Ana's Thinspiration

apple
asparagus
beet
broccoli
carrot
cauliflower
celery root
celery chicory
cranberries
cucumber
dandelion
endive
garden cress
garlic
grapefruit
green beans
green cabbage
hot chili peppers
lamb's lettuce
lemon mango
lettuce
onion
orange
papaya
pineapple
radishes
raspberries
spinach
strawberries
tangerine
tur
zucchini

Prepackaged, frozen meals - Weight Watchers has "Smart Ones," there's Lean Cuisine, Healthy Choice, and now the South Beach diet. I buy whatever looks good and/or is on sale, not because I am following a particular diet. These foods are healthy and offer variety.

Canned soup - Read the labels. Companies usually list more than one serving per can, so the calories and sodium are more that what you see at first glance. Healthy soups are costlier but the cans are larger and they're chunkier. Regular soup is fine as long as you keep track of calories.

Fat-Free hot dogs or chicken patties - These take some getting used to but they're filling and guilt-free. Some brands are unpalatable and simply not worth the extra money.

Lean lunch meat - A sandwich with lean lunch meat and some mustard or fat-free mayo will get you buy until your next meal. It may cost more but there's no denying the difference between lean and regular. Again, read the labels.

Rice cakes - Plain rice cakes are only 35 calories. Unsalted ones have very little sodium and are healthier. Other flavors are available and quite good, even though they have a few more calories.

Bullion cubes - Dieting often makes you feel chilled. Drink bullion cubes dissolved in hot water to warm up and get a little food content. The only downside is that they're packed with salt, so don't get carried away.

Breakfast and granola bars - Crunchy breakfast bars come in many different flavors and can be eaten as a fast meal if you're eating several times a day or as a satisfying snack.
Lowfat cottage cheese - Add a 1/2 of this to your diet to balance it out. You'll get dairy benefits and only about 80 calories.

Cherry tomatoes - Besides the other fruits and vegetables that I like, a medium cherry tomato is packed with flavor and only has 5 calories.

Light yogurt - Light yogurt has more calories than what I'd like, but it's a treat. Pick your favorite flavor and reward yourself when your sweet tooth kicks in.

Popcorn - Surprised? I don't mean the prepackaged popcorn that you pop in the microwave, it's packed with calories and sodium. What's healthy is the old-fashioned, natural kernels that you need to pop in a hot-air popper. This gives you control of what is added. Still, you need to eat in moderation.

Pickles - Load up on dill pickles and dill slices. This makes a nice "side dish" or snack and helps fill you up without giving you calories. Other pickles, such as "bread and butter" give you calories, so make sure you read the label.

Cool Whip - Are you an ice cream addict? Next time you have a craving, eat some frozen Cool Whip Light instead.

Sugar-Free Jello - Available in a large variety of flavors, you're in for a refreshing treat.

Light Bread - Wonder light bread has only 40 calories per slice. Regular bread is around 60 per slice. That means eating a sandwich with light bread will save you 40 calories -- another slice of light bread!

Condiments and spreads - Did you know that mustard has zero calories? The calorie content of ketchup varies by the brand. Either way, you need to count and add them to your daily list. Mayo is packed with calories so it's best to stick with the fat-free version (Kraft is my favorite brand.) Butter and margarine is another no-no but you can find brands that offer fat-free spread although they sacrifice taste.

Beverages - Water is very beneficial to feeling full and satisfied. Your body needs extra water when it's eliminating fat from your body, so drink plenty. Tea, diet sodas and sugar-free drink mixes add variety and all count towards your liquid/water intake. Fat-free hot chocolate is perfect for chocolate cravings.

Everyone needs a minimum amount of calories each day to maintain essential life functions. If you exercise regularly or do work that requires a great deal of physical exertion, you could require additional calories each day than the average person. Additionally, if you’re pregnant or breastfeeding, you will temporarily require more calories. There are a variety of factors that determine the number of calories you require each day - height, weight, gender, age and activity level must all be taken into consideration. To achieve healthy and lasting weight loss, you’ll need to ensure you consistently consume the proper amount of calories your body requires.

There are a couple of ways to figure how many calories you burn in a day, including any physical exercise, by using an Activity Calculator. You can enter almost any activity and duration to get the total calories burned during the activity.

Besides calorie planning, the type of foods in your meal choices becomes important also. This is just one of the many reasons a food diary can be extremely valuable to a dieter. You can then identify some foods you like that could be part of your regular diet. For example, peaches are vitamin-rich and very low in calories. You could incorporate eating peaches in your diet or replace a higher calorie fruit with peaches, saving yourself some additional calories each day. So checking out the nutritional data can be ‘fruitful’ in many ways, including saving some calories.

