I have lost control with my Edy's Grand Light Ice Cream : (
I used to have no problem having my 1/2 c as dessert (and feeling satisfied) but recently I can't seem to stop with just that 1/2 c. I've been eating closer to 1 1/2 c per night.
The same thing happened to me last year with my mini baking chocolate chips. I started out being satisfied with 1 T and then it turned into 2 or 3 T. I ended up switching over to the ice cream instead.
I'm going to make a concerted effort to get back to my 1/2 c serving and that's it. I have about 1/2 a container left which according to the serving size on the label, should last me 7 days.
Once this container is done, I'm going back to skinny cow ice cream sandwiches. Being that they are preportioned, I won't get myself into trouble.
Wish I could figure out why this stuff happens. I've been doing great with the ice cream for about a year and now suddenly it's a problem.
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.
[QUOTE]Originally posted by GoingSkiing: How long have you been upping your portions? Are you gaining weight? If you are not gaining weight… it is very possible that your body needs the extra 100 or so calories.
QUOTE]
Denise I do think that's part of the problem. I have be eating extra for the past 3 - 4 weeks and haven't gained an ounce. It also corresponds to me upping the intensity of my exercise at the gym so you may be right that my body is needing the extra calories.
What I object to is choosing ice cream over something healthy with some nutritional substance!
Thankfully the ice cream is done now after yesterday's over indulgence and there will be no more coming into the house. I also moved my dd's sundrops into her cookie jar on the very bottom shelf so I can't see them.
The other piece of this that I was recently thinking about is the way I've been cooking. Up until now I made the meal for dh and I and then gave dd a portion of my food. She's eating enough more now so that doesn't work anymore because it depletes my portion size too much. Instead of eating something healthy, I end up eating extra dessert. I'll need to start making extra food from here on out for her. (I noticed that last night after I portioned out our rice dish and saw how little there was left for me - way under a serving.)
Clearly it's been a combination of things. This really is a never ending journey of trial and error!
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.
How long have you been upping your portions? Are you gaining weight? If you are not gaining weight… it is very possible that your body needs the extra 100 or so calories.
Is it possible that you are eating because you really are hungry?
I know that when I see what you post for your plan for the day (and you don‘t always put amounts in, but for example - half English muffin, 1 egg, 1 sl soy cheese) I usually think that I would be hungry if I ate what you do.
Maybe you don’t want to eat 100 calories of ice cream with a lot of sugar in it… but maybe you want to consider eating another piece of whole wheat bread or some whole grains or fruit or something.
Just a thought…
Denise
Posts: 8691 | Location: Silicon Valley, CA | Registered: March 17, 2004
So ... perhaps over time your body desensitizes itself with your dessert fix of choice and in order to get it's "fix" it requires more to get the "fix". Does that make sense? Perhaps having a routine of 3 or 4 different choices would alleviate that issue? But that could also be "dangerous".
Bee, Hugs...I know this is just a little bump in the road. I had a similar thought about variety. We (and you usually are one of the ones that immediately notices this) talk to each other sometimes about a good variety in their diet. I'm sure you (as I am) are generally concerned about hitting the variety of vitamins, minerals, etc. in the nutritious food we are usually directing these comments at but I am wondering if maybe you are suffering a bit of food fatigue with your particular desserts (much as the person who might eat the same food day in and day out might get sick of it and 'fall off the wagon'. I think of that everytime I think about that silly Jared Subway diet). Even the same dessert I love day after day wouldn't work for me and I'm sure it would take more and more to make me happy (and ultimately even that wouldn't be enough).
Oh gosh B I can't believe I didn't remember this previously ... BUT! I absolutely LOVE vanilla yogurt with strawberries and banannas. Just enough yogurt to drizzle over the fruit vs the fruit on top of the yogurt.
Another suggestion that just came to me. A friend of mine used to do WW (back in the 80's) and she would take LF Ricotta and add FF Chocolate Alba powder to it and spread it on a graham cracker "plank". Also very yummy.
Originally posted by Bee: I have been stressed out this week ...Throw in a preschooler majorily asserting her independence and the new work stuff - it definitely could be stress!
Brie,
This brings back memories. Now, as the mother of a teenager, I still dismiss "the terrible two's" or "tantrum threes" as nothing compared to when he reached four. I still feel that was the most frustrating time for both of us. His need for autonomy and mine to be mommy.
You're doing great! And an inspiration to all of us.
Originally posted by LenaDances: Yeah, I've had to stop bringing the Edy's Light into the house, too. There has to be a good way to deal with this stuff. With regular food, you can bulk it out with greens so you're eating longer; that's just not an option with ice cream and the 1/2 cup serving just looks so tiny!
