12 Tricks for Getting Your Cravings Under Control

12 Tricks for Getting Your Cravings Under Control

Low Carb Styles Special Event Diet

Homemade Strawberry Ice Cream

If you hang around low carb circles for more than a couple of days, you’re sure to hear the low carb mantra that says restricting carbohydrates controls cravings. The perspective is that low calorie diets make you hungry and low carb diets do not, but how true is that? Does everyone who follows a low carb diet experience relief from their cravings and excessive hunger? If they did, there wouldn’t be tons of people joining low carb groups and forums saying, “Hi guys…I’m back!”

All of us, short or tall, thin or fat, are hard-wired as infants to seek after pleasure and avoid discomfort at all costs. That’s practically the first rule we create for ourselves. By the time we reach adulthood, seeking comfort and alleviating pain is so deeply ingrained into our subconscious minds, that the steps we take to do that have become an automatic response.

When it comes to diets, all diet programs introduce us to restriction and change. That produces cravings and a strong physical or psychological need to feel pleasure. There’s nothing magical about low carb diets. They can help to control cravings for some people because protein deficiencies, nutritional imbalances and food sensitivities are corrected, but that doesn’t happen for everyone. Learning to spot, analyze and overcome cravings is essential if we want to reach our weight loss goals. Here are 12 tricks for getting your cravings under control:

1. Becoming aware of the craving is always the first step towards solving the problem. If we pretend that the problem doesn’t exist, if we don’t accept and admit that we have a problem, we cannot begin to take the essential steps required to overcome it. Observe yourself for several days to see what you are doing. Don’t self-judge, just watch how you unconsciously strive to feel pleasure and avoid discomfort.

2. Once you admit you have a problem, you are ready to begin discovering what is actually triggering the issue. Many triggers and emotional states cause us to overeat. So the first step after acceptance is to take a good look at your emotional state. Notice how uncomfortable you feel when craving something off plan. In addition, take note of your overall emotional state as well. Are you tired, stressed or frustrated? Emotional triggers can be people, events, the environment or even past memories of a happier time. They do not have to be specific foods.

3. When following a low carb diet, many people like to blame carbohydrates for making them overeat. That tendency to relieve ourselves of the responsibility for submitting to our cravings hinders us from finding constructive ways of dealing with the problem. Although placing blame is another automatic response that comes from our childhood conditioning, we need to stop doing that if we want to find ways to turn low carb dieting into a lifestyle.

4. Once we admit we have a problem, observe our emotional state, and stop blaming carbohydrates, we are ready to seek constructive ways of overcoming our cravings. One of the easiest ways to do that is to start a food journal. Record what you eat, when you eat it, how you feel at the time, and what’s going on around you. The idea is to look for strong repetitive patterns, so give yourself a good month before trying to analyze what you’re doing. The goal is to understand yourself. To know yourself, you must learn how you eat, what you eat, when you eat, and how much.

5. A food journal is a good way to spot trigger foods, events, people, and emotional conditions. Once you learn what is triggering your overeating episodes or binges, you can take logical steps to avoid those problems. For example, one of my trigger foods is mixed nuts. If they are in the house, I will eat them. I can tell myself that I am going to measure them out and stick with just that amount, but within a couple of days, I return to my programmed behavior. If I’m in weight loss mode, I can’t have them in the house. Another way of solving that problem is to just buy a 2oz individual bag when my husband and I travel up North. That turns them into a special treat that I can only have at specific intervals. That way, I don’t completely deprive myself of them, but rationally work them into my plan.

6. Cut down on food stimuli. Thinking about food, seeing it on television or on the web, and searching through recipes all activate the right frontal cortex of the brain that controls motivation and pleasure. Advertizing, snack machines, cooking shows and web videos, Facebook pages, and store displays all bombard our brains with food stimuli. Once those thoughts get into our head, it’s very difficult to get rid of them. They will make us begin to crave the possible pleasure they can bring.

