<p>My daughter introduced persimmons to her college friends and they all like it.</p>
<p>Agree with avoiding the carbs, sugar, juice and soda goes a long way in managing weight. I am very petite - barely 5’1 so even 5 extra pounds will be noticeable on me. I drink only sparkling water during the week and honestly do not remember the last time I had a plate of pasta or a bagel. I love these things but can’t do them anymore.</p>
<p>We very rarely drink during the week but do have one or two drinks on Friday and Saturday night. Wine is our preference but lately I have really enjoyed freshly squeezed grapefruit juice with a splash of vodka. Most of the restaurants here will do that for me or they will have an organic bottled grapefruit juice on hand. I seem to feel that less the next day than I do the wine. Always wake up with that vague headachy feeling after a glass or two of wine.</p>
<p>I don’t drink juice either, although I am trying to finish off a growler of cider.</p>
<p>We have been walking to one of the local breweries to have dinner, & I have a beer, but an American sized schooner which is 10oz, rather than a pint. Beer is so filling.</p>
<p>I don’t ever feel it the next day though. I wonder if what you are actually feeling is dehydration?</p>
<p>Me neither on juice. I am big on no calorie drinks. You know. So I can have chocolate.</p>
<p>In fact, I eat the exact same chocolate as GMT!! The best.</p>
<p>The thing I really need to cut out is ice cream. I eat mostly Skinny Cow, but it is tough. I am tiny too, like HarvestMoon, and can do without the alcohol, the bread, the pasta, but sweets are my downfall. </p>
<p>My husband occasionally likes lemonade and we only buy Simply Lemonade brand. Everything else has too much sugar or high fructose sugar.</p>
<p>" I eat mostly Skinny Cow, but it is tough."</p>
<p>Do. Not. Eat. Skinny. Cow! Just look at the list of ingredients and compare those to the five ingredients listed on a small cup of Haagen Dazs vanilla ice cream. You would be shocked to see that your favorite treat has the same amount of sugar as the HD cup, and the rest reads like toxic waste description. Just eat the real thing - in moderation.</p>
<p>Dr.Google - try the Santa Cruz organic lemonade - I have found it is less sweet than the Simply Lemonade which used to be a staple for my kids.</p>
<p>I agree that a square or 2 of high quality chocolate is a healthy treat. It is all natural and does the trick when you have a craving. I love a square of salted dark chocolate with a glass of red wine. Wonderful combination. I like the Green and Black or Valhrona brands. If I am doing milk chocolate then I think the Lindt extra creamy is terrific.</p>
<p>If I could only contain myself to the small cup of Haagen Daz . . .</p>
<p>As poster #44 I didn’t intend to sound “judgemental” but there are those threads where people seem sincere about wanting advice and to make a change and there are threads where it’s discussed but also not really serious about it- from many comments here,I realized this might’ve the latter - which is why I’ll choose to bow out!!! Carry on! </p>
<p>For ice cream I go for the full fat version but in smaller dose. Eating real food is the best. Don’t worry about guilt.</p>
<p>*Desserts, juice, sweet drinks of any kind, rolls, etc etc, are just not part of my diet anymore. I’m running out of things to give up. Chocolate? Maybe have a piece a couple times a year.>>>>>>>>>></p>
<p>Exactly. And I’m still fat and I mean significantly fat, not just 10 or 15 lbs. *</p>
<p>post 59, VaBluebird: what does your doctor say?</p>
<p>I weigh more than I did when I was 20, but I earned these extra 20 lbs and Im not giving them up!
I don’t eat diet ice cream, diet soda, or freak out if there is Gorgonzola cheese in my salad.
Plus my face isn’t as drawn looking as when I was thin.
However, my taste buds have changed.
None of the Halloween candy tastes good to me, too sweet and weird. 
I don’t even like most ice cream anymore, which is tragic. It’s very sweet and I can sense the artifical emulsifiers gumming it up.
Sometimes I like Julie’s ice cream, or Starbucks coffee ice cream. ( which is way better than their coffee)
But even things I used to love ( Dicks french fries) are repulsive.
But I still like the Paggalaci AGOG primo pizza. If the crust is good.</p>
<p>As for reducing what you eat, before you eat a treat, drink a glass of water. Half the time Im not really hungry, Im thirsty.</p>
<p>I buy one little single serving of HD. One. 
