If you want to eat healthy, you could be sabotaging yourself. Sometimes we cook in ways that are counter to eating healthy. For example, I just made Bolognese sauce for pasta. My secret ingredient? Bacon. And I didn’t even use turkey bacon or lean ground beef. Everything has the full fat.

I’m not eating it. It’s for my husband. If I wanted to eat something high in fat, I’d eat chocolate cake. For me, it’s about balancing my calories. Then again, I need to lose weight - not him. And at least I am using high fiber pasta.

This evenings dinner got me thinking about healthy recipes. What should I have for dinner? When this question arises, I have a few places that I look.

• American Heart Association Cookbook . This is my all time favorite healthy cookbook. They have a lot of great bread recipes including an oatmeal bread that’s delicious. Not quit like the classic Fanny Farmer oatmeal bread, but close.

• Epicurious.com - This website features recipes from several magazine. When I want to eat healthy I am most interested in the recipes from Self and Cooking Light. However, Bon Apetit and Gourmet magazines both have healthy selections

• Eating Well . I visit the online version as well as purchase the magazine occasionally. Not only are the recipes healthy but they’re also fun. Eating well also has a cookbook designed to teach you the ins and outs of low fat cooking.

I’ve also learned how to modify my recipes. I use nonstick pans even when the recipe doesn’t say to. I scale back on the butter in recipes - or eliminate altogether in favor of olive oil. I boost the nutrient content of food by adding ground flax, wheat germ, or extra spices where appropriate. I didn’t always have this skill, though. It’s something I learned through trial and error. One healthy recipe leads to another!

I have mixed feelings about cravings. There are a few reasons why they can occur. One reasons is psychological. The other is physical. For example, if I am stressed with a deadline and I suddenly want chocolate - that’s probably psychological.

Physical cravings, on the other hand, happen under much different circumstances. For example, I was hiking and got really dehydrated. I found myself craving water and olives nearly simultaneously. Water to replenish the fluids, olives to replenish the salts.

It’s the psychological cravings that concern me most. This means that there is no phsyical reason for them and that the body doesn’t need the calories. I have a few tactics for dealing with these:

• Get away from the kitchen.
• Go for a walk, dance, etc.
• Have something healthy. If I’m craving sweets, for example, I’ll have an orange or some raisins.
• Drinking tea is another good way. Green tea and rooibos tea work especially well.

By not giving into the psychological cravings, it will make it easier to take off the pounds. Emotional eating is a wonderful habit to kick.

Have you made a New Year’s Resolution to drop pounds? Are you still going strong? If so, congratulations - you reached a milestone. A lot of people seem to give up one February hits. Me? I am still going strong. I eat balanced meals. I exercise. It’s been a fun process.

I find that in order to keep myself motivated, I find that I need to try new recipes every few days. For me, I love to cook. I look forward to learning new cooking skills and trying new foods. I’m also the same way with exercise - I find I need to vary my routine. It makes me look forward to my workouts.

So where do I find healthy recipes? I have several favorite places. Sparkpeople is a great resource because you can find others who are also working on losing weight. I also regularly visit epicurious.com - the recipes from Cooking Light and Self Magazine get posted on there. Do you have any favorite resources for finding new recipes?

I’ve recently discovered that bread pudding is an excellent way to use bread that has gone stale. I found a half a loaf of bread that was beyond stale - it was just a step below “hard as a rock”. I felt saddened by this - it’s upsetting when food goes to waste. So, I consulted my favorite cookbook, How to Cook Everything, and found a nice recipe for bread pudding.

In painstakingly measuring the ingredients I realized something. Bread pudding doesn’t need to be a painstaking process. So I thought I’d share with you my notes and impressions, and offer you a way to make it without measuring.