7. Take a good look at the amount of stress you have in your life. Stress affects the hypothalamus. When we are under stress, the body feels threatened, so the hypothalamus signals the adrenals to release stress hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline to help us deal with the issue. When we don’t burn that excess energy physically because the threat was mental or emotional rather than physical, the brain has to find some type of adaption to rebalance the body. Many times, it does that by initiating cravings because eating brings comfort and comfort releases the stress. To combat the problem, we need to find pleasurable ways to comfort ourselves other than food.

8. Watch for food sensitivities. Cravings increase when we eat foods we are sensitive to because they bind themselves to our pleasure centers in the brain. Giving up our favorite foods isn’t easy, but it can be done if you find foods and activities to replace them with. Don’t just cut out cheese or corn derivatives or gluten without seeking ways to replace the pleasure they provide.

9. Observe how you talk to yourself. Often, feelings of deprivation come from the things we say about ourselves. When we use language such as “I can’t have a piece of cake like everyone else is having because I’m on a diet,” we set ourselves up to fail. We have branded what we can’t have as bad and tried to tell ourselves that low carb foods are good. If we hate, or even mildly dislike, vegetables we are doomed. Our inner critique is not on our side. He or she is on the side of pleasure. If we don’t honestly find pleasure in eating meat and vegetables, then our discomfort will eventually win the war. Try restructuring how you talk to yourself into something positive. Instead of telling yourself you can’t have something, tell yourself what type of pleasure you will give yourself instead – and then make sure you follow through.

10. If you have eaten enough, but find yourself craving more, try focusing on something other than food to distract yourself. Take a walk, do the dishes, take a shower or perform some other physical activity that requires mental concentration. When we keep ourselves physically active and busy, we are less hungry throughout the day.

11. Make sure you are drinking enough water. We can easily get the signals for hunger and thirst mixed up. Always go and drink a glass of water first whenever hunger strikes. Give yourself a good ten to twenty minutes, and then if you are still hungry, eat something you particularly like. Don’t try to control a craving with food or activities that are just so-so. Always remember that cravings are because the body and mind are seeking after pleasure. Give it to them.

12. Many times when we set ourselves up with a diet that we think we are going to follow for the rest of our lives, we don’t fill it with things that give us pleasure. The low calorie, low fat mindset is a deprivation mindset, and a deprivation mindset will always be temporary. Always. So if you want to succeed on a low carb diet, fill it with foods, recipes, nonfoods, and activities that you enjoy. If you are enjoying your meals because they are filled with foods you love, if you are enjoying your day because it is filled with activities you love, you will be less tempted to seek for pleasures elsewhere.

We seek after pleasure and do everything in our power to avoid discomfort. That is what we, as mortals, do automatically every single day. It doesn’t matter if we are following a low carb diet, a low calorie diet, or eating at a maintenance level of calories, that tendency still controls what we think, do, and eat. While we cannot short circuit that tendency, we can use it to our advantage. Cravings are a signal that we are somehow feeling deprived. When we feed those cravings in a healthy way, they will disappear.


If you need even more ideas for handling night time cravings, check out JoshKnowsBest's article at Infobarrel: Weight Loss Tips: Late Night Cravings. I particularly liked his idea about eating a 300-calorie diet meal to keep yourself on track.

Do Low Carb Diets Work?

Do Low Carb Diets Work?

Questions??

It never fails. When January rolls around, and sometimes the week just prior, the low-carb boards and egroups fill up with folks who are returning to the low-carb lifestyle. Why? Because – despite their good intensions and strong determination to eat the low-carb way for the rest of their life, something caused the pounds to creep back on.

Sometimes, the detour was deliberate, but most of the time, something in themselves or their life caused them to lose sight of their goals.

Let’s face it: Eating low carb is not easy! Eating low carb is hard! It’s a radical switch from the way most people eat. It’s an almost primitive, backwards style from what health-conscious medical doctors and nutritionists recommend. It’s loaded with protein and fat, ignores the pleas from professionals and government agencies to eat lots of whole grains, and forbids almost all types of low-calorie fruits when you’re still in weight-loss mode. In fact, to most folks, it’s almost sacrilegious.

