It's been sixty-two days since that post, and I'm loving this way of thinking. Until this morning, I hadn't weighed myself in over a month; I've gained about two pounds. Just two. And that's pretty good, considering I haven't been doing anything that would be considered close to dieting in that span of time.
In taking on this "nothing is off limits" mindset, my biggest fear was that I would spiral out of control; that I would eat terrible foods in terrible portions and gain terrible amounts of weight.
So far, that hasn't happened. I find this quite pleasing.
Still, even with all of this progress, I still consider certain foods to be big-time taboos. The kinds of foods that you just know are going to make me feel either miserable, or sick, or bloated, or sluggish, or cranky, or some combination of those things, so it isn't even worth it to eat them.
Cinnabons are an example. I used to eat them all the time. I also used to weigh 220 pounds. In high school.
The last time I ate a Cinnabon, I felt so gross afterwards (not out of guilt, I just felt physically ill) that I haven't had one since. Perhaps this is because I ate an entire Cinnabon by myself, and then rode in a car for three hours. I like to think that if I had the foresight to bring three friends with me to share it, and right afterwards we walked a few miles, I'd be able to handle it. But I digress.
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| Image from Classico.com |
Until recently, fettuccine Alfredo was another one of those "not worth it" foods. Heavy pasta + heavy sauce = Heavy consequences for my poor little body.
Then, as part of the FoodBuzz Tastemakers program, Classico sent me a sample of their new Light Creamy Alfredo to try. I'll admit that one of the reasons I opted in for this promotion is out of skepticism. I figured there was no way that they'd be able to make a healthy version of Alfredo sauce that tasted good and wasn't filled with horrible chemicals.
I was wrong.
This sauce was tasty. And the ingredient list didn't scare me, either. Water. Cream. Parmesan Cheese. Egg yolks. Butter. Salt. Sounds like Alfredo to me. There were a few thickeners in there, like xanthan gum and corn starch, but other than that the ingredient list was pretty tame compared to some other labels I've read in the past.
I decided to stick with the "light" mentality and serve my Alfredo sauce over whole grain pasta and an assortment of delicious veggies:
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| If this doesn't look good to you, you might just never like vegetables. I still love you. |
Aside from being a bit on the thin side, I really liked the sauce. It tasted creamy and cheesy and buttery - everything an Alfredo sauce should taste like. I thought it could use a little garlic and pepper, but it was easy to add those things myself to achieve that effect. I think what really made this dish shine was the fresh vegetables - grape tomatoes, mushrooms, broccoli, carrots, and onions. The sauce served to tie the different flavors together in a nice way - it didn't overpower them, but it added a nice comforting note to what could have been a relatively "boring" super-healthy dish.
Comfort without the guilt.
As a variation to this, you could up the protein factor by slicing and broiling tofu until it just can't take it anymore (the only way I've been able to properly crisp tofu without deep-frying it). For this particular dish, I made a rub of salt, dried thyme, dried basil, and dried oregano and sprinkled copious amounts of it on the tofu drizzling it with olive oil before broiling the heck out of it:
Eat well.
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