Thursday, October 16, 2008

What To Do About Diet

One of the nice things about this book is that it can be used with any diet and exercise program. I'm not sure what I am going to do about a diet plan. It may evolve as we go. Part of my motivation for doing this book is to break away from my typical diet yo-yo approach so I think it would be counter productive to choose a diet. Instead I am going to work on these things:

- Eat less/Move more: This is easy to say, but I want to find some ways to measure this and hold myself accountable.

- Stay sugar free: For me sugar is the enemy. I want to stay sugar-free for the duration of these 42 days. Because of my baby's thrush, I have been sugar free for the last 2 weeks. I have felt so free from cravings and so much more in control of my appetite. Then yesterday, I baked some organic chocolate chip cookies from a mix that was sweetened with cane juice. I have been craving sugar all day and have eaten so many of the cookies. I was fooled into reintroducing sugar into my system...I now believe cane juice is just another word for sugar- (sugar cane juice maybe?). It really showed me how much sugar affects my appetite and how much I like being free of it.

- Supportive Eating: This is something I learned last spring when I worked with a personal trainer. He taught me to eat in a way that kept my blood sugar level and my metabolism working all day. I was able to eat a lot fewer calories and stay more satisfied.

Here's how it works:
Eat every three to four hours hungry or not. At each meal eat a lean protein, a fibrous carb, and a complex carb. A fibrous carb is a vegetable or a fruit. So an example meal might be chicken with broccoli and a slice of whole wheat bread. It really was amazing how satisfied and level I felt eating that way.

I usually have crashes at different times of day where I'm starving. This usually happens in the late afternoon when it's time for me to start cooking dinner. When I was doing the supportive eating I didn't feel those crashes. I usually ended up eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner and added a morning and afternoon snack.

-Lots of water: I know from past experience that this also helps with appetite control.

That's my plan so far. I'd love to hear what you have planned.

2 comments:

Renee Douglas said...

No sugar - it really makes a difference. During the Spring of '07 I went without sugar for Lent. Not only did I lose weight, but it really took off the belly fat and stopped the cravings. Sounds great, it's just so hard! I love sweets (especially chocolate). But, I guess this goes with that devotion you mentioned - sometimes we have to be uncomfortable in order for God to work in our lives. I've got to pray about this one, it is so seriously hard for me to give this one up.

Anonymous said...

The problem with "no sugar" for me is if I reintroduce it even a little bit I go nuts for it. (Like the cane juice cookies) It does make it easier to get there though. I'm going to try moderation--which is much more painful. I think I will do Weight Watchers point counting. You can get the program on line at weightwatchers.com if you are interested.