Honey will be good, but it is a type of sugar albeit natural. Have you considered stevia sweetened tea? That is what I do, and it is yummy! I do just make a large batch of unsweetened tea, then pour into hubby’s glass container, and then mix in the stevia. This is a lot easier, imo, than sweetening the whole batch! You have to stir stevia into the tea, it has a lot of fiber and it will clump up if you don’t.
Also, have you ever heard of Zevia canned drinks? They are natural drinks made w/ stevia. They have a lot of flavors, such as, grape, Dr.Zevia, ginger ale, black cherry, and more! So yummy and satisfies a sweet craving as well as something carbonated. You can find them in the natural section of the store.
We also like veggie stuffed potatoes! And if you have a Quizno’s near you, I would want to have sandwiches from there. They supposedly are natural meats. A lot better than Subway’s meats!
I love soups. Dh does to some extent, but loves to be able to put some meat into the soup. Considering your dh is a meat man, you may want to crumble in some healthy meats into your black bean soup or veggie soup, potato soup, etc! This really does help in satisfying that craving. You get good nutritious soup w/ added flavor!
Thanks for the drink suggestions – I will definitely check those out! And I had no idea that Quizno’s meat was better than Subway!
We had a cow butchered earlier this year, so we have a lot of very lean ground beef that I could add to recipes if he is craving the meat. I just need to stop using it as the base of the meal – more like a side dish.
Personally, I wouldn’t be able to lose weight on deli sandwhiches, sweet drinks and lots of fruit…the kids and I eat much differently than my hubby does. But for him any somewhat healthy foods will be a big improvement over burgers and fries, so he will probably be able to drop weight with just minor improvements.
Mostly, he has just NEVER thought about what he is eating. He told me the other day that he heard marinara sauce is a lot better for you than Alfredo. I was shocked that he didn’t know this!! He was taught absolutely nothing about nutrition as a child – he thought french fries counted as a veggie when we met :).
I skimmed through past responses and didn’t see whether or not pop or sweetened drinks were an ingredient in this situation.
If he enjoys an occasional sweet fizzy drink, our family has been loving tibicos (water kefir) as a summer beverage. It is a fermented pop-like beverage (depending on how you flavor it) with great probiotic benefits…better than yogurt. The bacteria eat up a large amount of the sugar that goes into it so it is not as “sugary” as it would seem when looking at the recipes. It helps you have better digestion because of the probiotics. Our family is not trying to lose weight but I have heard other water kefir drinkers say it was helpful for weight loss.
I just had a chance to sample some Larabars…. very yummy and such a amazing selection of flavors, but my DH weighed in (so to speak) and said he really felt the Trio bars met his caloric needs better. Maybe because there are lots of crunchy nuts and seeds?
Another thing we do (now that we are only eating meat a few times a week) is eat a lot of casseroles. Seems like these are very filling for everyone. I make Cheesy Taco Rice with Daiya “cheese”, brown rice, peas, onions, and a bunch of chilis. I also make “pancit” a Filipino dish that we like (rice pasta, soy sauce, veggies, sometimes chicken or shrimp). Stir fry is good too. We can use just one chicken breast for all four of us. When I spoon it up, though, I try to get DH the most chicken…
Let us know how you guys do. Praying for your success!