when you know you don't plan especially those with children they always want to eat right away.

Anyway even though its day 7 and 2 out of 6 have been not great I'm in for the long haul to get fit. So don't count me out these baby steps I just tend to fall on my face alot...lol

Have a great day!

ttfn
Patty

quote:

Originally posted by DianaB:
Got any ideas for me? My family really likes the old standby meals and really resist any changes in the menus. Diana

What are the "old standbys" your family likes?

quote:

Originally posted by patty-mom/of/3:
Need serious watch when my children hand me food they don't want anymore. I think those nibbles, crumbs, taste is where I lose it. So I made sure to write that in the things I shouldn't have. Has anyone every gone way over board on tasting things then realize all those taste could equal a portion?

I knew things were really bad when we were eating dinner one night and my kid moved his plate away out of my reach and said, "I have to go to the bathroom. I'll be back. Do NOT eat my dinner when I'm gone. I'm not done."

My family used to flap their arms and make "caw! caw!" bird noises and say that I was like a vulture circling the table looking for leftovers and scraps...

Another day in the gym for a 30min. walk. My back was the only part of my body that was sore from yesterday. I am actually drinking more water. I, however, am having difficulties with meals. I keep portions down but can't seem to get any vegs/fruits. This evening I was so overwhelmed with what to eat I just had a bowl of cereal. My poor family was on their own. I guess now I have a goal of better meal planning. Got any ideas for me? My family really likes the old standby meals and really resist any changes in the menus. Diana

I had an even better day today. When I asked dh what he wanted for dinner tonight, he said burgers. So I was extra good at breakfast and lunch, had carrots as a snack, drank lots of water. Every time I was tempted I pictured that burger in my mind. So I had to make it worth the wait. We used 90% sirloin, topped with crumbled blue cheese, on whole wheat rolls. Definitely worth the wait, and the missed snacks.

Tomorrow is my panned day for my third WATP this week, I'll go make a food plan now. I've been writing my plan on post it notes and keeping it with me, even at work, so I stay better focused. Now on to my nightly journalling in the planner.

quote:

Originally posted by Bee:

quote:

Originally posted by patty-mom/of/3:
Has anyone every gone way over board on tasting things then realize all those taste could equal a portion?

Patty

Patty
That used to be a very big problem for me. I would eat my dd's left overs and by the end of the day, it easily could have added up to a couple of hundred calories.

It was a hard habit to break but now I just put all her left overs in a small container and she just eats it at the next meal or I just throw it away.

I am in that group too. I taste my families food all over the place. I thought it was a mother's job.
I was wrong. What Bee suggests works for me too.

I have had a good day so far. Did a weight workout this morning and when I got back I made a yogurt sundae: sliced banana, lowfat vanilla yogurt, drizzle of Hershey's syrup, and topped it with 1/4 cup of KD's granola. It was a nice treat.

It's nice to see so many new names here!

Bee -- thanks for the warm welcome and the words of encouragement. I didn't think about having a heads up on what works for me! I appreciate you pointing that out!

So today is day one! So far so good...of course I've only just finished breakfast (whole wheat English muffin w/ 1 piece of Canadian bacon, one scrambled egg and a piece of provolone and 1/2 a banana). I've even had 16 ounces of water already! My main goal today (besides eating well) is to exercise!

I'm off to do my homework for week one. I've got a lot of bad food habits so I hope it doesn't take too long!