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I personally would rather have on extra weight than live a life without cheese. If I go even one day without cheese, I get in bed feeling unsatisfied—like something important was missing. Cheese just feeds my soul. There is something so natural and wholesome to me about having cheese every day. Haven’t the families who built America been eating cheese for centuries? And our dairy industry—it’s such a major one in this country. Dairy must run through my veins, because I hate to be without it. I put it on my morning omelet. I have it in my afternoon sandwich. I add feta cheese to my salads. I have dried fruit and cheese for dessert. So, when I need to lose a few pounds, cutting out dairy just…isn’t an option. It won’t work. It’s not going to be sustainable for me.
If you can relate to any of this, then you may have felt that your love of cheese has gotten in the way of your weight loss goals. It just seems like every diet tells you to quit cheese. But if having cheese is a part of you feeling satisfied, then that diet just won’t work because we all know that any diet that leaves us feeling unsatisfied is just too hard to stick to. And that’s okay, because you actually don’t have to quit cheese in order to lose weight. No two cheeses are created equal, and there is a vast range when we’re talking about things like calories, fat content, protein levels, and other nutritional components.
Dairy, when consumed the right way, can actually be very good for us, and even help with losing weight. It’s not the evil food some fad diets might make it out to be. Here is how cheese lovers can still lose weight.
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Greek salads
Just one cup of feta cheese has 21 grams of protein and just under 400 calories, making it a highly satisfying food. Make a Greek salad, with feta as your protein source (or add chicken if you like). The rest of the salad, between the tomatoes, cucumber, olives, and onions has almost negligible calories.
