Winter Motivation!

I agree with Steph - you don't have to give up comfort foods in order to stay on track. I make my own home made chili sometimes it has ground turkey breast, sometimes 96% lean beef, sometimes vegetarian, but ALWAYS loaded with lots of vegetables as vegetables are more filling and WAY less calories. You can also make stews the same way, throw every vegetable in it that you can come up with (make sure they are fresh or frozen not canned b/c canned are loaded with sodium and have all the fiber and nutrition stripped from them).

I make a WONDERFUL Butternut squash soup - its super easy and low fat.

I clean and cut into strips a whole red bell pepper
Chop a whole Medium sized Onion
Heat my pan (gallon size) with 2 TBSP of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Throw in the pepper, get it "blackened"
Add the onion
Add 4 cups of diced butternut squash (you can buy this already diced in the grocery)
Add 2 tsp Celtic Sea Salt
Add 2 Cloves of Garlic
After 5 minutes, add in 3 cups of water and let it boil
Cook just until the squash is tender (may only take another 10 minutes)

Cool down, add 2 TBSP of Raw Agave Syrup
Puree using an Emerson blender or let cool enough to add to a regular blend a little at a time and puree

It usually makes 5 - 2 cup servings and is 151 calories; I add a salad to go with it to have some "raw" veg; you can also toss on some fresh sprouts and either sunflower seeds, flax seeds or hemp seeds to give some "crunch" to the soup

I recently had some awesome pumpkin bisque and Cream of Parsnip soup...I plan to toy with a recipe until I find a good "low fat" version. I'm sure I can figure one out.

Oh one other thing...you don't have to limit your eating to 3 meals per day...break it up to 3 meals and a couple of snacks, just reduce your calories for those meals...you will be less hungry.

For exercise...try new things: find some friends and go exploring (hiking) new trails, go biking, try skiing or skating, do you have a WII fit or XBOX Kinects? Try new games on there, like dance...explore your cable/satelite TV provider's Fit channel, they should have free on demand fit programs, Sign up for a 5 week class at a local gym or community center, sign up for a 5k or 10k, start a running or walking program, start a challenge of some sort (even if it is a virtual challenge...you still have to do stuff and report back)

Oh....I love cinnamon apples, so

1 medium apple
1 medium pear

dice both and add liberal amounts of cinnamon, either warm on stove or in the microwave or oven until gooey (the natural sugars will make gooey, you don't need sugar)

Add 3/4-1 cup of low fat cottage cheese
1-2 TBSP chopped walnuts

Great breakfast! Just had it this morning...yummy!

I know the feeling! I get a lot of recipies from skinnytaste.com.

She has lots of 'lightened up' comfort foods and they are still super yummy! Most are very easy and require ingredients most people already have on hand.

Your best bet is to seperate your food into five or six small meals about every 3 hours. This keeps your metabolisme fueled all day and prevents hunger in between meals. Try to add fruits and veggies to every meal and try to make sure you eat high protein foods as well as high fiber foods. These too help to prevent hunger and will keep you full longer. I do like most have said and own several recepe books that are great because they have all the comfort food you love but doctored to be lower in fat and calories as well as delicious and good for you. I also watch my portion control. If I want a treat I will have it but just the suggested portion size on the package. I pull out the ten crackers, or 12 almonds, or 15 chips from the package and then put the box or bag away. This really works for me.

To stay motivated, the one thing that has worked the best for me is to log onto MFP every day. You get so much support and encouragement from your friends on here it is great. I have done before pictures as well as measurements and retake them every 30 days to see the difference. I weigh myself once a week at the same time every time and day to see the change. This prevents me from obssesing about the scale and allows me to concentrate on making the right decisions. I work out six days a week for about 45 minutes to 90 minutes when ever I can fit it in. I sometimes pre log all my food and my exercise for the day because this forces me to stick with the plan. If all my friends see that I did 120 minutes of cardio than I have to do it. I hope this helps.

@gemfox...I should use YOUR motivation about 20 hot guys surrounding my on the beach...hahahaha...