...Wait, I may have just had an idea. Is this an ice cream flavor that would do well on top of some sort of chopped (and possibly pan-frizzled or nuked) fruit? Because it just occurred to me that KD's nuked apples-and-rhubarb would be a DIVINE way to bulk out vanilla ice cream.
That sounds great. Fresh strawberries are another good topping for ice cream (especially sliced and sugared lightly and left to make juice for a while).
Sometimes when I make apple crisp (apples sliced with the skins still on, cinnamon, a little brown sugar, nutmeg, topped with oatmeal mixed with a small amount of butter, then baked until brown and soft) I put a scoop of regular lowfat vanilla yogurt on it and it is sort of sundae-like even though it's not real ice cream.
----------- Jen
Posts: 2868 | Location: Ohio | Registered: March 11, 2004
Bee, You've gotten lots of great input. I find that I have to stay away from sweets and salty foods most all of the time. For some reason I am wired in a way that I can control it for a while and then I begin to want (really, really want) more and more. I remember the baking chips. I remember thinking that they were adding stress to your life. I wonder if the ice cream is doing that too? I don't want that type of stress. I think there are lots of ways to handle this- seems like buying the Skinny Cow will work for you now. For me, it is best to give it up except when we are out for special occassions.
I am glad that you posted. Keeping things out in the open is majorly important. See how the Skinny Cow works.
Originally posted by PineappleGirl: It made me ANGRY when I realized that these flavors which are created for snack foods are not just to taste good, but to make us want to eat more and more...at one sitting so that we buy more and more of their product. What a crazy racket!!!
I went off Doritos for good (a heck of a thing, considering that I used to eat one of those big bags every day for a while) about six months ago when it occurred to me that much of the reason that people-- particularly kids-- turn up their noses at real foods with real flavors is that we're used to the flavors created for junk food. These flavors created in a lab, created to be ten times more powerful then they have any right to be, and THEN using fat (which makes any flavor bloom) and insane amounts of salt (since salt makes taste buds more responsive)-- I mean, good God, what chance do we have? We get used to this stuff, we get used to thinking that flavor is supposed to be that powerful, and ordinary stuff just can't compare. Flavors on steroids are just not right. Eeeeeaagh.
I hate that consumers have been manipulated like that. These companies use those flavors on steroids, huge amounts of salt, man-made shelf-stable fats, and corn syrup to attach inhuman amounts of flavor to the cheapest possible starches that they can find, and after they're done with those starches there's pretty much zero nutritional value left! We eat them and the flavor is addictive and we don't get full so we just keep eating and eating...
Arrrrgh. Seriously, I could rant about this all day. I can't believe that I used to think this stuff was tasty; now it just scares me.
(Sadly, while I can attach the "I don't want to eat cheap junk" outrage to candy, I haven't managed it with ice cream yet. Particularly Edy's Grand Light. Maybe if I melted it so that the cold wasn't numbing my taste buds...)
Posts: 149 | Location: Chicago | Registered: January 24, 2005
Yeah, I've had to stop bringing the Edy's Light into the house, too. There has to be a good way to deal with this stuff. With regular food, you can bulk it out with greens so you're eating longer; that's just not an option with ice cream and the 1/2 cup serving just looks so tiny!
...Wait, I may have just had an idea. Is this an ice cream flavor that would do well on top of some sort of chopped (and possibly pan-frizzled or nuked) fruit? Because it just occurred to me that KD's nuked apples-and-rhubarb would be a DIVINE way to bulk out vanilla ice cream.
Posts: 149 | Location: Chicago | Registered: January 24, 2005
Here's an interesting thought also to ponder along with all the great advice everyone has added here.
A few nights ago my husband and I watched a "new" commercial (one we'd never seen). It was some sort of snack food "cool ranch flavor" thingy. It was a group of taste testors. First they are given the snack and asked "What do you taste". They responded with the ranch flavor thing. They are given subsequent foods to test and each time respond they taste the ranch flavor. Even with brownies! Of course this is "pretend" but their point was that the flavor "stays with you". But I turned to my husband and said....they want it to stay with you so that you will want MORE or the flavor becomes desensitized on your tongue and you have to eat more to get the flavor you crave.
So ... perhaps over time your body desensitizes itself with your dessert fix of choice and in order to get it's "fix" it requires more to get the "fix". Does that make sense? Perhaps having a routine of 3 or 4 different choices would alleviate that issue? But that could also be "dangerous".
