What are your Top 5 foods or items that make your life easier?

ogtmama

-San Pelegrino
-cool way chocolate chocolate chip ice cream at 360 calories for the whole tub
-seaweed "chips"
- the hiking trail that runs through my city and my dog
-sobriety

caleb_93

1. Breakfast shake (oatmeal, frozen berries, whey protein, peanut butter, Greek yogurt and whole milk 1000+ calories)
2. Home gym
3. Meal preps
4. Lemon water
5. Mountain bike

biggiwig4483

Fitbit, Aria Scale, Food scale, Wegmans Store, green tea.

AmyC2288

Oh cool! It got bumped!

Almost a year ago when I made this thread, these were my top 5 items (actually I did 6) that make my life easier. I thought it'd be fun to update it!

THEN:
1. To my absolute surprise- my gym membership. I'm still very much a gym noob, but I have a small kids and find it much harder to get a great workout in at home without being distracted (are they screaming out of joy or pain?!?!) Also, I love that it allows me to eat a little more!

2. KIND Bars. If you haven't tried these, you totally should! I love them for breakfast or a snack! I have tried lots of flavors and have yet to be disappointed!

3. Digital Food Scale- I'm sure this is no shocker to anyone but it's true! I tried going for a while without the thought of using a food scale until someone here was like---ummm what are you doing? Picked one up and what a difference it has made (not to mention being an eye-opener on serving sizes!)

4. Salad- I eat so. much. salad. and somehow never get tired of it! A fun recent thing I've been doing to cut back on actual dressing is to use salsa which is super low calorie and tastes yummy!

6. Switching my super sugary creamer to half and half! I have always been a French vanilla nut, but I've been using the Land O Lakes "Mini Moos" for my morning coffee at work for several months now and I don't really miss the other stuff at all! The calorie savings are shocking!

1, 3, 4, and 6 are still very relevant daily things in my life! I think the only two things I'd add would be MFP and progress pictures. At this point I've pretty much decided I will continue logging into MFP everyday for as long as they'll have me LOL. My streak is almost up to one year! Also, progress pictures have been a huge motivation for me. I've lost 52 lbs so far- and in those moments when the scale isn't doing what I wanted it to do, the pictures would always come through for me.

PS. I still stand by #2- KIND bars ARE amazing, I just don't quite have the same calorie allowance that I once did and find it harder to fit them in now.

springlering62

*MFP
*Food Scale
*Unlimited yoga/Pilates membership (I get in 9-11 classes a week and would do more if I could, especially Pilates, which I’ve discovered I love.)
*Gym membership with the marvelous owner who trains and motivates me. No one has ever cheered me on in my life like her. It’s very healing to have someone who believes in you like that- and yells it in your ear and to the gym at large.
*My two insane older neighbors who have my schedule memorized and insist on walking when they know I’m not working out. Those gals can book it. Heat? Cold? Rain? They march my butt 15-20 miles a week. They are like talkative little drill sargeants.

You know, if I’d known weight loss could actually be fun like this, I would have started years ago.

texasredreb

1. MFP
2. Digital scales (body and food)
3. Fitbit
4. Protein drinks and bars
5. Coffee
6. KNOWING I CAN EAT WHATEVER I WANT AS LONG AS I MAINTAIN MY DAILY/WEEKLY DEFICIT!!!!

smoofinator

1. MFP, especially the forums!
2. FitBit Blaze
3. Egg whites
4. Digital pocket scale
5. My kayak
6. Understanding this is a "forever thing" and not some short-term fad diet. Helps me forgive myself for my eff-ups and not struggle against the exclusion of any foods or food groups. This has given me patience, which I think is the key to long-term success!

BattyKnitter

1. Food Scale
2. MFP
3. My home gym
4. My Fitbit
5. Coffee

Honourable mention to my dog who LOVES going for jogs, the only reason I go sometimes is those sad puppy eyes! Also a good pair of running shoes!

gemstoned

1. MFP
2. Smartwatch
3. Spinning
4. Food scale
5. Halo Top

Katmary71

1. Scales, both body and food. Food scale was very eye-opening to how much I was really eating.

3. MFP- Logging, forums, and friends help for accountability and encouragement.

3. Home recumbent bike and gym membership. Focusing on health and strength versus just how I look helps a lot.

4. Fresh fruits and veggies. I'm able to eat more at fewer calories than what I was eating before by adding lots of produce.

