15 years...down the drain!

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whatsyour1020
whatsyour1020 Posts: 29
in Recipes
I'm struggling with the realisation that I need to ditch 15 years of hard work. That's how long I've been developing recipes, and none of them are good for me. I have fed countless people in my home and beamed as they told me I should open a resteraunt. My niece has been so inspired by our cooking sessions, she decided to pursue a career in the food industry. I have lured friends over with the promises of food and my family bring their friends to my house to EAT! My husband brings his boss and co-workers home to EAT.....the only thing I can do right in my parents eyes, is make EATING fun. It's a BIG part of who I am (pardon the pun ;) I always said if my house was on fire, I would rescue my kids and my cookbook! And now.......it's time to END it and it HURTS....but so does hauling my lard *kitten* around all day :-/ So it's time to choose.

I've been convicted this change needs to happen, for some time now, but I've put it off. "I'll just have so and so and so and so over one more time, THEN I'll change my cooking!" (I am so uncomfortable "talking" about this, I'm actually squirming in my chair as I type) I am genuinely afraid people will not like me if I don't cook for them! Shallow...I know! But, if I don't distract people with food, I actually have to build RELATIONSHIPS with them to keep them coming. Not my strong point! *sigh*

The final straw....entering my vegetarian lasagna recipe on this site. 784 calories per serving folks! That's half my limit for the entire DAY! *gulp* So, I'm moving forward. One baby step at a time, I intend to make the shift from good food, to good FOR me food. And who knows. Maybe I'll find a way of bringing the two together.
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Replies

  • nickyevans
    nickyevans Posts: 216 Member
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    lower fat, lower calorie food can still taste great. Plus once in a while you can still eat the good, rich recipes, just not every day!
  • RhonndaJ
    RhonndaJ Posts: 1,615 Member
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    ~smiles~ It sounds like you're a great cook. Instead of looking at it as 15 years down the drain, why not look at what you're doing as a new challenge? Take your favourite recipes and start working on them to bring the calories down and make them healthier. Take a look at what you've been considering as portion size to see if it's reasonable, or maybe needs to be pared down.

    If you love to cook, this could be a whole new bunch of fun for you.
  • KatyE213
    KatyE213 Posts: 446 Member
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    ~smiles~ It sounds like you're a great cook. Instead of looking at it as 15 years down the drain, why not look at what you're doing as a new challenge? Take your favourite recipes and start working on them to bring the calories down and make them healthier. Take a look at what you've been considering as portion size to see if it's reasonable, or maybe needs to be pared down.

    If you love to cook, this could be a whole new bunch of fun for you.

    Thats exactly what I was going to say, you've got the great recipes, now you need to look at how to make them healthier while still tasting great. It can be done, good luck :smile:
  • amberjk35
    amberjk35 Posts: 1 Member
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    You can do it! And I'll bet you can find a way to make fun, delicious & HEALTHY foods.
  • blueeyedtraveler
    blueeyedtraveler Posts: 209 Member
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    I LOVE to cook and try new recipes. I also love those comfort foods that I grew up on (which is part of the reason I'm here lol). But what I love even more is trying to find HEALTHY ways to make these foods. Try to focus on that. There's still a way to eat healthy and have the food taste great! Good luck to you :flowerforyou:
  • abigailhutch
    abigailhutch Posts: 101
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    I think this is an exciting challenge for you to! I also LOVE LOVE LOVE to cook! And cook for everyone who enters my house! So I have been trying to change recipes to make them better for us/or even just making way less cuz I know we shouldn't be eating mass quantities! Keep your chin up girl! This just gives you more to learn about cooking (just when you thought you knew it all) hehe!
  • PegasusDeb
    PegasusDeb Posts: 665 Member
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    ~smiles~ It sounds like you're a great cook. Instead of looking at it as 15 years down the drain, why not look at what you're doing as a new challenge? Take your favourite recipes and start working on them to bring the calories down and make them healthier. Take a look at what you've been considering as portion size to see if it's reasonable, or maybe needs to be pared down.

    If you love to cook, this could be a whole new bunch of fun for you.

    I totally agree! This is just a new chapter in your cookbook of life! "Impress" your friends by getting them to eat healthy DELICIOUS meals! I'm sure they could use it as well! It's a challenge tweeking a recipe, but sounds like you are awesome at that. Don't look at it so negatively, people will still like you! If they don't, they weren't friends anyway!
  • fudgebudget
    fudgebudget Posts: 198 Member
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    The final straw....entering my vegetarian lasagna recipe on this site. 784 calories per serving folks! That's half my limit for the entire DAY! *gulp* So, I'm moving forward. One baby step at a time, I intend to make the shift from good food, to good FOR me food. And who knows. Maybe I'll find a way of bringing the two together.

    You totally can! And it's not the end of the world to eat a 784 calorie meal, either. If that's half your allotment, just make sure that you budget 400 calories each for breakfast and lunch or dinner.

