Healthy Dinners & Snacks.

I am no expert, but as a nurse and big health nut I can give some suggestions. As far as diet soda, the fake sugar actually makes you eat more food to compensate and Aspartame is not good in large amounts. Regular sodas, in small doses is actually better b/c since it has real sugar and cals, your body isn't making up for that loss in foods.

For meals, add a veggie or fruit to breakfast, lunch and dinner. Here's an example day:
Breakfast: 2 eggs, 2 pieces toast ( wheat or multigrain is best ), an orange, small yogurt
Lunch: turkey sandwich w/lettuce, tomato, cheese; apple; 1/2 cup carrots
Dinner: Baked chicken, 1 cup broccoli, brown rice
Dessert: 1/2 cup fro-yo w/ blueberries/strawberries

Also, drink lots of H20. You can replace needed caffeine w/ maybe a cup of tea or coffee, which is better than soda as long as you don't add too much sugar. And tea has good antioxidants that help fight off cancer.

Snacks: nuts (although high in fat, it's the good fats...just eat a handful), any fruit/veggie, multigrain chips if you really want chips, for sweet try raisins or nutella on toast

I don't think you need to do diet foods or be too strict. Just limit the very fatty/sugary things and minimize portion sizes.

Hope this helps! :)

Healthy snacks that I like: greek yogurt, apple, almonds, hummus and carrots, smoothie (made with some yogurt for protein), berries, homemade popcorn.

Healthy dinners that we like:
Grilled salmon with a spicy rub, mango salsa on top, salad, veggie like roasted asparagus
Roast chicken, quinoa salad, veggie like brussel spouts or brocolli
Thai lettuce wraps with leftover chicken, peanut sauce, thinly sliced cucumber, peanuts, cilantro etc.
Bean burritos with lots of veggies, side of a veggie or salad
Soup and salad. We like to make green chile stew or butternut squash soup (no cream).
Pork loin, grilled, roast sweet potatoes, salad

Don't drink any sweet drinks. Drink water or unsweetened tea/coffee. No juice or soda or sweetened iced tea or anything like that!

Swap cans of seltzer for diet soda. I loved cans of diet pepsi, I switched to polar seltzer (there are so many different flavors) and that did it for me. At first, I didn't care for it, but give it a chance.

Healthy snacks- I buy bags of almonds. Luna bars (get them at Target), All natural peanut butter (takes getting used to but I love it now), Wasa crackers, fruit, carrot sticks, cheese sticks, greek yogurt. My kids also eat all of this stuff.

I never buy baked goods like muffins, cookies, breads...I make them from scratch. Less processed ingredients.

Congrats...you will continue to feel better and better.

Snacks I enjoy are Greek yogurt (Oikos makes a cafe latte that is to DIE for), peanut butter on apples or celery, and cereal.

Healthy dinners...anything whole foods. Don't be afraid of meat, potatoes, a variety of veggies, and rice. People survived on those things for ages and ages and were much healthier than we are. I won't list off our dinner list, because it's mostly common sense...a protein, a grain, a veggie, a little dairy, and usually some fruit. Maybe one out of every 5 meals I make a dessert, which is usually pie or pudding, all homemade.

And congrats on the soda, by the way. I used to drink almost a 12 pack a day of Coke (and sometimes Mt. Dew) and I now drink NO SODA. YAY! I feel a ton better without the extra sugar and caffeine, and it's been a few years. For me, now, soda is a treat when I am at a restaurant...which happens about 4 times a year. If even.

Sometimes I love to snack on sugar snap peas.
Carrot sticks, celery, raw mushrooms, raw broccoli florets.
Without dip is better but if you must dip pick something low cal.
Apples are good.
My husband likes slicing up some tomatoes and eats them with a little balsamic vinegar on top.
We've cut back on meat and try to do more fish.
We have it, but make sure there's less meat and more vegetables.
We try to do a different bean soup every week.
Baked potatoes are pretty good for you provided you don't load them with all kinds of fattening toppings.
Cabbage is very versatile - you can eat it raw, cook it, pickle it - I make a cabbage jambalaya that's pretty tasty and it only has a small amount of sausage in it.

I eat almonds and cheese sticks for snacks. Good protein and iron.