Thanksgiving Survival Recipes
It's getting closer by the day: Thanksgiving Dinner. Turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, stuffing, pumpkin pie, cranberry sauce... the list goes on and on. You may have anxiously awaited this giant feast every year in the past, but now you're on a diet. The ITG Diet. And you are a little nervous, as you've only got your protein covered, turkey. Now what to do about all those carb- and sugar-filled side dishes? ITG is here to help, and to show you how delicious a healthy Thanksgiving Dinner can be (and probably should be!)
If you will be partaking in a big family dinner this Thanksgiving and you are on the ITG Diet, have no fear! We have seen people have a very hard time on the diet due to one major factor: lack of planning. Start planning now so that when the big meal is being laid out on the table, you can make informed decisions on what to eat, what not to eat, and what you can substitute in place of the unhealthy sides being served in (over)abundance.
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I felt like this blog should be revisited because of its important prep content. We also have a video about the 
A lot of us have been there – chances are if you’re reading this, you have been there – just starting a new diet, feeling completely confident it will work and that THIS time, you’ll be sure to maintain the weight you lost by either sticking to the diet forever or making sure you’ll exercise every single day once you’ve lost the weight. And wouldn’t you know it, you lost some weight on this new diet! Now you look great and more so, you feel great! And yet, little by little you start going right back to your old ways. Or as I like to call it, you go right back to being a red-blooded human being! Coffee with sugar every morning, beer and pizza while watching football, chomping on that yummy ginormous sandwich for lunch and enjoying a butter loaded piece of toast for breakfast or potato at dinner most nights of the week. Oh, and let us not forget the NEVER-FAILS-at-being-YUMMY that is Fast Food. And these are just the average routines of people. But besides the average routines, we also have the more than average amount of refreshing ice cream in the Summer, Holiday treats galore in the Winter, Pumpkin & Apple Caramel EVERYTHING in the Fall and the grease-tastic Fair Food in the Spring. But admit it, you don’t just like these things, you LOVE this stuff! And you absolutely should, you’ve been taught to your WHOLE life! Especially since food isn’t just something we have to eat in order to survive – foods & drinks are a very real and very emotional part of who we are to our deepest core. So, now that we’ve admitted the very obvious truth about who we are as a species, it’s time to find out just how the corporate world has been using this knowledge against us for a VERY long time.
Have you noticed the size of dinner plates at restaurants or even in your home these days? If you happen to have a set of china passed down from a grandmother, take a look at the plate sizes. They have drastically gotten bigger over the years! Obesity didn’t seem to be such a problem back when your grandmother was cooking healthy, home-made meals for the family. The American obesity problem stems from eating the wrong foods in large quantities…on big dinner plates. Here are some tips to help lose weight by making some simple changes in the way you eat your meals.
With any weight loss or healthy eating plan, it is extremely important to journal the foods you ingest. This keeps track of what you ate and how much. It also gives your weight loss coach an overview of what you eat every day. Several years ago, I noticed that our weight loss clients would arrive at the office and frantically fill out their food diaries in the reception area so that they could have something to present to their coach.
Throughout the course of your ITG Diet as well as maintenance afterwards, it is very important to be eating lean proteins and the proper amounts of vegetables. The reasons why? Lean protein curbs your hunger. It also helps you to retain muscle mass, instead of many diets that shed pounds-worth of water and muscle. Non-starchy vegetables will deliver water, fiber and nutrients, and keep you feeling fuller for longer. Here are some more tips on lean protein and vegetables.
I have tried several different methods to lose extra pounds over the years. Like many of you, I have changed my behaviors, eating habits, and joined gyms in order to look and, more importantly, feel better and healthier. Even when I thought as though I was doing everything right, something usually seemed a bit off for me. I still felt tired during the day and not as mentally sharp as I should have been. I wasn’t always motivated to get to the gym. I didn’t understand why I was living such a healthy lifestyle and my weight loss would hit a brick wall here and there. Why was I developing these negative feelings when everything I had read or seen told me I would be so much healthier and feel so much better if I followed a few simple steps?
Olive oil is full of heart-healthy unsaturated fats. Heart disease risk can decrease when using a monounsaturated olive oil instead of saturated fats, like lard. When frying foods with olive oil, the process may take away the health benefits of the oil when it forms other less healthy types of fats, which usually takes places in restaurant and commercial kitchens rather than typical home cooking.
