The No Diet, No Exercise Weight Loss Plan Step 5

Get excited about Step 5 of the No Diet No Exercise Weight Loss Plan. This step is key to your success and enjoying what you eat. Although I was always slim, my weight would fluctuate 5-10 pounds above my ideal weight as began to age. Typically, I would eat sweets and chips, and then give them up for awhile to lose the weight. Then, a friend confided to me his secret about maintaining his fit frame with the simple idea of equivalents.

What are equivalents? Equivalents are great tasting low-fat and 0 fat alternatives to your favorite fatty foods. Once I understood how this worked and implemented it in my own life, I felt I had found the pot at the end of the rainbow!

What's better, these equivalents may be purer and/or healthier, and just as tasty if not tastier than what you are eating now. You will not feel that you are giving up what you love, just finding new and exciting ways to express yourself while feeling good about reaching your goals.

It Just takes two easy steps:

1. Identify your favorite foods that you don't want to give up.

2. Find the 0 fat equivalents you can enjoy for life.

Listed below are foods that I love and are part of my routine. Here are some equivalents that worked for me. I have a sweet tooth so that was a big challenge for me. I also love fried foods and snacks.

Hot Chocolate: After being required to eat a gluten-free diet, I changed from Swiss Miss hot chocolate packets to low-fat milk heated in a pan and I added approximately 4 squares of a Cadbury milk chocolate candy bar (6 grams of fat per serving). I drank two or three cups of hot chocolate every night. That's 12 to 18 grams of fat per night!

Hot Chocolate Equivalent: Delicious 0.1 fat gram per serving hot chocolate. Heat 1 cup of fat-free or skim milk, add 3/4 tsp. pure 0 fat Hershey's natual unsweetened cocoa (or use 0 fat Hershey's Genuine Chocolate Flavor Syrup). Then, add 1 or 2 tsp. of raw cane sugar to taste and if you want, 1/4 tsp. of vanilla. If you want to top it off, spoon on Cool Whip whip cream or your favorite 0 fat whip cream brand and drizzle 0 fat Hershey's Genuine Chocolate Flavor Syrup on top and sprinkle it with cinnamon. Yum!

Candy: Candy bars have long been a daily part of my diet. I still allow myself one or two a week, but a daily dose can provide as many as 16 grams of fat per day which is 112 grams of fat per week! Often, this includes bad saturated and trans fat.

Candy Equivalent: Candy bars with 0 grams of fat or less than 3 grams of fat. The list includes favorites such as York Peppermint Patties, Hot Tamales, Skittles, Tootsie Roll, Starburst Jelly Beans, Sweet Tarts, Pixie Sticks and Laffy Taffy. Also try 0 fat delicious marshmallows and dip them in 0 fat Hershey's Genuine Chocolate Flavor Syrup.

Butter: Mashed potatoes with lots of butter are a favorite evening snack. In fact, I love to slather vegetables and fish with butter, and put butter on pancakes and waffles. The problem is that just 1 Tbsp. of butter is 11 grams of fat.

Butter Equivalent: Finished of with a tasty buttery flavor, 0 fat I Can't Believe It's Not Butter Cooking Spray is delicious and contains sweet cream buttermilk. You can spray to your heart's delight!

Sour Cream: Who doesn't love a baked potatoe with sour cream? Sour cream is good for you, but be careful of the fat cholesterol! Store brand sour cream contains approximately 6 grams of fat per 2 Tbsp, 20mg of cholesterol and lots of other ingredients. Daisy sour cream contains 5 grams of fat, no more than four ingredients, and 1/2 the cholesterol of store brand sour cream.

Sour Cream Alternative: Daisy Light sour cream at just 2.5 grams of fat per 2 Tbsp. or Daisy fat free sour cream. Try them and see which one you like the best.

Cream Cheese: A wonderful ingredient in dips and a good source of Vitamin A, cream cheese packs a whopping 9 grams of fat in the original product (Philadelphia), while 6 grams of fat per serving in the light product. Both contain saturated fat and approximately 35 mg cholesterol.

Cream Cheese Alternative: Try low-fat cream cheese or Daisy 0 fat sour cream in dips instead of cream cheese and enjoy them guilt free!

Crunchy Sweet Snacks: It's easy to eat a whole package of cookies or carmel corn while watching tv.

Crunchy Sweet Snacks Alternatives: Sweet cereals are a great option instead of cookies. Many are fat free and packed with vitamins and minerals. So indulge and eat them straight from the box or with skim milk. Sugar Pops, Frosted Flakes and Frosted Krispies have 0 fat grams and are a great snack. Other munch worthy cereals with 0.5 to 1 gram of fat are Captain Crunch, Fruit Loops, Apple Jacks, Honey Smacks, Lucky Charms, Cookie Crisp, Fruity Pebbles and Honey Comb. For chocolate lovers, Cocoa Krispies have just 1.5 gram of fat per serving. Also, eat right from the jar of 0 fat marshmallo cream.

