Fast(ing) Food - Low-Cal Tuna Salad

Day 7, Fast Day #4

One of the reasons I have made it this far with alternate day fasting is that for one glorious part of my fast day, I feel full and the rest of the time, water and tea do a fairly good job of keeping my stomach occupied. Don't get me wrong, I am still hungry most of the time. But the tea and water help my stomach forget about its emptiness for a bit.

Now, 400-500 calories is not a lot of calories, but it can be a great mass of food if you want it to be. Or it could be less than a cup of Ben & Jerry's Chocolate Fudge Brownie ice cream. Although the latter option provides a great deal of bliss for a moment, the rest of your fast day is going to be even more difficult.

So what am I eating and drinking on fast days? 

Most of the volume I am consuming is zero calorie liquids: water, tea, and coffee. The tea and coffee may have a calorie or two here or there, but they are worth it for the variety for me. I start drinking water as soon as I wake up and keep drinking it until bedtime. I have found I am much thirstier in general both fast and feast days on ADF than I was prior to this diet. I have been drinking an average of 6 cups of tea a day, one cup of coffee, and 8 glasses of water a day. I get heartburn a lot, so one coffee is all I can really handle in terms of caffeine intake on a fast day. The herbal tea is great because some of it tastes kind of like food and the different flavors provide the variety I need to not go crazy.

Currently in my tea arsenal I have: Stash Strawberry Pomegranate herbal tea, the Kroger Brand (Private Selection) Peppermint herbal tea, and Kroger Brand (Private Selection) Rooibos Red Tea. These are all caffeine-free. The strawberry pomegranate flavor is tasty, but there is no resteep value in it. The others are good overall for the money. I drank all of my remaining ginger and jasmine tea already. A lot more tea is going on the grocery list for next week. It is a good thing I love tea and normally drink it without any sweeteners.

In terms of foods, I have been mostly eating raw and pickled produce this week:

• Carrots (a whole carrot, ~30-35 kcal)
• Broccoli  (a spear, ~10 kcal)
• Onion (a slice, ~15 kcal) - for flavor
• Celery (a stalk, ~5 kcal)
• Cabbage (a leaf, ~5 kcal)
• Spinach (a leaf, ~2 kcal)
• Dill Pickles (large, whole pickle, ~10 kcal)
• Pickled Sweet Peppers (1 pepper, ~5 kcal)
• Clementine (one fruit, ~40 kcal) - TREAT
• Navel orange (one fruit, ~70 kcal) - TREAT

I feel like this little guy:

I eat most of these things solo. However, I made some of these things into a salad and put on Kraft's Fat-Free Zesty Italian dressing (~15 kcal per two tbsps). I am not really a fan of any fat-free or light dressing, so I would never eat a salad with this dressing normally. But when you are hungry, everything tastes a lot better. If you have low-calorie salad dressing recommendations that don't taste too sweet, I would LOVE to hear them.

On the pre-prepared foods side, I am currently loving Progresso's light line of soups. The ones I have been eating are 120 calories per can (60 calories per serving, two servings per can): Light Savory Vegetable Barley, Light Vegetable and Noodle, Light Zesty Southwestern-Style Vegetable. No can opener required on these, so they are an easy take-to-work food too.

I also have developed a cheap and low-calorie take on tuna salad which I plan on eating for lunch again today:

Fast Day Tuna Salad

• one 2.5 oz size Bumble Bee Premium Light Tuna in Water Pouch (~70 kcal/pouch)
• 2 tbsp celery bits (~2 kcal)
• a dash or two of lemon juice (not enough calories to register on the nutrition label)
• dill pickle relish (not enough calories to register on the nutrition label)
• sprinkle of pepper
• heavy sprinkling of Old Bay seasoning 

Mix this all in a bowl or tupperware and eat. I was surprised by how good this tasted. Always take all of my taste opinions with a grain of salt because I am rather hungry on my fast days.

I am aware some of you may have the misfortune of not knowing what Old Bay is. It is a delicious seafood spice blend from Baltimore, MD. I went to college at the University of Maryland, College Park and one of the most important things I learned in those four years is that Old Bay makes almost anything taste incredible. I put it on and in crab, crab cakes, salmon cakes, any type of fish really, mac 'n' cheese, pasta, potato chips, corn, in dips, on any battered and fried food. You can substitute this with a generic seafood seasoning... but you should really buy Old Bay and join the Old Bay Nation with me. Your mouth will thank you. No, I am not an Old Bay spokesperson, I just love it.