Does anyone else have this problem? I have noticed it for a while now.
I eat a fair amount of fruits and vegetables and I have for a while now. The majority of fruits and veggies I eat are raw because that's the easiest way for me to get them in.
Here is what I had for lunch today:
4 small pieces of leftover pork tenderloin(maybe 3.5oz) 1 mini cucumber and about 1 cup of chopped bell pepper with 1T of vinaigrette dressing and 1t feta cheese 1 small apple 1 serving of baked chips a diet coke
1 hour later I am hungry, at least it's what I interpret as hunger, a rumbling, gnawing feeling in my stomach. This happens fairly regularly. It seems to me like my lunch is a healthy one.
Is my stomach just weird or do other people have this problem? Is there something that I can do to counteract this problem? I have found that if I have a bit of protein with my fruit snacks it seems to help. But I almost always have some protein with lunch and it is still a problem.ACK!
The diet soda thing has to do with aspartame and the chemical effect it has on the brain. Many studies have been done, because it triggers insulin response and causes you to feel hungry. Many new diet soda products are now sweetened with splenda.
Think about it in terms of sweetness. Aspartame is 300 times sweeter than sugar. The aspartame in gum has also been studied and has been found to trigger hunger. It is truely a chemical thing.
It is just science.
Posts: 1384 | Location: West Florida | Registered: March 12, 2004
[QUOTE]Originally posted by fbroadie: Kit meals would be good. I need to find a few that would be agreeable to both parties. (: [QUOTE]
You may also want to think about making double or triple portions when you do cook and freezing the extra for nights when you don't feel like cooking.
You may also want to consider having you and bf doing a marathon prep on the weekends together. Get all your veggies prepped, a bunch of brown rice cooked, chicken prepped, etc... You could even cook and freeze them on the weekends if you thought that would be helpful.
[QUOTE }I also have a weird hang up about wanting more than one thing for dinner. [QUOTE]
Me too. I get around this by doing whole wheat pasta or couscous as a side as it's super easy and quick to cook up and then having a salad for the veggie. I make my own dressing too but make enough to last the week.
I also want to add that I have a rule in my house - if I'm doing the cooking, it's too bad if dh isn't happy with the meal. He can make something else for himself or having a pbj and I'll just keep the left overs for me for the next day. Your bf is a big boy. If he can't help you in cooking earlier in the evening, make what you want for yourself. I'm sure he won't starve ; )
As for drinks - I'm a huge fans of decaf teas. Fruited rooibus is my favorite.
PS Denise - as for the diet pop thing - it truly makes me hungrier even if I'm drinking it at home. I have to mentally fight myself to not go rummaging through the pantry for more to eat.
Out of our beliefs are born deeds; out of our deeds we form habits; out of our habits grows our character; and on our character we build our destiny.
Originally posted by fbroadie: I also have a weird hang up about wanting more than one thing for dinner. I was raised in a house where we had a meat, a starch, a veggie and a salad every night. To just have a one dish meal feels sort of incomplete to me.
Me too to being raised with the meat/starch/veggie meal pattern. When I was a kid, the starch was almost always mashed potatoes or egg noodles. My starches now are brown rice, whole wheat pasta/bread or roasted baby potatoes, so I still get my starch but it's a little healthier and nearly always more whole grain a starch than what "starch" meant when I was a kid.
I don't know if this would be a deal-breaker for you because your dinner is with your bf, but have you thought about making lunch your biggest meal of the day and then making dinner a smaller meal? Having most of your calories earlier in the day, while you are active, might be helpful.
I've been eating this way for longer than I've been eating healthy and it works great for me. What I do is cook my lunches for the work week on Monday, when I'm off, and then when I come home from work after a long (10 1/2 hour) day, I don't have to cook a main meal--I just eat something between a snack and a light meal and don't worry as much about it being well-balanced because my main meal (lunch) is always well-balanced.
Just a thought. You could still be eating a meal with your bf, just not your biggest meal of the day (though I don't know how that would work for HIM).