Pringles Potato Chips: 1 can of original Pringles Sour Cream and Onion potato chips contain 62.4 grams of fat and 978 calories! I got hooked on these and ate 2-3 cans per week until I discovered this. That's 124.8 to 187.2 grams of fat in one week, just from Pringles original Sour Cream and Onion chips!

Pringles Potato Chips Alternative: Pringles fat free Sour Cream and Onion potato chips or try another brand of potato chips or try Pop Corners (butter, Jalapeno, white cheddar, etc.), tortilla chips or popcorn sprayed generously with I can't Believe It's Not Butter Cooking Spray.

Bread: bread is so convenient and useful for so many things, but it is a starch that turns into fat in the cells.

Bread Alternatives: Instead use a tortilla (corn or flour), nori Japanese seaweed sheets, rice wrappers, lettuce leaves, rice crackers or rice cakes. Try these ideas: Lightly fry 2 tortillas with olive oil or 0 fat Pam cooking spray and sandwich an egg and cheese between them. Make tuna fish and wrap it up in a nori seaweed sheet with green onions and small strips of cream cheese. Make summer rolls using rice wrappers or wrap the tuna fish or turkey in lettuce leaves with tomatoes and onions. Rice crackers are excellent for dipping and you can spread or put sandwich makings such as tuna fish, turkey and cheese, cream cheese and olives or jam on them.

Cheese: I used to go through 2 8-ounce blocks of cheddar cheese every 2 or 3 days. They are essentially blocks of fat, and although nutritious, pad your cells abundantly with fat.

Cheese Alternative: Use a stronger flavored cheese so that you can taste it and enjoy it in less volume. These include smoked cheeses such as smoked Gouda and longer-aged cheeses, bleu cheese, feta cheese, gorgonzola, shaved parmigiano or parmesan and herbed goat cheese. Crumbled and shaved cheeses are easily added lightly to dishes and are nice sprinkled on salads or as toppings to baked dishes or added to rice dishes like paella.

Ice Cream: Turkey Hill ice cream has gluten-free selections like delicious Tin Roof Sundae. The serving size is 1/2 cup and it has 8 grams of fat. Personally, I don't know anyone who can eat just 1/2 cup of ice cream! Do you?

Ice Cream Alternative: Sherberts, Italian ice, soy ice creams and yogurt ice cream are fat free or lower fat alternatives to regular ice cream and are delicious. Top off with 0 fat Cool Whip or another 0 fat whip cream of your choice and 0 fat Hershey's Genuine Chocolate Flavor Syrup!

French Fries: French fries are the best! They are also extremely high in fat.

French Fries Alternative: At home, lightly fry in Pam cooking spray or spread out frozen french fries on a tin foil covered cooky sheet and put them under the broiler. Keep the over door open slightly. Watch so they don't burn. Turn after golden, then sprinkle with a little salt and pepper and remove when golden colored. Dip in ketchup or 0 fat Hidden Valley or Paul Newman Ranch dressing (both are gluten-free).

Salad Dressing: There are many high fat salad dressings on the market.

Salad Dressing Alternatives: There are many excellent 0 fat and lower fat alternatives on the market. These include Hidden Valley or Paul Newman Ranch dressing, as well as balsamic vinegar and oil, or apple cider vinegar and oil.

Cooking Oil: The best oil to use (and the only one I use) is a good brand of Extra Virgin Olive Oil as it both lowers your cholesterol and removes plaque from your arteries. It has about 14 grams of fat per Tbsp. but it is essential and should be included weekly in your diet for it's great health benefits. It's also good for your skin and hair. Use it sparingly when you cook and in salads.

Cooking Oil Alternatives: Pam cooking oil comes with olive oil and Pam is a light 0 fat cooking spray that you can lightly fry and saute food in. Balance the use of this with regular olive oil.

Sugar: Sugar is always a challenge for those who cannot give it up or those who cannot use sweeteners. Sugar does turn to fat in your body's cells. It is a constant challenge for me as I drink several cups of coffee and hot chocolate each day.

Sugar Alternatives: Stevia and artificial sweetners don't taste good to me and Splenda caused and allergic reaction. Honey and agar are expensive. White sugar is highly processed and causes mood highs and lows because it enters the blood stream quicker. Brown sugar is just white sugar with molasses. Raw sugar seems the best choice for me, and I've found that I use less if it's cane sugar than sugar from beets (common in the U.S.).

Coffee Creamer: Half and Half is the best, and actually has fewer fat grams (3g, Land'o Lakes) than whole milk (5).

Coffee Creamer Alternative: Evaporated milk is rich in flavor and has only 2 grams of fat (check each brand). Another alternative to make your skim milk richer tasting in your coffee is to add some 0 fat non-dairy creamer into it. These can be added to hot chocolate as well.

**Note: check with your doctor if you have any dietary or other health issues before you make any changes to your diet or prescribed health or exercise plan.