So it’s diet time … but this time with help.  Someone (Carolyn Botkin) decided it’d be a good idea to convince Zac and I to join the Get FiT Lubbock program.  Basically teams compete for points (earned through weight loss, exercise minutes, and various lectures and events).  With the enticement of some pretty great prizes (Southwest Airlines tickets anyone?), Zac and I enlisted his wife, Marcie, and our friend Casey to take part in the 8-week death wish plan to better health.

Besides having to give up my favorite vice, beer and wine, establishing a better meal plan for the week was one of my top priorities.  As part of that, I’ve tried to come up with ways of making some foods healthier.  Enter … subbing hummus for mayo in tuna salad.

The idea actually came from my absolute hatred of any form of mayonnaise that’s not the real thing.  Low-fat mayonnaise?  BLECH.  Mayonnaise made with olive oil?  There’s a reason no one’s ever done that.  Miracle Whip?  You might as well give me ipecac.  So when trying to think of a decent substitute in tuna salad, I thought, why not hummus?  Similar texture, similar moisture content, and a taste which would actually complement the tuna.

Nutritional difference?

• 1 tablespoon of regular mayo: 100 calories
• 1 tablespoon Reduced-fat (fake) mayo: 20 calories
• 1 tablespoon mayo w/ olive oil: 50 calories
• 1 tablespoon delicious, nutrient-rich hummus?  35 calories … almost as few as the fake tasting reduced-fat stuff

I tried it at lunch the past couple of days … fantastic.  I’m never going back.