Playing with non-CD recipes? *Food mentioned*

[LizzMB]

i've always been an avid cook...i have millions of cookery books and love just knocking something amazing up with zero notice!

I've been worrying recently that i wont be able to do this once on food becuase i'm never going to be able to have an apple crumble...however, i made one today for DH and DD...and swapped a few ingredients over to make it more nutritional and they loved it! Instead of all the butter and sugar in the topping, i put loads of oats in, and used sweetener powder instead of sugar in with the apples....apparently it was the best i have ever made!

Anyone else do this with their family cooking? And does anyone on maintenance eat apple cumbles still? lol

xx

 

[KD]

Yeah, I eat apple crumbles, and with custard

I cook a fair bit too, because I've always been a bit of a one for fresh food for the boys, rather than processed stuff.

Having said that, I don't tend to make low calorie versions of things because I live with 3 healthy and active 'men' who need double the calories I do.

It would cost me a fortune to make up those calories in food, and besides, I want to be sure they get enough fat for health reasons and mucho low cal stuff is too low fat for all of us...including me.

I just tend to have smaller portions of whatever I've cooked for them

 

[LizzMB]

i hate processed stuff....but there is the benefit of it all being calorie counted which i cant do with my stuff

 

[alipally]

You can count your own stuff.

I have little pencil markings next all the recipes I have ever made that tell me the total calories in the whole dish!

Then I just divvy it up into an appropriate sized portion!

Even my cakes have total calories in them.

Every raw ingredient has a nutritional label on it now (with the exception of loose fruit and veg) So it's easy, if time consuming to do)
I've messed with a lot of recipes which were a bit prohibitive, calorie/fat wise to begin with too.

you can use a recipe builder/calorie counter type website such as weight loss resources, if looking up calories is a bit of a bind!

 

[Watergirl]

Was just going to recommend weighlossresources as well. It's fab. I lost 1stone using that before starting CD and intend to use it to help me in maintenance as well.

 

[KD]

I used WLR for about 9 months after goal, then just occasionally. I loved it and it was money well spent.

Having said that, I found it was expensive to just use for the odd day, and when they changed the way things were put into the database, it wasn't worth me continuing with.

I've trialled a lot of other ones since to see what they are like, and now trying Perfect Diet Tracker which has a free months trial and then a one off payment of about £35 for life.

I'm really impressed with it. Though it's database isn't as large as WLR, it's still new and will build up as people enter things, and of course, once you or anyone else has entered anything that isn't there, it will stay with you forever.

I really like it and never thought I would say that after being such a fan of WLR in the past.

 

[Watergirl]

Thanks KD, will have a look at that. WLR was fab, but I'd only want to use it to help me keep an eye on portion sizes etc until I can judge myself (that's my problem).
After a while of being on maintenance I'm assuming that you get to know what sort of sizes you should be having?

 

[KD]

Thanks KD, will have a look at that. WLR was fab, but I'd only want to use it to help me keep an eye on portion sizes etc until I can judge myself (that's my problem).

That's how I felt. I really needed to get to grips with what 'normal' eating was. Not dieting. Wanted to get to grips with portion sizes, and also see how I was doing with fat/protein/carb percentages for healthy living. Not obsessively, but for training purposes

After a while of being on maintenance I'm assuming that you get to know what sort of sizes you should be having?

Yep, portion sizes are pretty automatic now. I don't calorie count anymore, though like to have access to one out of interest or to check up things for other people.

But I did need one at the beginning, and for longer than I thought I would. It had been a very long time since I'd eating 'normally'. Decades in fact.

 

[Witchypoo]

There's a fab free site called 'Food Focus' where you can track calories & add your own recipes. I've used it in the past & I'll be using it once I get to maintenance. You can even track your exercise with it!

 

[MissPinky]

I just started using Perfect Diet Tracker based on KD's recommendation - it's fab. Love it. I bought a license within 24 hours of installing and using it - plus if you get hooked (as I did) and buy early in the trial you get a reduced price.

I'm an avid cook too - and this is one reason why I wanted this kind of tool to help me through stabilisation into maintenance. I've been researching lower carb cooking (and bought a raft of books from Amazon to back that up) and intend to modify recipes with a definate lean towards substitution of healthier ingredients - lower fat, lower carb and lower sugar. It's a challenge - and I like nothing more than a culinary challenge! And to make food that tastes great rather than feels like a penance.

And THANKYOU for mentioning apple crumble - and to KD for confirming apple crumble! Made my day, that has...

