You can have your weight loss and eat cupcakes, too.

Every so often I hear someone say that a eating a certain food makes you fat, and I cringe. No one food, no one moment of eating makes anyone fat. It doesn’t. If you love something, you can eat it. (But if you love something too much, you should probably set it free…)

I don’t cringe because people restrict themselves—I have my share of personal restrictions, too. I cringe because pop nutrition, and even hard science nutrition, has been so misguided and outright wrong that people don’t know the truth from the lies. It’s no wonder people still believe eating cholesterol raises blood cholesterol (the experts still don’t know but I suspect some sort of sugar) and that fat rather than sugar is enemy numero uno when it comes to weight loss.

Also, it makes me sad that people avoid eating some of my favorite foods. It’s all fine and dandy if you like your kale steamed, but if you haven’t tried it sautéed in butter, you’re missing out. I ate butter all the damn time and lost fifteen pounds, okay? You’re missing out for no real reason.

Here are 10 Foods You Think You Can’t Eat When Trying to Lose Weight.

1. Butter

Wheat Thins: Lots of butter, some flour, salt

Like I said, I ate butter all the time while I was losing weight. I don’t mean I put a dab here and a dab there, especially when it comes to potatoes. I cook most of my vegetables in butter and add butter to dishes I’m cooking to deepen the flavor. I add additional butter to anything I feel like. I make butter crackers. I slather non-flour bread with butter and grill me some cheese sandwich. Did I mention I keep losing weight?

2. Extra Virgin Olive Oil

I make dry salad wet, hardy-har-har.

If I’m not cooking with butter, I’m cooking with EVOO. Sometimes a food is more suited to it, and sometimes I don’t want that buttery feel in my mouth. I also make my own salad dressings with EVOO. I don’t measure or concern myself with the amount of oil I’m consuming. The fat is necessary and healthy.

3. Cheese

Let’s just be clear that I put cheese on almost everything I eat except Asian-type food. I do that because that is where cheese belongs (on everything). I find it really annoying when people say something is “fattening” because it has cheese on it. Seriously, have fun with that. Meanwhile, I’m going to snack on some more cheese and lose weight.

4. Fatty, Cured Meat

Meat is a touchy subject (especially in the food blog world). Seems like everyone and their mother goes vegetarian. To each their own, I suppose. I think it’s a rather restrictive way of living and that a lot of vegetarians end up eating a ton of processed, unhealthy food to make up for what their diet lacks.

However, I am a vegetable cheerleader. Eat your vegetables! Try centering a meal around vegetables! Go vegetarian for a day! Anything that helps you increase your intake of vegetables is a good thing.

With that out of the way, I need y’all to know something: I love bacon. And prosciutto. And salami. I do. I love it. And while I don’t eat these foods day-to-day, I do eat them several times a month in good heart health and with continual weight loss. Bacon, Tempeh, avocado and cheese sandwich? Don’t mind if I do.

I am a vegetarian blasphemy.

5. Potatoes

Oh-my-effing-goodness, potatoes do not make you fat! Eating potatoes, grain-fed beef, white bread, high-fructose corn syrup added to seasoning mixes and white rice all in once meal, now that makes you fat. Stop that. Buy a nice grass fed steak and enjoy your potato (Did I mention you can add butter and bacon?)

Dripping with butter

I eat sweet potatoes. Most of the time I eat the good ol’ American ones with the orange centers because I like the starch level of them. I started eating a sweet potato almost every night as part of a sugar addict program that I’ll share in a future post, and I also add sweet potato to breakfast or lunch when I’m in the mood. After covering the potato in EVOO and salt & pepper and baking, I slather the insides with butter. “You lost fifteen pounds doing this?”

Yes. And I keep losing. So stop talking smack about my beloved potato.

