Wednesday, March 29, 2023

How I lost 100 pounds with diet food swaps for childhood comfort foods

Hello my friends! This blog explores how I lost 100 pounds without gastric bypass surgery. I'm coming up on my 10 anniversary of weight loss and began this year issuing a series of monthly challenges. This month is March to Weight Loss. Now I'm not one to drop a gauntlet and run. I'm sharing ways to lose weight and improve general health. 

Part of how I lost 100 pounds was to rethink comfort foods but also to reimagine my personal comfort foods with low calorie diet food swaps. First a word on where we get our ideas of comfort foods. For most of us, it's childhood. Meals enjoyed as a family, mom's or dad's home-cookin', favorite ethnic dishes related to your background, these often become our cravings in adulthood. 

Now comfort foods implies a good thing: food that makes us feel secure, loved, at home. However, unfortunately, while they may taste great they often high density calorie overload. So not so much feeding our souls as our addictions. When I was young, very few people were overweight. No thought was given to low sodium, low sugar or lowfat. 

Portions were also smaller and getting back to that portion control was a big part of how I lost 100 pounds. But to lose weight I also had to go into calorie deficit (eating fewer than I was used to eating). So calorie restricting on the 1200 calorie diet became my weight loss method of choice. But I also enjoyed those favorite childhood comfort foods by creating diet food swaps. Here are some. 

Keto waffles with blue agave syrup. Waffles have always been a favorite for me. Fake yellow Eggos with Mrs. Butterworth syrup, I'm a happy camper. But as an overweight adult, no. So I switched to high protein keto pancake mix with light olive oil based butter and blue agave syrup. Now I've got nutritious satisfying waffles that help me burn fat and boost metabolism. 

Other diet food swaps include light or keto bread for toast and grilled cheese. And speaking of grilled cheese, one simple diet food swap is to sub mozzarella for higher fat cheese. Same great taste for 30-40% fewer calories. For mac and cheese, swap Velveeta or cream cheese for blended cottage cheese  sauce and add in keto favorite parmesan cheese or feta. Use this for alfredo as well. 

BBQ and sloppy joes are another favorite childhood comfort food. I grind chicken breasts and use for burger. Then I make my own BBQ sauce with peach pineapple salsa, Worchester sauce, a smidge of molasses, garlic, onion, dijon or stone ground mustard, lime juice and liquid smoke (celery salt to taste). This diet food swap BBQ sauce is so much more flavorful than the too-sweet bottled stuff. 

Keep reading this blog on how I lost 100 pounds without gastric bypass for more diet food swaps! And stay tuned for the April weight loss challenge! 



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