You can eat as much as you like with fresh veggies. You just don't want to stretch your stomach to make you crave a large portion of something else. People have to eat different things based on their blood type and how their body functions. There's no such thing as a diet that works for all. I have to have meats. If I don't, I end up at Burger King or something getting the biggest burger they have if I went more than a week without having it at home. My husband can live off beer and cheese if I let him. He's also a vegetarian, which makes my diet even harder.
Your meats aren't the issue, keep on that. Fresh veggies are never an issue. But when you get into your canned goods, even the ones you did yourself... you really need to watch the portions on that. A good portion would be like an 8th from a normal sized mason jar.
Sauces are bad too. How many women do you see at the salad bar drenching their "diet" salad in range and bacon bits? Counter productive. Serving size is 2 tablespoons, and look how fattening that stuff is with just that little serving. Not even with good fats. And sodium will bloat you faster than anything and make you feel like you gained 40 pounds or something.
All the oils, most are good too, in small amounts. Like if you need it in the pan and want a light covering, actually measure out the two tablespoons. Don't pour it until it looks "right".
Butter and cheese.... needs to go away or you need to really watch the portion. An actual per-the-label portion is tiny. Just enough to make you want more.
Home baked stuff is great, but really break down your ingredients and see if there is a healthier alternative to use. I made brownies with olive oil instead of shortening like the box said. Still got my brownies from a box, but no butter or shortening. My biscuit recipe calls for like a whole stick or butter. I just haven't made them. Watch those cakes, cookies, pie crusts... all of it.
A lot of the "all spice" has loads of sodium. Custom mix your spices to avoid the salt.
Don't worry about counting calories. Watch the portion size, eat frequently, tiny bits. Nuts are high in fat, you need some of those fats. But measure out what you're going to eat and not pick them from a bowl as you go. A thick layer of peanut butter on a piece of bread exceeds the serving size and almost doubles what the label says. I checked! The way I make a peanut butter and honey sandwich is all kinds of wrong.
Don't count anything, just measure your portions and set them out before starting. Bags and containers are awful things. Same with popcorn. I'll eat the whole bag I made if it's in front of me. And not even realize it until it's gone.
Salami, pepperoni, bacon, bacon bits, soy burgers, soy sauce, ranch and similar, ect... all things you can eliminate and dramatically reduce because of the sodium and the fat content.
Did you know that in pre made low fat meals they'll use paper as a filler? Yum. Gives new meaning to "tastes like card board".
I don't mess with anything fake or reduced fat. It's either good for me or it isn't and I try to stick with what's good for me. Like when you make bread and it says add sugar. You can add fake stuff. Go ahead with the sugar. Or cook and mash sweet apples, use twice the amount of sugar... like if it calls for 2 tables spoons of sugar, use 4 of the apples. ta-da, sweetened right up. Naturally. Not fake.
I found this mayo at Trader Joes, it's so not hellman's, but I got used to it and it's way better for me. Sort of tart. Doesn't even have not one preservative in it.
I sit on my butt all day, I do that every winter. But I haven't gained any weight from where I was in August. I could stand to lose 15-20 pounds, but I need to move around for the last little bit. But I've lost and kept off 20 pounds for the last 4 years.
The best meal I have made so far has been Spaghetti Squash Lasagna. OMG. I load it with garlic, and all kinds of veggies, from spinach and tomato to sweet onions. It tastes sinful, but it really isn't. I don't add salt. Use only Olive Oil, Garlic Powder, Basil, and a bit of Cilantro. The way I was raised, I thought squash only went with cinnamon, sugar, and butter. Wrong!
Think of cooking as what they did before processing was available. Flour, for example. They didn't have really fine, really white, flour. Bleached white flour is hardly a "whole grain" anywhere, anything good about it was removed. It's about as healthy as white rice from Asian fast food. Flour... needs to be a grain that was crushed. That's all, no further processing. My dad has been making his bread from flax seed because it has more nutrients than wheat. So he said anyways, I haven't researched that.
When you put up preserves, really watch your recipes. Figure out what you can reduce or eliminate from the recipe and still come up with a good product. If you can't, you'll have to change your portion size from "That looks small" to "OMG tiny! I'll starve!".
Fish is great stuff, just know where it comes from so you can get an idea of what it's lead and mercury levels are. And don't salt it, use any non-sodium spice you like. Trust me, it's hard to put down the salt shaker, but you can do it! At least for me it was, salt, butter, and ranch were hard to get away from.