Personal Healthy Habits Challenge - 10/1 to 12/31/08: 1. Exercise: Get back to consistently working out 3-5 X week. 2. Food: Get back to consistently preparing healthy lunches for the week with increased veg servings. 3. Behavior: Reduce intake of sweets.
Posts: 7356 | Location: Rehoboth Beach, DE | Registered: March 12, 2004
I also have a weird hang up about wanting more than one thing for dinner. I was raised in a house where we had a meat, a starch, a veggie and a salad every night. To just have a one dish meal feels sort of incomplete to me.
Same here - I was raised to expect either potatoes, rice or pasta with my meat/poultry/vegetarian casserole, so when I see a stir fry, my first reaction is, Where are the noodles or rice?
Re the salad: Why not use an oil and vinegar spray for dressing? First the evoo, then the vinegar, toss - done.
Re the drink: Have you tried sparkling or still water with a slice of cucumber/lemon/orange, or a few raspberries in the glass? They give it a nice flavor without the aspartame. Sparkling water would give you the fizz you want.
****************** “The older you get, the tougher it is to lose weight because by then, your body and your fat are really good friends.”
Are you doing water aerobics every day or are you doing other exercise as well??
I weigh about 210 these days. I have already lost about 25 pounds in the last 3 years.
I do 1 hour of water aerobics 3 days per week. I do 1 hour of bellydancing per week, 1 hour of yoga per week, and generally ride the exercise bike for 25-30 minutes 2 other days per week.
I always wonder about how much protein I really need. I tend to work a small amount into breakfast, a medium amount into lunch and then have a larger portion at dinner. One of my challenges is that I am allergic to peanuts, so the easiest low cholesterol snack is off of my list. I eat a fair amount of cheese and eggs. I'm not a huge fan of lunch meat, but I will eat it in a pinch. I used to eat a lot of tuna, but it just doesn't taste very good to me anymore.
Any suggestions for good protein sources? I'm not a huge bean fan either.
I don't think I need to add extra fat in. I use a fair amount of olive oil, and most of the dairy products I use are low fat, but not non fat.
I think that diet soda causes weight gain because the places that sell diet soda also sell burgers and fries. There is probably a relationship because people that drink lots of diet soda, probably also eat out more or eat more fast food. Personally, I don’t think a beverage that has zero calories causes weight gain. I think that the way the AVERAGE diet soda drinker eats causes the weight problem.
I know many WW members that track their food and drink diet soda and have no problem losing/maintaining weight. If a person is monitoring their calorie intake… I don’t think that diet sodas are a problem.
Personally, I don't drink it that much... but I had two this week... and I didn't eat more or gain weight or experience more hunger because of it.
If you are looking to kick the diet soda habit... that is one thing... Or you can drink it in moderation.
But if you like diet soda... I don't think that it will cause your weight loss to stall.
Webmd article on the link between diet sodas and weight.
Quote: Fowler is quick to note that a study of this kind does not prove that diet soda causes obesity. More likely, she says, it shows that something linked to diet soda drinking is also linked to obesity.
"One possible part of the explanation is that people who see they are beginning to gain weight may be more likely to switch from regular to diet soda," Fowler suggests. "But despite their switching, their weight may continue to grow for other reasons. So diet soft-drink use is a marker for overweight and obesity."
Why? Nutrition expert Leslie Bonci, MPH, RD, puts it in a nutshell. "You have to look at what's on your plate, not just what's in your glass," Bonci tells WebMD.
People often mistake diet drinks for diets, says Bonci, director of sports nutrition at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and nutrition consultant to college and professional sports teams and to the Pittsburgh Ballet.
"A lot of people say, 'I am drinking a diet soft drink because that is better for me. But soft drinks by themselves are not the root of America's obesity problem," she says. "You can't go into a fast-food restaurant and say, 'Oh, it's OK because I had diet soda.' If you don't do anything else but switch to a diet soft drink, you are not going to lose weight."
