Low-Fat Lifestyle

Nutritionally, fat-free plain greek yogurt is awesome: TONS of protein, relatively low in sugar, and absolutely devoid of fat.

However…it tastes pretty nasty. It’s like eating sour cream straight out of the container. And it certainly doesn’t look appetizing either. Overall, I just find it kinda gross.

Flavored greek yogurts taste better, but they add a ton more sugar. 

An easy fix is to add honey and cinnamon. These two ingredients totally transform the taste of the yogurt, making it not only tolerable but actually enjoyable to eat.

Try it. It really does taste good!

I’m not going to deny the awesomeness of potato chips. They certainly have their place in everyone’s diet at some point or other. 

But potato chips pack in the fat, and they’re not exactly one of those foods that you can have a few of and then stop eating. So, my rule is that I should probably not even start eating them. 

Every once in a while, though, I need to succumb to a salt craving.. Which is why I decided to make my own sweet potato chips! Sweet potatoes are fat free and full of fiber, potassium, and vitamin C. And they taste awesome, which is most important.

This weekend, I sliced some up (which is very difficult to do because they’re so hard, so I recommend some sort of slicing contraption), drizzled on some olive oil, added a healthy dose of salt, and baked. 

Although they didn’t come as crispy as I would have liked and some just burnt to a crisp, the majority of them came out well and tasted great. 

You can’t go wrong with these because 1) the fiber makes them super filling and 2) you know what’s in them since they’re homemade. 

Definitely worth making another batch!

So many granola bars are high in fat. Like Nature Valley Sweet & Salty Nut Peanut Bars with 9g of fat each. AND high fructose corn syrup!!

I’ve found it particularly challenging to find low-fat granola bars on my diet. Luckily, I’ve found one that’s been my go-to granola bar. Kashi’s TLC Pumpkin Pecan Fruit & Grain Bars are my staple.

Image via kashi.com.

I literally have about 3-4 boxes of these on-hand in my apartment at any given time.

They have a third of the fat of the Nature Valley ones. Really, 3g of fat is pretty good for a granola bar!

Image via flickr.com.

Don’t like pumpkin? What a shame. You are sorely missing out. But, if that is sadly the case, the bars also come in Cranberry Walnut (3g fat) and Dark Chocolate Coconut (3.5g fat). AND they’re all only 120 calories each.

Thank you, Kashi, for helping to make my low-fat diet a little easier to follow.

Normally when people have veggies and dip, all the nutritional goodness of the vegetables is completely negated by the dip. I mean, the dip is basically fat. And let’s be real: the veggies basically become an excuse to eat the dip. 

In trying to find something healthy and low-fat to bring to my New York Women in Communications scholarship sleepover tonight at the Waldorf, I wanted to find a healthier dip that my gallbladder could handle.

So earlier today, I headed to Foodtown and found this:

Image via www.aisleate.com.

Since regular ranch is totally off-limits for me, this stuff seems like a lifesaver.  I’m just crossing my fingers that it actually tastes good!

I will never look at carrots the same way again.

Sure, everyone knows carrots are good for you. Without going into a whole health lesson, they’re filled with tons of beta carotene and a slew of amazing vitamins and antioxidants. 

But I recently learned that carrots are also good for your gallbladder!

Several sources, such as the Carrot Museum (yes, there’s a carrot museum) and Health & Finesse suggest that carrots are great for cleansing the gallbladder. 

Personally, I snack on baby carrots when I have a craving to just eat something, anything completely mindlessly. (You ever have that?) Well, for me, I satisfy that craving with carrots. It’s the one food I can eat in large quantities and not worry about the calories or fat.

So now I can eat carrots knowing about their added health benefit! Who would’ve thought that carrots would be so great for the health of your gallbladder?

Graham crackers are one of my favorite low-fat snacks. They’re easy to pack (perfect for work) and don’t go bad (great to buy in bulk). 

My favorite graham crackers are Honey Maid’s low fat cinnamon ones. Two full crackers are 140 calories and have only 2 grams of fat. For a snack, that’s great.

Honey Maid also makes really good honey-flavored low fat graham crackers, but I prefer the cinnamon kind. One word of caution, however: There’s also regular Honey Maid graham crackers that aren’t low fat. Make sure you buy the right kind. 

Bonus: You can use these to make low-fat s’mores with marshmallows (all sugar, no fat) and one mini Hershey’s milk chocolate square.  The chocolate is obviously not low fat, but it’s such a small piece that it really won’t set you back much. So delicious!

This weekend, I got to catch up with my best friend from home and some of her lovely friends while spending the day in Manhattan.  Midday, we decided a frozen yogurt stop was in order and had to decide between Pinkberry on one corner and Red Mango on another. We went with Red Mango.

I’ll admit, I’ve been to Red Mango once. I walked in, saw that they didn’t have chocolate yogurt, and walked out. It was very disappointing. But this time, the experience was anything but disappointing once I spotted posters for their new dark chocolate flavor made with Ghirardelli chocolate. SCORE.

I ordered a small dark chocolate yogurt with bananas. While my order was being made, I noticed that the yogurt machines all say “nonfat” and “probiotic.” Chocolate frozen yogurt that’s healthy? I think so!

Not only was my yogurt healthy, but it tasted awesome. Although I don’t think the chocolate taste is as good as Pinkberry’s, you can definitely tell this is real yogurt. It had that slightly bitter yogurt taste, but that definitely didn’t overwhelm the chocolate. And as an added bonus, it was cheaper than Pinkberry. (But don’t think that’ll stop me from still getting my occasional Pinkberry fix!) 

 Red Mango was a perfect match between healthy and sweet, and I can certainly tell I’ll be making more trips there in the future.   

You know when you have a craving for chocolate that’s so intense you just HAVE to satisfy it? This happens to me every single day. Unfortunately, that means my sweet tooth and gallbladder are in constant competition. But there’s a way to satisfy both. 

Again, my obsession with Trader Joe’s comes out because the best chocolate cheat EVER is this cookie:

They kind of taste like Oreos minus the cream filling. (Speaking of Oreos, there’s a great way to do those low fat, too. Later post, later time!) And aren’t they adorable??

Fifteen cookies have 110 calories and only 1.5 grams of fat. And they really do taste like chocolate. They’re not like those 100-calorie packs of who-know-what that taste good for about 30 seconds and then you eat other 5 packs. Cats cookies are definitely different. 

Pinkberry may be my favorite dessert in NYC. I could literally eat it every day and not get tired of it. If you haven’t tried it yet, you are sorely missing out. I went to their store on 58th between 8th and 9th. I ordered a small plain chocolate, which is 180 calories and 2.25 grams of fat. Toppings added on another 100-ish calories and no saturated fat.  I got blood oranges, blueberries, bananas, and honey graham cracker.  Super low fat, super delicious.

Image via Pinkberry.com.

The best part is that it doesn’t even taste low fat! All their flavors are super low fat or fat free, so you’re safe with whichever one you pick.  Bonus about the chocolate?  It’s the flavor with the lowest sugar.

One word of caution: stay away from toppings like carob and yogurt chips, dark chocolate chips, and cheesecake bites.  Even though they’re only toppings, they add on fat fast. 

Click here for all Pinkberry’s locations!