Since exercise isn't something you can do right now, you really have to pay attention to portions and what you're actually eating on a day to day basis. You can make some changes once you can start moving around more, but you have to do your meal plans for no additional exercise. Every single diet plan out there is designed to use exercise. Yours won't be. Don't even look at a diet that mentions the importance of exercise, since it takes that combination to be effective. Look at how to eat without the need for exercise since that's the position you're in.
Your meats aren't the issue, keep on that. Fresh veggies are never an issue. But when you get into your canned goods, even the ones you did yourself... you really need to watch the portions on that. A good portion would be like an 8th from a normal sized mason jar.
Sauces are bad too. How many women do you see at the salad bar drenching their "diet" salad in range and bacon bits? Counter productive. Serving size is 2 tablespoons, and look how fattening that stuff is with just that little serving. Not even with good fats. And sodium will bloat you faster than anything and make you feel like you gained 40 pounds or something.
All the oils, most are good too, in small amounts. Like if you need it in the pan and want a light covering, actually measure out the two tablespoons. Don't pour it until it looks "right".
Butter and cheese.... needs to go away or you need to really watch the portion. An actual per-the-label portion is tiny. Just enough to make you want more.
Home baked stuff is great, but really break down your ingredients and see if there is a healthier alternative to use. I made brownies with olive oil instead of shortening like the box said. Still got my brownies from a box, but no butter or shortening. My biscuit recipe calls for like a whole stick or butter. I just haven't made them. Watch those cakes, cookies, pie crusts... all of it.
A lot of the "all spice" has loads of sodium. Custom mix your spices to avoid the salt.
Don't worry about counting calories. Watch the portion size, eat frequently, tiny bits. Nuts are high in fat, you need some of those fats. But measure out what you're going to eat and not pick them from a bowl as you go. A thick layer of peanut butter on a piece of bread exceeds the serving size and almost doubles what the label says. I checked! The way I make a peanut butter and honey sandwich is all kinds of wrong.
Don't count anything, just measure your portions and set them out before starting. Bags and containers are awful things. Same with popcorn. I'll eat the whole bag I made if it's in front of me. And not even realize it until it's gone.
Salami, pepperoni, bacon, bacon bits, soy burgers, soy sauce, ranch and similar, ect... all things you can eliminate and dramatically reduce because of the sodium and the fat content.
Did you know that in pre made low fat meals they'll use paper as a filler? Yum. Gives new meaning to "tastes like card board".
I don't mess with anything fake or reduced fat. It's either good for me or it isn't and I try to stick with what's good for me. Like when you make bread and it says add sugar. You can add fake stuff. Go ahead with the sugar. Or cook and mash sweet apples, use twice the amount of sugar... like if it calls for 2 tables spoons of sugar, use 4 of the apples. ta-da, sweetened right up. Naturally. Not fake.
I found this mayo at Trader Joes, it's so not hellman's, but I got used to it and it's way better for me. Sort of tart. Doesn't even have not one preservative in it.
I sit on my butt all day, I do that every winter. But I haven't gained any weight from where I was in August. I could stand to lose 15-20 pounds, but I need to move around for the last little bit. But I've lost and kept off 20 pounds for the last 4 years.
The best meal I have made so far has been Spaghetti Squash Lasagna. OMG. I load it with garlic, and all kinds of veggies, from spinach and tomato to sweet onions. It tastes sinful, but it really isn't. I don't add salt. Use only Olive Oil, Garlic Powder, Basil, and a bit of Cilantro. The way I was raised, I thought squash only went with cinnamon, sugar, and butter. Wrong!
Think of cooking as what they did before processing was available. Flour, for example. They didn't have really fine, really white, flour. Bleached white flour is hardly a "whole grain" anywhere, anything good about it was removed. It's about as healthy as white rice from Asian fast food. Flour... needs to be a grain that was crushed. That's all, no further processing. My dad has been making his bread from flax seed because it has more nutrients than wheat. So he said anyways, I haven't researched that.
When you put up preserves, really watch your recipes. Figure out what you can reduce or eliminate from the recipe and still come up with a good product. If you can't, you'll have to change your portion size from "That looks small" to "OMG tiny! I'll starve!".
Fish is great stuff, just know where it comes from so you can get an idea of what it's lead and mercury levels are. And don't salt it, use any non-sodium spice you like. Trust me, it's hard to put down the salt shaker, but you can do it! At least for me it was, salt, butter, and ranch were hard to get away from.
Since exercise isn't something you can do right now, you really have to pay attention to portions and what you're actually eating on a day to day basis. You can make some changes once you can start moving around more, but you have to do your meal plans for no additional exercise. Every single diet plan out there is designed to use exercise. Yours won't be. Don't even look at a diet that mentions the importance of exercise, since it takes that combination to be effective. Look at how to eat without the need for exercise since that's the position you're in.
