Diet Saviors! please share yours.

We all share a common goal- to drop the pounds! Some of you are just starting out and some (like me) have been working on this for a loooong time.

What are your absolute diet saviors! The things/foods you just could'nt do this without? Perhaps with sharing these nuggets of information we can make food that bit tastier and losing that bit easier.

I will start:

My steamer- a MUST have for fish & Veggies

1 Cal spray oil- For roasting and stir frys. They do a caesar dressing version and an olive oil too. BIG savior for me :o)

Laughing Cow extra light- great for crackers, using instead of butter on sandwiches, mashing into potatoes, dipping cucumber sticks into.

Lean Pork and Turkey mince (ground)- I use these in place of beef/lamb for burgers, chillis, bolognese etc.. tastes like beef if you crumble in a couple of beef stock cubes whilst browning!

Turkey! (In general)- Turkey sausages, turkey ham, turkey bacon, turkey breast steaks. Super low fat, lean and low calorie.

Fat free plain yoghurt- To make tasty dips/ dressings like tzatziki, raita, lemon etc.. good with jacket potatoes, salads, sandwiches, ryvitas, barbequed meats, dip for veggie snacks etc...

Empty Coke Bottles!!!- 2 Litre bottles filled with water. they make GREAT free weights. SCULPT THOSE GUNS!!!

Right, now I feel I've imparted a little wisdom. Please do share yours :o)

Ditto on the Laughing Cow Cheese. That on two piece of 35 calorie bread makes my breakfast most days of the week. Super easy to pack for work too.

Spray butter. Awesome on veggies and rice for a whopping 0 calories!

Berries. Thanks to berries mid morning and mid afternoon I spend less than 100 calories a day on snacking! I had no idea what a huge difference this would make, shooting for a 1200 calorie day.

35 calorie bread. Two slices for 70 calories? A steal, I tell you.

Veggie Steamers. Veggies in the microwave for 7 minutes give you a 50 calorie +/- side dish.

- Spray butter - I use it on all of my veggies  --  and on my 100 calorie popcorn bags too!

- Frozen grapes - Wash them, place into a ziplock bag, and grab some whenever I feel the urge to snack. They take a while to eat because they're frozen, obviously, and are a nice sweet snack to curb my appetite.

- Spicy pickled anything - munching on these when I am really having hunger pains before dinner helps me out a lot. They are too spicy and vinegary to eat quickly, so it helps me from eating a lot in a small amount of time.

- Coffee - a cup in the afternoon with 1 flavored creamer usually fills my craving for sweet stuff.

- Hot sauce - I use it on everything (Dip my chicken in it, mix with lf ranch for veggies, drizzle on corn). I love it, but sometimes I go overboard. When my mouth is on fire it's harder for me to eat everything in sight!

- Individual steamer packets of veggies for the microwave - saves me a pot to clean up and it's perfectly portioned out!

skim milk and raw almonds.

that's about it.  i eat regular food, but those two tide me over when it's a couple of hours until my next meal.

Eggs, and cartons of egg whites (good breakfast/lunch and/or dinner!)

Water, water everywhere...

Video on Demand free workout videos

Fresh fruit and veggies on hand always, so I never have an excuse to eat garbage

Fat free organic yogurt

President's choice fibre first cereal

Ditto on the laughing cow, spray butter and turkey everything.  I didn't know 35 calorie bread existed!  I'll be looking for it on my next shopping trip!

Sugar free chocolate pudding cups and sugar free cool whip - what a delicious way to end the day, and only 80 calories!

Whole wheat pitas!  1/2 pita has only 75 calories.

GUM!!  Sugar free Extra has tons of different flavors that really do quiet my sweet tooth! (MOST of the time)  ;o)

sugar free jello and lite cool whip.

ohhh man have those things saved me some sanity!

Original Post by toch27:

Ditto on the laughing cow, spray butter and turkey everything. I didn't know 35 calorie bread existed! I'll be looking for it on my next shopping trip!

