What are your Top 5 foods or items that make your life easier?
AmyC2288
Posts: 386 Member
Hello All! I thought this would be a fun way to get ideas about what everyone finds to be the most useful on this journey! Any specific foods that are your go to that help keep you in check? Can you not live without your Fitbit? As we know, what works for one may not work for another, so let's keep things nice and civil 
Also- feel free to give more or less than 5! I'll start!
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!
Okay, let's keep this going! What are your current must haves?
Also- feel free to give more or less than 5! I'll start!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!
Okay, let's keep this going! What are your current must haves?
21
Replies
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Fermented hops, for me.
Re-read OP.
MFP
My hiking shoes
My dog that loves hiking with me.
Roasted vegetables.
Coffee to start the day.
11 -
- MFP (especially the forums) I was a long time on/off user before I discovered how to use it properly, if it wasn't for the forums I would still be trying to eat 1200 calories and giving up everytime I saw a couple of pounds of water weight, assuming nothing worked.
- Another vote for Food Scale - wowsers the first time I weighed a portion of cereal/pasta/rice did I get a shock, my previous guesstimations were about a third to small.
- My Garmin activity tracker - I bought it 6 months after I started using MFP this time around and it has pushed me to set more fitness goals and to try that little bit harder each day.
- My home gym - as soon as I quit my gym membership and started working out at home, I actually started to enjoy exercise.
- 1 Cal Spray - a lot of my empty calories were coming from lashing olive oil over everything I baked/roasted/fried, I switched to 1 calorie spray stuff and cut probably about 2000+ calories per week easily from my intake as a result. Sometimes the simplest, smallest changes can have the biggest impact.
23 -
- Sparkling Water. Addicting. Refreshing. 0 calories. Helps me suppress hunger.
- Digital Scale.
- MFP!
- My bicycle!
- Coffee!!!
12 -
1. First cup of coffee
2. Second cup of coffee
3. Third cup of coffee
4. MFP
5. Good pair of walking shoes62 -
1. My home gym
2. My espresso machine/coffee
3. Food scale (even though I don't really use it often)
4. MFP
5. Libra (weight trend app)5 -
- MFP
- Digital Scale
- Gym Membership
- Fitbit
- Hoka Running Shoes
- Coffee
- Home gym (dumb bells and weight bench)
3 -
1. MFP
2. Food Scale
3. Libra
4. Running Shoes (+ attire)
5. Reusable food prep containers
6. Online grocery shopping5 -
1. MFP
2. Fitbit
3. Cucumbers!!!
4. Premier Protein drinks (30g P hardly any sugar!!)
5. Homemade jerky
6. Walking every day at lunch for 30 minutes9 -
1. Keeping a food diary has been the most helpful to me for learning portion sizes and eating patterns. I make better choices than I used to.
2. Food scale
3. Simple pedometer helps me to be more active throughout my day. It was inexpensive and doesn't do anything fancy but it helps.
4. You Tube workout videos. There is a great variety so I can try new things and not get bored.
5. MFP forums have lots of great information and supportive people. Reading all the stickied posts when I first started here was very helpful to me. When I have a problem I use the search feature here and usually find an answer.8 -
1. Orangetheory membership
2. Food scale
3. George Foreman grill
4. Hot sauce
5. Personal trainer6 -
MFP
Bathroom scale
Food scale & other food measurement tools
Protein bars, powders & drinks
Concept2 rower & weight lifting gear1 -
1. Instant Pot (makes meal-prepping so much easier)
2. Food scale (obvious)
3. Mio (makes water taste better)
4. Audible (makes walking so much more enjoyable)
5. Pickles (tasty, low-calorie snack)12 -
Fitbit
Kitchen scale
Bathroom scale
YouTube
Home and away gyms
Libra
Walmart and Aldis (good food finds there)
MFP (natch)
TJ Maxx for workout clothes and gear
Soundcloud4 -
The right running shoes for my stride (Brooks Adrenaline girl over here!)
Apps: MFP and the Studio app (treadmill runs)
Orangetheory & YMCA memberships
Food scale & body weight scale
Sparkling water
Stevia
Trader Joe's Chili Lime Pepper4 -
Tuna
Eggs
Cottage Cheese
Olives
Coffee
Portable and doable ^
Pasta
Bread, sourdough rye crackers
Yogurt
Fruit
Potatoes
^Makes all of this bearable and bare-able
Roasted and grilled vegetables
Balsamic reductions
Grilled chicken, steaks, burgers
Roasted turkey
Colman's Mustard
^Satiety
Large stand-on scale at the Veterinarian's for accuracy
Port of Entry - weigh myself in my car for fun
Digi food scale
Springloaded plastic scale for backup
Tape Measure
^Accountability
4 -
1. MFP
2. Fitbit
3. Spray oil
4. Cauliflower rice - this stuff is absolutely amazing! Definitely my new favourite food
5. Not getting a parking space when I moved jobs.6 -
- Access to a wide variety of delicious foods
- Sufficient cooking skills
- Living in a walkable town
- Food scale and bathroom scale
- Creativity, curiosity and an eye for details
5 -
1. MFP app
2. Green tea
3. Shiratake noodle + soups
4. Oil spray
5. Oven and everything baked / grilled rather than fried
I'm Asian and we eat a lot of rice or noodle, and by changing into Shirataki, I'm able to cut down more than 400 calories everyday!
