Educated Crowd - I need your help

[RhiannonW]

My goal is to maintain my weight, but drop some bodyfat so I can see muscles(I know they're under there somewhere).
I want to eat clean(eliminate refined sugar from my diet). I need motivation and determination(aka - willpower?) to stay strong when the cravings hit. If I could make it a few days, I think I'd be fine.
Food consumes my mind @80% of my waking moments. That's no exaggeration. I want to eat to live, not live to eat. Since I don't have alot of weight to lose, that's not a motivating factor for me. I've been reading about many different eating plans hoping to find some motivation there. It all comes down to willpower I guess.
Can anyone offer any suggestions?
Has anyone been here? Please tell me, what did you do to remedy... Please, help. I'm going nuts - spending too much energy on worrying about my eating.

 

[hippahips]

Oh boy, I do admit that's hard. Rhiannon, when I started refining my eating I had to actually retrain my brain to keep myself away from sugar and starch. What I did was really simple. If I wanted something sweet I'd reach for fruit, usually grapes because they're sweet. Eventually I added more fruits for variety. I also had lots of water with my fruit to fill myself up. Making myself feel full somehow dulled the cravings. I don't know if this will work for you, but it has helped me a lot especially during those weeks when I was still trying to settle into my Zone way of eating. I actually posted a question a while back, asking for tips on curbing the cravings. One lady e-mailed me and told me to store only healthy foods in my fridge and pantry. That worked well for me too.

Good luck,
Pinky

 

[RhiannonW]

Pinky,

Thanks so much for the info. With reaching for fruits when you crave sweets, do you worry about too much sugar in them too? Does that sugar trigger cravings for move sugar?
You mentioned you're on the Zone. How do you schedule your time to prepare everything?

 

[kathryn]

Pinky has a great idea about only keeping "good" foods around. Of course, this is easier if you live alone, or if everyone you live with is going the healthy route. If you can, go through all your cupboards and fridge and get rid of sugar and white flour foods (cookies and such can be put outside for birds and squirrels---but don't give them candy!).

It's also important to be in the right frame of mind when grocery shopping. Don't go shopping when you're hungry, or right after work if you haven't eaten for a while. Somehow, that high-refined-carb food just seems to call out at those times! EAT ME! BUY ME! YOU WANT mE! Keep some healthy snack bars in the car, so when you do catch yourself on the way to the store at a bad time, you can nibble before shopping, or at least tell yourself while you're shopping that you have a really yummy treat waiting for you in the car, so you can do without the (insert tempting stuff here!).

I like to keep a stock of apples at home for snacks. They are not only sweet (but not excessively so), but they have good fiber that helps satisfy your appetite. I also love mangos, persimmons, and red peppers (they aren't a fruit...well actually they are biologically speaking! just like tomatos).

When buying breads, crackers and other grain products, I make sure that each serving has at least 2 ggrams of fiber in it. Even many "health food" crackers don't fit the bill.

Another way to satisfy a sweet tooth is to drink herbal teas that are naturally sweet or add a few drops of stevia to a cup of tea. I like Rooibos tea, which is supposed to have many times the antioxidants of green tea. If you sweeten the teas, go very light, and try to get used to drinking them with no added sweetener.

I read recently that it takes about 3 weeks to retrain your tastebuds, and that you will want to eat what you have been eating within the last 3 weeks or so. So if you have been eating sugar and white flour, you'll still want to eat it until some time has passed and you've retrained your tastebuds. I don't know, but it certainly seems that it's much easier to get used to eating sugar again than it is to get used to not using it!!

 

[hippahips]

Rhiannon, the way I understand it is that the sugar in fruits (fructose) is quite different from the sugar in chocolate (glucose). Fructose has to be converted into glucose in the liver before your body can use it for fuel. This process is slow, and does not stimulate insulin production AS MUCH as other carbs, like chocolate or cheese puffs. I am not a medical professional, and what I know has been culled from my readings and web searches, so I can't say that what I'm giving you is accurate. It's simply what I've read. As far as the sugar in fruits triggering cravings for more sugar... I haven't experienced that. If I eat one big apple and wash it down with a glass of water or soy milk, that apple will sit in my stomach for a good while, and this sense of heaviness seems to take the edge off my cravings.

As for Zone eating, I arm myself with a list before I go to the grocery, which I usually do on a Monday morning to avoid the crowds. The list contains all my favorite foods from the list of "favorables". I shop mainly at the periphery of the supermarket where foods are still in their original state (or very close to it). I either cook meat (usually chicken or fish) in a skillet with 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil, or bake it. I buy my vegetables frozen. This takes away the pressure of having to use it right away. This also saves me time as frozen vegetables are already cut up. I heat them up in a pan on the stovetop. No butter, no oils. Maybe some Mrs. Dash for flavor. I get my nuts from the snack aisle or the baking goods aisle. I buy three kinds of fruits at a time. More than that and they'll end up forgotten in the fridge. I usually get grapes because my son loves them. I also get some help in flavoring meat from those 30-minute marinades you can get from the seasoning aisle. That's basically it. It took me a good while to get a routine going but once I got it, I don't even think about it anymore. Things have become automatic and instinctive.

Kathryn has great tips. I like that idea with the tea.

Pinky

 

[luckygirl]

Hi Educated crowd,

I strongly recommend two books by Jean Antonello. One is called "Naturally Thin by Eating More" and the other is "Breaking Out of Food Jail". What these books will teach you about cravings is that if you are having them, it is because you are truly hungry and need to learn to eat in response to your bodies need for food. You will not find any diet plans here, just great information on listening to your own body. You can get either of these books used for next to nothing on half.com or amazon. I have read tons of books recommending eating this that or the other, what to eat, when to eat, you name it. I really believe these books contain the gospel truth about eating, from someone who knows her topic inside and out.

Also, there is one other book, that is not as thorough, but is very interesting called "Instinctive Eating" written by the current Mrs. UT. She is not a medical professional, but has good insights that have helped me listen to and understand my own bodies needs. See instinctiveeating.com for this one.

Hope this helps. (If anyone does read these books, please post your responses. I would like to hear what you think.)

 

[kathryn]

Luckygirl,
Those books sound interesting. I do think the body knows what to do with natural foods, and it's pretty hard to overeat if you just have natural foods and whole foods at your disposal. I also believe that foods that are nutrient poor do nothing to satisfy cravings for real foods that contain vitamins, minerals, fibers. That's why I can go through a whole bag of potato chips and still be able to eat more, but a baked potato satisfies me (so I keep the chips out of the house!).

 

[Michele S]

I definitely don't fit into the "educated crowd" category, but since I'm trying to do the same thing, I'll just tell you what's worked for me so far.

The first thing I did was stop eating any type of junk (in my case, cookies, candy, etc.) cold turkey. I found that if I let myself have one, I couldn't stop (especially around Halloween) and then felt really awful afterwards. I can say now that I don't crave sugar like I used to and can watch my kids and husband eating Oreos and not want to dive into the bag!

The other thing that helped was having herbal tea when I really felt I wanted something sweet. I would add a little honey and it satisfied my sweet tooth. I also started keeping whole almonds in the house to help with the munchies. I sometimes eat more of them than I should, but I guess it beats potato chips! I still eat pretzels, though, in moderation, but try to get whole wheat ones or some type that at least sounds healthy!

I also give myself a "cheat" day if I need it(usually Friday or Saturday night) so I don't feel like I'm totally cutting everything out. The most I'll splurge on is pizza. I think once you train your brain that you don't want the other stuff, you really don't want it!

I also tell myself that I work out too hard to not get the results I want because of food...that's worked, too! Good luck!