Health-ish and it taste good too

So in my quest to keep my calorie intake low I am struggling to find foods that will not make me mourn pizza, French fries, hot wings, cupcakes, twizzlers...I'm sad now.

Moment of silence for high calorie foods.

Okay, back on track. So I've been searching high and low for lower calorie and/or healthy foods to eat that will help me get this 10 pounds off. Exercising has not changed my world so it is very apparent that calories are the key. So, exercise, low calories and extra water together make the difference. I am aiming for 64 oz a day of water intake. Not hard during the weekday, very hard on the weekends. I lost weight last time by increasing my water intake so why not try it again? If you do this, stay near a bathroom.

I put myself on a 1250-1300 calorie limit during the weekdays with Friday and Saturday being my cheat days. I ran through my local Giant and Trader Joes and have found the following foods/meals:

Dry seasoned kale chips- Gross, don't eat 'em
Dried ginger- eh, I did not care for them, best to just drink ginger
Dry seasoned green beans- yummy, they can come close to replacing my chip need
Pita chips- yummy but I can easily over eat these
Dried mango- yummy, if eaten according to serving size. This can fill my sweet tooth void.
100 calorie snack packs- helps limit my portion issue and sweet tooth
Weight watchers or smart ones ice cream desserts- again, limits my portions and satisfies the sweet tooth without that bitter sugarless sweets taste
Fiber one or Special K cereals or oatmeal with walnuts and bananas (or even banana chips)- makes it filling and is yummy. Good for breakfast or a low cal dinner (lunch is my biggest meal)
Salads- I actually love salad but typically hated the salads I made at home until I made these two options:
1)Salmon salad- an ex put me on to this- grilled salmon with lettuce or spinach or some green, with a homemade dressing of part olive oil, part lemon and a bit of substitute sugar. Yum!
2)Southwestern salad- I mixed spinach salad with cut up jalapenos, red peppers, cucumbers, southwestern style salsa (from Giant in the fresh produce section) and chopped southwestern chicken cut up (can do prepackaged), use any dressing you like (I used a sesame dressing I had in my fridge)
Low carb wrap- I have made many snacks/meals with this. First it's important to use the low carb tortilla wrap, high in fiber. Then I:
1) spread a bit of peanut butter on then pour a bit of honey over it, fold it and eat it, sweet and low carb/calorie,
2)pizza- spread marinara sauce, mozzarella cheese, any toppings you'd eat on a pizza. I use red bell peppers, jalepeons. Heat for bit in the oven or toaster oven,
3)use as the bread for a grilled veggie (like squash, zucchini and pepper)/melted mozzarella sandwich or turkey burger

That's it for now but I'll share more ideas as I come up with them. I just found a recipe for lower calorie cupcakes and real sized cookies and I'm hearing more and more about the dietary benefits of nettle tea so to be continued!