Denise
Posts: 8745 | Location: Silicon Valley, CA | Registered: March 17, 2004
Are you doing water aerobics every day or are you doing other exercise as well??
I'm wondering if you are getting enough calories for the activity.
I saw your basic menu down towards the bottom of this entry, and I think you might try adding more protein to your breakfast - I love egg white omelettes with sauted veggies in them.
When I put your stuff in fit day it seems like you are doing a 30/30/30 ratio of carbs/fats/proteins, but you may need to up the ratio of EFAs and proteins to get a more satiated feeling from your food.
What other things to people drink besides water that are low in calories and decaffeinated? I don't like coffee. I can drink water about 75% of the time, but the other 25% I need flavor and fizz.
Decaffinated tea and herbal tea. There is a tea store here called Teavana, that has some really strong fruit flavored herbal tea, that makes a super iced tea. (By strong, I mean it holds up to being iced down. Some herbal tea is so mild that by the time you add ice, it just tastes like water.) DS and I like the strawberry/kiwi one. It is almost like drinking a fruit punch or Kool Aid without all of the icky preservatives. I bet you could also chill it and not add ice and then add Selzer or club soda to make it fizzy and it would be more soda like.
At least that way you can control the amount of sugar or honey you add.
Dawn
"Success is not the result of spontaneous combustion. You have to set yourself on fire." anonymous
Posts: 4334 | Location: Indianapolis, IN | Registered: March 15, 2004
Here is my daily schedule for most days: 8am wake up, make breakfast, get changed for water aerobics, out the door by 8:45. 9-10 water aerobics, home by 10:30, check e-mail, get news, clean kitchen, do something house related (clean cat box, or pick up some clutter,) hit the showers, now it is 12. Lunch, clean up lunch and it's 1. Some afternoons I teach, other afternoons, I have from 1-6:30 to actually do my work. I am an artist working primarily in jewelry, but I also paint and do some fiber stuff.
Then it's time for dinner and the time I have from dinner to bed time which is around 12 is the time I have to spend with the BF.
If I have a good enough plan, I could probably sneak some prep in the late morning.
Kit meals would be good. I need to find a few that would be agreeable to both parties. (: Spaghetti is the standard one around here, but I am not a huge tomato fan. And I require meat sauce, so it takes a while to defrost the meat.
I also have a weird hang up about wanting more than one thing for dinner. I was raised in a house where we had a meat, a starch, a veggie and a salad every night. To just have a one dish meal feels sort of incomplete to me. And I also don't feel like I have made a real dinner unless it has all of these components. I imagine this is why I have such a hang up about having to cook every night. I also have to make salad dressing from scratch.
I know I am weird in this way. I do have to get over some of these things and realize that dinner can just be a one dish item with a salad. It is just hard to break 30 some-odd years of training...
If I take time out of my day to prep dinner stuff in the afternoon, dinner isn't too hard, but I lose work time and that isn't good.
Francie,
Quite often I do a lot of my dinner prep in the morning after breakfast. Would that work for you? While your in the kitchen cleaning up the breakfast dishes, getting your dinner preps done then?
Another suggestion is, if your inclination on those frustrating nights is to order pizza, why not have some pre-made homemade pizzas with healthier ingredients in your freezer to pop into the oven. OR have a couple of pantry kit meals that require very little prep ready for those days.
Blessings,
Lori
Re-committing myself to a healthy lifestyle that will include regular (and increasing) exercise, and following the baby steps rule on food. 6/17/08
Posts: 3149 | Location: California | Registered: March 11, 2004
As far as the late hour of dinner goes, I am not sure what I could do to change it.
My BF works night hours. Dinner is his first meal of the day. My work time is basically from 12:30 to 6:30 or so. If I want any help with dinner I have to wait until BF is ready to help. And it usually works out that he doesn't even notice it is dinner time until after 7. I have tried menu planning, and it works to a certain degree, but the problem is I get resentful if I have to do it all myself every night. Then I give up in a huff and we order pizza or something like that.
