I'm getting ready to start low calorie diet before taking Alli capsules, and I was looking at the Heartland and Fresh Market menus in the Healthy Eating Guide, and some foods I don't like to eat like almonds,cottage cheese, green olives, and most of all I don't eat pork anymore. How do you find foods that you can substitute for the things that you don't like to eat without going over your calories for the day? My calories per day is 1800 and fat grams per meal is 19.

I had a similar question before I registered on line.  When you do the free trial, you don't have the option of choosing preferences, but once you register, you can tell them to eliminate pork from your suggested recipes. There is also an option to eliminate shellfish, and two vegeterian options as well.

I have food allergies and cannot have any dairy and sometimes I just don't like what's in the recipe. What I have been doing (oh yeah, like doing this for two days makes me an expert!) is printing out the suggested menu, then going to the food nutrition log and putting in my ingredients separately.  For example, I did a pasta premaveria without cheese and substituted soy milk for regular milk.  I also define new foods by putting in the nutritional information from the brands I use.

I'll admit this is rather time consuming, but I'm looking at it as establishing a data base. Eventually, I hope, it will be easier.  If someone has a better way, I'd be grateful if you'd share it!

LAM 

 Wow LAM, thank you.  You've solved an issue for me.  I'm going to start customizing my recipes like that too.

Example:  I made the broiled cod with broccoli and brown rice last night.  The recipe calls for 1/3 dry cup brown rice.  Then it says to make the rice according to package directions and substitute 4 oz of the water with chicken broth.  The package directions are for 1 cup dry rice and 1 1/2c water.  So the recipe can't mean to cook 1/3 c dry rice.  You'd have to cook the whole cup to be able to make the broth substitution, and then serve yourself 1/3 c cooked rice with the meal.  So now I've got a container with a *lot* of extra brown rice that I want to work in to meals over the next couple of days.

I forget which meal now, but another dinner recipe had graham crackers and milk included in it.  I don't like graham crackers, so need to get those out of the calorie and nutrition count for the meal.

You're right, it'll take some work initially, but once done, I'll have an accurate calorie/nutrition profile for that meal.

 Thanks so much!

Mary

DCPerry73:

I'm getting ready to start low calorie diet before taking Alli capsules, and I was looking at the Heartland and Fresh Market menus in the Healthy Eating Guide, and some foods I don't like to eat like almonds,cottage cheese, green olives, and most of all I don't eat pork anymore. How do you find foods that you can substitute for the things that you don't like to eat without going over your calories for the day? My calories per day is 1800 and fat grams per meal is 19.

There are two ways to make substitutions.  One is to "de-select" items you don't eat when you do the check-in.  The other is to use the Food Exchanges listed in section 5 of the Healthy Eating Guide included in the Starter Kit.  You'll see the Exchanges are groups of food that have relatively the same calorie and fat content, so you can choose a variety of items and still be close.

Keep in mind that it's fine to use the Sample Menus as is, or to use them as a pattern for how to distribute calories and fat throughout the day and make your own menus.  In any event, the Exchanges will help you with substitutions.

Please let me know if you need anything else.

Pat Baird, MA, RD, registered dietitian