[This post is in progress, but wanted to get some of the information “out there”]
Recently, I started dieting and have lost 40+ pounds in 5 months without exercise. My one issue all along has been trying to feel full and having snack options to eat like I usually do. Which is A LOT.
I have a dry erase board on my fridge that I use to keep track of calories. Trying to keep it under 1500/day. Here’s a helpful trick – if something is under 50 calories, round up to 50. If under 100, round up to 100, if under 150, round up. You get it? Once it gets above 300, I round up to 500. This helps you out if you slip up.
So, because everyone loves diet advice, LOL, here’s my two cents:
Pickles – As many as I want! 0 calories
I don’t like the flavor of kosher dill, but do like genuine dill and Mt. Olive’s half a pickle is 0 calories. The store brand was 5 calories. So I use these whenever I feel like I want something quick to just eat something. The side effect is that after you eat one, the taste in your mouth prevents wanting to put something sweet in there.
I grind these up to add to other things, like ground beef to make a pickle Patty, which cuts off at least some of the calories. Or put in tuna to add some heft.
Juice -Ocean Spray Diet Cran Pineapple – 10 calories for 16oz
It says a serving is 8 oz, but no one drinks that small of an amount. At 8 oz, it states 5 calories. Yum!
I bought some popsicle molds and used this juice in them instead of the coconut bars below. WalMart Grocery has molds for .50.
They even had some emoji molds that I am going to show in a future post. Poop emoji. Lol
Milk – two options 90 or 25
I was drinking Calorie Countdown milk at 90 calories per cup, but then I just found that cashew milk has only 25!
Cereal – 60 calories/cup
Fiber One (store brand as well!) This is a very good “fill you up” cereal. For fruity flavors, maybe add Walden Farms “jelly” (see below)
Eggs – 25 calories/egg/3 tablespoons
Great Value Egg Makers shaves off 75 calories per egg! Added a bit of chicken broth instead of milk or water to give a more savory flavor.
Sandwiches – Tortilla – 50 calories
Just found this: Flour tortillas for only 50 calories! Since you use only one of these to make a “sandwich”, you have cut the bread calories in half. This brand was the lowest I saw, and came in regular and spinach.
Bread – 40/slice
The lowest bread I found was Nature’s Own Life Wheat at 40 per slice. Low carb/calorie tortilla have 50, but you only use 1 per “sandwich”!!
Ham – 30 calories
Great Value Cooked Ham Water Added. 97% fat free. Rectangle cut pack
Cheese – 35 calories
Great Value Fat Free Singles
Ice Cream – 90 calories for 1/2 cup
Breyers no sugar added
Frozen Fruit/popsicle/juice bars – 60/bar or <5 calories for molds you make yourself
Coconut made with coconut milk and pineapple pieces. 60
Or.. just added: Use the 5 calorie/8oz Ocean Spray Juice in your own popsicle molds. More intense flavor than the pre-made popsicles!
Butter/Oil/Grease – 0 calories (4/second)
Store version of canola store butter spray shows 0 calories for a microsecond spray. So I will guess it’s probably 4/second
Chips – 130 for 38!
Garden Veggie Straws seem to be the lowest and have saved me from myself.
Jello
Healty Choice Meals – 180-300/meal frozen
The lowest was Beef Merlot at 180 calories, so I got all the store had. These helped while eating other things to feel full. These have come in a steamer bowl version, which doesn’t have the dessert option. The caramel apple dessert is soooo good!
Beer – 55 calories/can
Budweiser Select 55. Tastes kind of watery, but it’s ok.
Smuckers sugar free apricot preserves –
10 calories per Tablespoon
Added this into my cereal and ice cream!
Mustard has 0 calories
Walden Farms Products
When I got serious about the diet, I bought quite a few of the Walden Farms products. They are touted as no calorie (sometimes low), so if you can stomach these, they might satisfy the cravings. The cheapest place I have gotten these is on VitaCost.com. Look through their coupon section. There is one flavor that runs through every single product, so if you don’t like that one flavor, you won’t like any of their food. It is a very chemical taste. I found that I couldn’t eat much of any of their products.
Walden Farms Peanut Spread – 0 calories
I got a few of these thinking I would be able to eat the whole jar in one sitting. Wrong. That… one weird flavor… can’t place it, but this particular item was what caused me to have an aversion to that flavor. I shoved a spoon into the watery mixture and took a large bite. AVOID doing this. Here is how I can handle this. Ultra tiny amount on *toasted* 40 calorie slice of bread almost tastes like peanut butter. Add the “jelly” (below) in an ultra tiny amount as well.
Walden Farms “jelly”
These all have that weird flavor as well, and I would not classify this as jelly, it is jello. That’s the consistency. It sort of tastes like jello. The grape was something I couldn’t stomach. The blueberry and strawberry were ok in ultra tiny doses.
Walden Farms Creamer/”milk” – 0 calories
While on the quest for low calorie milk, I got the bright idea to use the NO calorie creamer. I ordered two versions. Regular and sweet cream. This was one product that I was really impressed by. The sweet cream was extremely good, as I miss the sugar that was a staple of my life. So, to make NO CALORIE MILK, I used a cup of ice cold water (pref bottled water) and 2-3 tablespoons of the creamer. More or less to get the consistency you like. Wasn’t bad. These two creamers should help out. I envision pouring the sweet cream over the 90 calorie ice cream.
Low/No Carb
So when I felt like I reached a plateau in my weight loss, I remembered how much I enjoyed the low carb diet I did in my 20s. I would go to buffets and eat as much meat as I could get. Lost weight on that, but it came back immediately after I went back to carbs. This time, though, I figured going back to low calorie would not have the same outcome.
Bought a crapload of meat and cheese and the first morning I cooked a pound of bacon and mixed with a pound of hamburger and ate off of it the whole day. Felt sick. Sick enough that on the second day, I didn’t want bacon or hamburger. So I cooked steak. I took out the Walden Farms Steak sauce (which is no carb as well as no calorie) and before pouring it on the steak, I took a tiny taste. That chemical flavor tasted like the peanut butter. Needless to say, I did not use it on the steak. By this time I wanted sugar badly.
I got heavy whipping cream (you have to look at the labels, as almost all packaged stuff had some carbs and I was going for NO CARBS. Put some in a Big Gulp cup and used the hand mixer to make whipped cream. Sprinkled some jello sugar free peach and orange (unprepared) into the whipped cream and was in heaven! So good. I decided to make NO CARB ICE CREAM from this. Just put it in the freezer! If I had popsicle molds, it would have been perfect. It froze a bit harder than what I wanted and would have been better on a stick.