    I really understand your plight - I am a foodie through and through, and I have found that I do best when I just budget around the big calorie items I eat so that I never feel deprived. _Only_ eating what you perceive to be "diet" foods is a quick way to burn out (I know because I've been there, too - that's kind of how I got here ...)
  • Monica_has_a_goal
    Monica_has_a_goal Posts: 694 Member
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    I hear you! But ultimately you need to improve yourself for YOU. I loved doing everything around food... Celebrating.. visiting with family... feeling loss.. its always at the table. .and then i wondered why im an emotional eater? lol..

    But the changes ive made are good ones.. Now I walk with my daughter and talk about her and her life.. I walk with my mom and discuss how many things are happening in the world.. I swim with my husband and have fun competing and Challenging each other..

    I replaced eating at the table with exercise.. and I feel so much better at the end of the day.
  • whitejessamine
    whitejessamine Posts: 166
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    Trust me on this. If your friends are impressed with how good your cooking is now, they'll be totally blown away when it's just as good, AND you can tell them it's good for them! My friends love when I develop wonderful new, guilt-free recipes. It's very rewarding--even better than before, because it's all the acclaim and none of the shame!
  • Fliegenschwein
    Fliegenschwein Posts: 232 Member
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    I dont think forming relationships with people will be too much of a problem once they see how great you`re looking. Theyre all going to know how you did it and I bet there`s going to be a huge demand for your new healthier recipes. :smile:

    Good luck
  • jdhosier
    jdhosier Posts: 315 Member
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    Congratulations! You are taking an AWESOME step and you have much to be proud of! I salute your resolve to get started. You are a good cook. You will always be a good cook. Now you have a new palette to work from and you are going to create some amazing meals and your friends and family won't even realize how much healthier they will be eating! All they will know is that they feel better, less bloated and sluggish will have more energy after YOU feed them. And, the best part is that you will feel great, too!
  • Qarol
    Qarol Posts: 6,171 Member
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    The people who really care about you, the ones who truly matter, won't care about what you're feeding them.
  • awyler
    awyler Posts: 78
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    check out---> http://www.hungry-girl.com/ she has a lot of comfort food on her site with HEALTHY recipes.
  • bcattoes
    bcattoes Posts: 17,299 Member
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    Oh there is definitely a way to bring the two together. One of my favorite things to do it take a delicious unhealthy recipe and make it healthy but still delicious.
  • ricster55
    ricster55 Posts: 3 Member
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    A friend of mine (who is also using this site) said to me recently, "Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels." And he's RIGHT. The great thing about this quest to lose weight is that not only can we prepare healthy food that tastes fabulous, but it also costs less than the old ways of preparing meals. I mean, think about all those ingredients that you'll no longer need to use!!

    It sounds to me like, over the years, you've been quite creative with the meals you've prepared. That's why people keep coming back for more. Just put that creativity to work with healthy options. I KNOW you will be amazed at the reaction of your family and friends. You'll probably start hearing, "This is so delicious and it looks so simple. How'd you do it?" When it looks like it was simple - and it is - people will actually realize they can do it too.

    One person posted on this thread that you can even tell them that it's healthy for them. You certainly can do that. But you can also keep it as "our little secret." People don't come back to your house to eat because they think, "Oh, this is so tasty and unhealthy for me - I'll have more." No. They come back because it's so tasty.....period.
  • Gsc122
    Gsc122 Posts: 36
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    Portion control. Bad foods are only really bad, if you eat to much of it. I wouldn't give up on your
    recipes and your passion for cooking. instead find a way to mix some of the bad in with the good.
  • dointime
    dointime Posts: 103 Member
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    You definitely don't have to stop cooking delicious food because you want to cook healthy food. When I became vegetarian last year, I had no idea what to eat. I spent a lot of time using google to search for healthy vegetarian recipes. What started out as "what the heck can I eat" became a 3 inch binder full of recipes, plus a 2 inch stack under that. And if you're a better cook than I am, you can definitely develop your own recipes or tweak the ones that you find to suit your tastes.
  • shootoutx3
    shootoutx3 Posts: 24
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    If you're that good with cooking, I guarantee you can make healthy food fun too. It's just going to take time and some creativity. I know you can do it
  • rfjl
    rfjl Posts: 3 Member
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    I find this exciting! To know you have tons of recipes that are loved and now you can change them to healthy recipes. I do that with the help of a lil' program on my pc, MasterCook. I have started a new cookbook for healthier eating. In it I take my favorite recipes from 40+ years of cooking and tweak them to be healthier, if I like the finished product it gets the honor of staying in the cookbook. If not it is tossed!!! I had rather be alive and healthy to enjoy my friends and family instead of over-fed and dead. Sorry to be so blunt but that is the choice I have at this time. You can do this and others will love being your test subjects for these new/old improved recipes. ENJOY YOURSELF

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