In order to meet my goal of 50/150/1500, I would be grateful for your ideas for a 1500 calorie a day menu. The only requirement is that there be NO TOFU, Salmon or SUSHI. I do like and . If I can get several day's worth of menu's it would be great. It would also break me out the my own menu rut. It can be the offical Slow Travel diet. OMG did you notice this was my 1500th post!!!


Ginger

Ginger,
wow, that's freaky (about it being your 1500th post and you're inquiring about 1500 calorie meals....wow, funky)!!
anyway, I quickly did a Google search "1500 calorie meals" and got quite a few hits, some of the meals looked down right scrum-dilly-umtuous! alas, salmon was mentioned but you could sustitute fudge, right?
Seriously, do the Google search and you'll find a lot of suggestions!

good luck

Mindy

quote:

alas, salmon was mentioned but you could sustitute fudge, right?

That's my problem, I'm substituting the wrong things - I should have consulted Mindy!!

There are very few foods in the world that I don't worship, fudge is one of them. I have never liked it. It's the texture, it's like eating straight frosting. Another thing I don't like is rutabaga's.

Ginger

quote:

alas, salmon was mentioned but you could sustitute fudge, right?

Mindy

Gravfudge with dill and sweet mustard, smoked fudge and whitefish salad on a bagel, broiled fudge with lemon, fudge carpaccio with olive oil and capers.

Hmmm this is actually helping me not want to eat at all!!! Thanks, Mindy!!!!

The best weight loss diet I ever tried was Atkins. By best I mean quickest weight loss. The thing I liked about it was no calorie counting. The thing I hated about it was low carbs (I love pasta and bread). However, if you want to drop weight fast, I don't think you can beat the performance of it. You'll be amazed at the results if you add in some exercise.

For some physiological reason, Atkins seems to work far better for men than for women. There are also a lot of serious health issues with such a diet, and if you consume WHOLEGRAIN, moderate amounts of pasta and bread are very good for the health.

A popular diet here is the Montignac diet - probably because you are allowed a bit of red wine - a modified version of the low-carb diet, but allowing wholegrain bread and other low-glucemic-index carbs.

I seem to do well on that kind of GI diet - but it means always making sure to buy wholegrain carbs - it takes a while to get used to but nowadays there are very good ones that don't have that nasty, gritty aspect.

Don't think such diets allow fudge - Montignac allows 70% or more dark chocolate. Fudge is too high in white sugar.

Do you like other fish, ginger? Fish is really a wonderful source of lean protein.

Another, which I don't know if you can get in Florida, is bison (buffalo). I mention that as the dancing cow seems to indicate that you like beef. Bison is very tasty, for meat-lovers, and very low in cholesterol.

The best source of diets I have been on is the Dr. Shapiro's Picture Perfect Weight Loss. It is a hard cover book and shows in a picture format how to make choices for yourself in regards to calories and volume of food. I saw in on Good Morning America a few years ago and was amazed at the volume of food you could consume on this diet!! Most of it was vegatables and fruit but I got to eat a lot of other good stuff like chicken, fish, veal. Also got to have bread and pasta though limited.

There really was no "specific" amounts but it became a "choice" as to what you were having. If you sat down for dinner and really wanted a glass of vino, you could have it but it might take the place of bread instead.

To cite an example of the photos in the book it showed on one page 1/3 of a plain bagel with a little bit of cream cheese. On the opposite page it showed 8 English Muffins with a sugar free fruit spread. Same number of calories for both. So... choice... 1/3 or 8? I can't eat 8 English Muffins!!

After a while I did get very comfortable with it and never felt deprived at all. However, I went back to my old ways of snacking and eating the wrong foods with no exercise so I gained it all back. This time, it will be for good when it comes off.

Try this one as it really is not a "diet" but a way of eating that really is beneficial and you can stay on it forever. You are not deprived at all as I had dessert and other good stuff. The big thing is, which he states in the book, is, if you want a piece of chocolate... have it to satisfy the craving... and that one error does not destroy the whole diet, unlike Atkins where if you "cheat" it can take you a week to get back into the "groove" again.

Good luck Ginger!!

Doug

Sorry to be boringly serious. I've shed 26lb in the last nine months. Cheryl has lost 22lbs. I'm now back to what I weighed when I was nineteen (the body shapes not quite the same, but I'm working on it). Last weekend, I actually fitted into my 1964 Lou Platts Board Shorts.

After thirty years of diets, I finally made the breakthrough in France last year. I'd been working out in a gym for a couple of months before we left in October and was down to 108kgs.

In France, we ate everything (did we ever eat some cheese?), but we also walked for an hour every morning, and probably walked some more as we toured the towns and villages of Burgundy and the Cher. Five weeks later I returned home at 107kgs. Since Christmas, daily walking, two weights sessions per week and just eating smaller portions has seen me finally crack 100kgs. I don't deny myself any foods at all. No calorie counting, no attempt to either emphasise carbs. or protein, just a balanced diet.... a little of everything or anything. We have even gone back to full cream milk and butter after thirty five years of skimed milk and margarine. I do find that a cappuccino, two eggs and bacon on a slice of toast (or any other high protein breakfast) keeps me satisfied through to the middle of the day, so I eat less and that's also a help.

Reading Mallet's "Last Chance to Eat" while in France convinced me that I would rather spend the rest of my life eating small portions of real food; food with taste, rather than large portions of processed and largely tasteless food.

Jim Harrison's "The Raw and the Cooked: Adventures of a Roving Gourmand" also provides inspiration ... up to a point. He claims that he maintains his food eating lifestyle by reapplying the hunter gatherer approach to life. The exercise allows him to indulge. I don't think I'm up to his three hour duck hunting in blizards.