I eat it, and I’m out for the week. Tough life, me. Last night I sent the uneaten Snoqualmie Pumpkin Custard out of the door with my guests, and there are no more temptations in the freezer. I can walk all day past a plate of cookies or brownies just fine, but ice cream is my downfall.</p>
<p>I need to eat more Haagen Daz because I kept thinking Home Depot from HD. I need to stay away from HD for home improvement.</p>
<p>Try this sometime: </p>
<ul>
<li>1/2 onion, sliced thinly</li>
<li>8-12 oz chicken breast</li>
<li>1 14-oz container of full-fat coconut milk</li>
<li>2 oz Thai red curry paste</li>
<li>1/4 cup natural peanut butter</li>
<li>2 TBSP sugar</li>
<li>1/4 cup water</li>
<li>S&P and garlic to taste</li>
<li>Pat of butter</li>
</ul>
<ol>
<li>Season the chicken with salt and pepper. Sear it over medium heat and bake it (to finish) in a 350° oven for about 20-25 minutes.</li>
</ol>
<p>While the chicken is in the oven:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>In the same skillet that seared the chicken, sautee the sliced onion in butter over low-med heat for about 8 minutes or until the onions are sweated, no longer crunchy. Set aside.</p></li>
<li><p>Combine the coconut milk, peanut butter, sugar, Thai red curry paste,and water in a sauce pan. Bring it up to a slow boil and then keep it on a simmer for about ten minutes, stirring frequently. You want a smooth and homogeneous sauce.</p></li>
</ul>
<ol>
<li><p>Cook some rice.</p></li>
<li><p>Combine the sliced chicken and onions with the peanut-curry sauce. Taste that and add S/P/garlic as necessary. If you like things hot, add some diced jalapeño or Serrano pepper, cayenne pepper, etc. </p></li>
<li><p>Stir the cooked rice into the sauce and let the rice absorb some of the sauce for several minutes, much as you’d do with pasta and spaghetti sauce or Alfredo.</p></li>
<li><p>Pass the recipe on to someone else. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>@prezbucky that recipe sounds delicious. I absolutely love anything made with coconut milk. We have a couple of really good Thai restaurants in our town and we go often. Will try your recipe for my son - he would eat that for breakfast!</p>
<p>My weight is high, my lab work is fantastic. However,my last visit with him, my b.p. was up…and that has never happened to me. He said “don’t pick up the salt shaker” and take your b.p. and let me know if it is staying up over a week.
Oh, and he didn’t say lose weight, he just said “one should maintain a healthy weight and I’m big on exercise.” Point taken.</p>
<p>I suspect too much sugar in Thai food. Not in the recipe in #74 but in general.</p>
<p>Just saw this: Chocolate Shown to Aid Memory.</p>
<p>Included article link as the actual details are reported in the second half of the piece.</p>
<p>In a small study in the journal Nature Neuroscience, healthy people, ages 50 to 69, who drank a mixture high in antioxidants called cocoa flavanols for three months performed better on a memory test than people who drank a low-flavanol mixture.</p>
<p><a href=“To Improve a Memory, Consider Chocolate - The New York Times”>To Improve a Memory, Consider Chocolate - The New York Times;
<p>I had an arugala salad from Trader Joe’s a couple of weeks ago that had chunks of persimmons in it. It was pretty good. </p>
<p>VaBluebird, I really think you can’t give up everything. The people I’ve known who significantly lost weight and kept it off have significantly upped their exercise. I know this thread <a href=“Diet/Exercise/Health/Wellness Support Thread - Parent Cafe - College Confidential Forums”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe/838576-diet-exercise-health-wellness-support-thread-p1.html</a> is daunting with over 2000 pages, but I think interesteddad’s journey from fat guy to thin guy is illuminating. His posts are worth reading. He’s read all the current science about nutrition and exercise. He’s lost 75 pounds and kept it off, by exercising more, and eating better, but not less. He eats plenty of fat and protein so he feels satisfied, and very little in the way of carbs, especially sugar. The thread moves so fast, I frequently give up on it, which is too bad, because it’s full of good advice.</p>