this is my wife's current job as a dietitian/nutritionist... she has a load of patients who are in your same boat. she's a whole foods dietitian (not that Jenny Craig crap that gives her field a bad name).

Embrace the crock pot. It's absolutely minimal effort, its uses whole foods (depending on recipe), and it will make as much as you want for lunch leftovers that can last you all week. I can have her post some recipes if you'd like, but that'd require her to create an account, and I don't need that happening.

oh, and Argonaut, salsa and guac is absolutely healthy if you're using the correct ingredients. Eat the guac with mini carrots and you up the ante even more

Go grocery shopping already, LV. Let's get the ball rolling.

I've actually been wanting to get more into crock pot food, I just keep forgetting to actually do it. I don't need specific recipes or anything, but what kind of dishes are you referring to? Obviously I probably shouldn't be making like beef stew, which would be my first impulse, haha.

Dude, just go into the crock pot thread. We use our crock pot every weekend, and you can find some amazing recipes on the web.

I guess I'm just trying to figure what types of dishes you can make in a crock pot that are healthy?

you looking for low carb, or more veggie-related?

Stuff that will help me lose weight, mostly. So I guess low-calorie?

You want low carb for losing weight.

Also portion sizes, and being active. It sounds blunt, but losing weight is unbelievably simple in theory. You just need to exercise self-discipline. No self-improvements come for free.

Try one of the pork recipes in the crock pot thread. I recommend the kalua pork but there are other good ones as well.

Oh I know, I've been down this road before. But something that always trips me up is the food. It seems like everything I like is terrible for you.

it's really all moderation. you don't have to completely cut stuff out of your diet if you want to lose weight. that'll just backfire big time. if you want a hamburger, have a hamburger. don't eat hamburgers 5 nights a week, but if your body is telling you something, listen to it. counterbalance it the next night with a veggie dish. if you just drastically reduce carbs one day, within a week you're going to go nuts on carbs and totally sabotage yourself

I've thoroughly enjoyed flipping through this book and have found some really good recipes in it:
http://www.amazon.com/Your-Mothers-Slow ... low+cooker

A recipe can be as healthy or as unhealthy as you make it. If a recipe calls for green beans, get fresh green beans and not canned green beans. That right there will cut all the unnecessary salt from your veggies. A lot of little changes like that are better than one big change. Our bodies don't do well with huge sudden changes. And if you don't want to make a lot of small changes at once (I didn't for sure, it was too overwhelming), then just take baby steps. Make one change, get used to it. Add another change, get used to it... etc etc. My first change years ago was to cut out sugary cereal. It's all I ever had growing up. It took a solid few months to not crave it anymore, but once that switch flipped, I was ready for the next change which was reducing soda (and eventually cutting it out). A couple of years down the road, I was eating stuff that would have made me previously gawked at. It's all about training your taste buds.

You can do it. It's just hard to get the willpower to force yourself to do it. Food companies have redefined food over the years, and have sacrificed health for convenience... and it's hard to steer back the other way, because let's face it, convenience is so much easier

Thanks, man. Appreciate the advice. Especially the getting used to one step before taking another. I think I'm gonna try that approach.

Ugh, but it's so hard.

I bought a large shirt.

For who? Chud?

no.