6 -
1) MFP - using my cheap digital scale and logging food - Shockingly helpful
2) Vivoactive 3 - Garmin
3) Rescuing an active dog whilst living in an apartment and thus getting lots and lots of unstructured daily steps.
4) Communicating with other people on the journey
5) Signing up and paying for events to keep a short-term goal in mind.3 -
kommodevaran wrote: »
- Access to a wide variety of delicious foods
- Sufficient cooking skills
- Living in a walkable town
- Food scale and bathroom scale
- Creativity, curiosity and an eye for details
LMAO. It's Monday- what do you want from me?!13 -
I thought it was interesting most people listed food scale as one of theirs. I've lost 17 lbs so far and have never used a food scale. I just can't stand the thought of weighing my foods... its too obsessive for me and too constraining. For me its definitely
1. My dog (my running partner and my motivation!)
2. MFP
3. Protein shakes and One bars, (I really NEEDED protein omg!)
4. my body scale
5. Fiber one brownies (MMMmmm)
6. Cooking ability!16 -
This list has changed over the years, but for now:
1. MFP (kinda of a duh, but oh well)
2. Groud turkey tacos, its my favorite meal that always fits into my goals.
3. No breakfast
well, I ran out too fast, ill come back if I think of more 5 -
Yoga
Cottage cheese
My dog, who goes on lots of walks!
Eggs
Cauliflower rice2 -
1. Sparkling/Seltzer water - helps me not say yes to an alcoholic drink and not feel bored by regular water
2. My Sketchers - if I can't run, I can always take a few laps to walk
3. Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm - I get a box of local, in-season, organic fruits and veggies throughout the growing season - helps me get in all of my vegetables and find creative and tasty ways to cook all of them!
4. Instant Pot - same as the reasons above. Cheap, easy, TASTY meal prepping from one little machine!!
5. Kroger Click List - I can purchase everything I need on large shopping trips (with my handy dandy coupons)with no temptation for impulse or unhealthy buys.7 -
1. MFP (supportive friends/the forums to challenge and debate ideas)
2. Food scale
3. Fitbit Flex 2 & Polar H7 tracker
4. My job - I have a good deal of flexibility largely due to enforcing a strict Pareto policy. I only focus on things that matter.
5. Coffee4 -
1.) Daily Worshiping/Serving, REALLY & TRULY Trusting/believing in and leaning&depending on/seeking-following-obeying The ONLY True and Living God (The God of the bible, The God of Abraham, Issac, Jacob & Jesus) His Way, His Truth and His Life and humbling myself (and/or desiring Him to humble me) DAILY to follow His leading&guiding me in ALL things (including weight-loss).
2.) Eating whatever I want to (absolutely NO restriction on any foods/drinks), just eating smaller portions and less frequently thru-out the day/night.
3.) Lots of water drinking (because I now LOVE water and not for some "magical weight-loss reasons), a daily yummy smoothie, lots of herbal and green teas and nightly treat of at least cup or so of strawberries (or berries, watermelon, melons or some kind of YUMMY juicy fruit) if I don't have strawberries.
4.) Devouring lots of vegetables LOTS of a variety of yummy veggies cooked all kinds of ways--NOT because "they say" veggies are good for me, but because I now LOVE and CRAVE them and eat them like I used to eat all kinds of so-called junk. I still eat of so-called junk foods, but vegetables have become one of my favorite choices of "pig-out" foods.
5.) Weight loss tools: ( measuring tape, scale) using daily housework (dusting, sweeping, gardening, ironing and all kinds of cleaning/tidying up stuff and sometime dancing as I do these so-called daily "chores" as my daily exercise.36 -
1. Technology- Iwatch, MFP app, food scale
2. Protein- satiety makes all the difference, I get in a lot from food at each meal plus a whey shake after working out and casein pudding before bed
3. Workouts I love- if you don’t like it you won’t do it, top picks for me are walking my dog, training for half marathons, and bodybuilding/power lifting
4. Water- plain, with lemon, sparkling, no calorie flavored. I’m much better at staying on track when I get the water in
5. Rest- sleep is the best but also knowing when you’re body has had too much and you need to back off and just eat the ice cream4 -
1. Food Scale
2. Vitamix
3. Cauliflower Rice
4. Grill
5. Spice Rack!5 -
For me, definitely MFP, my Fitbit and my food scale. The bathroom scales are pretty important to me too!!!
Most helpful foods along this journey currently are.....
1. Fibre One Brownies (agree with the poster above..... mmmmm!!!!)
2. My homemade, health-ified dumpling soup (love it and have it a couple of times per week).
3. Sorbet. Yummy sweet treat that I substitute for ice cream! I buy individual serving sizes.
4. Eggs. Love them, in any shape or form!
5. Laughing cow cheese wedges. Great on crackers or with vege sticks.
6. Greek yoghurt. I have a berry one I buy. It’s amazing!!!!
These foods all pop up often for me, most weeks!4 -
1. Apple Watch
2. Gym membership
3. Food scale
4. Working for myself so flexibility
5. Bullet Journal4
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