It’s been three months since I started on the ITG Diet. Back at the end of August, I weighed 217 pounds, had a 36 inch waist, and felt generally unhealthy overall. I didn’t eat well, sleep well, and my body didn’t feel so great day to day. I was getting tired of buying large shirts and wearing baggy clothes all the time; nothing seemed to fit right on me. I didn’t feel good about myself or the way I looked anymore. There were many times I would glance at my reflection in a store window or a mirror and think to myself, “who is this guy? What happened to the old me?”
Ok, I will admit these may not be the hottest, sexiest costumes out there, but Miss Muffet was pretty risqué, even for me. Little Miss Muffet was a loaner costume from a girlfriend and the 80’s costume was for a Bunco costume party earlier in the month. When I was shopping for my 80’s outfit I tried on a costume that was one size fits all. 
We have read and seen it until we are sick. It is almost as bad as political campaign ads! (Notice I said, “Almost!”) What is the big deal about detoxification? Why is it so important? Actually, there is some reasonable truth to getting the toxins out of our body. After all, this is how Mother Nature works, take nutrients in and get rid of the toxins.
If I can do this diet anyone can. My daughter Tina is my coach. She inspired me when she lost over 30 pounds, so I thought I can too. My weight got so high I didn’t like looking in the mirror. The first of March I got pneumonia and lost 10 pounds so I decided now is the time to start. So far I have lost 45 pounds! My husband is so happy! I have never been able to stick with a diet. My husband cooks recipes off the ITG website for us for dinner. I am never hungry. I went to a consignment shop and got a couple of knee pants, I have very few pants that fit any more. 
We all know that excess weight has many health detriments and that lower weight is much healthier. Now, the newest information is that excess weight kills your libido. Yes, the one last, free, fun activity is in danger because of our diet and eating habits. Can you imagine putting down the Twinkie because you would like to have sex tonight? Now, I am not saying that starting a diet will help you to get great sex anytime you want it! What I am saying is that it surely won’t hurt and may very well help.
Check out this text I got from my son Travis. “Hey your diet is no carbs, no sugar right?” I replied, Low carbs, low sugar. Our next phone conversation I asked him what all the diet questions were about. He said there is a girl at his work that was talking about being on a diet and he tried to talk diet talk with her. ITG diet talk, poor kid he hasn’t even been around since February and he is even preaching ITG! The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. After trying to fight the diet fight, you know the one when the person you are talking to tells you that they know what they need to do to lose weight, and back in the day they lost so many pounds and blah blah blah. He finally realized he couldn’t out talk a girl on a diet. 
ITG has small amounts of sucralose in many of its products yet you can easily complete the program without ingesting any sucralose at all… because we have over 20 delicious products that contain absolutely no sucralose. Our product variety philosophy includes a sucralose policy just like it includes a gluten free policy a limited carbohydrate policy a kosher policy and allergy policies. In other words, ITG has a healthy way to complete our weight loss program for most people who have special dietary needs. We’re aware that some of you may not be able to tolerate certain ingredients so we’ve been careful to provide a variety of foods for your convenience. Just go to 
It’s 9am Friday, and today is my check-in day. I just stepped off the TANITA scale in the office and I’m holding off on looking at the little slip of paper that the scale prints. It gives you a read-out of your weight, calculates body water and fat percentages, bone mass, visceral fat (the kind that wraps like a band around your organs and can be hard to get rid of), and BMI. After a less than perfect week, I was really hoping I had turned things around and made some progress this time.
During the second week of my ITG Diet I didn’t lose as much as I was planning on. I was down 1.2 lbs in 6 days. It’s still a loss, yes, but I could have done much better than that. Even though I stuck to the diet just about every day, I went out and had a few items I shouldn’t have eaten over the weekend. I also did not drink nearly enough water, and I found myself not feeling very hungry and skipping some meals altogether. I was out late over the weekend, which threw my entire meal schedule off. On Friday, Tina (wellness coach at ITG Diet) and I talked about the upcoming weekend and how hard it is to be at home or go out and stick to a plan at the same time…boy, did I experience it! We are kind of lucky here at the office…you see, during the week while we’re working at the ITG Diet office, we are a great support system to each other. We have veggies for snacks, we talk about healthy food and recipes all day, and of course no one is bringing Burger King or pizza in to the office for their lunch break! During our days off, we all need to find that same motivation and have a plan in place.
Are organic foods really better for us? Do they taste better? How do they really compare to conventionally grown foods? The mainstream concept of organic foods makes sense… that you should only eat those foods that are not grown with manmade and potentially toxic chemicals. Yet I have to wonder why someone would be healthier if they ate food sprayed with fresh organic green manure rather than food that was treated with conventional manmade products. 
