<p>Fruits and veggies can provide protein too. The article mentioned Brussels Sprouts. A cup has 65 calories, .6 grams of fat, 12.9 grams of carbs, 5.6 grams of protein and 6.4 grams of fiber. Basically carbs are about 1/3rd the calories and there’s a healthy amount of protein.</p>
<p>8 ounces of Trader Joes Organic Tofu (made from soybeans) contains 180 calories of consisting of 9 grams of fat, 0 carbs and a whopping 24 grams of protein.</p>
<p>I sometimes go into LiveStrong and type in vegetables to check out the fat/carbs/protein/fiber composition and to look for new foods. I’m going to pick up some Brussels Sprouts today.</p>
<p>My2sunz,
Do not despair. I started WW over 3 years ago and lost the weight in 8 months. Since then I have been maintaining and have gradually lost a bit more. What I can tell you is that the motivation comes and goes. There are days and weeks when it seems incredibly difficult and then for months at a time, I coast along just fine. My advice to you if you’re struggling and you think it’s a summer thing (kids, BBQs, etc.) is that you spend the summer maintaining your loss and plan to get back to losing in the fall. Concentrate on exercise and eating healthy. If you really don’t want to track (I still do track every day) then weigh yourself every morning and if you’re up at all, have a light eating day or two until you’re back down. One thing that really helps me is that I eat the same exact breakfast every day and rarely have an interesting lunch - usually just a sandwich or something. So that leaves dinner and some days it’s low point and some days it’s not. I figure if 14 of my 21 weekly meals are just right, I have some leeway with dinner. It is working for me as my weight varies a bit but I maintain in a 3 lb range up and down.</p>
<p>You might find that if you go into a maintenance mode and you really do have more weight to lost, it may fall off slowly over the summer. Long term maintenance is much more challenging than weight loss but one of my mantras, which I read somewhere, is:</p>
<p>Being overweight is hard
Losing weight is hard
Maintaining weight is hard
Choose your hard.</p>
<p>I echo your experience, my2sunz and mominva. finding having kids home and coming/going off to summer programs has thrown me off. maybe some emotional components, but also just find when my routine is off and I splurge on any sugar, I have a very hard time reeling myself back in. also think ww pointsplus has me eating too much fruit. want to do something that will effectively cut down the cravings that I have now retriggered. considering doing the atkins approach, need something to push me back on track. suggestions?</p>
<p>Hope you low carb folks will be proud of me. I just finished my “Healthy Choice” lunch and did not eat the potatoes! I have 2 of the babybel light cheeses in the fridge for afternoon snack.</p>
<p>I just got my labwork back from my physical-- entirely too healthy:
My cholesterol is 180, HDL 69, LDL 100, triglycerides 57 glucose 88, BP 104/70. No severely low carb diet for me Will continue with healthy eating, balance of fruits , vegs, moderate carb, lower fat. Stay tuned.</p>
<p>Those are nice numbers! Speaking of numbers, I started using MyPlate after reading about it here and I am amazed at how much sodium I ingest everyday. I don’t put salt on anything and always felt all high & mighty that I was living healthy in that regard. What an eyeopener!</p>
<p>This is one of my regular lunches:
1/3 jar of Tiger Tiger Chicken Tikka Sauce 221 cal.
1/2 cup canned garbanzo beans 110 cal
1 cup steamed veg (kale today, cauliflower, chard, brocolli all good too) 36 cal.</p>
<p>367 cal total. If I made my own beans and curry sauce it would be lower in sodium than it actually was, but I don’t worry about salt since I have low blood pressure.</p>
<p>archiemom, I think French Fries were the main culprit (or mashed potatoes with butter and cream), if you like them boiled or baked they really aren’t that bad, but hardly anyone eats them that way. I don’t eat potatoes every day, but I think they can be part of a healthy diet.</p>
<p>Thanks for that link, Archiemom. I heard them talking about that on the news today. Wonder if thats true for sweet potatoes too. I like them better than regular poratoes.</p>
<p>Wow, they found some women who had been on a low carb diet for 26 years? That’s amazing. I haven’t met anybody who managed to stick to low carb for much beyond a year.</p>
<p>I have a coworker with Chrones’ Disease and she’s been on a low-carb diet for decades - not to lose weight but the low-carb diet keeps digestive tract problems away. For her, low-carb is not a choice.</p>
Will continue with healthy eating, balance of fruits , vegs, moderate carb, lower fat. Stay tuned.</p>