Stress Eating & Unbearable Cravings
It’s common to respond to stress by distracting yourself with your favorite comfort foods. Here are some ideas for healthier ways to cope when you’re under pressure:
1. Do a preemptive strike on unhealthy eating. Keep unacceptable foods out of the house. If you know a particular food will be irresistible to you when you’re stressed, make sure it is not within your grasp.
2. Keep your hands busy. Find something else to do with your hands besides eat. Keep the daily crossword handy, turn your attention to minor chores, surf the internet, or distract yourself by picking up the phone and calling your friends or family.
3. Reach for healthy snacks. If you have to eat, make sure that any foods you reach for will be healthy ones. Try crunchy vegetables like celery sticks, green-pepper strips, cauliflower buds, and broccoli florets. If you don’t want them plain, dip them in hummus or an eggplant dip. Prepare these snacks ahead of time, and keep them in front of your refrigerator.
4. Avoidance! If you find it hard to stop eating something once you’ve started, your best bet may be to avoid the food completely. Once you give in, it’s all too easy to overeat without thinking about it. Take it from me, the ultimate Peanut Butter Abuser!
It is not easy to resist cravings yet also to respond to hunger. Sometimes, it’s not always easy to tell which is which.
Here are guidelines for telling the difference:
Hunger is the feeling you get when your blood sugar gradually drops; about four or five hours after a meal. It’s your body’s way of telling you that you’re past due for your next feeding. Cravings, on the other hand, happen within a couple of hours after a meal. They occur as a result of reactive hypoglycemia; when your brain realizes your blood sugar is too-low and your body starts to crave foods that will give it a fast fix-usually a High-Glycemic carbohydrate. See aim4nutrition.com/glycemicindex.html
Reactive hypoglycemia is a vicious cycle. Once you eat a High-Glycemic carb to cure your cravings, you’ve set yourself up for another spike and subsequent quick drop in blood sugar-which will, in turn, make you crave more carbs. Because it may not always be possible to determine whether you are experiencing cravings or real hunger, it’s best to eat consistent, regular meals and healthy snacks throughout the day. If you don’t give your body the chance to be hungry, you won’t be at risk of having cravings.
One thing to look out for; sugar, fat and salt can be addictive. The foods we crave usually have plenty of these ingredients. Sweet foods have almost as much salt and fat as potato chips. Salty foods such as crackers and spreads have fat and added sugar. The more you eat sugar, the more your body can tolerate it, so your body starts craving it more often to feel satisfied.
The first step to control cravings is to take unnecessary salt and sugar out of your diet. READ the ingredients list and choose simpler foods with much less salt and sugar.
Satisfy cravings with the most nutritious version of the foods you like. If you crave chocolate, pick dark chocolate. It is rich in magnesium, fiber, antioxidants and, compared to milk chocolate, it is a bit lower in sugar, fat and calories. The fat is dark chocolate does not raise cholesterol or harm blood vessels the way milk chocolate can. Have a small portion of 1.5 ounces.
Hunger is intensified too much by variety. Limit meals & snacks to one kind of food at any given time of day and you’ll fill up faster on few calories. Uniform eating will help you be more successful at losing fat and will make it easy for you to food shop.
Don’t starve yourself. It will eventually backfire and lead you to binge. If you are hungry, then eat. Just choose healthy foods like fruits, vegetables, lean protein and whole grains
My fat loss and fitness plan "Every Body Loses" will give you the tools you need to begin a healthy fat loss program. The style of eating and exercising outlined in my book is one that you can follow for life without feeling deprived. If you’re serious about losing fat and getting fit go to aim4nutrition.com and get started TODAY!
Aimee Deak
Personal Trainer & Nutrition Analyst
AIM 4 NUTRITION
aim4nutrition.com
Aimee Deak is a certified personal trainer, nutrition analyst and author of the book, “Every Body Loses”, an easy-to follow, step-by-step guide to fat loss.
You can find more information about fat loss and exercise on her website aim4nutrition.com
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Fit or Fat?!
"Hey, you have reduced now, compared to the last time I saw you!”
These are golden words for a woman who is fat. This woman would not even have lost an ounce but this one makes her feel good. She decides to lose weight. The heavy dinner gives her a good sleep and next day she is back to her old self hogging all kinds of food and being her lazy self!
Just tell a fat man or woman "You look fat" and you are a goner. No fat man or woman would like to use the word “fat”. It is either “obese” or “stout” or “on the fatter side and if on diet I will reduce”. There is an aversion to the word "fat". Be it either man or woman, both sexes have become conscious of putting on weight but the basic problem in reducing weight lies in the rigid rules, which they would not follow even for a dime.
Being fat often is the subject of mockery. The fatties are forced to smile and put up with jokes on themselves and they are asked to be sportive when they become the subject of “mockery”. The comedians in films often are huge persons who love to be laughed upon! It is a cultural demand that they be smiling while others mock at them!
The worst is about other people who feel they have the right to advice these poor things! ” Be on fruits and vegetable diet for a month and see a remarkable change in you!! ” they say. It is easier to advice others. This advice would be told on the table while these advisers hog all the food kept around them. “Try jogging” is the next. “Wait man, you become fat and you jog on the roads while people let out some cynical grins” The fatso thinks with gritted teeth!
The fatso goes home and thinks again. Self-control is the best method and there should be some road to it. With self-pity and depression he curses himself, “I am a walking environmental hazard!” But what action is taken? Nothing!
Determination and self-control is what is needed to lose weight and prevent health hazards because irregular food timing has become a must for the younger generation who has to spend 90% of their days at workplaces. Are they aware that this no-breakfast, quick-lunch and having a big meal at night is affecting their health adversely?
All we need is a half an hour to one hour walk and get your nose and mouth and hands off from these deep-fried and fatty foods and we will fare better!
HPriya Sivan
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