Wednesday, September 3, 2008

How to Kill your Appetite

Sweets. Sweets kill your appetite. There might be other foods that can kill an appetite, but for me it's sweets, in fact that's one of the things I like about sweets.

If I liked to eat a cookie here, a piece of candy there, I could easily fit sweets into my daily menu, from a caloric standpoint, but my sweet tooth has no "shut off sensor", once I get started I have a hard time stopping. I can consume 1200-1800 calorie dense sweets in no time flat. Considering that 1 cup of premium ice cream has 500-600 calories, although I've never been to a place like Cold Stone Creamery, can you imagine a big waffle cone (300 cal), at least 1 c. ice cream (500 cal), and nuts, sprinkles, & whipped cream (300 cal), that can total 1100 calories, and that's not a meal, that's after a lunch or dinner. But if you ate it first, guaranteed, you would not even want dinner, that's why desserts are after meals! I like not being hungry, really I do, it's such a relief (and probably why I loved appetite killing diet pills in the 80's, remember Dexatrim? I do, lol!).

In the past few weeks, it's been interesting how the choices I've been making have changed. Easily 5 days out of 7, in a weeks time, I feel like bingeing on sweets, and until recently, the past few weeks, my logical brain has taken over (thank goodness) and I'm able to weigh the pros and cons in a less anxious way. Here's what I think:

If I start to eat sweets I know I will not "be happy" until I get my fill. And "my fill" is way more full than the average person. It is not a serving of cookies or cake, it's an entire bag of cookies, or 1/2 cake, and then I would have to throw the rest out to keep myself from eating the rest later. And that's no joke. This I know. So, I don't try and fool myself into thinking I can eat just one cookie, or just 2 pieces of candy, that would just not make me happy.

I remind myself of all the good foods waiting for me at home (usually I have these feelings away from home, in fact, now that I think about it, almost always when I'm away from home), and I have more good quality nutritious foods, ready made, or practically ready made in my fridge or freezer everyday, always! And, if I kill my appetite with sweets I won't feel like eating any of the good foods I already own, and have waiting for me.

If I ate the amount of sweets I needed to feel satisfied, I would far exceed my daily calories within 20-45 min., and although it would kill my appetite for the rest of the day, or most of the rest of the day, it also robs my body of the nutrients of the good fresh foods it needs and wants to be healthy and strong. I define strong here, as the strength my body needs to resist disease. Sugar never protects me from disease, in fact it causes disease.

Being able to calmly weigh the pros and cons doesn't mean I don't give into the cons, in fact yesterday I let the candy studded trail mix, in the bulk section of Whole Foods, get me and that's what prompted this blog post! I chose candy, nuts, and raisins, over a whole days worth of good foods, AND I had to go to 4:30pm yoga feeling like super crap. But not today, and not the day after, or the day after that.....that I know. This weekend, next week, I don't take anything for granted, except that I do my best all the time, like we all do.

2 comments:

Fallen Angel said...

I've recently made the choice to only drink water or ice tea, no more sodas. At all. They always make me feel like crap, I don't know why I ever drink them. Convenience and thirst I guess. I also am making healthier choices, no fast food, unless its a salad or something, not eating past a certain time, and eating less. Just basically eating smarter and planning what I eat. I now need to incorporate exercise into my life. Make it a "habit". I have lost 6 pounds since last week though. I wish the rapid loss continued, but I know it will slow down. But I am determined this time. Thanks for your post. I agree totally. It helps me to be reminded of it.

Tracy Reifkind said...

Barb,

Soda also makes you more thirsty, they don't quench your thirst! People drink sodas because soda is a cupful of sugar....sugar is a drug....sodas are "a fix", sodas can be an addiction.

I'll eat my sugar, thanks!

6 pounds in a first week is not unusual, and although it will slow down, pound by pound you'll feel better.