I've become more aware of my weaknesses and bad habits over the last month or two, and I've been developing a strategy to end them. Especially in times of stress or illness, I crave some of my old comfort foods. For times like those, I'm devising substitutions. I don't think substitutions are always a good long-term strategy, but for those times, they certainly help. For long-term, I often feel more satisfied when I just forget about the comfort foods all together and focus on beneficial foods that may not resemble my old comfort foods whatsoever.

Here are my weaknesses, and some O-nonnie substitutions:

Corn chips, corn shells: I'm going to try a recipe for flat bread that I was given here. I'll let you know how it goes. Since I have gluten intolerance, many of the simple substitutions, like ezekiel tortillas, don't work for me.

Colas: I have a weakness for Coke, mainly, as Pepsi has too much artificial citric acid and thus gives me gooseggs on my head and a headach. Anybody else experience that? Anyway, back to the subject at hand, sparkiling water and neutral or beneficial juice works great. I use more juice to water when I'm really having a hard time with compliance, as this more closely resembles the sweetness of colas. I also occasionally add rice milk for a cream soda, but haven't yet found or made a compliant rice milk to recommend.

Sweets: Mix a little molasses in almond butter, it satisfies the sweet tooth a bit better for times when that's needed, spread on a rice cake. I've heard that frozen grapes taste like candy, but haven't tried them yet. Bananas and fruit are always good too.

Salty, crunchy snacks: If you can find a compliant rice cracker, they taste pretty good with guacamole or other compliant dip. Homemade jerky also works, slice it really thin, or have a butcher slice it for you before you make it, I like to eat it out of the freezer as it's crunchier and easier to chew. I need to find more substitutions in this area...

Any other ideas...feel free to comment them to me and I'll post them on my blog for everyone to enjoy!