We've talked about Fit for Life elsewhere in this section, and like Alexa said, it is really a lifestyle change. In looking at some of the sites about it yesterday, I realized that I have continued to eat that way to some degree for all these years since. (And it probably kept some pounds off me.) For example, I never went back to drinking with meals. The principle made sense and it stuck. It became a lifestyle so much that when I first mentioned the diet generalities here, I forgot to even mention that. I also only ate fruit alone, without other foods, all this time. The biggest difficulty for me on this diet is the love for some of my recipes that mix carbs and proteins. But I would love to be thin and healthy even more. I hope.

I wanted to start this topic so that anyone who is interested could get a few ideas of the yummy meals that can be had in this way of eating, and hopefully some of you can also give your input.

The first thing I'll mention is the Goodwich. That name and the general idea of the sandwich is from the 1985 book.

GOODWICH
Take your choice of bread or tortilla and put a little mayo on it, or more depending on whether you are counting calories. I like tortillas best, but am sticking to sprouted wheat bread. Then put on lots of dark green or red lettuce (spring mix is good, too) and some other veggies. Be creative. I like avocado, cucumbers and tomatoes. I also add a little dressing made with olive oil. Don't add any protein foods since you are getting carbs (the bread) in this meal. You will be surprised at how delicious this is, and I felt thinner yesterday after eating one!

SOUPS
I am a soup maker in the winters, and they call me the Soup Queen around here. They love my soups. For Fit for Life I am making changes in the ingredients, but if you season them up well, they are still wonderful.

Last night I made a sort of pasta free MINESTRONE. I cooked up some pork sausage, like little meatballs. Lots of 'em. Before they were done I added chopped onion to saute' and carmelize in the pan. That changes the taste into something wonderful. I poured in a box of chicken broth, Italian seasoning and some canned diced tomatoes, and while it heated up I was chopping veggies like crazy. I haven't shopped for this diet yet, but I had on hand some frozen green beans which I cut into bite size pieces, some carrots and an interesting yellow squash from someone's garden. I filled the pot with them. Of course, there are other veggies that you can add- like zucchini rings which are really cute when you cook them just long enough so the middle falls out - just keep a good variety in the house and get creative. The family (and friend) loved it and the pot was emptied. I let my son add some pasta to his- he is very thin and has a finicky tummy, so if he finds something he will eat I just let him.

I often make up two pots of soup at a time, which I did last night. The second one was a BLACK BEAN SOUP. I saute'd my onions first in grapeseed oil, and some slices of garlic a bit later, and then put in three cans of black beans and a box of chicken broth. Beans are carby and proteiny, so we go one way or the other with them. In this case, protein- chicken broth. Then I added a generous amount of our favorite salsa. Probably about 2-3 cups. The biggest key to success in this soup, for those who like it, is that I add lots of chopped green chilies. When I have time I buy them fresh and roast and chop them, but using one of the larger cans is also just fine. You can add corn sometimes for variety, if you use corn despite it's carbiness. My hubby did when we were strictly on this diet and he lost weight. Our dinner for tonight is ready to reheat! You can pile some avocado and or sour cream on the top, and maybe a jalapeno for those so inclined.

Another favorite that fits the program is my PINTO BEAN SOUP. I never use chicken broth with this- it doesn't taste good. Just water with some worchestershire sauce. Without chicken broth, this meal will go in the carb direction- thus you can eat tortillas or corn chips with it! I soak my beans in advance (or you can cook them for extra time in extra water). I cook them with salsa, onions, garlic, a can of tomatoes, maybe chiles and perhaps some veggies. Or not. According to what you have in the house and your taste. Once again, you can garnish with avo, sour cream and maybe some of the sliced jalapeno rings that come in a jar.

Edited to add: I often cook my pintos in Frontier Herb's Mexican Seasoning. That is delicious.

With soups in general, I often add a bit of soy sauce or worchestershire sauce (the healthy kind from the whole foods store). Until I am familiar with what will taste good together, I put a drop of the sauce in a spoon and add some soup from the pot and taste. Then I add the sauce that tastes good to the broth.

Next installment: wonderful things with veggies. I hope I don't forget to type this up. It is the best cooked veggy tray you can imagine. Mediterranean style.

I did a little research on the Fit for Life diet and most nutritionist don't recommend it. It was generally viewed as a lot of bunk and actually being detrimental to nutritional needs. If you feel it is working for you that's great. I agree with some of the food choices but there is no proven evidence that combining certain foods together or not together has any effect on the body.