If I take time out of my day to prep dinner stuff in the afternoon, dinner isn't too hard, but I lose work time and that isn't good.
I find my schedule and my time management issues very aggravating I have tried multiple times to fix them, but I don't seem to be able to find a workable solution.
As far as the artificial sweeteners go, I really only have 2 diet sodas a day. And I don't use artificial sweeteners otherwise. I don't like Splenda, and it makes my BF nauseous, so I just don't keep it around.
What other things to people drink besides water that are low in calories and decaffeinated? I don't like coffee. I can drink water about 75% of the time, but the other 25% I need flavor and fizz.
Sorry, this is kind of a long article, but has some good information. I didn't copy the entire article. Of course, the larger statistics regard people who are very heavy consumers of aspartame.
Also, remember that your body is a beautifully designed system. It has very sensitive responders (hormones) that have a job to do 24/7. The body was not designed to digest chemicals. Aspartame is made from chemicals, that individually you would never consider consuming. Splenda is not a chemical creation and is considered the best alternative to sugar.
The Sweet Saboteur: Aspartame By Pat Barone March/April 2004 For the Washington Running Report
It's a tiny molecule that is 180 times sweeter than sugar. It has no calories. But is aspartame a huge advantage in the battle against overweight or is it a dangerous chemical concoction that raises health concerns as well as the number on your scale?
Aspartame, marketed as such brands as NutraSweet, Equal, Spoonful, and Equal-Measure, first appeared in the U.S. in 1981, when the U.S. obesity rate was forty-six percent. Today, the rate is sixty-three percent. Clearly, aspartame has not been effective in helping reduce the overall weight of U.S. citizens. Most experts now believe it has a negative impact on weight loss.
Along with the rising obesity rates, mounting questions about its effectiveness and its safety continue to plague the food additive. Although it may be possible to cut down on certain calories using aspartame, some of the unwanted side effects include:
* Increased hunger and cravings * Lowered serotonin, which causes depression and/or mood swings * The release of insulin in proportions to the sweetness of the food eaten, usually more than needed by the body * With overproduction of insulin, fat cells grow faster * Increased thirst because aspartame dehydrates the body * Impaired sleep
Artificial sweeteners can also change your perception of what is sweet and alter the amounts of sweet it takes to satisfy you. Studies have proven that people who use artificial sweeteners consume more sugar than those who do not. In addition to the damage cravings can do (both emotionally and physically), dehydration is a major cause of weight gain. With greater thirst, many people just consume more soda laden with more chemicals.
It is also easy to confuse thirst and hunger and many people eat when they are actually thirsty. Do you crave something cold and sweet, like ice cream? It's probably not hunger--it's thirst talking to you.
Widespread Use and Widespread Adverse Reactions According to a 1998 survey by the Calorie Control Council, 144 million American adults regularly consume sugar-free, artificially sweetened foods every day.
If one percent of aspartame users have adverse reactions, that is more than one million problems. The Food and Drug Administration has admitted that three-fourths of all its non- drug complaints are for the unwanted ill effects from aspartame use.
Some of the complaints include the following: * Anxiety attacks * Bloating and fluid retention * Brain tumors * Chronic Fatigue Syndrome * Confusion * Chest pains and/or heart palpitations * Depression * Dizziness * Equilibrium problems * Exacerbated diabetes and/or hypoglycemia * Headaches and/or migraines * Hypertension * Inability to concentrate * Joint pain * Memory loss * Multiple sclerosis * Rashes, hives, and skin problems * Seizures * Tremors * Vertigo * Vision impairment * Weight gain
In addition, reactions to aspartame can mimic the following diseases: fibromyalgia, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, lupus, epilepsy, lymphoma, Lyme disease, attention deficit disorder, and other psychological disorders. It is also connected to atherosclerosis, cancer, coronary artery disease, and arthritis. It comes as no surprise that joint pain is a major complaint among aspartame users.
Posts: 1384 | Location: West Florida | Registered: March 12, 2004
If you do a little research, there are studies that have been done regarding the artificial sweeteners used in diet coke and other diet drinks.
