Tag: Food Taste

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Weight Loss Exercise

Making Diet Food Taste Good

There are three main reasons why most people don’t stick to their diets. For one, they get too hungry and look to “comfort food” to fill the void. Secondly, they don’t like the taste of diet food, and out of sheer boredom they look for their usual, “exciting” (aka fattening) cuisine. And finally, many people simply can’t afford healthy options, and so it’s back to the drive-thru dollar menu. So how can we overcome these obstacles? This article will attempt to provide an answer.

Sometimes when you start a diet it seems like the food sucks. There are plenty of reasons for this but I want to make sure that you can make diet food taste good. We will address three things that can be done immediately to not only identify “diet food” that will have your taste buds thanking you, but to also fill up your tummy without emptying your wallet. I personally believe that you deserve the best of all worlds… health, happiness, satisfaction, sensation, and affordability. So let’s make it happen!

Making Diet Food Taste Good

Making Diet Food Taste Good

Making Diet Food Taste Good

1. Go natural. The closer you can get your diet to 100% natural, the better off you will be and the better the food will taste. This means instead of buying a frozen or prepackaged meal, do some actual produce shopping. Buy fresh, lean meats. And don’t be afraid to prepare meals yourself. There are many diet plans out there that rely almost solely on you “eating like a caveman.” When you eat like this, it won’t even feel like you’re eating diet food!

2. Vary your flavors and textures. One reason that people typically hate diet food is that not all flavors and textures are being represented in their meals. People like things to be chewy, salty, juicy, sweet, starchy, meaty, crunchy, spicy, flaky, and a vast array of other things.

Instead of fighting this natural desire for variety, embrace it. Incorporate “heavy” foods like mushrooms and avocados, stick to lean meats such as chicken, turkey, and fish. Try spaghetti squash for a sweet, hearty crunch. Sprinkle some sea salt on green apple slices to create a different but good taste. Let your own imagination serve you well.

3. Buy in bulk and clip coupons! The greatest way to save money on your grocery bill is to go into the store with a plan, a budget, and a pocket full of coupons! Seriously, I can’t stress enough how much you can actually save yourself when you buy big family packs of meat, take advantage of “buy one get one free” offers, and use coupons.

You may also want to check out the meat department’s “discounted meat” selection. If the freshness looks questionable, don’t bother… but I have found many, many great bargains on healthy “diet food” just by taking advantage of clearance items. Just remember to invest in some freezer bags and fill your freezer to capacity!

These three steps can truly go a long way in making diet food not only a heck of a lot more enjoyable, but a practical and affordable alternative to the garbage that continually contributes to our obesity, heart disease, stroke, and cancer epidemics. You can really make diet food taste good but you just have to work at making sure you buy and prepare it well.

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General Weight Loss Tips

Food History: The Founding Foodies

Since our trip to Monticello a week and a half ago, I’ve been a little consumed with all things Thomas Jefferson. I’ve watched two documentaries (though I’ve fallen asleep- a habit of mine), and am now reading The Founding Foodies by Dave DeWitt.


I’m very interested and slightly obsessed with knowing how and what people ate. Did food taste the same? Where did they get their food? I know that Thomas Jefferson was a big fan of ice cream, wine (and making wine jelly), macaroni and cheese and ate more vegetables than meat. During colonial times pigs, followed by fish were the main sources of protein.

I’m not someone who believes that we should eat exactly like our ancestors (yes, another contradiction) mainly because food wasn’t regarded as it is today. They ate what they had access to and just didn’t have the information that we have today. Food history, like all history, is complex. It weaves and turns and sometimes, like now, it just doesn’t always make sense. Though, I will say that I’m even more convinced that the modern overeating/fat issue derives from having too much convenience food. It’s easier now to pack away the food than it was a hundred or more years ago.

I don’t believe that history makes something authentic. It’s easy to get caught up in the “good ol’ days” mentality. That unless people were doing it, listening to it, or eating it a hundred years ago means we should be doing the exact same things today. I wouldn’t trade my modern freedoms for the past, but I will happily pick and choose lessons from another time.

Before, if you wanted ice cream you had to find a source of cream which wasn’t always available. Then you had to find sugar which was heavily taxed at certain points in history. And then you had to churn it (or in Jefferson’s case, have it churned for you) with a hand crank. And then after all that, you probably didn’t have a whole gallon to yourself.  There were guests, and children who were vying for a scoop too. It’s not ice cream that is the problem. It’s the abundance and ease to which ice cream comes today. I could plop down $5 at my local grocer and get a decent pint, or gallon of ice cream depending on my mood. And if there’s  a sale, I could buy one and get one free.

Not to mention that most of the cheaper varieties come from abused and medicated cows. The sugar is replaced with corn (did you know that Benjamin Franklin loved corn and may have started the corn crop popularity in America? He often made beer from corn sugar among other things.)

This is what Michael Pollen means, in Food Rules, when he says if you want junk food, make it yourself. This is why I’ve often said to people what you see me eat, isn’t the reason for my weight. A normal portion of pretty much anything won’t make you fat. My excess weight comes from the indulgences you don’t see. The abundance that is hard to control. Because it is so easy to just eat and eat and eat. It’s cheap.

What if we had to source the ingredients for all the food that we overeat today? What if I had to kill a cow and clean it every time I wanted a burger? What if I had to grow the potatoes, harvest them, cut them, fry them every time I wanted a french fry?  Or milk a cow, skim the cream, find the sugar, hand churn the ice cream? It would take real work and maybe a better appreciation for food when actual work is involved with consumption.

Taking a peak into history helps shift my perspective. And I’m left wondering how I can apply some of these principles to my modern life? Leave some of the stuff in the past, like heavy drinking, because I know better, but picking up the extra work involved with eating.

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Other updates. I finally lost my water weight and am thinking I’m going to add another 2-3 pound loss this week. I’ve gotten better at moderation, even with a couple of days off on the weekends. I’ve found that I can have moderate, portioned treats on the weekend without feeling guilty or totally derailing my efforts. More on all of this time come.

I’m going through a few personal/career changes, that are all very good at the moment. This means that I won’t be able to post or analyze my food and exercise consumption like I would like in the next month. This could be a good thing! I will still post when I can, and update my weight losses, but I won’t be able to document every time I exercise or eat eggs for breakfast. Just know that I’m still around doing what I need to do, I just have a little less internet time until things settle in around September.