ObesityHelp

http://www.eatingdisordersblogs.com/healthy/2008/02/10-ways-to-chan.html

10 Ways to Change Your Eating

Although there are a host of things you can do to work toward “normal” eating, here are 10 ideas that are tried and true. Some will be easier than others, but all are necessary if you want food to stop being a hassle and to have a positive place in your life.

1.      Take a step back and reflect on the way you relate to food and how you could improve the relationship. Reflecting is a good way to break denial. Stay relaxed and don’t pressure yourself to change. Just identify a few changes you could make.

2.      Consider whether your eating patterns are simply bad habits or whether you have major underlying issues to work through—ie, are you used to munching while watching TV (habit) versus using food to avoid emotional pain (underlying issue).

3.      Develop compassion for yourself. Replace harsh judgments with being forgiving when you do something you perceive as wrong, eating or otherwise. Notice how it feels to be compassionate rather than judgmental about yourself.

4.      Surround yourself with people who support your “normal” eating goals. Make a list of those who do and those who don’t, then figure out how to work with or around people who might try to derail or sabotage you.

5.      Identify your life goals and be honest about whether you’re converting frustration and disappointment about not reaching them into eating or obsessing about food. Take one small step to make your life more satisfying.

6.      Eliminate diet think. If you’re aiming to become a “normal” eater, you have to think like one. Change starts in the brain, not at the dinner table.

7.      Consider personality traits that keep you stuck in dysfunctional eating—mistrust of people, perfectionism, all-or-nothing thinking, fear of failure and of making mistakes, disliking being dependent on people—and work on changing them.

8.      Decide to make peace with your body no matter what you weigh. Hating your body will NOT help you change your size. Body acceptance will.

9.      Think for yourself. Make “normal” eating such a priority that you allow yourself to eat differently than friends or family. Break with the herd and risk being authentic.

10. Recognize that recovering from food problems is a long and arduous road, but continue to find ways to hold onto hope and remain motivated—join a message board, talk to friends, keep a journal (not a food log!), or get into therapy.

 

Imagine what it would be like to accomplish all 10 ideas. If the process feels overwhelming, take a deep breath and give yourself time to achieve them. Reread this list daily and pick one or two areas to work on every day. Keep at it and you’ll get the payoff down the road in a better life and an improved relationship with food.

they looked so good...I needed someplace to copy them!

Miss Shell's Mock Mac and Cheese
12oz extra firm Tofu
2 cups shredded cheese
1/4 cup half & half
1/2 cup egg beaters

Fork tofu, add remaining ingredients (reserving 1/4 cup cheese for the top).  Spread in pam sprayed 8x8 baking dish.  Top with remaining 1/4 cup cheese.  Baked 350 over for 30-40 minutes or until it is bubbly and lightly browned on the top.   Cut into 8 squares.  

Serves 8

Nutritional Info
Servings Per Recipe: 8
Calories: 171.1
Total Fat: 12.2 g
Total Carbs: 1.4 g 
Dietary Fiber: 0.0 g
Protein: 12.8 g 



Fabulous Ricotta Fluff Stuff
1 large container of ricotta cheese
1 box  SF jello instant cheesecake pudding
dollop or two of sour cream (to taste)

Mix it all up and enjoy however you want it.  I love it with strawberries!  It's a great fruit dip or just eating straight out of the bowl. 

Fabulous Trail Mix
Base mix
1 jar peanuts
1 jar sunflower kernels
1/2 bag raisins or "berries and cherries"
1/2 small bag chocolate chips.
1 small bag macadamia pieces
1 small bag pecan halves

To this, I might add other nuts depending on what's on sale (walnuts, cashews, more pecans).  I've also varied the fruit, too, so play around.  Try to keep the proportions the same.  It's so easy to load up the sweet stuff, but it's the nuts that are so valuable here.  The balance makes the perfect sweet and salty snack and my daily breakfast.  If proportions are kept, it's about 32g of protein for 8 oz.

Fabulous Custard -- full of protein, easy on new post-ops ~delicious!
3 cups milk
3/4 cup splenda
4-5 eggs (depending on size)
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp nutmeg (optional)
handful of coconut (optional)

Preheat oven to 375'.  Beat eggs, nutmeg and vanilla together in baking dish.  On the stove, bring the milk and splenda just to a boil, then stir together to the eggs.  Bake for 25 min
NOTE:  when the milk is coming near to a boil, you'll get a little foam on the top.  Remove this foam before stirring into the eggs, or it will get a weird texture on top.

God Bless Paula Deen for flourless peanut butter cookies!

1 cup peanut butter
1 egg
1 tbsp vanilla
1 cup Splenda

Mix and roll into balls (about walnut sized) and flatten with fork dipped in Splenda.  Bake at 350 for 12 minutes.  

TIPS
-Do NOT overocok -- they will get crumbly since there's no gluten
-Peanut butter is naturally low sugar - the low sugar kind only reduces it by 1g per serving.
-If you're picky about artificial sweeteners, I've done a 3/1 with splenda and sugar to cut the after taste and it's good.  Presently, I do full-splenda in the cookies, and roll in regular sugar and that's good too.  I've also added semi-sweet chocolate chips to shake things up.