Are you a sugarholic? A new approach to dieting
For nine months, I didn't eat any sweets at all. no cakes, muffins or icecream. I used to love sugary food a LOT.
a few weeks ago, I felt sick, my weight didn't drop. I said ok. I can maintain duing the holidays and maybe I should try a tiny piece of that brownie only today.
That was it. then the BINGE started.... for THREE weeks... I had an unblievable amount of muffins, cakes and chocolate.
I am back to normal. Thank God. my question is " why was that?". I am trying to find a new approach to dieting so I can prevent this from happening again.
I am just scared to buy a pack of vitamuffin or any thing sweet because I might open the door for another binge. At the same time, I don't wanna put myself on a STRICT diet again.
Here is an example of one of my BAD days: last Friday I mean BLACK Friday :))
breakfast : an apple+ 11 almonds+1/3 cup cereal.
Then that is what I had during that day.
2 muffins
2 small pieces of bread
Nuts
1 piece of pumpkin cheese cake
chocolate
1 small apple tart ( starbucks)
4 oz icecream
raisins and chocolate
1 vitamuffin
Any comments, thoughts, tips???? how can I approach this problem? was it a mistake to try that piece of brownie in the very beginning? I hope to hear from all of you :)
You aren't eating any protein, beyond the miniscule amount in the almonds. Everything else is pretty much a carb overload that caused your blood sugar to crash rapidly, which encouraged you to eat even more carbs.
It wasn't a mistake to try the brownie. The mistake was continuing to buy and eat all that junk food after the fact. That stuff didn't find its way into your body on its own.
I see a few things: - You might have binged from deprivation - You might be a sugarholic (some researchers think that alcoholism might be related to this) - You might have needed the emotional support of food (it's that time of the year!) or it could have been TOM?
The main point: it was one day! You're doing great - don't let one day throw you off. Plus, there are raisins, an apple, some almonds in there - it's not a total loss.
a) You deny yourself sugay things so crave them more
b) Once that blood sugar level spikes you just want more and more
What I usually do is make sure I have eaten proper full meals first and then reward myself with something sugary so I know I haven't denied myself the treats but still feel full and so don't binge afterwards. Drinkig tea and brushing my teeth afterwards also helps.
Doris_c: I deny myself sugary things because I thought this is the best approach to not binge on them. once I had that tiny brownie, everything went terrible.
csthomas: I agree with you. I think I needed support at that time.
David: do you think i should add sweets to my diet at this point?
Sugar is as addictive as alcohol or drugs for some of us! You experienced the "phenomenon of craving" which was ignited by the sugar in the brownie. You may never be able to handle sweets.
Alcoholics and drug addicts can only recover by being completely abstinent ... that is, never introducing those chemicals into their bodies again. So why is it that we resist the idea that we may have to do what they do? We must abstain from sugary sweets, and we can only do that one day at a time. If we imagine doing it forever, we will fail. But we can do, for 24 hours, what we can't imagine doing forever!
Other foods, such as salty or high fat, may have the same effect on certain people. I know that all these things are alcoholic foods for me, and until I surrender them completely, I will never fully recover! So I do my best, with the support of all of you folks, to abstain from those things daily. I'm far from perfect, but I am making progress.
As dm84 pointed out, you lack protein if the above was your menu for the day, also veggies. Protein could make you feel more satisfied and less likely to want the carbs.
I am suppose to have 80g of protein a day and usually don't feel like eating anything else, besides fruit and veggies. I got off track over the holiday and can tell a difference.
but I've heard that if you mix a low GI with a high GI it may keep you sugar level ok..... low carb food with something high in carb
Baby15: the cereal I had that day was hot cereal high fiber flaxseed meal that has ZERO sugar. the binge didn't start that day. it started since I had that bite of brownie a couple of weeks earlier. That was just an example.
I consider sweets to be a treat.
In other words, they're not part of my diet. They're just something I eat on special occasions.
I think you should allow yourself to have sweets on special occasions. If there aren't any coming up, then maybe once or twice a month you should have a brownie or a muffin. As long as you are firm in your resolve to only buy and eat one of them, you will be fine.
Original Post by safina1:
David: it is safer to just stay away completely. it is like drugs... better off.
I agree with you, but is that really viable? I find that a few times a year I need to eat this stuff just to remind myself how much I don't want it.
You've tried giving it up completely, and the result is that you wind up bingeing. So I'm not sure giving it up totally is your best option.
I am a diabetic, and I help to keep it under control by limiting my carbohydrates daily to 50% of my overall calories. What carbs do I eat? Healthy grains and vegetables, mostly. If I have fruit, I limit it to once per day.
For me, I've tried to cultivate a taste for other flavors and tastes. So, lately, I've been eating a lot of spicy, zippy, zingy things -- and I use a lot of flavors and spices in my cooking. Chili powder, hot sauce, salsa, pico de gallo, peppers, garlic, onions, cilantro, cumin, coriander, turmeric, curry, etc. I add lemon and lime juice to things, and even low-sodium soy sauce or flavored popcorn seasonings.
In other words, I've given my taste buds other things to focus on!
With the exception of one serving (or less) of fruit a day, if I feel like something sweet ... I will first try some sugarfree gum. If that doesn't do it for me, I will have a double-mug of decaf tea with artificial sweetener (just 1 pack). If that STILL doesn't do it, I have one or two sugar free jellos (10 calories each.) Still not happy? I can have one or two sugar free popsicles (15 calories each.) Finally, if I still want sweet (after the gum, double mug of tea, 2 SF jellos and 2 SF popsicles), then I will have one of my Worldwide low-carb, high protein 100-calorie shakes .../ made in the blender with 12 ice cubes.
Good luck to you!
