I always have things that I could use for stress eating.  Sugar free jello, sugar free popsicles,  olives, pickles, string cheese, flaxseed for mug muffins, Sport Tea, cucumbers, lettuce, celery, deli ham or deli turkey are a few that come to mind.

This is your first year end after surgery and it is the hardest.  As the years go by, you will have experienced things like year end stress over and over.  Next year, you will realize that you survived this year.  I just lived through my seventh holiday season.  It was much easier than my first few. 

There is a moment when you fully commit and for me that was sometime during year three.  Something like getting married to the plan and taking vows for life.  I no longer crave anything.  I am not just giving lip service to nothing tastes are good as skinny feels.

Once in a while someone will say, "Why do you still eat such tiny amounts of food?"  I tell them that I am quite capable now of eating a lot more, but prefer not to.  It is not hard, it is easy.  It will get easier everyday and every year.

i am going to keep this list white dove. What are these flaxseed mug muffins.

Sounds like it could be a new angelic "bad" thing!

Pickles and olives are love of mine! Damn! Wish I wuld have thought of them earlier

Muffin in a Minute, Muffin in a Mug are a few names of something that we came up with many years ago when Atkins was the weight loss guru that many of us followed.  There are many variations and they got me through the first few years.

Basic Muffin

1/3 cup of flaxseed meal

2 tablespoons Splenda

1 egg

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Spray a coffee mug with PAM.  Mix everything together and microwave for one minute.  Let sit for another minute then cut in half and eat with butter or cream cheese.

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That is just the basic, from there use your imagination and replace the garlic with other seasonings.

To eat with fish, I make them with shredded cheddar cheese and garlic powder

For dessert, mix in 2 tablespoons cocoa, 2 tablespoons Splenda, and 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla. 

Blueberry muffin taste, add 1/4 cup blueberries, vanilla, sweetener and cinnamon

Cookie dough - replace the cinnamon and sweetener with DaVinci Cookie Dough Syrup and add a few chocolate chips

Apple cake - Slice up an apple, mix with cinnamon and sweetener and microwave in a PAM sprayed cereal bowl.  When the apple is soft, mix the basic ingredients and spoon over the apples, then microwave for minute

For a white cake, I substitute the flaxseed meal with almond flour and use only the egg white.

For a hamburger roll, leave out the cinnamon and sweetener and microwave in a cereal bowl, then cut in half.

The great thing about these is the size of them.  You are not getting a little skimpy diet portion.  These get big and often would do me for two meals.

Something else I discovered is buttermilk powder.  It is in the baking department, usually by the canned milk.  A teaspoon of that makes the muffins much bigger and lighter. 

wow! Spounds scrumptous!

Hi,

These look awesome. If you make these savory, do you leave
out the sugar and cinnamon and do you add extra sugar to the
Sweet ones?

Trying to get back on track. I can keep blaming my weight gain on my inability to exercise much due to the severe arthritis in
my knees. But my eating is terrible and I need to get back to basics and be honest with myself. Getting rid of the bad carbs and grazing is a start 😃
Thanks,
Edie

It is trial and error.  But leaving out the cinnamon and sweetener in the savory is basic.  Sometimes you might prefer more sweetness.  Just experiment.

What a great response. I needed to hear this too. I am still early on, but I can see the slippery slope sometimes. I had one today... it was the 'I'm just going to fini**** because it is something I really like and haven't had in 7 or 8 months'. Is the eating slow and then being able to eat more the right thing or overeating... still trying to figure that line out. ....Flaxseed muffins and variations look great. Thanks for sharing those.

You can't erase a decade (or two or three) of bad habits in just a year. But hey, keep up the good work for another 20 years, and I bet it gets a lot easier. 

   Haha!

I love your humor and positive attitude Grim.

Back on the horse and infinitely less annoyed with myself this morning.

Good thread! I am only 5 months out but I worry I will be one of the ones that will eventually regain all that I lose and I don't want that to happen!! It does take a lifetime of developing coping strategies and it is not realistic to expect that to change quickly. thank you for sharing!