~http://www.diet-weight-management.com/calorie_counting.aspx~

All of us automatically think we must avoid candy at all costs, but that isn't necessarily true.

It's up to you what you'd like to be consuming, so here's a list of some common candies and their caloric information:

+ Reese's Peanut Butter Cups - 36 calories (1 mini)

+ M&M's Plain - 240 calories (..:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />1.69 ounces)

+ Snickers - 273 calories (1 bar - 2 oz)

+ Hershey's Special Dark - 218 calories (1 bar - 1.45 oz)

+ Twizzler's Strawberry - 249 calories (2 1/2 oz)

+ Kit Kat - 217 calories (1 bar - 1.5 oz)

+ Twix - 284 calories (1 package - 2 oz)

+ York Peppermint Patties - 165 calories (1 patty - 1.5 oz)

+ Starburst - 166 calories (1 package - fun size)

+ Starburst - 20 calories (1 piece)

+ Tootsie Roll - 140 calories (1 serving - 40 g)

+ Butterfinger - 214 calories (1 bar - 1.6 oz)

+ Reese's Pieces - 229 calories (1 package - 1.63 oz)

+ Brach's Jelly Beans - 150 calories (14 pieces)

+ Symphony Milk Chocolate - 223 calories (1 bar - 1.5 oz)

+ Skittles - 231 calories (1 package - 2 oz)

+ Milky Way - 254 calories (1 bar - 2.1 oz)

+ Tootsie Pops - 60 calories (1 serving - 17 g)

+ Crunch - 209 calories (1 bar - 1.4 oz)

+ Almond Joy - 235 calories (1 package - 1.76 oz)

+ Baby Ruth - 158 calories (1 bar - 1.2 oz)

+ Raisinets - 41 calories (10 pieces)

+ Jolly Ranchers - 70 calories (3 pieces)

+ Brach's Hard Butterscotch Candies - 70 calories (3 pieces)

+ Krackel - 210 calories (1 bar - 1.45 oz)

+ Smarties - 25 calories (1 roll)

+ Blow Pops - 60 calories (1 regular sized pop)

+ Mr. Goodbar - 264 calories (1 bar - 1.75 oz)

+ Junior Mints - 170 claories (1 serving - 40 g)

+ 100 Grand - 192 calories (1 bar - 1.5 oz)

+ Kit Kat Bites - 199 calories (15 pieces)

+ Trident Gum - 5 calories (1 stick)

+ Mounds - 258 calories (1 package - 1.9 oz)

+ Brach's Candy Corn - 140 calorie (26 pieces)

+ Brach's Starlight Peppermints - 60 calories (3 pieces)

+ Willy Wonka's Everlasting Gobstoppers - 59 calories (6 pieces)

+ Smuckers Jelly Beans - 150 calories (25 pieces)

+ Brach's Cinnamon Hard Candy - 70 calories (3 pieces)

+ SweetTarts - 60 calories (8 pieces)

+ Reese's Nutrageous - 279 calories (1 bar - 1.92 oz)

+ Wrigley Bubble Gum Sugarfree - 5 calories (1 stick)

+ Ice Breakers Cool Mint Gum - 5 calories (1 piece)

+ Whatchamacallit - 237 calories (1 bar - 1.7 oz)

+ Tootsie Mini Pops - 50 calories (3 pops)

+ Milk Maid Caramels - 160 calories (4 pieces)

+ Bit-O'-Honey - 160 calories (6 pieces)

+ Oh Henry! - 263 calories (1 bar - 2 oz)

+ Dentyne Ice - 5 calories (2 pieces)

+ 5th Avenue - 270 calories (1 bar - 2 oz)

+ Brach's Orange Slices - 130 calories (2 pieces)

+ Ju Jubes - 140 calories (8 pieces)

+ Orbit Gum - 5 calories (1 piece)

+ Sugar Babies - 180 calories (30 pieces)

+ Tropical Dots - 140 calories (12 dots)

+ Good & Plenty - 170 calories (1 box)

+ Brach's Circus Peanuts - 160 calories (6 pieces)

+ Charleston Chew Mini Vanilla - 180 calories (1 serving - 40 g)

+ Werther's Caramels - 170 calories (6 pieces)

+ Juicy Fruit Gum - 10 calories (1 stick)

+ California Raisins - 170 calories (35 pieces)

+ Original Dots - 140 calories (12 dots)

+ Cinnamon Altoids - 10 calories (3 pieces)

+ Candy Lipsticks - 20 calories (1 lipstick)