Those who enter into the low-carb world are deeply motivated to lose weight. They have to be to put up with all of the crap we put up with. Yet, all of those I-told-you-so taunts are not enough to keep us from putting the weight back on. “See, I told you: Low carb is not sustainable.” “A low-carb diet is dangerous.” “A low-carb way of life is boring.” Well, perhaps they got that one right – if your diet is as limited as mine is.

Here it is, almost January again. New Years’ resolutions bring us back for another low-carb diet round. Another year; another try to reach our goal weight.

In some ways, I can relate to the problem. Each time my body decides to start reacting to something new, I pack on a few more pounds. So my weight has slowly crept upwards from the 150 pounds I weighed when a low-carb diet stopped working for me, but that isn’t low carb’s fault. It’s mine. If I had listened Dr. Atkins’ Diet Revolution in the mid '70s and used Dr. Atkins’ advice to maintain that weight, I wouldn’t be where I am today.

But it’s hard for first-timers to believe that.

There’s a lot of opinion going around concerning the One Golden Shot Theory. Most low carbers don’t want to believe it. They can’t. It would destroy their hope, and hope is essential if we’re going to one day find and cross the finish line. However, I think it’s good to talk about it, rather than denying it exists, because people who are new to low carb really need to understand the risk they are taking if they jump ship.

A low-carb diet works. It works exceptionally well for those who have never low carbed before. I watched an uncle of mine go from severely obese to normal weight the first time around, and he is able to easily maintain it today by eating within reason. I, myself, lost all of my excess weight (about 40 pounds) back in the '70s within 2 months on the original Atkins diet – but I didn’t understand how important learning to maintain my weight was.

That doesn’t mean that if this is your second or third attempt you won’t do okay. You most likely will. It will come off slower, since your body already knows how many ketones to make, but it will still come off – provided your fat metabolism is in good working condition. A low-carb diet works for most people. It works particularly well if you’re willing and able to curb your fat and calorie intake to whatever is necessary to make it work.

And that seems to be the bottom line.    

Unless you have particular health issues and biological problems that interfere with the science behind it, a low carb diet works if you want it to work. It works if you do whatever is necessary to make your weight loss goals happen.

Are Genetically Modified Foods Affecting Your Low Carb Diet Plan?

Are Genetically Modified Foods Affecting Your Low Carb Diet Plan?

Questions??

Are you following a low carb diet plan, yet find yourself hungry, tired and feeling sick? Has your weight loss stalled? Thanks to the prevalence of genetically modified foods in the U.S., your low carb meals might not be as grain free as you think.

Most Cheeses Contain GMO Corn and Rennet 

Many low-carb followers, especially those who do their own research, understand the effect that various sugars can have on the body when their metabolism no longer functions properly. In fact, most low carb diet plans, such as the Atkins diet or the Protein Power Lifeplan, place insulin resistance and other metabolic issues at the heart of the obesity epidemic.

Excessive dietary carbohydrates keep insulin levels too high for too long, which prevents fat mobilization for energy. Lower your carbohydrate intake and your insulin level drops quickly, keeping the doors to your fat stores open, so your body can use its stored body fat as needed. That’s basic low-carb philosophy.

Today, however, we have a new kid on the block that’s causing havoc: genetically modified organisms -- also known as GMOs. Unlike the results of traditional crossbreeding techniques such as the gluten molecule, genetic manipulation involves inserting or deleting genes in a lab. Generally, genes are transferred from one organism to another.

Since the resulting plant, fruit, vegetable, grain and nutritional value are said to be essentially the same as the original, manufacturers in the U.S. are not required to tell you when these altered foods are in the products you buy. GMOs are not a secret though; most people know they exist. Seeds have been altered for decades that allow farmers to use quite a bit more herbicide on their crops than they could safely use before. Safely for the plant, that is.

This is how much I knew about genetically engineered foods, until recently. As many of you know, I’ve been researching the role that various health issues and food sensitivities play when following a low carb diet long term: 

• I have been studying how and why a low carb diet works.
• I’ve read every book that Dr. Atkins has ever published, including the book he wrote for the non-dieting general population.
• I’ve read every book that Dr. Eades has ever published.
• I've read almost all of Lyle McDonald's books.
• I’ve read Dr. Atkins’ public interviews.
• I’ve read all of Dr. Eades’ blog posts.
• I've read everything on Lyle McDonald's website as well as his two forums.
• I’ve read everything I could get my hands on concerning insulin resistance, diabetes, celiac disease, allergies, dairy sensitivity, and elimination diets.
• I have bounced many of my ideas and theories off of a friend who has a Ph.D. in biochemistry.
• I’ve spoken to various medical doctors and other medical professionals.