I don't know if it's available everywhere. The local bakery makes it here - Heiners, but it's available at all the grocery stores and Wal-Marts and Targets around here.

I remember the commercials from when I was little, "35, only 35 calories on you!" with people jumping on and off of scales with bunny slippers on. I thought it was a riot.

Morning Star soy crumbles.  They take on the taste of whatever you are cooking.  I use for Marinara, tacos, roasted veggie chilli.  Not good in soup though. 

Fiber One cereal and when I am in a pinch the bars.  (good for bfast on the go)

PLASTIC CONTAINERS! haha sounds weird....but I pre cook and individualize meals for work and when I stay at my b/fs house...or just when I need a fast meal. I couldn't have lost the last 20lbs w/o doing that!

Almonds! My new fave is Blue Diamond Oven Roasted (dry roasted) Sea Salted Almonds. YUM.....put them in indvidual plastic containers for portions!

Sugar free pudding....I have a horrid sweet tooth and this is my 'dessert' at the end of the night. throw in fruits for a special treat (cherries yum)

Tuna....sometimes my little one just wants mac n cheese or something normal (haha)...so I throw tuna on mine at the end for extra protein...or I'll throw it in a pita w dressing and it's a meal....or mix w low fat may n mustard and it's a sandwich haha.

RICE CAKES! I used to think they were too diet-food-ish. But I get diff flavors and then put natural peanut butter and then sugar free (no sugar added) jelly or jam....change the flavor of rice cake or jelly to keep interested. I eat about 1 a day! YUM haha.

and turkey sticks...a new fav. More protein, less cals and less sodium than regular beef sticks (a lot of people call it beef jerky, but these are the round sticks not the flat meat pieces!)

Crystal Light water packet thing in Pink Lemonade and Sunrise Orange.

Vanilla and Chocolate Protein Powder: 110 calories mixed with Classic Orange Crystal Light and some Ice Cubes..Awesomeee

Tuna in those pouches are a life saver on salads.

Apples...the most portable, delicious, cheap snack ever

Oikos Greek Yogurt...like 15 grams of protein and 110 calories

Frozen 4 oz salmon filets: cheaper than fresh and can keep on hand

Bagged Lettuce..for obvious reasons

Water first and foremost. I feel bad for some people who don't like water but I love water!

Almond Breeze Unsweetened Almond milk

Brewed Earl Grey tea/iced with loads of lemon

spicey/pickled things like another poster said such as sweet gherkins and taco sauce

Laughing cow swiss light cheese triangles - great on cinnamon raisen bread for breaky 2 slices with 2 cheese triangles 270 calories :), coffee 2 tsp of sugar and sugar free creamer.....All for about 330 calories. Throw in a hard boiled egg for protein and 400 calories for a very filling breakfast.

Fresh fruit n veggies; especially crisp apples

All bran, Kashi go lean and Kashi heart to heart, oatmeal

extra virgin olive oil

pepper jack cheese sticks

100 calorie packs of natural almonds

Low Sugar Oatmeal

Light N Fit Yogurt or Natural plain fat free yogurt

Light Tv Dinners (when you just don't want to cook. :P)

Chunk Light Tuna

Veggies and Fruits (of course)

Light Breads and Pita Breads

Thinly Sliced Chicken

Soy Crisps (for chip cravings.)

Brown Rice

Black Beans

SF pudding

SF gum

SF Jello with FF Whipped Cream

Coffee and Light Lattes

Lipton Diet Teas or Diet Snapple

Light Bagels and English muffins with FF Cream Cheese

Egg Beaters

FF cheese and FF cottage Cheese

Natural Peanut Butter

Light Soymilk

Light Cheese sticks

Turkey Deli meat for quick sandwiches

The list goes on. Haha. I love to eat!

Original Post by ithilien7:

Original Post by toch27:

Ditto on the laughing cow, spray butter and turkey everything. I didn't know 35 calorie bread existed! I'll be looking for it on my next shopping trip!

I don't know if it's available everywhere. The local bakery makes it here - Heiners, but it's available at all the grocery stores and Wal-Marts and Targets around here.

