Cravings

[chowchows 100]

I'm gonna admit, August has been a rough month for me. I was wondering how others deal with cravings? I was always an emotional eater before, and I feel that I am backsliding and I'm not sure how to deal with it. For a couple of months I had no cravings, but I've had them really strongly and been very bad lately. Sigh. Still losing, but not very much this month.

[mednar 26]

The last week has been tough for me as well. I hit my lowest weight last Monday, and since then, all I've wanted to do was eat carbs and I've been craving soda like nobody's business. I've been less diligent about exercising each day, and I've not been consistently tracking my food intake. I've gained a couple of pounds back .

As a teacher, having the summer off to focus on eating right and exercising was great, but I've returned to work now. It's harder to make the effort to prepare food at home, especially during the evenings when I'm tempted to pick up something bad from a restaurant.

I didn't have cravings much either until recently. I think it started when I at a BBQ join with family and there was grilled Texas toast served with the meal. I should have given it to someone immediately. I ended up eating the whole thing.

As far as controlling the cravings, I think I just need to eliminate what little temptation I have around and resist the urge to stop at the drive through on the way home. I think I probably need to have two or three meal prep nights a week at home so I have Protein ready to eat. I'm bad about being hungry and only having frozen Protein. The idea of waiting for chicken to thaw when I'm hungry often leads to a bad decision for me. That seems to trigger the junk food cravings, especially since I have a handful of fast food places within minutes of my home.

I also need to enter my food intake soon after each meal. If I do that, I do a much better job of making decisions because the calories, protein, carbs, etc are right there and I can adjust my next meal based on what I have left for the day.

I was doing well, but then started letting little things go, which snowballed into a bigger problem. I think there are just going to be times when this is harder than others. We can't beat ourselves up when we make bad choices, but we also have to remember that we made a significant (and expensive) decision to change our lives. The only thing we can do is move on and refocus on why we had the plication to begin with.

I think part of my frustration is that I also feel like this should be happening faster and that it should somehow be easier. The reality that this is a longer term goal and doesn't work exactly like I want it to is also settling in with me now. I'm not entirely happy that it's not happening on my terms. I acknowledged that going into this, but living it day-to-day, meal-to-meal, requires real mental work and dedication. Changing mental habits has to be the hardest thing I've ever tried to do. Even when you think you're doing well, the old issues I've had resurface easily for me at this point.

Remind yourself of the weight you've already lost. You've stuck with this through the stalls you wrote about before. Keep at it. You've been frustrated before and moved through it.

I hope something there is of help. I wrote most of it to talk through my own issues, as well as reply. All the best.

[mednar 26]

In my babbling, I forgot to ask if there are certain foods that set off those cravings? Is there something that you like that you could substitute for those that align more with the eating requirements that you know work for you?

[chowchows 100]

In my babbling, I forgot to ask if there are certain foods that set off those cravings? Is there something that you like that you could substitute for those that align more with the eating requirements that you know work for you?

Mednar,

What you said does make sense. I think I am a month or two ahead of you in terms of post surgery time, so I know that you had seen some of my not so positive posts about the time you had surgery...you summed it up when you said "I think part of my frustration is that I also feel like this should be happening faster and that it should somehow be easier. The reality that this is a longer term goal and doesn't work exactly like I want it to is also settling in with me now. I'm not entirely happy that it's not happening on my terms". I think that explained a lot how I felt in some of my previous posts.

Right now I have to say that this is more my doing that anything...I have gotten away from watching my carbs as much, and I have a horrible sweet tooth. If not for that, I think I would be doing fine. Otherwise I am keeping my Protein and Water up, getting in more exercise than I was even a month ago, and my restriction is definitely there. I am just craving sweet things so much that I am blowing the calorie intake out of the Water. Again, I am still SLOWLY losing, but I know I could be doing much better. Any advice on satisfying the sweet tooth monster? Thanks for all your other advice, it does ring true.

Thanks,

CC

[mednar 26]

I don't crave sweets much. My problem is generally salty/crunchy/fatty foods. I haven't made any of the high protein/low carb ice creams, donuts or cakes on the world according to eggface, but the pictures sure do look like something that would satisfy a craving for something sweet. I know I posted about her before, but apparently people love this stuff.

http://theworldaccordingtoeggface.blogspot.com/2010/02/protein-ice-cream-101.html

I often mix splenda in with greek yogurt and some fresh fruit if I want something sweet, which is generally Breakfast for me. I've tried it with some of the sugar free jam you can buy too. Both those are pretty good.

[FatToPhat 83]

If you're a sweet craver, they say that after you've restricted your carbs quite a bit for a few days those cravings go away. I wouldn't know, as I could never get more than a day or 2 on really restricted carbs!

[chowchows 100]

Really restricting my carbs makes me MEAN! I don't know if my hubby could stand me if I restricted my carbs severely. I had no real cravings for a couple of months after surgery, but now they have come back in full force. I am just going to have to figure out what satisfies my head, without blowing my calorie intake. I like fruit, and it does satisfy my sweet tooth, but so far it doesn't seem to like me post-surgery.