Why? Because I got stuck about halfway to my goal weight, and I wanted to know why! The success I have had so far was only brought about by a very low-calorie, very low-fat, low carb diet (rather than a typical high-fat, low carb one), and I wanted to know why that was necessary. I wanted to know why a low carb diet doesn’t quench my appetite, as promised. I wanted to know why I gain weight, the fewer carbs I eat. I wanted to know why a standard Atkins Induction sends my blood glucose levels into dangerous territory.

In my search for health, I’ve dumped gluten, dairy, and beef -- all of which, I’ve spoken about here on this blog -- in hopes of being able to help someone else who might be going through what I am. (I do cheat with the beef sometimes, but I itch like crazy whenever I do.) Recently, I talked about my beef sensitivity, my nightmare of a trip to Colorado, and having to live on Fritos and diet Coke for three days while there. The sad thing about that trip is that as soon as I got home, within only a day or two, I started reacting to “something,” but I didn’t know what.

At the time, I blamed it on a new brand of gluten-free pasta I had eaten, but that was only partially correct. I did react to the pasta, but not for the reason I thought. I didn’t react because it was not gluten free. I reacted, because it was made with GMO corn -- the same as Fritos. My guess is that having to live on those Fritos flooded my body with so much GMO corn that it tagged the corn as an enemy. It now only takes a fraction for my immune system to attack it in the same way it attacks gluten and dairy.

Okay…so just go back onto a lower carb diet, since the lower levels of the Atkins ladder doesn’t include corn, and then everything will be fine, right? Not exactly. That’s what I thought -- until I did a little bit of investigation. Did you know that: 

• When “natural flavor,” “natural flavorings,” “citric acid,” “lactic acid,” “alcohol,” “enzymes,” “amino-acids,” and other additives are listed on the label, they generally come from GMO corn.
• Enriched products can be enriched with GMO corn-based vitamins.
• Almost all sugar substitutes are derived from corn sugars. Maltodextrin is also a GMO corn.
• Many stores and manufacturers dust the plastic that meat is wrapped in with GMO cornstarch to keep the meat from sticking.
• Many stores and manufacturers place a lactic-acid or citric-acid-soaked pad underneath the meat.
• The foam trays that meats and poultry come in are generally made from corn.
• Poultry and other meats can be dipped in a corn-containing wash prior to packaging?
• Poultry and other frozen meats can be injected with a corn-containing solution?
• Fruits and vegetables are often gassed or sprayed with a corn-containing wax that doesn’t wash off.
• GMO feed passes into the cow’s milk contaminating typical low carb foods.
• Cheese is generally made with a GMO rennet.

That is just the tip of the low carb problem. There’s GMO corn in our pharmaceuticals and vaccines too. And that’s just corn. Add in the soybeans, the Canola oil, the individual modified ingredients like xanthan gum and you’re left with very little real low carb food. In fact, about 90 percent of the corn, soybeans, cotton, and sugar beets in this country come from genetically modified organisms. That means that most low carb diets are not as healthy as we think.

For me, I've found that genetically modified foods seriously affect not only my metabolism, but my blood glucose levels as well. By removing GMO corn and corn derivatives from my maintenance diet, my high pre-diabetic blood glucose levels have now returned to absolutely normal. Even with an occasional high-carb real cane sugar treat, I have yet to see my blood sugar go higher than 124. While I continue to eat a lower carb maintenance diet, I have high hopes that eliminating all GMOs, not just corn, might be the solution that finally gets an Atkins-type diet to work for me. Only time will tell.

One Way to Handle Holiday Temptation: Help an Autistic Child Instead!

One Way to Handle Holiday Temptation: Help an Autistic Child Instead!

