I've been blogging for seven years about how I lost 100 lbs. (Left photo is 2014 and right is 2011). Now that I'm recovering from shoulder surgery, I find I've put some weight back on. So I'm back on my weight loss regimen I created to lose weight in 2014. Some of the diet food swaps were easy to make. I've incorporated them into my regular eating. weight. Others I won't touch ever again! Here's my list of hard-to-swallow (pun intended) diet foods. I've included less low-calorie, more palatable diet food swaps for a maintenance diet. Actually, second time around, I'm just using the maintenance diet food swaps.
Diet salad dressing: Yuck and double yuck. I know, salad digest better with some healthy fats. And I like salad dressing. But most commercial reduced-fat dressings taste like a salty pipe wrench. I make my own with acai vinegar, ginger, lime juice, a little blue agave syrup and Bragg's Liquid Amino.
Tofu and soy milk: I stopped eating these because the soy made menopause more difficult. Now I use avocado and high protein flax milk.
Diet sweeteners, syrup and jelly: I nixed Splenda for its metallic flavor and because Dr. Oz says fake sugar ramps blood sugar just like real sugar. For sweetener, I eat 70% cacao dark chocolate, low sugar raspberry jam, blue agave syrup or pure maple syrup in small amounts. honey. Spices like cinnamon, allspice, ginger, cardamom, nutmeg, coriander and cloves give food the impression of sweetness without the calories. Same with fruit.
Weight loss protein powder and diet protein bars: I've tried every brand, every flavor and they all taste like wallpaper paste flavored with fruit lip gloss. For smoothies, I use flax milk with banana or berries for sweetener. I make my own diet protein bars with dates, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, chia seeds, and natural peanut butter.
So these are some of the not-so-great diet foods. But the happy news is that there are tons of great tasting diet food swaps and I'll be sharing lots more as I go!