 

[LizzMB]

i've just bought a cookery book from a charity shop called Neris and India's idiot-proof diet cookbook and there are loads of recipies in there that are all low-carb which i will be looking into!

x

 

[contrarytintagel]

Yes I heard that book was good for sensible low carb recipes x

 

[Watergirl]

That's how I felt. I really needed to get to grips with what 'normal' eating was. Not dieting. Wanted to get to grips with portion sizes, and also see how I was doing with fat/protein/carb percentages for healthy living. Not obsessively, but for training purposes


Yep, portion sizes are pretty automatic now. I don't calorie count anymore, though like to have access to one out of interest or to check up things for other people.

But I did need one at the beginning, and for longer than I thought I would. It had been a very long time since I'd eating 'normally'. Decades in fact.

Yes I want to be eating 'normally' rather than continually dieting. I've grown up in a household with an unhealthy attitude to food - my Dad was either overating or incredibly strictly dieting with excessive exercise. So I grew up thinking it was fine to pig out, as you could always starve yourself to get back to normal.
That's what contributed towards me being overweight.

I am also particularly interested in healthy living, cooking from scratch, exercising for life and generally taking care of myself (rather than just being 'slim' as you can be slim and unhealthy). I want to be strong into my middle and old age!

 

[herewego]

Grrrr I downloaded the Perfect Diet Tracker this morning after reading this thread and have just come back to have a proper look at it and it now tells me that my trial period has ended

I've contacted their technical support - hopefully they'll let me trial it for a bit longer as it looked really good but I don't want to pay £35 for something i've barely seen.

I love cooking from scratch as well and have already most of my favourite meals converted to slightly healthier versions, thanks to all my previous diet attempts. I don't usually over complicate things, just add a handful of lentils to bolognese, extra veggies in a chilli, sweet potato topping on fish pie etc to bring the calorie value down and nutritional value up.

Maintenance scares me but it's also very exciting. For me the real challenge is going to be realising that i have a choice and that saying no to food occasionally is not the same as depriving myself

 

[MissPinky]

That's random - mine came with a 7 day trial period, had I not loved it and licensed it at a reduced rate within the first day... Was the 'continue with trial period' button available on screen? Every time I went in until I popped my license key in I had to click it to get any further.

 

[herewego]

Yes the continue trial button was available the first time (just after i installed it). I came in and out of it a few times then but didn't really have a good look around at all the features. I then went out shopping and came back in to have a look at it again and the "continue trial" button was replaced with a "quit without registering" button and a message thanking me for completing the trial

Oh well, it's probably just a one off. I did have something strange going on with my laptop after installing it as the computer date was a day out, so updated that. Even so I should still have 6 days left.

Even though I only had a glimpse I'll probably upgrade as it's considerably cheaper than WLR. I have been a member of WLR since 2005 so i've paid them quite a lot of money over the years. It's a great tool but if I can get something which does the same thing for a one off cost of £35 I'm sold

 

[LizzMB]

i've bookmarked it so i can start my trial when i hit the maintenance plans....dont think there is much point at the moment as i live and breath CD products at the moment and nothing else

Looking forward to having a play though!
xx

 

[KD]

I was looking at the thing for doing recipes on Perfect Diet Tracker. I prefer WLR for this. I did like the fact that after you make a 'group' as they call it, when you enter it, it enters the parts individually. WLR does that too, but many online trackers don't. They input as a whole item.

I like the parts input separately as I used to use WLR for tracking whole meals, or even whole days, but if I changed one or more parts of it, it was easy to just go into the day's diary and delete or replace just that one thing.

So for instance, if I do a meal of
milk for day
Porridge oats
Berries
Greek yoghurt

and I decide to have a little more or less yoghurt in that meal, I could just adjust the yoghurt part in the diary, whilst keeping it intact on the recipe/group.

PWT does list the items separately when entering the whole thing, but seems to change the recipe/group if you adjust???

Can't work out quite what it does. Also seems to be a bit more difficult if you want just a quarter of the recipe. Ummm.

I hope others will suggest it and another upgrade later in the date will give a better recipe section. It's still early days for them.

Having said this, it's still well worth it for me as I love the other bits, but wont be using it regularly to warrent paying monthly and other online ones I don't like as much.

Still...check it out and see if you can live with it before you cancel your subscription with WLR.

 

[Laura Croft]

When I wanted to delete something, I got a message saying this deletes it from the group. Don't like that bit!

One thing I liked about WLR was being able to add small medium and large sized fruit. I know it is subjective but saves weighing things all the time!

Adding 1/4 of stuff is definitely more difficult though. Like that you can keep hitting minus but annoying for a recipe. Guess will have to add things based on 1 serving of the recipe ie 1/4 of a can of tinned tomatoes.

Did you notice if you click on the numbers ie cals or % (or grams), the grams and % swap

Def easier to delete things on this too!

 

[Laura Croft]

Oh KD *bounce bounce* I just love the graphs that PDT produces. So pretty! Ignoring the pretty ones I can make myself in Excel