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Food Journal EVERYDAY!! Write it all down!
A food diary may help you stay on track but very important, It lets you see where you are losing it!
Plus do this too! Write this down: I will lose 1 lb this week. Whether you post this note within easy view or scribble it
on a scrap of paper and toss it, chances are you'll be a pound lighter by week's end, says Henriette Anne Klauser, PhD, author
of Write It Down, Make It Happen (Simon & Schuster, 2001).
Writing switches on the part of your brain (called
the reticular activating system, or RAS) that keeps important messages in mind, ready for you to act on them when prompted.
When you're aware, even subconsciously, of a weight loss intention, you're more likely to pass up the eclair and go for a
bike ride, for example. Keep a small notebook handy, and jot down whatever comes to mind. Here are two ideas:
Your reasons to lose weight ("to gain energy and self-confidence"), which are good motivators and doable even if you don't
trim down.
Your worries ("Will exercise take time away from my family?"), which force you to confront and resolve them before they
sabotage your efforts.
Is Snacking Making You Fat?
The bottom line for weight loss:
You have to burn more calories than you consume. For some people, snacking between meals curbs their appetite so they eat
fewer calories overall. But for others, it can substantially increase the amount of calories they eat and lead to weight gain.
Snacking
makes you fat when "snacking begets snacking," says Stephen Gullo, PhD, author of Thin Tastes Better (Dell Publishing,
1996). The old potato chip ad "Betcha can't eat just one" hit the nail on the head. Certain combinations of salt, sugar, and
crunch can make it virtually impossible to stop at one or two bites. "One potato chip can lead to 1,000 calories," Dr. Gullo
says.
That's what got Holly in trouble. "I'm never satisfied with just one cookie, so it's much easier for me if I
don't start eating them," she says.
And it's not just a taste thing. Snack foods can stimulate the appetite by their
effects on our blood sugar, Dr. Gullo explains. Most snack foods are made with white flour, sugar, and very little fiber,
even ones such as pretzels that we think of as healthy because they're low in fat. That combination of ingredients is just
the thing to send blood sugar soaring and crashing, leaving hunger and the hunt for the next snack in its wake.
Most
of the time, our body doesn't physiologically need the calories. Instead, we're snacking out of habit, boredom, loneliness,
or stress, or to numb our emotions. A recent survey of more than 1,000 adults revealed that nearly one-third of women snack
purely out of boredom.
Here are a few situations when a snack may be necessary:
You're going to work out, and you haven't eaten in 3 or more hours.
Your next meal is 5 to 6 hours away (unless that meal is breakfast).
You didn't eat enough, and you're feeling real, physiological hunger between meals.
When you do snack, choose healthful
and light foods, such as an egg-white omelette, a cup of soup, yogurt, or a banana.
Take Three
Get Your Appetite Under Control
When
you snack all day, you never let yourself get hungry. And eating out of hunger is critical to successful weight loss, says
Marlene Lesson, RD, nutrition director at Structure House, a Durham, NC, residential treatment center for weight control.
Hunger
usually means your body actually needs the calories. But if you never feel hungry, you never learn to recognize your body's
cues that it's really time to eat: You've burned off the calories from the previous meal, and it's time to stoke up your engine
again. Eating three well-spaced-out meals a day will reconnect you to those all-important hunger signals.
"Since I
stopped snacking, I go into my meals a little hungry and really enjoy them," says 40-something Lissa Goldberg, a Manhattan
mother of four who lost 40 lb in a year. Her hunger signals were weak or nonexistent on her previous pattern: lunch and dinner
but no breakfast, and afternoon through evening snacking.
Eating when you're not truly hungry can make you fat, according
to one French study in which subjects ate a lunch that left them full, then followed it up with a snack. When researchers
did blood tests, they found that snacking when you're not hungry puts your body in a fat-storage mode; instead of using the
calories, it saves them for later. And the subjects who had that snack "chaser" didn't compensate by eating less at dinner
(Amer. Jour. of Clinical Nutrition, Nov 1999).
