Cardboard

Check out my food diary. I am at 1200 calories a day and nothing has tasted like cardboard for me. I dont really eat diet stuff though i just make my own food and dont add the butter and oils that i used to add. I dont even feeling i am on a diet. i just changed my eating habits.

Also you have to stick with it, your stomach has to shrink a bit back to normal then you will become fuller off of less food. Eat fresh healthy things you like and exercise more so you can have more calories to work with. You have to makes some sacrifices thats just the way it is.

Agree with PP's--stay away from a lot of the diet stuff. Also, drink a TON of water. I've found that the days I drink water I have a hard time eating my 1200! BUT, I will tell you that the first week I was starving. Seriously. The serving size for cereal was crazy, I couldn't snack at night, and nothing seemed to fill me up. But, after that first week it got a lot better. I'm sure part of it is in my head, I KNOW that if I eat too much I'll ruin my chances for losing weight. You just have to tell your stomach that it's NOT hungry, and eventually your brain will catch up.

I try and eat something with at least 25 percent of my fiber in one setting--cracklin' oat bran for breakfast, or a fiber bar for snack. I also don't eat meat unless I can't afford the substitutes, and they are often 1/3-1/2 less cals than the actual meat, with all or even more of the protein.

So you went from delicious foods to dull stuff. I do not like those 5 cal jello cups not even worth my time. lol click on my name and then view diary.

If you look to eat food as close to its natural state as possible (e.g. an apple rather than applesauce or apple juice or apple pie) you will find that you will have a lot more food, fiber, and taste for a lot fewer calories. As others have mentioned, this is best looked at as a lifestyle change, learning to eat in the healthiest manner so you can quit "dieting" and just feel great. Exercise will help immensely in not only giving you extra calories to eat, but also in improving everything about how you feel and function. Good luck!

Check out my food diary. I am at 1200 calories a day and nothing has tasted like cardboard for me. I dont really eat diet stuff though i just make my own food and dont add the butter and oils that i used to add. I dont even feeling i am on a diet. i just changed my eating habits.

Me, too. Feel free to peruse my diary anytime, too. Or message me. Or whatever.

Some stuff will taste like cardboard... especially out of the box type of healthy foods. Fresh meat and veggies is the best way to go. Like someone else has said, just cut out most of the oil and salts during cooking and you should be good. It's rare that my food is bland. Just make better choices when buying food and there are so many seasonings and other things that you can add to your meal that make it just as tasty. With my egg whites I usually will add some spinach, salsa, turkey, and low fat cheese, then put it on a whole wheat sandwich thin... it's awesome and tastes way better than a mcdonalds breakfast sandwich. Just hang in there, you'll eventually find healthy options that you can put in your diet that tastes good and will also fill you up. Granted, there are some things that you'll have to acquire a taste for. Just don't give up!!

I'm not eating any "diet" foods (sugar free, fat free, carb free), just more unprocessed stuff in smaller portions.


Tip for salads: Use the regular better tasting dressing, but instead of pouring a smidge on your salad and choking back plain salad, measure a tablespoon into a condiment cup, and dip your fork into it before scooping up a forkful of salad. This way you get a taste of dressing with each bite, and you'll find you only eat a small portion of that tablespoon of dressing by the end.

Eat your salad first. You can have a huge bowl for very few calories and you'll find it will fill you up so that a smaller portion of the entree will be enough.

Use real bacon bits (35 calories/tbsp), shredded cheese, chopped nuts, shaved dark chocolate etc to accent your foods. Feels like cheating because you get to enjoy a taste of something fatty in each bite for not a lot of added calories.

Sounds cliche, but drink a lot of water throughout the day. Sometimes you think you're hungry when it's really thirst. Also fills you up and flushes you out.

Soups are very filling, tasty, and low calorie.

Don't skip meals and snacks. Keep the tank topped up throughout the day and you'll won't get those hunger pains and cravings.

Plan ahead. You're more likely to eat healthier and less likely to grab whatever packaged snack is handy when the hunger pangs strike. Also, avoid restarants like the plague. Menu pictures are too tempting, but when you learn the nutrition/calorie counts it is shocking to learn what you have been eating.

Bake instead of fry, fill a pasta plate with veggies, grill your veggies, use strong flavors (sundried tomato, garlic, spices), choose whole grain over white, snack on veggies over fruit....it all adds up to lower calories and tasty satisfying food.

And bottom line, exercise to earn more calories to play with.

My first couple of weeks were tough until I figured out that the crap in my pantry is what made me fat in the first place. I started really looking at the nutritional values on stuff before I bought it at the store, and you'll learn to make smarter choices (for example, with a bit of looking I was able to find bread on the shelf with 60 less calories per slice than my usual brand. swapped my usual ice cream with frozen yogurt, found a coffee creamer with way less sugar etc) Soon your kitchen will be stocked with lower cal items to choose from. Also, when you eat a satisfying recipe that is low cal, save it in your food diary and you'll soon have a variety of recipes to choose from.

Keep at it, it will all fall into place eventually.