As with any other diet it has it's good points and bad. Eating lots of fruits and veggies is definitely a plus but cutting all dairy from your diet is definitely not. I think a modified effort with the Fit for Life routine might be useful but not to follow it exactly as suggested by the creators.

Well, some people like to write websites debunking things that they don't know anything about. That doesn't mean that they are right. This diet allows a very good variety of foods, and you can lose weight, gain weight if needed, or maintain your weight while eating very well because it allows for better digestion. You get a peaceful internal feeling after eating, which can answer the question about mixing carbs and proteins personally for anyone who wants to try it without needing a study. Studies are often slanted anyway one way or another for various reasons, usually financial. On this diet you can change out what you eat every day if you want, and that variety is important. And you can eat dairy if you want to like I do- nobody will slap your hand. If you want to do the diet as a purist and skip the dairy, you can get the same nutrients from other foods. It is a far more nutritious diet than many; how can they say it is not with all that food variety and good quantity? That is what is a bunch of bunk. Fit for Life can be more nutritious than a calorie counting diet, depending on what foods you choose to get your calories from.

I agree with you about modifying the diet to suit your needs. I am modifying it for myself as I learn things about myself.

Thanks very much kescah for all that information. It sounds like a varation on a food combining diets. I think a lot of people have success with those, though I think they can be difficult to fit into family life. It does sound as if you still have plenty to eat, I think severe restricition is a mistake. It sounds like it's working well for you, look forward to hearing more on your progress.
Food combining diets can also be very useful for those with digestive problems.

The soups sound healthy and filling, and I like the sound of the meditteranean veggies.

Thanks for your encouragement. I cheated on food combining yesterday and sure enough, some weight came back on. But I know we need to measure it by overall progress. I can really see daily, though, how my eating affects my weight. And Ishouldn't try to lose it all in the first week.

The MEDITERRANEAN VEGGIES:
Choose your vegetables; different ones work well for this. Not all.
I take fresh beets and slice them into round flat pieces. Zucchini and carrots can be sliced lengthwise. I use slices of red onion and some sliced large mushrooms. Eggplant slices would be good, I'm sure, but I haven't tried them. What else? Hmm. Maybe you can think of some more. If it is a carb meal, you could try potato slices, but I'm not sure how they would be. Probably yummy!

Take each piece of veggie and spread it with a little bit of balsamic vinegar and lay it out on a backing tray. (A pretty ceramic tray is nice if you have one.) I line them up, overlapping a bit, and then brush them with olive oil. Then I bake them in the oven until soft, and take them out. As I recall, it takes a while; maybe 45 minutes, but do keep testing them so you don't burn 'em! They are so pretty that you don't even need a garnish- and a friend that we had over one night took a picture before we dug in, and put the picture up on her kitchen wall!

Serve with a piece of meat if you are going protein, and eat all you want of the scrumptious veggies.

That sounds really good kescah. I use eggplant often, (aubergine as we call them) I love them. Maybe zucchini too ? (courgettes). It sounds very healthy.
It's interesting that you noticed a fluctuation when you diverted from the combining. Good luck with it.

I'm trying a new 'eating programme' (not a diet) it seems very healthy and easy to follow, so I'll see how it goes. It's based on 12 superfoods (not just 12 foods, some are food groups). I'll see how I go ! It's called the 'Abs diet' and comes with a bewildering amount of abdominal exercises, which i'm not doing, as I'm wi-fitting ! It doesn't actually exclude any food group which is healthy. I'll have to keep my portion sizes sensible though !

That is interesting; let us know how it goes without the abs exercises. That sounds palatable.

Another veggie for the recipe is asparagus. (I like those French names though.)

I love asparagus !

I was lucky yesterday to come across a copy of the 'Abs Diet' but this version is aimed especially at women, in a bookshop at a huge reduction ! It has more detail on the food side of things. I may try some of the exercises too !

The author (David Zinczenko) seems very knowledgeable and really has a common sense approach, there's a lot about hormones and age etc too, the science of metabolism. He also debunks the low fat diets and low carb diets, suggesting balance is really the answer, we do need carbs and fat, just the good ones though !

Is abdominal fat different than the others? Tell us whatever you know from your good deal book.

Not sure how fat loss works for others but for me the belly fat is the last to go and it's a struggle. I lose inches and pounds everywhere else first. There's apparently a layer of fat that hangs in the front of your abdomen called the omentum and it seems to be the hardest to get rid of. Maybe a carry over from history where we needed to store fat to survive the bad times? I'd be interested in any ideas for getting rid of belly fat short of starvation.