Dieting is the hardest thing about losing weight.  Before I started my current effort, I had no idea how many calories were in the foods I was eating.  Figuring out how much I was actually putting into my body every day was an important first step.  

There are lots of ways to do that.  The study gave us copies of one of those little pocket books with huge lists of foods and their nutritional infomation.  I have an app for my ipod touch that is really helpful.  (I use MyNetDiary, but there are a lot of them out there.)  

My biggest issue was portion size.  I measure things, now.  I don’t have a food scale, so I have to estimate lots of things, especially meat, but I think I’m getting better with practice.  

I’m lucky that I tend to like healthy food–I’m a big fan of most vegetables.  I was just eating too much of everything.  

However, just eating less of the same foods isn’t really helpful if it leaves you hungry all of the time, so I thought I’d share some of the things that have become staples in my diet.  ^_^  Just in case any of you are interested.  If you want to share you own heathy ideas in the comments, I’d love to hear them!

I’m a big fan of raw carrots.  They’re one of the few vegetables that I can just dig into without any sort of condiment or anything.  I eat a lot of apples, too.  I’m a big fan of fruit in general, really.  

Oven roasted vegetables are another of my favorites.  And they’re super easy.  Just turn the oven to 350, spread the green beans or asparagus or thin-sliced sweet potatoes or whatever you fancy on a cookie sheet, give them a light spray with cooking oil (or coat them with your favorite oil if you prefer, but the cooking spray lets you get a lighter coating) dust on your favorite seasoning (I like cajun spice mixes or garlic salt) and roast them till they’re cooked enough for your liking.  

I eat cereal for breakfast almost every morning.  Kashi GoLean is really good, and super good for you.  And raisin bran is pretty dang awesome.  

I’m also a big fan of Kashi’s granola bars, especially their GoLean cinnamon coffee cake ones.  They’re great for days when I don’t get a lunch break and need to have something to get me through the day.  

Fiber Plus’s coconut caramel fudge bars taste like Samoas.  I love them.  

Dannon’s fat free yogurt had a good amount of protein, and I haven’t tried a flavor that I didn’t like.  The cherry is really good, it has real bits of fruit in it.  

If you freeze bananas and then throw them in the blender, they come out with a nice custard-like texture.  Of course, keep in mind that bananas aren’t the most low calorie fruit.  But it is really good with just a little hot fudge and some redi whip.  Of course, you might just want to get a light ice cream or frozen yogurt and make sure you just eat a single serving of it.  

3 oz of meat is acutally a decent serving size.  It might not seem like it at first, but it is.  

Salad is awesome.  Find a healthy dressing you acutally like.  Don’t make yourself eat something you don’t enjoy just because it’s healthy.  There are too many healthy and delicious options out there for you to do that to yourself.  

Canned salmon is delicious, especially if you sautee it up with a little garlic.  I spread a wedge of Laughing Cow cheese on a piece of Pepperidge Farm’s high fiber light bread and pile some salmon ot top, and it’s just wonderful.  

I know I’m dropping a lot of brand names, here, but these are the things I use.  

I’ve also been experimenting with healthier baking–doing stuff like using yogurt instead of butter, flax seed for some of the oil, and whole wheat flour.  It’s acutally pretty fun.  I have a banana bread recipe that I’ll see if I can find and put up here.