Eggplant Sub and Weightlossophy tip #6: Stick and Carrot

Eggplants have the same shape as baguettes of ciabattas. So why do we only use them as a sandwich filling and not instead of the bread? Check out this gluten free, low calories sub and one more Weightlossophy tip.

This is my spring detox week and along with my some light, healthy recipes I’m also posting the tips that helped me lose 55 pounds over 7 months last year. Today’s tip is harsh, but I think I might not have made it without it.

Stick and Carrot

  It is very common  for dieters to give themselves rewards for good performance: “when I get to 150 lb I will go shopping”, “when I get to 140 lb I am allowed a fancy dinner”, etc. Unfortunately, it did not work for me, because I would always put off the reward for later in order to binge today: “oh, I did not get there this week, no problem - I will get my fancy dinner next week”. 

  This time I had a clear deadline, to achieve which I had to lose at least 1 lb per week. So I decided that I needed both a reward and a punishment: if I lose a pound I get $x to waste on anything I want, if I don’t lose a pound I have to tear up and throw away an $x bill. x can be any amount that is painful enough to throw. By the way, throw means throw, not giving it to your friend or your favorite charity. There should be no justification, nothing to make you feel good about missing your target. Of course, the reward and the punishment can be anything: if I am good I will buy new jeans, if I am bad I will be doing dishes by hand all week. The main point is that the reward should be appealing and the punishment should be very detterring. 

  I know this tip does not sound good, but for me it made a huge difference - I have not missed the target even once. My “judgement day,” when I weighted myself to check for that lost pound, was Monday, and that was particularly effective because it prevented many weekend binges.
  Another argument that helped me accept this harsh punishment regiment was that so many people pay tons of money weekly for private coaches, support groups, etc. So I thought: I would be “paying” only for weeks when I am bad, for good weeks I’ll be getting my rewards :-).
  Side-note: The weeks when I was traveling were exempt from my carrot and stick policy - I chose to enjoy my vacations.

And now the gluten-free detox recipe

Eggplant Sub

Source 

Improvised

Taste 4 (out of 5)

Difficulty 1 (out of 5)

Ingredients

- 1/2 eggplant (30 cal)

- 1 slice red onion (10 cal)

- 1 garlic clove (5 cal)

- 3 mushrooms (10 cal)

- 2 rings red bell pepper (5 cal)

- 2 slices tomato (5 cal)

- 1 tsp canola oil (40 cal)

- 1 lettuce leaf

- 1/2 cup chicken or vegetable stock or water (5 cal)

- chopped basil, salt and pepper to taste

Total 110 cal, 1 serving

Instructions

1. Slice the eggplant in half lengthwise. Sprinkle with a generous amount of salt and let stand for 20-30 minutes. Rinse the salt. 

2. Preheat a dry frying pan over medium high heat and cook the eggplants on it, occasionally stirring them to make sure they don’t stick to the pan. If they do, add a little stock or water. Cook for about 10 minutes on each side.

3. Mince the garlic, finely chop the mushrooms and the onion, and saute with 1 tsp of oil over medium heat for about 20 minutes, stirring. If needed add a little stock or water. Add the bell pepper, season with basil, salt and pepper and cook for 5 more minutes.

4. Place lettuce over one half of the eggplant, top the sauteed mushrooms and peppers, add the tomato slice and cover with the second eggplant half. Enjoy your sandwich!

Afterthoughts

I was not sure how the eggplants would turn out if fried without oil, and found them quite juicy. Of course, if you don’t count calories, feel free to use oil. I  bet it would also be great to grill them, but I ain’t got no grill :-(.