Give Up Nothing

This refers to much more than just quitting because you do not think you can continue.  No, this is about the food itself, and then on yourself.

Give up nothing that you enjoy, or better yet, Give up Nothing That You Love; yes, I am talking about food.  Instead of giving up on food that you enjoy, either cut the serving in half or eat only what a serving is because if you force yourself to give it up, then you will get frustrated and see it only as something you are losing out on.

For instance, I love chocolate and did not want to give it up, so what I did was to look at serving sizes, the number of calories in the serving, and then decided what I could and could not live with.  I made changes.  I have gone to eating Peppermint Patties, the mini ones, and Unwrapped Mint 3 Musketeers that are also mini bites.  Each of these alternatives are only 15 calories per piece.  Could I live with that?  Yes, I could, and I do.  Do I eat only one?  Heck no, I have anywhere from two to four, sometimes five, depending on what I really want and if I have the calories for the number of pieces I plan on taking.  I titled this post “Give Up Nothing” because it really is about not giving up those things that you really enjoy eating.

What else have I not given up?  Eating out, but I am careful where I choose to eat out at.  Living in a small town, we have very few choices, and that does help.  I still eat at subway; you can always find something low in calories to eat at subway, and Pizza Hut, but my family has gone to eating the personal pan pizzas rather than buying medium and large pizzas.  If you have less to tempt you, then you will not feel like you have to eat more; besides, we never could eat an entire large pizza and always threw some of it away.  Of course, the other factor in that is that I cannot eat the red sauce because it makes me sick, but I can eat the white sauce and the BBQ, both of which I really enjoy.  The rest of the family enjoys the red sauce.

The other places around us are Sonic and Wendy's, and I never liked Wendy's food.  Sonic, on the other hand, well, have you looked at their nutritional menu?  Their hamburgers, although very good, are astronomically high in calories.  I can make a hamburger at home with almost 1/4 the calories, and much healthier for me.  In my house, we have gone to buying 90/10 lean ground sirloin; yes, it is more expensive, but we also do not eat beef that often.  We now eat more pork, chicken, turkey, and fish.  All much better choices for us and also leaner with less calories.  It is a wonder what you can do with those meats when you start looking for recipes on the internet.

So, as I said, do not give up what you really enjoy.  Look at what the choices are in that food group, and choose wisely and with your health in mind.  Calories count, but so does enjoying what you are eating.  You be in control of what you choose.