Of course I’m talking about the days before Cherry Garcia. It seems while I wasn’t paying attention, the quality of all the Breyers ice creams were being cheaped-down, while Ben &  Jerry were using top quality ingredients in their ice creams. This has become my dilemma.

Do I eat less ice cream, because Ben & Jerry’s ice cream is a whole lot more expensive? Or do I accept the fact that Breyers ice creams have become mediocre, but are still pretty good in comparison to other cheaper brands?

This certainly isn’t the most pressing dilemma in the world, but it’s one I at least have control over. What do you think?

I applaud all the people who love to jog, or love to go to the gym. I’m not one of them. However, I do like to listen to music, which brings me to disco dancing. Have you ever noticed how hard it is to sit and listen to disco music. That’s because it’s main appeal is it’s hard-to-ignore invitation to dance. The beat is perfect.

Therein lies the key that unlocks my exercise room. In my case, that’s my living room. I’ve been disco dancing (when no one is around). It’s fun. Finally! An exercise I can love.

You don’t need a partner, so let the gyrating begin.

Spread peanut butter on 2 lightly salted rice cakes. Slice a banana and lay the slices on top of the peanut butter.  Quick! Easy! Nutritious! Superb!

Remember to eat slow and chew well. It takes 20 minutes for your stomach to send a message to your brain that says, “Good! My stomach is full. You can stop eating now.”

And as far as that message that announces your stomach is full? Try listening to it when you’re half-way through a meal–any meal. You sometimes find that you don’t really want to clean your plate. Save what you don’t eat for a snack later in the day (when the message you’re receiving says, “I’m hungry. I need food and I need it now!”)

I thought I’d be well over my need for sweets after trying to watch my diet for a few weeks. But the truth is, even if you stop eating cake and pie and cookies, etc., there’s so much sugar and sucrose and every other kind of sweetener in most of the other foods we eat that it’s impossible to stay away from sugar.

I used to be able to cut out sweets pretty easily. After a week or so, the craving disappears. No more. Sugar has invaded most everything we eat nowadays. This is my new solution.

After I eat dinner, I allow myself to eat a piece of hard candy. Sometimes I sit back and have a coffee flavored one. That’s almost as good as having a cup of coffee and a piece of cake.

Othertimes, I pop in a root beer barrel or some other taste treat I like. So far, it’s working.

Buy a large bag of potato chips. Buy a box of ziploc bags (sandwich size).

Empty the entire bag of chips onto your clean kitchen counter. Now read the potato chip bag. How many servings does the bag hold? My bag had 10 servings and each serving equaled 130 calories.

I wanted to keep my snacking to 100 calories. So, I separated the chips into 12 servings instead of 10 and put each serving into a ziploc bag. You’ll be surprised how many chips are in a 100 calorie serving–certainly enough to fill the salty  pangs of hunger.

Carefully place the small bags of chips back into the large bag. You’re good to go.

Try it.

The trick is to eat something that will fill up the void and the time. One way to accomplish this is to eat something frozen. That way you’re forced to eat it slow or suffer a brain freeze.

This is my favorite–1/2 cup of frozen blueberries with a big dollop of ReddiWip whipped cream. It takes a while to eat the berries because they’re little, bitty pieces of sweet ice.

I’ll tell you my secret. I eat them right out of my measuring cup. And this tasty snack topped with whipped cream equals 55 calories.

If you’re still hungry after that, pop one of those 100 calorie mini bags of popcorn. That ought to do it. Nighty night.

I fill my plate with my favorite foods, remembering moderation. Once my plate is full, I take out my cell phone and snap a picture of all my goodies. Later, when I’m trying to recall what I ate at the party, I look at the photo and calculate as closely as possible how many calories I consumed.

Nifty idea, huh?

Ordinarily, I tend to eat a lot of the same foods, i.e. a bagel and cream cheese for breakfast, a sandwich for lunch, etc. After a while, I know how many calories I’m swallowing without having to look up the calorie content. As time goes by, counting calories become easier and easier, until finally, at the end of the day, I know whether I’ve stayed on track or gone over.

Do you know what that means? Whole wheat toast, a banana and a cup of coffee–or something equally unappealing– is touted as a healthy breakfast. Like that’s really going to fill me up and get me through the morning?

So, here’s a solution. It works for me. And it’s actually filling.

Take a nice, big, juicy bagel. Slice it in half. (Sorry, you can only have half, but on the bright side, it’s not a slice of wheat toast that tastes like cardboard.)

Toast the bagel, if you like.

Spread on 1 tablespoon of “1/3 less fat cream cheese.” This is Neufchatel Cheese. It is prized in France, so don’t feel sorry for yourself. It’s a real delicacy.

I take my breakfast on the run with a cup of black coffee.

If you happen to be thinking, What? Only one tablespoon of the blasted cheese? Pull yourself together. It’s not the end of the world if you absolutely must slather on 2 tablespoons of the cream cheese.

Just keep in mind, 1 tablespoon of Neufchatel Cheese equals 56 calories–2 tablespoons equals 112. Therefore, you trade up from a 130 calorie breakfast to a 186 calorie breakfast. Still not bad.

Save the other half of the bagel for tomorrow’s breakfast.

[I'm not a fan of any food containing aspartame. For one thing, it does bad, bad things to the inside of my mouth. There's plenty to read on the web about aspartame, so you can make up your own mind. Aspartame]

But this post is about keeping unnecessary foods out of your mouth. One of the things I suggest–chew on a Chiclet. There are only 4 calories in a single Chiclet. You don’t need to chew on two of them, although at 4 calories, you can go wild!

Normally, one will do me. It keeps my jaws moving for an hour before the darn thing loses its taste. Really! The taste of peppermint Chiclets goes a long way.

One downside. I have trouble finding Chiclets in the stores. The trend is to chew sugar-free gum, so that’s what most stores carry. When I come across a store that carries Chiclets, I load up.

Anyway, this Chiclet trick works. Anything that will get you through an hour without food or thinking about food is worth a shot.

My favorite lunch is a sandwich, preferably a hoagie or a sub. What to do? What to do?

I’ve learned it’s best to make my own sandwich, because I can control what goes in it. I don’t use an inch of ham and cheese–no, no. I go easy, but I refuse to give up foods I like. So, the ham and cheese STAYS! (but two slices of each are plenty).

And I use a good amount of lettuce.

Now, here’s the kicker–the one important thing you should be aware of. It’s all about the mayonnaise. Did you know 1 tablespoon of mayonnaise equals 99 calories? What to do? What to do?

I’ll tell  you what to do. Switch to low calorie mayonnaise. It tastes exactly the same as regular mayonnaise, BUT 1 tablespoon equals 36 calories. Can you believe that? If you’re using regular mayonnaise, run as fast as you can to the store and change to low cal immediately. The exercise will do you good, too.

Oh, and if mayonnaise isn’t on your “must have” food list, make your sandwich with mustard. 1 teaspoon of mustard equals 3 calories. Woowee!