Ingredients:

Bread - torn or cut into small pieces

Milk - roughly the same amount as you have with bread. So, if you have three cups of bread, you’ll want three cups of milk. You can also use soy milk, rice milk, almond milk, etc

Some sugar - a little goes in the milk, and some gets sprinkled on the top - If you want to go low sugar, you don’t actually need to put the sugar in the milk. You can just sprinkle it on the top and save calories.

Cinnamon- You put a little in the milk and sprinkle some on top.

Vanilla - not in the original recipe, but I ended up putting some in the milk. If you use the beans, put it in from the beginning. If you use the extract, stir it in after you warm the milk.

Butter - all you need is just a little, or none at all. It’s up to you.

Extras - these are all optional but they’re fun. I added cut apples and raisins to the batch I made the other day but you can also add chocolate chips, caramels, white chocolate, etc.

Method:

Tear or cut bread. Measure it and set aside. Add same amount of milk as bread to the saucepan. Add butter (optional), sugar (optional), and cinnamon and heat on low until butter melts and sugar dissolves. If not using butter or sugar, just warm over low heat.  Butter or spray cooking spray on a baking dish. I used a glass pie plate. Arrange bread and any extras (raisins, apples, chocolate chips, nuts, etc)  into dish. Pour milk mixture over and make sure all the bread pieces are submerged. If they aren’t, poke them down or add more warmed milk. Let soak for five minutes. Sprinkle sugar and cinnamon over the top and bake at 350 degrees for 45-60 minutes. (You want the top to be browned. I actually like a nice dark brown crust.) Serve with ice cream or whipped cream if you like.

To make this extra healthy, use whole grain bread.

If you choose to make the healthy version of this recipe, it can help you go a long way to satisfy your sweet tooth in a healthy way. Add extra cinnamon and apples to make it even healthier.

It’s been a while since I’ve given myself a new assignment concerning my weight loss efforts. I took up running again and almost instantly my appetite seems to have been cut in half. One thing that I still have a problem with is eating too late. I eat dinner too late, and then I often have dessert around 10 o’clock. (I made an apple pie the other day.)

So, that’s the thing I will be working on. I think part of the problem is that I do a lot of work at night and it’s easy to mindlessly munch. Plus, my office is right next to the kitchen. So I am making a pact. When I sit by my desk I will prevent mindless munching by drinking tea. Some teas I will have on call:

• Ginger
• Caramel Rooibus
• Green Tea
• Chamomile Tea
• Mint blend (made from peppermint and spearmint)

Those are flavorful and satisfying so drinking them instead of eating should do the trick. I wrote more about it here .

So, you’ve been “good” all week. You eat balanced meals, healthy snacks, and exercise. That’s the Utopian formula of a great lifestyle that will lead to balance and weight loss. But you know what? It’s no fun to always be “on”. Sometimes you just need to have a day where you don’t worry about what you eat.

Even the Body for Life plan says to eat whatever you want one day a week. The only rule is - if you buy chips, cookies, etc and eat them on Sunday, through them away so they aren’t around on Monday. Most people report that after a while, they don’t even desire the junk. Even still, it’s nice to have one night a week where you can kick back and relax.

For someone like me, the one day to “eat whatever” may result in me baking. Today I plan on making apple crisp with some apples I need to use.  I won’t make my full fat version. I’ll scale back on the butter and use some olive oil mixed with a tiny amount of butter instead. I’ll post the results of the healthier apple crisp if it actually tastes good. If you don’t see a recipe - well then you’ll know why.

It’s not hard to eat well when there’s good food around. For me, weight loss success has a lot to do with my options. If I turn my weight loss efforts into a culinary adventure, it is a strong motivator for me to stick with it. Buckwheat pancakes and fruit compote for breakfast. Lentil soup, a piece of crusty bread, and a small salad for lunch. Snacking on fruit, hummus, tzatziki, whole grain crackers, peanut butter.

There are so many healthy food options, who would even desire to eat junk?

I used to think that coffee was part of a good food diet, same with chocolate. But I’ve elminated caffeine because of my adrenal glands and I miss neither.  My endocrine system, I’ve decided, is currently out of balance and is hurting my efforts to lose pounds.