The sweetener triggers a hormonal response. It actually will cause you to be more hungry and even to crave carbohydrates.
If you drink a diet drink with aspartame, your body will expect food to follow and begin to signal to your digestive system to prepare for digestion.
I think you ought to give up the diet coke with your meal. I think your meal is fine, but needs more fiber. Fiber increases your feeling of fullness and slows digestion, so that you will not feel hungry so soon.
You should be feeding your body something about every three hours. Like breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner. That encourages an always on metabolism. Also if you are exercising, your energy requirements are a litte higher.
So, my thought is to give up the diet coke. Include a high fiber food at all of your meals. Eat often and drink a lot of water.
If you feel like you need the caffeine try a green tea drink. Sobe makes a Lean green tea drink that is sweetened with splenda and also contains chromium which keeps your blood sugar levels stable.
Also, Quaker makes a snack bar called Q Bar. It has about 9 grams of fiber in each bar and is very yummy.
Veggies are a great source of fiber, if you are eating the skin. And you would have to eat a lot of them to get that much fiber in a meal. Also, they contain a lot of water, so they are digested quickly.
Posts: 1384 | Location: West Florida | Registered: March 12, 2004
I'd love to be able to eat dinner at 5 or 6 pm. However, I am leaving work between 5 and 6 pm and getting home typically between 6 and 7, and then I still have to make dinner. So, it is not unusual for us to eat between 7 and 7:30, or later.
I typically have a late afternoon snack.
Dawn
"Success is not the result of spontaneous combustion. You have to set yourself on fire." anonymous
Posts: 4334 | Location: Indianapolis, IN | Registered: March 15, 2004
Our resident nutrition experts will probably already have told you what you should be doing, so I'll just say I often have the same problem. Vegetables don't fill me enough; I have to have "enough" protein to go with the veggies. I get the rumbles slightly later too, but I'm learning to disregard them: I drink some tea or water and munch on fruit, and then at some point the rumbles go away. Sometimes I have a full-grain crisp with some light spread for a snack. That way I can make it home without feeling I'm about to faint from hunger.
****************** “The older you get, the tougher it is to lose weight because by then, your body and your fat are really good friends.”
Originally posted by Sandy: there is absolutely no way I could wait until 7-8 until dinner and stille xpect myself to eat reasonable portions.... When I eat 5-6pm, I fell like I am in control.
Me, three.
Denise
Posts: 8745 | Location: Silicon Valley, CA | Registered: March 17, 2004
Originally posted by Sandy: When I eat 5-6pm, I fell like I am in control.
Ditto for me too. I hate when I wait for dh to eat dinner (between 7- 8 pm) as I'm generally starving. I've gotten better at eating a second snack on those days around 5 but then my body feels like I've started eating dinner and it's really hard for me to just stop at a "snack sized" meal.
Early dinners definitely work way better for me.
Out of our beliefs are born deeds; out of our deeds we form habits; out of our habits grows our character; and on our character we build our destiny.
I do also usually have a snack in the afternoon around 4 or 5, since dinner usually isn't until 7 0r 8.
I know we are all set up differently, but there is absolutely no way I could wait until 7-8 until dinner and stille xpect myself to eat reasonable portions. I happen to be a moring/daytime person and eating earlier works really well for me. I rarely eat after 6pm.
I get this might not work for you, but I was struck with the dinner struggle and wanted to share my own experience. When I eat 5-6pm, I fell like I am in control.
If that was your lunch, maybe you're not getting enough calories to fuel your body? Maybe you need more protein and more carbs, added to your vegetables and fruits. I commend you on getting those F& V in....that is great...but I've been told that protein and carbs are important to keep my body's metabolism up for the afternoon and evening.
It's never too late to get it right.
Posts: 3473 | Location: Central USA | Registered: March 11, 2004
Sorry, this is kind of a long article, but has some good information. I didn't copy the entire article. Of course, the larger statistics regard people who are very heavy consumers of aspartame.