I remember the commercials from when I was little, "35, only 35 calories on you!" with people jumping on and off of scales with bunny slippers on. I thought it was a riot.

 Sara lee makes like a 45 cal WW bread. I love it!

Wow- there seems to be some great stuff in the US! I havent yet found any spray butter or 35 cal bread in the UK (though, I do eat the 45 cal WW bread).

I agree with you Vicki8seekers, plastic containers ARE a lifesaver. Especially since I live on my own. If I cook a big meal, I will dish out my portion and then freeze the rest in batches straight away to avoid the temptation of seconds...

White fish! which i love- and is soooo good for you and low cal.

Seafood/crab sticks- (which I know arent really made of crab, but soy proetin) are great to snack on for us savoury lovers. Only 7 cals a stick!

Spice Rubs- Great for plain fish/meat or veggies. I especially like teryaki, jerk or tandoori.

Living in Africa, I've got a lot less options to work with.  But here's what I've found is great:

My big teflon frying pan.  So glad I brought that.

My olive oil mister that my mom sent me, helps cut down on oil I use.

My Cutco knives I brought with me.  Since I dont' have a food processer, the knives here are horrible and nothing comes pre chopped including canned tomatoes, these are a life saver.

Oatmeal!

Lentils and black beans.  I eat beans at least once, often twice, and sometimes three times a day. 

Tea.  I'm a huge tea freak and I had my family send me pounds and pounds of Adigio loose leaf teas, greens and blacks, whites and oolongs and herbal teasans.  I drink hot or iced tea all the time, soooo yummy.  I do not like and will not drink large quantities of just "water" and tea is a savior to me.

Cabbage.  For about $2 US I can buy a kilo of cabbage and use it in stir fry, soup or a salad for the whole week.

Wine vinegar.  The flavor is pretty great and is like no calories, so I use it for many meals.

Cilantro - the only fresh spice we have here.  It goes in everything

Spices I've had sent from home, especially cumin, cajun and dill.  Don't need to use oil when I have good Pensey's spices!

Fresh fish.  Living on an island fish is usually abundant and cheap (like a kilo of fresh-right-out-of-the-ocean-sold-on-the-beac h tuna for about $3.00...that's like $1.45 a pound).  RIght now the ocean is weird so we're only getting mackerel, but next month we'll be back to having red snapper, grouper, tuna, serra, and amberjack nearly every day, all for less than the cost of the tuna I mentioned!

Pam Spray for all of my stir-fry meals

Hummus to dip my cucumber and carrots in

Light Vanilla Soymilk to add to my All Bran

Raw Almonds

Celestial Seasonings Cinnamon Apple Spice tea

Sugar free Pudding

Frozen Grapes :)

sugar free gum

plain oatmeal

apples, grapes, all veggies (esp. carrots)

wasa crackers

kellogs protein cereal/ kix cereal

veggie cheese

PB2 (life saver!!!)

Quakers puffed wheat cereal (50 calories per cup!!!)

35 calorie bread

spray butter

splenda on everything

sugar free popsicles (15 calories per pop)

100 calorie popcorn

Joseph's pitas (45 calorie mini pitas, or 60 calorie normal-sized pitas)

Tofutti sugar free fudge bars (30 calories per bar!)

Original Post by ameliaco:

- Spicy pickled anything - munching on these when I am really having hunger pains before dinner helps me out a lot. They are too spicy and vinegary to eat quickly, so it helps me from eating a lot in a small amount of time.

- Hot sauce - I use it on everything (Dip my chicken in it, mix with lf ranch for veggies, drizzle on corn). I love it, but sometimes I go overboard. When my mouth is on fire it's harder for me to eat everything in sight!

Ditto on the vinegars and hot sauces!

Hot sauce is my savior and it keeps me from taking that "one extra bite" when I'm full and still staring at a plate of food!

-Sunny

sjd,

how many calories are in the spray butter? Is it a certain amount per squirt or what?

Thanks