5. Coffee. Up until a week ago I was buying cold brews at a coffee shop. Just tried making it at home and it tastes way better for less calories!

merekins

MFP goes without saying.
1. Food scale
2. Siggi’s plain whole fat yogurt (usually served with lemon curd and blueberries. Is a low calorie lunch/snack that satisfies me. Is like my anti-trigger food. Never go over calories on days I have it for lunch.
3. Godiva ganache truffles. 46 calories for something rich and indulgent.
4. Sparkling water or unsweetened ice tea.
5. Fitbit. My fitbit competitions with friends get me to complete 10k steps. Getting my steps in usually includes a trip to gym. Going to the gym makes me stay within calorie goal because I worked too hard to blow off my efforts.

seltzermint555

1) MFP
2) cold cups/tumblers everywhere I go (especially at work) encourage me to drink 24 oz of water many times a day.
3) a grocery store with excellent affordable food and great produce less than 1 mile from my house and very easy to walk to.
4) unsweetened original almond milk
5) marshmallows & chocolate chips in my pantry. Not so good I wanna binge-eat them, but good enough if I'm really stressed out and craving chocolate candy, 15 semisweet chips and 2 large marshmallows will do the trick.

chris_in_cal

1) digital food scale
2) inexpensive Withings wifi body scale
3) Garmin on my wrist
4) MFP food logging
5) MFP 'friends' and the accountability

MidModJenn

1. MFP
2. cauliflower rice
3. making sure at least 1 meal each day is mostly veggies (usually a big salad)
4. Primal Kitchen salad dressings
5. Pinterest for Paleo recipes
6. teeny snack-sized baggies to bring small portions of nuts and other snacks to work (I'll eat too much if I keep a whole container in my desk)
7. a standing desk station that my company installed for me

elisa123gal

1. whole foods
2. lunch cooler
3. vinegars
4. spices
5. food scale

grinning_chick

1. Frozen meals that are lower in calories than what I could cook the meal in question for myself
2. Frozen vegetables for out of season vegetables ($$)
3. Frozen berries for out of season berries ($$)
4. Seasoning packets/papers/sachets that come with with built-in recipes that list the nutritional information for them (unlike so many online, and even book, recipes these days)
5. Finding a couple affordable palatable (to me) protein powders

HereToLose50

1. Nonfat plain Greek yogurt - lots of protein and I get plenty of fats elsewhere. I use this a lot in savory or sweet meals
2. Scales
3. Vegetable "chips" as in slices of fresh radishes, carrots, cucumbers, etc to help with my snacking tendencies.
4. Sugar free jello helps a ton with my sweet tooth
5. Silicone baking items to make cooking things like yummy egg muffins so much easier.


If we could add a couple more things it would definitely be eggs and cayenne pepper or hot sauce. And real butter. You are having the fat calories anyway, why not avoid watery weird margarine and make it actually taste good? I end up using less when it's the real thing.

ultra_violets

1. Fiorucci proscuitto and mozzarella panino
2. Pistachios
3. Bagged salad
4. Eggland's Best eggs
5. MFP

VegjoyP

1)MFP
2.)Food scales
3.)bagged vegetables
4.)plant protein powder
5.) pack/ can/ tin of fish ( sardine, salmon, herring,anchovy, tuna, mackeral)

Athijade

1. Therapy, Mindfulness, and Meditation - I have developed a negative relationship with food and these things are helping me heal that.
2. Aldi - I try to keep a tight budget and shopping here helps. While I can't buy everything I want there, it is enough to make an impact.
3. Imperfect Produce - Delicious veggies dropped off at my door every other week? Yes please!
4. Asian/Indian market - Since Aldi doesn't carry a lot of specialty ethnic items and I eat a LOT of these types of foods, it is nice to have a cheap alternative to buying what I need and be able to get some hard to find items too.
5. Coconut Aminos - I have a soy allergy but I love Asian food. It's not 100% the same, but at least I can enjoy my favorite meals again.

melmoon90

1. Coffee
2. MFP
3. Gym
4. Spotify
5. Fruits

Could think of more but here's just a few lol!

endermako

1. MFP
2. Food Scale
3. Gym
4. Fake Pizza
5. Turkey Tacos

samuelgina91

1.Car to go to the gym and store
2. Gym membership which I use minimum 3x a week for weightlifting, cardio and sauna
3. Tape measure
4. water bottle
5. Replacing 3/4 of my snack materials with fruit (cause summer is a great time to do so), and switching that last 1/4 to a flavoured popcorn, or a mega cupcake from a bakery which I split with a friend.
6. Fitbit so I track what I actually do without dragging my phone everywhere, and reducing my overall stress with the phone notifications

fitoverfortymom

1. Food Scale
2. Meal Planning
3. Garmin
4. Whatever foods I'm digging at the moment
5. Running

LegendaryOrange

Bison/elk
Kodiak Cakes
Smart scale
My gym
Generic Mio

Kupla71

1) plain Greek yogurt 2%
2) sour pickles
3) almonds
4) black coffee
5) food scale
6) diet ginger ale

umbramirror

Apps:
1) MFP (prelogging my meals has helped tremendously)
2) Simple Weight Tracker (began daily weighing recently and it has been helpful to see weight trends to minimize my obsessive tracking tendencies)

Items:
3) Digital body scale

Food:
4) Extra dark chocolate
5) Various fruits
5) Greek yogurt
6) Peanut butter

durhammfp

1) A supportive partner
2) Coffee
3) Comfortable walking shoes
4) MFP
5) Scales: food and boddy

vggb

1) Dannon Lite&Fit Greek Yogurt vanilla
2) Avocado
3) Eggs
4) Ground turkey 93%
5) Fresh fruit and vegetables

chris_in_cal

Bump: I love seeing all the great ideas.