• Mood: hungry

cravings foods that are good for you

I've been working to change my lifestyle for the past four months now, working on building healthier eating habits and exercising.  Initially, when it came to eating, it started with my focusing on quitting the bad foods.  Fastfood restaurants (bye!), deep-fried (bye!), soda (bye!), doused in salt (bye!).   

It took a while before I started to get a bit more savvy about what I was eating, and I'm by no means an expert.  I feel like I make a new discovery about yummy, healthy foods every week.  One week, I'll be hunting down foods that are high in potassium (hi black beans, hi dried fruit, hi bananas), the next week I'll be looking for good dessert alternatives to satisfy my sweet craving.  

I have made some drastic changes in that I actually eat more vegetables (baby spinach salads are my favorite) and I focus on lean proteins (chicken, turkey), but sometimes I just really want chips.  And ice cream.  And creamy sauce.  And chocolate (for the love of all that is sweet, give me chocolate!).  So I thought I'd share a few of my food discoveries that satisfy my cravings while still being good for me (or at least, not THE WORST ;)).

Tzatziki Sauce

I don't know if it's a Southern thing, but when I moved down here everyone ate everything with Ranch dressing and my natural penchant for it got out of hand.  Ranch on my salads, ranch with my fries, ranch as a dipping sauce for veggies, ranch on my sandwiches.  Yeah.  And then I discovered that the yummy white sauce I got at Greek restaurants made an amazing, healthier alternative.  It's made with low-fat greek yoghurt (which also makes an amazing substitution for mayo, think chicken salad, mmm) and cucumbers and some other ingredients (like garlic).  It's low calorie (~25 cal/tbsp) and low fat and delicioso.  I LOVE THIS DIP.  LOVE IT.  

Popchips

I just discovered these a few weeks ago and I'm a total convert.  They're delicious and such a good snack.  "Never fried, never baked.  Nothing fake or phony."  So no preservatives, no artificial flavors or coloring, no cholesterol, no saturated fat, no trans fat, no gluten ingredients.  AND THEY TASTE YUMMY.  I even had some for lunch today!  They're so good you'll probably be tempted to eat a whole bag (BE STRONG), but even if you do, it won't be a disaster since they're only 120 calories per serving.  (And yep, I just finished the bag while writing about how much I love popchips.  How meta!)

Eating Right Light Ice Cream Cups

I've tried a lot of different lowfat ice creams (A LOT) and I've come to really enjoy these.  Maybe it's the little spoon inside that makes me feel like a kid (who's a giant).  Maybe it's that it's got lots of goodness in it.  Maybe it's because the mocha and pomegranate flavors are actually yummy.  Who knows?  I'm a fan. 

Luna Bars

This was recommended by eowyn_315, but I have total faith in her taste here (she would not abide gross chocolate!). They're delicious chocolate bars made with an eye towards healthy eating philosphy.  High in protein and other nutrients that are important for women.  I haven't tried these yet, but they sound amazing.  Eowyn recs the chocolate peppermint stick, peanut butter cookie, iced oatmeal raisin, and chocolate raspberry flavors. :D

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And those are just a few of the yummy foods that I'm so glad to have rounding out my healthier diet nowadays.  As much as I've grown to love eating veggies (and fresh veggies are the best, accept no substitutes, it really does affect the flavor), I love having foods that taste like an indulgence but are still good for me.

I haven't really reached the stage yet where I'm eating all organic or gluten-free, but I'd welcome any and all suggestions from y'all.  What foods do you love that are good for you?  Any good recipes to share?  What restaurants do you love that actually offer healthy options?