Cooking to lose weight

I usually have basmati rice instead of brown but I do like brown and wild. I just find it harder to get the consistency right with those as opposed to basmati rice. I think everything is better when it's covered in cheese!

I'm not too keen on canned veggies either. I can make myself eat raw carrots, I like the texture even if the taste isn't so nice. I usually have them with some ranch dip. I'll give the chicken broth a try!

I managed to do that with bell peppers. Now rice doesn't taste the same without them! I still don't really like green peppers but I really like red yellow and orange. Especially red.

Taste buds can be trained too. You star by eating very small amounts of food you don´t like and oon you´ll like it. That way you can teach yourself to eat less sugar and less salt.

I do find that green tea tastes a little bit like grass. I like Tim Horton's honey lemon tea. It's a herbal tea so no need to add milk and sugar. I usually eat at home because I'm flat broke :p

I've never heard of the Dash Diet, what's it involve? those salads you suggested sound pretty tasty! Maybe I'll give them a try! I like spices too, covers up the blandness of the chicken and rice. I love rice in chicken broth, i find I don't need any soya sauce on my rice then, the plain rice is tasty enough just in the broth Thanks so much

I just looked up the dash diet, I'll read into it now in a minute. It doesn't look too bad to me so far. It's not that I don't like cooking so much as my parents cook and get horribly offended if I want to eat something else. I live in their basement apartment, but I don't have a fridge yet. I hope to get one soon.

The "Dash Diet" has been voted the best diet for the last year or two. And the reason that I like it so much is that its simple, common sense, no special things to buy, and in 1 months time (just changing my diet) my 3 cholestrol scores dropped atleast 60 points. Do a search for dash diet/ dash diet recipies and you'll find alot of information. The book that got me started is "The Dash Diet Action Plan" by Marla Heller There is also a free website that gives alot of the books information. But she tells you what a serving size is for this diet. Like oatmeat, on the package it says 3/4 cup but in the book a serving size in 1/2 cup cook oatmeal. A serving of veggies is 1/2 cup with a few exceptions. Then there are recipies in the book for 1,200 1,500 1,800 daily calories. Its explained how to decide which amount is best for you. Then going by how many calories you have a day its broken down so you know how many servings of fruit, veggies, protien, grains, and fat you should have a day. So using the simple guidelines you can start this lifestyle right away. Use fresh or frozen fruits and veggies, try avoid white flour and processed foods as much as possible, lean meat, use as little sugar, perservatives, artificial stuff as possible. Common Sense I guess the one downfall for this would be if you didn't like cooking. Because of course to avoid processed foods you need to cook from scratch. Which cooking brown rice, adding in some veggies and seasonings isn't rocket science, is easy, and if measured healthy. Use wheat pasta instead of regular. Again commone sense and simple changes. I do have a really good muffin recipie. I make a batch and wrap them individually in plastic wrap and freeze them. Then each morning I set one out and when I'm ready for breakfast its thawed. If you would like the recipie PM me and I'll email to you.

I LOVE smoothies! They might make a nice breakfast replacement meal or lunch! I never even thought of drinking smoothies! Thanks so much!

You are so welcome!

Thanks! I've tried tofu and wasn't too fussy about the texture, but maybe if I cut it up really small it would be more manageable. I use sauce packets for flavor in my rice so many if I mixed the tofu in with the rice and added the sauce it would take on the flavor better. Thanks so much!

Have you tried putting cubed carrots and some thawing peas into your meal? I usually make a simple stirfry that has some frozen carrots and peas that thaw into my stirfry while mixing some scrambled eggs into the mix, then a bit of table salt with some leftover rice from last night, and it would be absolutely perfect.. *-*

that sounds really tasty I usually use bell peppers in my rice but some peas and carrots would be nice too. And scrambled eggs would be so yummy!

I love green onions, but not regular onions. I find the taste is just too potent from them. I do like brown rice, but I eat a lot of basmati. I was told it's just as good for you as brown. I don't mind beans, I suppose I could make myself eat more of them! I'd love to learn to cook because I'm so picky over everything.

My thing is that I hate veggies so much I just won't want to eat and then I'll binge on something unhealthy hours later. I don't mind mixing in bell peppers or green onions or something but a whole plate of veggies is just too drastic a change for me right now.

I think that's my issue, I eat too much of the things that I do like!

I've tried veggie meat and wasn't a big fan, plus I find there's not much difference in the amount of calories in each. Thanks tho! I might try it again if I can find some lean veggie meats.

hmmm I hadn't heard of chewing your food 30 times to boost your metabolism! I'll defiantly try that. Anything helps right!

I have no health conditions that require me changing my diet as of yet. Well except being over weight I suppose. I'm trying to wean my way onto veggies but I find it really difficult to do. No one likes forcing themselves to eat things that they don't like. Eating is supposed to be enjoyable!

I sure hope so, I'm not sure if I'll like veggie recipes if I don't like veggies but I'll give it a go!

thanks for your advice! I'll definitely check out youtube for some easy recipies. I've never had cheese on my veggies before so I'll try that too!

Some people don't like vegetables because they try to eat them raw or cooked without anything on them. I love them any way at all but why don't you try putting low fat skim cheese on them or ricotta and baking. Or try adding lentils with some bread crumbs or beans like kidney beans. Falafel made with garbanzo beans, there really is too many suggestions to even list. Or make a low fat veggie loaf. There are tons of vegetable dish videos on you tube. Type in vegetarian dishes or vegetarian and one video will give you more suggestions down the side. There is so much on there and they show you how to make them so its a win win situation.

21 cups of water a day is too much. You'll get water poisoning! There is a such thing as too much water, too much water will dilute your body's nutrients.

I think I'll stick with the doctor's recommendation of 8 cups a day. Thanks tho!

I drink about 20 cups of water a day but didn't have any problem of water poisoning. I'm telling you this from my personal experience this thing actually work. If you can't drink that much water then at least drink 16 cups a day.