jessieinblue Member

True. Also, you actually need to thoroughly chew whole grains before swallowing them. This will allow your body to proper digest them and use all the nutrients.

Mine's a little low right now: raw almonds, chocolate covered sunflower seeds, and a grapefruit. :P

I do I do :D I get five servings of fruit a day on average, and most days I also have a HUGE raw garden salad. If not, I make sure to get my veggies elsewhere. The only fruit I've tried and don't like is cranberries . . . only vegetables are beets and raw celery.

Only 245 over on calories, but 1,171 over on sodium :P Though I have my sodium set low (1,500) so really I didn't do too badly :) Had to resist the cupcakes and chips and such.

I crave blueberries like nobody's business. Year-round. I cannot wait for June when the local orchards open up the pick-your-owns again.

Thanks for explaining! I knew that "puff pastry" meant junk, but I was still a little surprised to see the trans fat.

Yeah, who knows. What bugs me about this, though is those stupid decimal rules. Can't we just make it black and white? Honestly. Yeah, the "modified milk ingredients" stood out to me. I'm definitely not eating any of these :P

True statement. I've read so much about Monsanto's practices, and the more I read the more disgusted I get.

Are you aware that the United States produces enough food for every American to have over 3,000 calories a day? I think the exact number is around 3,600. As far as fertilizer, to be honest, I would rather have vegetables grown in compost than vegetables grown in chemicals and sewage sludge. I don't use *any* pesticides or…

Would that trans fat be labeled on the box though? You make a good point; that's why I ask. I can't actually find any of the usual trans fat markers in the ingredients lists. PUFF PASTRY: Enriched flour, butter, water, glaze (water, liquid whole egg, egg yolk, corn syrup solids, modified milk ingredients, salt), salt,…

Actually, certified organic fruits and vegetables are not the same as conventional (or "standard") fruits and vegetables. Organic produce is grown without the use of harmful pesticides.

If the ingredient list didn't include sugar, I might try it. Edit: Actually, that isn't true. I wouldn't try it either way, because the fat that comes with a peanut is good fat. Really I'm just bothered that they had to include sugar. I guess otherwise it would taste disgusting.

It takes enormous willpower. I didn't think I had it either. The biggest thing that helped me was telling my family members (the ones I lived with), my older students, and my closest coworkers exactly what I was doing and asked them to keep me on track. A couple people were especially good -- one of the senior students…

Thanks Jen!

Pretty sure those are rolled oats. Steel cut oats will be labeled as such.

I agree about restaurant salads. I always ask dressing on the side, no croutons, and do the fork dip thing. That at least partially salvages them. Lumping all salads into one category isn't right though. I love a huge homemade salad with tons of greens and whatever other veggies are lying about. Add just a little cheese…

Hands down, The Cheesecake Factory is THE worst chain restaurant. Anywhere. They recently added one to the local mall here, and I cringe every time I walk past it and say a little prayer for everyone in there. A friend of mine recently went on a business lunch there and told me afterward that she ended up eating everything…

This is how I did it: I told myself I wasn't going to eat ANYTHING I knew was not good for me. Cold turkey on all junk. Did that for about two months, then my tastes and cravings had changed enough that I could reintroduce small treats and keep losing weight.

Frozen mixed veggies, salad greens, blueberries and/or clementines, almonds, and organic butter top my list. I pretty much must have those things in the house at all times :P

Great post, Beth. Prairie: I would suggest continuing to lower your sodium goal by increments. Now that you've managed to keep it around 2500 for awhile, try lowering it to 2300 and keeping it under that. Set a goal to eventually get it down to 1500. Best of luck.

I disagree with a previous poster about avoiding local restaurants. You might not be able to get an exact calorie count (or as exact as possible) but supporting local places is so much better than feeding your money to the big chains, and their ingredients are almost certainly more local, fresher and tastier. That being…

I could turn this into a really long answer, but I think it will be more effective kept short: Can you lose weight eating those foods? Yes. Can you sustain an active lifestyle, cultivate good habits, and, most importantly, achieve real health and longevity eating those foods? Absolutely not.

Honey is actually pretty amazing. It's full of antioxidants and boosts the immune system. It is sugar, so you don't want to eat it all day, but a tablespoon is a decent amount for only sixty calories. The taste of agave nectar or any powdered sweeteners cannot hold a candle.

1. Stop going to McDonald's. 2. Eat less packaged, processed junk. 3. Track your sodium. 4. Get at LEAST 1200 calories a day -- after exercise.

Would you be comfortable with making your diary public so we can make suggestions? :)

Find a 100% whole wheat bread with no enriched flour, no HFCS, and no hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated vegetable oils, and you'll be good to go. Bonus points for organic. :)

Water, chamomile tea during cold months, and homemade lemonade in the summer :)

A knife isn't a gadget, but I have this nice big paring knife that I use almost every day to cut up fruit. It works like a dream and only cost 99 cents! My favorite proper gadget is definitely the garlic press.

I am usually feeling decadent enough to sautee mine in half oil, half butter. They are like candy, seriously. But I've never tried it with shiitake.

I think baby bella and cremini are the same thing . . . But thanks for the suggestion, I will check out the site :)