Facsimile Foods

In our quest to lose weight we have changed our diet in a number of ways. Kind of.

The truth is, we eat a lot of the same kinds of foods, with healthier replacements. Is this healthy? Is it not? Should we learn to graze on garbanzo beans and cabbage? Or is the way we are approaching things a good idea?

We eat facsimile foods. What do I mean by that? I mean we eat food that taste a lot like bad foods, but are better for us. Let me give you some examples of our substitutions. We switched from:



Gatorade to G2
From red meat based products to turkey based substitutes (sausage, burger, chili etc.)
From white bread to wheat bread to whole grain low cal wheat bread
From white tortillas to whole wheat tortillas
From enriched pasta to whole wheat pasta
From white rice to brown rice
From cheese to fat free or reduced fat cheese
From eggs to healthier imitation eggs (though this switch is not complete)

Instead of changing patterns of behavior, which some would recommend, we have simply modified existing habits to make things healthier. This is by doing things similar to the following:

• Exclusive use of skim milk in food in prep
• Removal of butter from food prep if at all possible
• Very limited use of oil in food prep. No-Calorie cooking spray instead.
• Healthy Request Soups instead of less expensive soups that are saltier and higher calorie soups and canned food
• Very little food that is take from a box or can and put in oven or over stove
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  Limiting our options when we eat out. Since being on the diet, we eat Subway and Applebees when we eat out (Weight Watchers Menu). We may add Olive Garden at some point. But there has not been any Buffalo Wild Wings or China Buffet visits
• When we can take it no more, we occasionally order a pizza and go to Mexican. When we do this we limit our portions extensively.
• Modify our unhealthy snacks with better alternatives. Almost all our ice cream treats are weight watchers prepared. We eat the low cal lowfat popcorn instead of getting a bag of chips or a candy bar.

At times I congratuate myself. After all I have lost 44 pounds, and Jennifer has lost 18. But at times I think we are not really making an extreme enough change in life style. But I am not sure if I would try if we had to make the extreme change... wat do you think?