Eat Like a Frenchman
It's no coincidence that a study
that dared to question snacking was done in France. While more than half of Americans are overweight, obesity is rare in France.
And so is snacking. In a study examining the eating and health habits of 16,000 university students in 21 European countries,
French students snacked the least--an average of less than one snack daily--and were more likely to eat three meals a day.
And they weren't overweight.
"Snacking is uncommon and frowned upon," according to senior researcher Claude Fischler,
PhD, of the French Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in Paris. "It's almost impossible, except in Paris or other
large cities, to find a place to eat between meal hours." Instead, the French take their real meals seriously, lingering over
the food, talking about it, and really enjoying it.
10 Tips for
Managing Food Cravings
How many times has this happened to you? After a great
start at eating
healthy in an attempt to take charge of your weight,
you hear the cookies
begin to call you from the cupboard. Pretty soon,
half the box is gone
and, with it, your latest attempts at weight management.
Many people think that only by avoiding high-fat, high-calorie foods entirely will
they ever be able to lose weight and keep it off.
Many weight control
programs today even call these foods "addictive" and
recommend we give
them up forever. While you think giving up such foods
may help you gain
better control over your eating, the truth is you're actually giving up control. Your cravings for the foods
you love will remain and may even become stronger. To adopt a healthy eating plan that includes the foods you crave, try these
tips:
1. Eat at least three well-balanced meals a day. Even
if you're trying
to lose weight, don't skip meals. You'll only be hungrier for the next one,
and cravings between meals can become overwhelming.
2. Give up guilt. Believing you have cheated on your
diet and completely
ruined your chances of succeeding produces guilt and
feelings of
failure. Give yourself permission to eat favorite foods in moderation and without
guilt.
3. Accept food cravings as a normal part of living
in a food-oriented
society. Almost everyone experiences food cravings,
regardless of
whether they struggle with their weight. The more
you understand your
cravings, the better you will be able to manage them.
While you cannot
control the fact that cravings occur, you can control
you reaction.
4. Think "management" instead of "control." "Control"
implies an
adversarial relationship with food; it's generally
a constant struggle
to maintain control. "Management" is much easier. When we manage something,
we work with it to achieve our desired results.
5. Look at cravings as suggestions to eat, not commands
to overindulge.
Overeating does not have to be an automatic response
to a craving. When
a craving
begins, determine how you want to deal with it. It is truly up to you.
6. Believe that cravings will pass. A craving is similar
to a wave in
the ocean. It grows in intensity, peaks, and then subsides if you do not
give in. Picture yourself as a surfer who is trying to "ride the wave,"
instead of being wiped out by it. The more you practice
riding the wave,
the easier it will become.
7. Disarm your cravings with the 5 D's. Delay at least
10 minutes before
you eat so that your action is conscious, not impulsive.
Distract
yourself by engaging in an activity that requires
concentration.
Distance yourself from the food. Determine how important it really is for you to
eat the craved food and how much you really want it.
Decide what amount
is reasonable and appropriate, eat it slowly and enjoy!
8. Stop labeling foods as "bad," "illegal," or "forbidden."
It's not the
food itself that's the problem, but the quantities
you consume and how
often you consume them. You can eat some of anything
you want-even if it
is high in fat, calories, or sugar-but to reach your
goals, you may not
be able to eat all of everything you want.
9. Aim for moderation instead of abstinence. Avoiding
things you fear
only reinforces the fear. Occasionally practice enjoying
reasonable
amounts of favorite high-fat or high-calorie foods.
You may be happier
and better able to stay with a well-balanced plan
for healthy living.
10. Exercise regularly. Just as it is vital to successfully
managing
your weight, exercise is key to managing food cravings. In addition to
burning calories, regular exercise may be relief from tension due to anxieties
about food cravings. It's also one way to delay, distance,
and distract
yourself
from food.
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