Diets are never easy

I'm trying to follow a non-diet diet. It's the American Heart Association's No-Fad Diet. It makes a lot of sense, and parts of it appear to be very easy. We've been slowly working our way into this diet. It's a total lifestyle type change. The book covers meal planning, balancing diets, excersize, etc. After helping you calculate the calories you need to just maintain your weight vs the calories you need to be at the weight you should be at, it then offers three choices for how to achieve this. They even include recipes and two two-week meal plans, breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, and dinner. Dessert, even! I decided to start using the ready-made meal plans to start, and then venture more bravely into creating my own meal plans.

This is where I hit a snag. You see, the meal plans assume I live somewhere near a metropolitan area. Instant barley pearls. Fresh herbs, like oregano and basil. Low fat cheese. Hey, I found Orzo, once I figured out what it was, and then decided I'd rather have couscous. Heck, I couldn't even find a cantaloupe, and we shopped in two different cities, multiple grocery stores. The other problem is the book assumes I can go shopping once a week. Honestly, we usually go once a month, and all the fresh wonderful veggies it calls for don't stay fresh for two weeks, like the fresh spinach. We hadn't been eating much salad because keeping fresh lettuce is difficult. I love those bagged salads with all the different kinds of greens in them (iceberg lettuce is pointless and I don't even like it). Also is the ability to make lunch at lunch time. Not always easy. So I'm having to substitute meals right from the start after a five page shopping list to find all the ingredients for two weeks worth of meals. Oh, the pumpkin curry soup is divine and I love the blackeyed pea salad. yum. The food is really good, and filling. I haven't wanted to snack, I'm still feeling full from each meal and snack. Of course, not having the ice cream it calls for makes some of the snack difficult, but we are finding appropriate substitutions. I'm riding my bike at least three times a week, pulling Awyn in the trailer. We're thinking about buying tennis rackets so we can play on the court. The kids are loving our outside activities, and they are even eating the food. I'm not low-fatting the kids stuff unless it just happens that way. Awyn still drinks whole milk.