real food

Yes, you can add whatever food you desire... as long as you make it fit into your daily calories. That's all. :flowerforyou: Calorie deficit is what's important.

Do you find you're craving salty stuff or sweet stuff more? I always say this, but the #1 way to drop weight and avoid cravings is to eat fiber. Start with oatmeal or a high-fiber cereal (like Raisin Bran) in the morning, even if it's kind of bland. Especially when paired with protein (like eggs), it slashes way down on hunger. In general, I find it better to avoid caving or just having a little taste. We always hope that will quell our temptation, and for a brief time it might, but usually it just revives it. That's especially true with sugar. If you go without sweet stuff for a while, at first it feels like drug withdrawl...but then you stop wanting it. And sugary stuff stops looking as appealing. I think it has to do with a brain chemical called ghrelin...but it's true.

Eat what you want but be sure to give your body what it needs!! I find if I don't just eat a portion of what I'm craving I end up eating much more of other foods. Just make room for it in your diary.

Yoy really need to think about the way you approacch things. If you start calling it real and not real, then you start giving yourself a martyr complex . Food is food. If you want higher calorie food that you were used to then have it, but work it into your calorie allowance.

If you moderate you cna have smaller portions and eventually the cravings will become more manageable and you will be encourages by your progress.