It made me ANGRY when I realized that these flavors which are created for snack foods are not just to taste good, but to make us want to eat more and more...at one sitting so that we buy more and more of their product. What a crazy racket!!!
I have a girlfriend who is skinny. Very skinny. She used to be quite plump in undergrad, but she slimmed down dramatically. I thought her transformation was pure magic, not a product of hard work, until I went to her with a portion issue just like yours. I will give you the same advice that she gave to me. I hope it helps. If your body wants and extra half cup of ice cream, eat it. Whatever you do, do not deprive yourself or feel guilty over 1/2 cup of anything. But if you eat that extra half a cup, you have created a responsiblity. You are now responsible for extra exercise. That extra half and hour sweating away at the gym might be worth it to you. If not, I guarantee that you will think again before eating that extra half cup. Smiles. I have been reading your postings. You are an inspiration.
I think it's very possible that it's stress. I'm not sure how long you've been a stay-at-home mom, Brie, but this is a really exciting but certainly at least a little scary time for you going out into the working world again. Not only that, but you're not going back to your previous area of expertise (at least as far as I know) but stretching out into a new area. This, added to your current family stress, could certainly be the cause.
That said, sometimes I think a particular snack just ends up being a danger zone. When I first started eating healthy, I found this stuff at Whole Foods and Trader Joe's that I dubbed "crunchy corn," a salty roasted corn snack. I was awesome at portioning out a serving and savoring it kernel by kernel but, as time went by, I started to expand my servings. A red flag went up and I had to stop bringing it into the house. I haven't bought a bag of crunchy corn in maybe close to a year.
Posts: 7313 | Location: Rehoboth Beach, DE | Registered: March 12, 2004
I sometimes have trouble with stuff like that because I "rebel" against rules, even ones I set for myself. So I have to prove that I "can" have more than whatever amount I have set as the serving. Very complicated stuff. I bought some of those 100-calorie packs (junk food, yes, but low-calorie junk food) but one day when I was feeling stressed, I ate 3 of them. I never have trouble with my portion sizes of, say, asparagus, so I know it's an issue of "good" vs. "bad" foods.
I wish I could say I knew what the solution to this is but I don't.
----------- Jen
Posts: 2868 | Location: Ohio | Registered: March 11, 2004
I have been stressed out this week (my parents and bro/sil are at war and things escallated this week and I'm desperately trying to stay out of the middle of things). Throw in a preschooler majorily asserting her independence and the new work stuff - it definitely could be stress!
I'm not gaining weight which is good but clearly if my body is requiring more fuel, ice cream should not be the choice.
Just going public about it really helps to keep the issue in the forefront and I have a feeling it will be OK until the rest of the container is gone!
P.S. I've also recently upped my weights again and I know that my appetite increase with that too but I've been doing more fruits, veggies and hummus, peanut butter, etc...(stuff with actual nutrition) ; )
P.S.S. Thank you!
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.
It could be stress, or the change of season thing could be it too. I have noticed myself that I have been eating a lot more sweets recently. I vaguely remember several posts about this about this time last year.
I also know I'm under a lot of stress with my whole job situation though.
Dawn
"Success is not the result of spontaneous combustion. You have to set yourself on fire." anonymous
Posts: 4319 | Location: Indianapolis, IN | Registered: March 15, 2004
Bee, you have been doing so great. Could it be the stress of beginning your new profession (a little bit)? Honey, I know this may not be of much comfort to you right now, but you ARE NORMAL.
Actually, your body may be asking you for this. If you haven't been gaining, having mood swings or loss of energy, I would just consider it a message from my body but still keep an "eye" on things.
You are such an inspiration to us all!! Hugs, Hugs and I know that you will figure out what is going on with your body but I do think that it is VERY normal for your body to want more food at times.
You may be on to something Linda. I've read a fair amount on seasonal eating and there is research out there that says that humans are prewired to eat more in the winter months (goes back to the caveman days when food was more scarce and it was evolutionarily beneficial to eat more when you were able to).
I don't know if that's the case with me or not. Wish I could remember the time of year when I started getting into trouble with those mini baking chocolates.
In any case, it's clear that Edy's has become a "can't have in the house" food for me (at least for the time being).
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.
Do you think it might have anything to do with the ending of winter? Or actually the fact that it doesn't seem to be ending?
I have noticed in myself, recently, a yearning for some comfort foods - like Chicken Pot Pie - cold and winter foods. I'm sure if it were June, I wouldn't be feeling this way. Part of this is tandem with feelings that I'm colder right now than I have been all winter.
