"As God Is Mah Witness, Ah'll Always Be Hungry Again!"

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
81

Eve, after a rotund lifetime (I’m 41 on Wednesday and I need to lose ~160 pounds), I’ve finally found a trick that helps me with willpower, which has always been my bugbear. Well, my dieting bugbears: I have plently of other bugbears, if you wanna talk about bugbears.

Anyway, the food log helps, but that’s not the trick I’m talking about.

Make a list of the POSITIVE consequences of losing the weight you want to lose. Not a mental list, a paper list. If possible, carry it around with you. Then every time you want to cheat, instead of beating yourself up with the negative consequences of cheating, meditate for a moment on the positive consequences of maintaining your momentum. For example:
[ol][li]I’ll be able to go out dancing again.[/li][li]I’ll feel better; not so winded on the stairs.[/li][li]I’ll get laid.[/li]etc. . . .[/ol]
When you “meditate,” try to picture your svelte self fulfilling the items on that list. Just takes a few seconds of thought to return you to the path, and makes you feel a little better too.

Also, cheat once a week: if I thought the only way I can be happy is never to eat butter again, I’d swallow Drano right now.

And if you do fall of the wagon for an eclair or two, remind yourself of your list, picture Callista Flockhart offering you her roll out of concern for your health, and forgive yourself. One day at a time, and mistakes will be made, so no single mistake is grounds to give up.

82

Breyer’s lowfat, no sugar added ice cream is good, tho ya still can’t have big bowls of it & lose weight (believe me, I tried L)

I am totally devoted to No-Cal Flavored Carbonated Water instead of soda.

83

Eve, find a picture of yourself that you absolutely hate (because you think it makes you look fat…not because your eyes are closed, or hair is messy…) and put it on your fridge.

84

Oh, done and done. I even printed two out and “airbrushed” myself thin on one.

85

Eat all food, naked, in front of a full length mirror.

86

That wouldn’t work for me–rewards are too remote, both in time and likelihood. An alternative would be to put the money that snacks would have costed into a jar instead of purchasing & consuming said snacks. That’s supposed to be a pretty effective trick for quitting smoking. The money is there and is tangible, and you use it to buy yourself non-food goodies fairly frequently. CDs if you like music, or DVDs, or books, or a night out, or a day off work. Or in Eve’s case, pay a kid to research interesting grave sites for her to visit on day trips. :stuck_out_tongue:

87

I’ll share a few tricks that keep me from feeling hungry.

First off, eat a big breakfast, a big lunch, and then smaller meals throughout the afternoon and evening. You don’t want to be in starvation mode (keep the fat, dam the metabolism!) all day and then eat a bunch at night when you don’t have a chance to burn it. Aim for about 5-8 meals a day, with 3-6 of those being light snacks.

Focus on eating things that digest slowly and contain actual nutrients. High-fiber fruit and vegetables are obviously a good choice. Lean meat, eggs, and some cheese help. Try to keep the grains down, as they’re not all that nutrient-dense.

Keep your protein intake high. Protein takes a while to digest, and will keep you feeling full longer.

Don’t eat meals that have are high in fat and high in carbohydrates. Your body responds by spiking your blood sugar, which leads to a crash in blood sugar, which leads to feelings of hunger.

Keep your calcium intake up. Calcium promotes fat loss.

Don’t drop your calories too low. It’s too hard to retain lean mass if you’re on a very low calorie diet, and lean mass basically is your metabolism.

And definitely keep a food log. It’s easier to avoid the ice cream if you know it has to be recorded officially.

88

Some little tips from a lifelong skinnie:

Moderation, m’dear. “A” slice of pizza isn’t going to send you down the road to Dietetic Hell, but three or four might make your path (among other things) a little wider. Eat your slice with a fork and knife - it’s ever-so-elegant, plus it makes the pizza experience last longer. And I love Francesca’s idea of making a date with your forbidden foods! I’ll be incorporating that one myself!

When you’re hungry, EAT something, for gawd’s sake, but stop - not when you’re FULL - but when you are no longer hungry. Slow down - it takes a few minutes for your brain to realize your belly’s filled.

Water is great - not only does it make you feel fuller, it also helps flush all kinds of nasty crap out of your body. I use a lot of crushed ice in my water and I chew it - which makes my dentist nuts, but my blue jeans fit.

Make your “diet foods” seem special - there are some great tips already posted in here on that score: a slice of lemon in your water; a few grapes, artfully sliced in half and fanned out alongside your braised-in-broth chicken breast; a peach perkily perched atop your cottage cheese. It’s way too easy to feel deprived if you’re staring morosely at a pile of carrot sticks, so take a peeler and make carrot curls instead.

If you’re an on-the-go person, it’s hard to stop and prep food for yourself (especially when you’ve got some asshole handily forking over the sabotage chocolates!) and it’s hard to keep food logs and keep track of calories, carbs, what-have-you. So plan ahead. You’ve got a Sunday afternoon free? Hit the grocery store and stock up on fruits and veggies and other diet-approved foods. Slice up your produce and throw it in the fridge in ready-to-grab baggies. Bag up small portions of lean lunch meat and slice some pitas in half, and throw these sammich makings into single-serving containers you can grab on the run. Make a big pot of soup, throw it in the fridge - next morning, skim off the fat, then ladle the soup into to-go cups you can reheat at the office. The object is to make eating diet food as easy as eating fast food.

And munch on starlight peppermints - despite the fact that they are indeed candy, and therefore calorie-heavy, they’re little, they last a while if you can resist biting, and they make everything else taste weird afterward.

I am morally opposed to exercise, so you get no help on that score from me. The only reason I can conceive of to run is if someone is chasing me.