6. Nuts, Seeds, Peanut Butter, Etc.

Most nuts have a really healthful fat in them that counteract the dangers of our modern diet. Peanuts—which aren’t really nuts—as well as sunflower seeds do not have this type of fat. In any case, nuts, seeds, and peanut-y things are tiny foods that are super-packed with protein and fat. They keep you going for a long time and really satisfy and satiate.

If the fat in nuts, seeds and peanut butter made ya’ fat, I’d be a gigantic overweight wreck of a person by now. I practically live on the butters of almonds, peanuts and sunflower seeds, and I add almonds, walnuts, sesame seeds, or [lately] chia seeds to most foods. While you erroneously think about your waist line, I’m supplying my body with a much-needed energy source that keeps on slimming.

7. Avocado

Avocado is not optional.

If you dare try to tell me you can’t eat avocado because it’s “fattening”, I am just going to bite my tongue and move on my merry way. The way I see it, there aren’t enough avocados in this world and if you don’t want any, I can be assured there will be enough for me.

Actually, there are plenty of avocados. And you’re wrong.

8. Coconut (Meat, Cream, Oil, Milk, Spread)

Notice how I didn’t include coconut water in this list? Yeah, all the bloggers and yogis and health nuts like that stuff. To me it seems like it can be a healthier replacement to Gatorade, which should really only be consumed when you have dehydration concerns (intense workout, intense heat, sickness). It’s a sugar water, and it’s not something I recommend for weight loss because it’s essentially a fruit juice (fiber-stripped and sugar-concentrated).

Some people don’t believe the “hype” around coconut, but as you know, I ate coconut “spread” (which is just coconut) all of the time and lost weight. I also like to experiment with coconut oil as an alternative to EVOO or as the “vegetable oil” in baked goods.

While I’m not quite sure if coconut oil is the miracle food of all miracle foods, I can say a properly-processed coconut product or fresh coconut foods are safe to eat while trying to lose weight. Heck, they probably even promote weight loss.

9. Chocolate

I saved the best for almost-last because it’s on everyone’s mind and I like to tease complete strangers. Yes, I ate chocolate. Sometimes I ate it everyday because my body screams: “EAT CHOCOLATE, EAT CHOCOLATE, EAT CHOCOLATE!” and only gets louder when I try to ignore it. To be safe, I chose darker varieties of chocolate most often because I was less likely to abuse it. Or I bought weird chocolates like chocolate-covered ginger for the same reason.

Though I do recall two desperate PMS’s when I grabbed a Heath bar and that time there was a leftover bag of toffee pieces from a toffee cheesecake I baked, which I consumed in two days with a spoon, I avoided eating chocolate toffee candy. There’s nothing wrong with toffee, or caramel, or whatever chocolate treat you love. It’s when that love takes over and you can’t seem to stop spooning bits of toffee into your mouth with a spoon that you have to face your own facts, know what I mean?

10. Ice Cream, FroYo and Toppings, Cake, Pie, Cookies, Brownies, Doughnuts, Cupcakes, Gelato, Candy… Shall I go on?

Treats for the fam

What I really want to stress is that I didn’t have to give up anything in order to lose weight because I really, really didn’t. When I wanted a cupcake, I had a cupcake, savoring every last bit of it. When I wanted FroYo, I had some FroYo with candy and fruit (except toffee). When I wanted whatever treats were circulating the office (as they so often were), I let myself have a treat.

The thing about these types of foods is that I said no more and more. I set limits on how much I was going to eat and I knew exactly how much I would eat before putting anything to my lips. I also contemplated exactly what I wanted instead of settling for a free chocolate chip cookie (I don’t care about chocolate chip cookies) when what I really wanted was a brownie. A treat is supposed to be special, so I stopped abusing the idea and I stopped wasting the moment.

There was a bigger picture for me—I was facing my sugar addiction. You might not care for cupcakes and candy but really love fried chicken, French fries and white pasta. Whatever it is for you, you can still have it as long as you feel you have control over it. That’s how I rolled at least. And guess what? I lost a bunch of weight and still keep losing.

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