I am an American living overseas and am ALWAYS looking for ways to make stuff from scratch (American imported foods are extremely expensive here). I bought a crock pot and have been using it in the last few weeks to make some amazing meals! The site I’ve been hooked on is: http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/

There are loads of gluten free, vegan and low calorie meals plus things I would have never thought to make in a crockpot like yogurt, granola and tofu dishes. Great site with lots of photos-check it out.

The biggest lesson happend during my second pregnancy. When I was pregnant with my son I found out that I had extra amniotic fluid (like lots), but not gestational diabetes (extra amniotic fluid is a big sign of gestational diabetes). Figuring that doing the gestational diabetic diet couldn’t HURT, mainly because I was feeling massively helpless and worried about my son being healthy, I put myself on a decently strict diet and I learned a lot about dieting through that experience.

The biggest lesson? Portion control. My mother-in-law would sit there in shock as I’d sit there and meticulously count out 14 Pringles to go with my lunch (I’m a salty food fiend) to keep my carbs down. Figuring out how food worked in the body sure did help with the diet too.

For one thing…if you are going to eat out DO NOT eat French fries if you are trying to lose weight (or any fried food period really). Potatoes are a no-no anyway because they are pure starch, but then when you fry foods you make those carbs more accessible to your body so that you will have sugar spikes and crashes for hours after eating them, which helps to lead to fat absorbtion.

Eat a lot of protien and fiber because it helps to absorb what you NEED for carbs but not too many (the rest gets flushed) and it helps you to feel fuller longer. That’s why when you figure out net carbs you take your carbs – your fiber content.

The worst thing I found for getting low carbs? Bread. One slice of bread, even double fiber bread, has tons of carbs in it (usually 25 carbs per slice and when you consider that 25 carbs is your max on a gestational diebetic breakfast…that doesn’t work if you like toast). The best one in the universe is Ororowheat Light (11 net grams of carbs for 2, count them 2, slices of bread! It is awesome stuff). It’s a bit spendy (about 3 dollars a loaf up here), but it tastes great and trust me it DOES make a difference.

The biggest thing I can share from personal experience is read your labels when you buy things. Being educated is the best thing in the world you can do for yourself when it comes to putting something into your body. Especially portion sizes (boy can those be misleading).

By doing these things not only did I feel better about doing what I could when it came to the health of my son (he came through fine), but after he was born I was also 5 lbs lower than my pre-pregnancy weight. I really believe by watching your diet you can just streamline your body to work better.

A good source I’VE found that will give you healthy recipes (and creative ones) that taste REALLY good and gives you nutritional breakdowns, is books by Graham Kerr. He used to be the Galloping Gourmet years ago, but his wife started having severe health problems, so he got creative with cooking to do things healthy (mainly because he loved the many flavors of Gourmet food and didn’t want to give those up).

He really does break things down and teaches you to cook with things like strained yogurt where the final products not only taste good but are really good for you. I have a couple of his cookbooks and find them a very neat source of creativity in my cooking. And the best part is that while SOME of his ingredients were a little spendy, for the most part the ingredients are pretty easy to come by, it’s the way you PREPARE them that matters. And he gives you nutritional breakdowns of all the recipes he redoes, before and after, so you can see where everything is healthier. It’s pretty cool.

And now that I have given my non-paid endorsement for the day *Iaugh* I’ll let people get back to their lives.

– Exercise outside when it’s nice; do a $10 Jillian Michaels dvd from Walmart when it’s not (It’s killer! She has one that is a 20 min. circuit that makes you question your will to live. For a busy mom, I appreciate a quick but difficult workout)

– Eat in-season veggies or frozen when it’s winter. They’re so much cheaper! I recently bought the huge bag of romaine lettuce at Sams club for a little over 3 dollars which is only slightly more expensive than the small bags at Walmart and challenged my husband and I to eat the entire thing before it went bad.

– Have a meat-free night once a week. Even my carnivorous husband can handle it once a week. We sometimes do a breakfast night with eggs, etc.

– Don’t invite my husband to come grocery shopping with me. That’s a huge money saver for me!

*Thanks for all the other helpful posts! Great suggestions!

I am considering expanding our budget so we can include more organic items. It’s an exchange that is more than worth it in my eyes. A healthy body means healthy weight loss, and balanced, whole foods meals is the only real way to achieve that. Plus, in my family we rarely get sick and have not had to visit the doctor in more than three years. That alone saves us a fortune.

First, any junk I want to eat, I have to make myself. With the exception of the very occasional run to Dairy Queen, the vast majority of my “junky treats” are homemade. We just don’t buy pre-packaged cookies, chips, candy, etc. So not only are my treats cheaper and healthier than the pre-packaged version, but I also have to put in some effort to get them, and I’ll sometimes decide it’s just not worth it and eat something healthy instead.

Second, I grow a garden every year. Any type of produce is better for you than anything that’s not produce, and you can’t beat the almost-free stuff that you grow yourself. Also, homegrown food is usually superior in taste (and definitely freshness) than anything you can get from the store, so tastier produce might mean that you want to eat more of it.

Third, I limit the greasy/fried stuff that I eat. This one started because my digestive system just couldn’t take it. But I think it’s one of the main reasons I don’t struggle with my weight. We almost never fry anything at home, so the only time I eat fried stuff if when I get fries at a restaurant. You can almost always bake something instead of frying it, and it’s much better for you (and doesn’t cost more.)

Fourth, we almost never eat frozen meals that you buy in the frozen food section. I do stock our freezer with stuff I’ve made from scratch, but frozen foods are generally very expensive and filled with lots of hard-to-pronounce ingredients, so putting in a little extra time to make my own food to freeze is well worth it to me.

http://fortheloveofgrub.blogspot.com/2008/08/refried-beans-without-refry.html

I’ve got several other bean recipes at the link below, but that first one is the absolute best in the world.

http://fortheloveofgrub.blogspot.com/search/label/beans

I would definitely encourage you to check the internet or ask other moms if they know of such a place near you. And by the way, Superstition Ranch Market is located at Greenfield and Main in Mesa, Arizona, if there’s anyone that’s wondering!