Most of us can’t stick to a diet, we try and we succeed for a while, but ultimately we just give up because it was to restrictive.  I have found through this journey with my husband’s weight loss that eating well is better than saying it is a diet.  I said in one of my earlier posts that I would map out how we did his extreme weight loss and how he is staying within that weight.

When we started we made a list of all the foods that he could have and the cooking methods that we had to follow.  It is pretty simple cooking method because almost all his food is broiled.  I have two things that I bake and one crock pot recipe, and the rest is broiled. We also decided how many calories he would be able to have, if you do the surgery they limit your calories to between 600 to 800, so you really have to be able to get as much food in you for those calories as you can.  It is difficult but I am here to tell you it can be done and done well

Our list of foods is as follows, chicken, ground turkey, fish (all kinds), mostly frozen vegetables, canned green beans, bananas, cantaloupe, and crystal light to drink.  In the session we went to for the surgery we were told that only crystal light was acceptable for the water consumption needed for the weight loss success.

One big help on our journey was to plan meals and take our vitamins and supplements.  When you set down and plan a meal, get the calories for all the foods and then you can see if you are staying within your calories count. I would plan my meals and look up the calories and limit him to just what I had on my list.  He would have a piece of broiled chicken and some vegetables for lunch, plus all the drink he wanted, for supper he could have a piece of turkey meat loaf a bag of steamed vegetables and a banana, plus a large glass of crystal light.  For a snack he could have either a cup of chicken bouillon or a rice cake.

All my chicken dishes are with skinless and boneless breast or thighs, seasoned with lemon pepper and garlic salt and broiled. My meatloaf is with ground turkey a pepper medley (red, green peppers and onions), two eggs, oatmeal, a packet of beefy onion soup mix and your choice of spices.  Mix well and put in un-greased baking dish, add ketchup to top and bake at 350 for one hour.  My husbands favorite vegetable is my green beans, I open three cans of green beans and put them in a large pan and I add water to just come to top of beans and then add one packet of beefy onion soup mix and bring to a boil for about ten minutes.

I hope that this post inspires you to try eating right and not dieting, enjoy your food, sit down at a well lite table and eat slowly and talk to your loved ones.  If we look forward to our meal and the ones we share it with then it is easier to stick with it.  If you eat alone then use the time to relax and meditate on your accomplishments of the day, take time to enjoy your food and then call a friend and have a relaxing conversation.  I would say having to eat alone is probable the primary cause of weight gain, because we don’t take time to prepare a good meal simply because we say who cares.  Take pride in yourself and make yourself a good meal that you can be proud of and proud of the weight loss.

I think I am going to take this blog in a new direction, talking about diets and weight loss is really done and redone, so I am bringing a new look to an old blog.  Pray that you will join me on this new journey.