So how am I doing? The scale is, quite literarly, stuck. I’ve lost a few pounds and now I can’t tell if my weight is haywire again because of my hormones or if those few pounds of weight loss have stuck. Meanwhile, I am still working on building my healthy habits.

I’ve been using this space to talk about my path for a healthier lifestyle - one that is filled with good, healthy food, plenty of water, and fun ways to move. Well, I am resurrecting a blog I started a while a go called “Rebel Dieter ” which is going to continue the tradition.

I am The Rebel Dieter because I am actually not on a diet. I don’t like that word because of all the negativity associated with it. But if you’ve been reading this blog than you already know that. The blog is a way of holding myself accountable and of sharing my journey with all of you.

As you know, I live by these principals. I believe them to be the key to reaching my personal happy weight.

• Eat regular meals
• Focus on good, healthy food with plenty of nutrients
• Cut back on simple carbohydrates
• Drink plenty of water
• Exercise

It’s a simple formula and one that I believe will take me far.

Over the course of my healthy eating journey, I’ve discovered that there are some flavors I like, and others I don’t care for. Today, for example, I really wanted a tuna fish sandwich. Instead of making one, I bought one that had Asian ingredients mixed in (wasabi and ginger). I was excited at the prospect of trying something new. I couldn’t finish it. The flavors, as it turns out, do not translate well to tuna salad.

So what healthy foods have I really been enjoying? Here’s a list:

• Dark chocolate - It needs to be at least 75% - but 85% is even better.

• Spaghetti tonno - I always use this recipe (or rather, my own unmeasured version of it).

• The olive bar at Whole Foods - I always seem to get a combination of olives and lupini beans. Today I decided to try the marinated mushrooms, too.

• Dolmades - I love my own version but it’s time consuming. Whole Foods has a great version in the freezer case. It’s lemony and uses whole grain rice.

• Fresh baked bread - The other day I rediscovered the joys of making my own and making it look pretty. A fresh baked loaf from the baker is almost as good.

• Plain Greek yogurt - At first I thought I prefered the whole fat version. In fact, I do - but the 2% fat one is still tasty. I can eat this yogurt plain and enjoy the creamy tartness. Once I lose the weight, I think I’ll switch back to the full fat.

• Soup - My favorites lately are minestrone, potato leek, lentil, creamy mushroom, and the Tomato Red Pepper Bisque at Trader Joe’s

• Fruit salad - I can’t help that I like fruit salad this way - I take all manner of fruits and cut them up into small pieces. I put them into a dessert glass and pour a little cream over it. Better than ice cream or cake because it is rich in minerals. But it’s still a treat that I don’t indulge in often.

In the coming weeks, I know this list will grow as I get back in touch with my favorite healthy foods. Cravings for junky sugar are diminishing as I replace them with these delicious offerings.

I thought I’d spend today summarizing the three things I am working on. I don’t know about you, but I haven’t been eating well these past few days - mainly because of the cookies I baked. Today, I resolve not to have any and to save the remaining batch for my husband.

Anyway, I thought I’d take a moment to summarize the things I’ve been working on. It’s just three things but I know they can make a big difference over the long run. Besides, I’ve already lost a few pounds.

• Eat a healthy breakfast. I still need to work on eating right when I wake up. But I’m getting better. And the other day, I actually ate a cookie for breakfast. Not good. Still a work in progress but I am getting better!

• Eat a healthy lunch. Lunch should be 3-4 hours after breakfast - four hours if I have a snack, three hours if I don’t.

• No refined carbohydrates. I think my wake up call came when I actually ate a cookie for breakfast. Refined carbohydrates are terrible, and do nothing to propel me into a life filled with better health and optimum fitness.

So, I am going to spend these next few days working on these habits until I add something else to the mix. Stay tuned - next I’ll work on eating a great dinner.