For dinner on Sunday evening, we each had two figs wrapped in prosciutto and stuffed with goats cheese and marscapone and baked for 10 min. Dieting can be such a drag.

Gavin,

That is the way to do it...

I too also did the same when we went to Italy. We ate. Drank Wine. Ate Gelato and I still lost 3 lbs all due to the large amount of exercise we did.

If you cut back on intake and exercise more, the body will burn up fat in holding areas. The book I mentioned from Dr. Shapiro is the same principle... diet and exercise and it doesn't mean deprivation!!!

Doug

Gavin,

You can be my chef! That fig looks superb! Oh and BTW on your way over here could you please pick up JUST ONE Sara Lee chocolate cake.


Ginger

Amen Gavin...the best diet is one of exercise. It's really the ONLY thing that allows any diet to work. And if you do it enough, you CAN eat anything...its just the proportions you have to remember.

I did recently buy the book "French Women don't get Fat." I heard a delightful interview by the author and her whole outlook on food was very much like mine: eat fresh, eat while sitting down and take your time and enjoy the moment!

Saluti, Jenny

Actually, French Women DO get fat nowadays - although the obesity rate is far lower than in the US (or here, and here the genetic background is almost identical) it is certainly on the rise in France, do to fastfood and a more sedentary lifestyle.

I disagree with the exercise theory. I know that it is wonderful for you and it makes you feel good, however, I have had some kind of exercise regimen for the last 20 years and it has not helped me to keep weight off as I have aged. My eating habits have pretty much stayed the same and I have added 45 minutes to an hour of exercise 4-5 x's a week, yet I have gained an average of 2 lbs a year until now it's turned into 30-40 extra lbs. It really pisses me off. Now granted I am not a triathelete, nor a long distance runner, but I can get my heart rate up and get the glow going. I would have to exercise 3-4 hours a DAY to be able to eat whatever I want and not worry.


Ginger

I think you're right Ginger, and it is so unfair.
Cheryl and I could eat the same and exercise the same and the weight would drop off me and she would stay the same. I guess as we age there are other factors that come into play.

I didn't mean to sidetrack your thread in this way. You have obviously decided that you have no option but a 1500 calorie eating plan as the exercise isn't helping with weight loss. Given that the last fourty years has seen dozens of "fad" diets come and go and come again, no one has ever come up with a "diet" that works for everyone.

Here in Australia, the CSIRO published their diet program last year and it is still top of the best sellers list. Guess what, it's now under attack by some nutritionists for containing too much protein.

Too hell with all of them. My father gave up "beer", then "scotch" but refused to give up "wine". He gave up cigaretes, then cigars and finaly his pipe. He gave up all sorts of food and eventually ate like a rabbit. At one point he commented that if he had to give up anything else, there wasn't much point in living. He died at the age of 56.

Colleagues have asked what weight I'm aiming for and have difficulty in accepting that I don't have any "goals" at all. I have always been big. I was around 215lbs when I was seventeen and I'm now back down to 220lbs. Then I had more muscle than fat. I'm now shedding the fat and increasing the muscle, but who knows what shape or weight I should be? I figure if I exercise and eat for the fun of it, I'll eventually find "my level". It will happen in it's own time and in the meantime, I will eat what I feel like.

A colleague decided at age 29 to get into a shape she had never been. She went from 264lbs to 132lbs and now runs mini marathons and resigned to work as a Sydney Harbour Bridge Climb Guide. Her husband took her lead and in the last 9 months has gone from 600lbs to 260lbs. Amazing!!!!

Anyway, back to 1500 calorie recipes. What sort of foods do you prefer? Give me a list of favourite meats, vegetables and fruit. Beans and legumes? Herbs and Spices? I'll undertake to send you a recipe a day for the next two weeks?

You sweet, sweet man. (on the cheek )

Okay, in the protein catagory:

Chicken, Turkey, Pork, Eggs, Beef, Lamb, any white flaky fish, lobster, shrimp, scallops, prawns, any kind of bean or legume.

Dairy - Everything

Vegtables - the only things I'm not crazy about are rutabaga's and brussel sprouts.

Fruit - Everything

Starch - Everything

Spices - I can take a little heat but not much and I am not too fond of Indian spices.

I prefer to grill, saute, or bake my foods as opposed to frying in oil. (Too messy to clean up after.)

And about two years ago I went on a kitchen gadget buying jag so I have lot's of utensils and machines that I have used maybe once or twice.

For me simple is best, I don't mind using the slow cooker and I can do prep on the weekends, but when I hit the door I need to be able to get something going so I can eat in about an hour.

If the above doesn't seem to daunting I would love to see the recipes you come up with.

Ginger

Just talked with one of my favorite clients yesterday, a guy who barely tops 5'3", if that, and is a teeny-tiny little bit rotund...he said he'd just been to his doctor, and when she asked him how tall he is, he replied, '6'8"'...

She looked at him in mock horror and said, "You are kidding me, Rene`! There's no way you're 6'8"! Why would you even tell me that?"

"You're right," he replied, "But I know how you doctors work and what kinda questions you're gonna ask me. So, before you get to the weight question, I'm telling you I gotta be 6'8" so you'll not harrass me and give me crap about my weight!"


"No diet will remove all the fat from your body because the brain is entirely fat. Without a brain, you might look good, but all you could do is run for public office." ~ George Bernard Shaw
Brenda

quote:

"No diet will remove all the fat from your body because the brain is entirely fat. Without a brain, you might look good, but all you could do is run for public office." ~ George Bernard Shaw
Brenda

Hardy, Har Har,

Ginger

"Food is like sex: when you abstain, even the worst stuff begins to look good." ~ Beth McCollister

"The leading cause of death among fashion models is falling through street grates." ~ Dave Barry
Brenda

LOL alot! I always look forward to your posts!

Ginger