=^..^= MOLLY
Yeah, when pigs fly.
Original Post by mts2457:
"dm84, don't be harsh."
Yeah, when pigs fly.
I wasn't trying to be harsh. I was stating my opinion on why safina is in the jam she's in.
I don't particularly care what people on a website think of me, but people might want to evaluate whether or not they're being hypocritical when criticizing others for tone.
My favorites:
- Light Chocolate Silk Milk
- miniature chocolate bars or a couple of chocolate kisses
- Chocolate Slimfast bars or shakes
- Chocolate flavored calcium chews
- Cocoa Via chocolate bars
- Chocolate and Vanilla Slim a Bear ice cream bars
- Fat Free Chocolate and Vanilla (mixed) Jello pudding cups
I tend to have one or two a day. I schedule them into my calorie count. Sometimes I just take a sip of the milk or shake and that satisfies me. I think it works because I am not denying myself. I am indulging something that I really and enjoy and would have to really fight if I gave it up completely.
Does this mean I never binge? No. I, too, eat for reasons other than being hungry. But those days are few and far between now, and I just say "oh well, it's just one day" and move on. I used to say, "Oh well, I've blown it now... might as well give up."
For me, allowing myself my chocolate indulgences (in little bits) each day, makes me happy and keeps me on track.
Good luck with figuring this out.
Original Post by mts2457:
"dm84, don't be harsh."
Yeah, when pigs fly.
Perhaps it seems harsh, but he speaks truly. He gave her good advice: eat more protein, eat more vegetables, and have treats planned out on occasion where you only allow yourself (perhaps only buy yourself) one treat to limit it but enjoy it (or not). Food is not evil--- it's all about moderation. You have to enjoy your life, and food is supposed to be an enjoyment, at least on occasion. Binging happens for both emotional reasons and because you have "forbidden foods" that suddenly you cannot help indulging in to an extreme. If you set yourself up with "forbidden foods" life becomes much, much harder and binging is far more likely. Believe me, I was a lifelong binger, and it was scary to learn this but it really does make a difference to stop categorizing food and simply see it as fuel and part of life.
Nctracy gave excellent advice as well.
Original Post by ainedb:Food is not evil--- it's all about moderation. You have to enjoy your life, and food is supposed to be an enjoyment, at least on occasion. Binging happens for both emotional reasons and because you have "forbidden foods" that suddenly you cannot help indulging in to an extreme. If you set yourself up with "forbidden foods" life becomes much, much harder and binging is far more likely. Believe me, I was a lifelong binger, and it was scary to learn this but it really does make a difference to stop categorizing food and simply see it as fuel and part of life.
I applaud you and wish I could do that so much. It's so hard to stop saying "that's a bad food" or "that's forbidden"
when i first started dieting, i also cut out sugar
i craved chocolate like, every day. but it didnt fit into my daily calories so i didnt eat it
then one day i just cracked and ate TONS and TONS of chocolate in the span of 3o minutes. it was AWFUL! (and it was just this sunday)
that night i felt like crap :(
and so i tweaked my eating plan a little and so far this week, ive eaten a little bit of chocolate everyday and ive been following my plan quite well (which hasn't been happening since before halloween)
for me, i think the best approach is to not have any forbidden foods. if you never let yourself eat something, you'll only want it more and it could become a binge
plus, i decided the day after my binge that cutting out all my favorite foods wasnt worth the unhappiness
:)
Original Post by krismasself:Sugar is as addictive as alcohol or drugs for some of us! You experienced the "phenomenon of craving" which was ignited by the sugar in the brownie. You may never be able to handle sweets.
Alcoholics and drug addicts can only recover by being completely abstinent ... that is, never introducing those chemicals into their bodies again. So why is it that we resist the idea that we may have to do what they do? We must abstain from sugary sweets, and we can only do that one day at a time. If we imagine doing it forever, we will fail. But we can do, for 24 hours, what we can't imagine doing forever!
Other foods, such as salty or high fat, may have the same effect on certain people. I know that all these things are alcoholic foods for me, and until I surrender them completely, I will never fully recover! So I do my best, with the support of all of you folks, to abstain from those things daily. I'm far from perfect, but I am making progress.
This is the first time I've heard someone explain so well how I feel towards certain foods. It's unbelievable, but once I start I JUST CAN"T STOP. The hell gates open and it can go on for weeks, months even before i can put a stop to it. My nutritionist had accounted for this with small chocolate desserts calculated into my calories but I find that I can't handle it. I've stopped eating sugary foods all together.
However, it's not limited to sugary foods. It can be anything. For instance, we went to this garden party with my husband this summer and I remember eating until my stomach was sooooo stretched I was in pain, and I mean agony. I couldn't even breath! I kept chewing gum to get those gastric fluids in there to alleviate the pain.
Now all I can do is try to maintain a healthy diet, with no occasional slip ups because for me it's not easy to say "tomorrow is another day I'll start fresh". Tomorrow will be the same and before I know I will have gained 10 kilos (22 lbs). To give an idea, in college I didn't gain the freshman 15, I gained the freshman 40. It took me more than a year to lose it.
The thing is, I remember a time when food wasn't important to me. I didn't think about it all the time and it certainly didn't play in important role in my life. Now it rules my life.
Do any of you think that someone like me could go back to being ok with food, ever? Will it always be such a struggle for me not to overeat?
By the way, by conventional standards I am sort of ok with my weight right now. I am 5.4'' and weigh 143 lbs. There was a time however that I weighed 115 lbs and I remember that I used to look so good.... Of course I was younger then (18) and now I am 32.
What is the diet for kidney stones?
For kidney stones, you should drink at least three to four quarts of fluid (preferably water) everyday. There are several kinds of kidney stones... Read more