The Next Step...

I'm a little nervous because my husband and I have been gradually adding "real food" into our diet over the past couple of months. We started on a medically supervised diet with just shakes and the food that was provided through our program. Then, we added fruits and veggies, and finally, frozen entrees (from Weight Watchers, Lean Cuisine...). All of this was pretty easy. The fruits and veggies don't have a lot of calories and the entrees are pre-prepared and portion controlled. So, like I said, it was really easy.

A couple of months ago, we started to prepare our own meals for dinner.  It takes a little getting used to because we have to figure out the calories in everything we are making, and, as usual, we have to be honest about it. I do not ever trust the calories listed on the recipes...I have had occasions where I have run something through my calorie counter and it was twice the calories per serving the recipe claimed it was.  Once we are done obsessing over the calories, and we get the recipe down and the proportions correct though - it works nicely - and we add new recipes into the rotation and have a little tasty variety.  I'll try to post more of our recipes on this blog as we go.

So far, it has been working really well, both of us have continued to lose weight, and we are adding a couple more dishes this weekend (maybe).  Our goal is to get off of all the frozen, pre-prepared food and just be able to prepare our own meals.  This is not the way that everyone does it, I know there are a lot of people who rely heavily on frozen entrees, but like I've said before, this is a lifestyle change and you have to find something that you can maintain as your lifestyle, indefinitely. My husband and I like to cook (well, my husband in particular likes to cook), so figuring out how to cook in a healthy, low-calorie way is something we have to do. It is diet, not a diet.

I'm no health expert, I'm kind of learning as I go along, so don't be surprised if I change my mind and / or correct myself as I go. That said, I don't think that eating those frozen entrees all the time is good for us. Honestly, we will probably continue to have them in the house, because eating a Weight Watchers or a Lean Cuisine entree on a night when there is no time to cook is certainly more healthy than going out to dinner and the entrees are very convenient to take to work for lunch.  There is a time and place for the frozen entrees, but it's not every day for every meal.

So we are introducing more recipes and "real food" into our diets, and it is trial and error. Thus, it makes me nervous - because I'm certain that I'm going to miscalculate and gain back each and every pound that I have worked so hard to lose - tomorrow.  Okay, so clearly that is not going to happen, but I cannot help but to worry about it...