Special Event Diet

With the holidays right around the corner, low carb folks will soon be talking about how to handle holiday temptation. The solution varies, depending on whom you talk too. Right now, we’re starting into the curve known as Halloween; that means candy, candied applies, donuts, spiced apple cider, and other holiday goodies.

Some of them can be given a low carb twist, sure, but let’s be honest: with all of the genetically-modified corn and soy running around these days, the high volume of wheat protein in low carb products, the dairy, and the high glycemic sugar alcohols in sugar free candies – diet twists aren’t necessarily more healthy than the high carb foods they’ve been designed to replace. Low carb junk, and low carb frankenfoods in particular, are still junk!

Now, if we’re serious about making low carb eating a lifestyle, we can’t cave into the coming holidays without getting lost in one holiday after another, one party after another, one excuse after another – or we’ll find ourselves, come January, a little bit heavier at best. And at worst? Back to where we were when we first started low carb dieting. Course, giving in to a treat or two won’t make you fat; but, I’m not talking about controlled, flexible dieting such as that described and recommended by common-sense folks like Lyle McDonald.

No…I’m talking about individuals who find their cravings ignite with a single cheat. One piece of Halloween candy, a little hard apple cider, a couple of bites of a sugary hot-and-cinnamon-y red candied apple, and they wake up the next morning face-down into the white-flour pancakes swimming in imitation maple syrup.

Okay, maybe you’re trying to control yourself with a stack of low carb pancakes and diet maple syrup, but still…most folks struggle to apply the brakes for days afterwards, if they allow themselves a free holiday meal or dessert.

I haven’t been as devoted to my Facebook account lately as I should be; partly because my health has been downright crappy this past year, and partly because I’ve been spending hours upon hours researching the medical possibilities. But I happened to be on there the other day, and noticed that David Berkowitz, president and founder of Autism Advocacy and Technology News Zone Inc., had posted to my wall. (I’m talking about my personal Facebook account, not my author’s page.)   

I first met David on Twitter where he asked me if I ever wrote articles about autism companies, explaining what they were currently trying to do. So, I checked out his website, did a little bit of research on him, and he gave me an interview. The result was two articles for Suite 101:

• Give Your Old Tablet PC to Tech News and Help an Autistic Child
• iPads for Kids with Autism: Tech News Zones Wants to Help

They explain in detail who David is (an Aspie dad trying to raise three aspie sons), and what he’s trying to do with his recently formed company (get iPads and other forms of technology, music, and the arts into the hands of autistic kids whose parents can’t afford them). However, despite his good intentions and hundreds of hours of devotion and time put into trying to get his company into the air, he’s bucking a lot of wind.

As he said to me on my Facebook wall, he’s holding a Rubios fundraiser at all three of the Rubios in the Las Vegas – Henderson area on 10/21/2011. Those who live in that area, or plan to be in that area on the 21^st of this month, can help support autism’s cause by downloading the pdf version of a fundraising flyer on his website, and then go to one of the three Rubios on the 21^st to help support the cause.

For those who don’t live in the Vegas/Henderson area, they can easily make a donation through David’s website, Technewszone. Only, according to the post David made to my Facebook account, NO ONE has donated anything yet. So I was thinking… (yeah, I know that can be dangerous, but…)

Maybe, instead of cheating on our low-carb diet this holiday season, we can donate the money we would otherwise spend on illegal goodies (or even a portion of the legal ones) to help non-verbal autistic children get the iPads they need to learn how to communicate. It’s a fallacy that because many children with autism can’t talk, that it means they don’t know what’s going on. They do.

Autism is a brain malfunction that often leads to developmental delay and sensory issues, but these kids still have ears that work just fine. When given the opportunity to learn how to communicate through visual means like iPads, computers, picture cards, and sign language they can make dramatic, significant headway.

So think about it. We spend tons of money on the holidays. We decorate the house with holiday décor. We buy Halloween costumes, pick out giant turkeys, and spend hours in the kitchen whipping up tons of food for a 30-minute Thanksgiving dinner. We buy Christmas trees, Christmas and Hanukah cards, party fair, and make platefuls of cookies, candies, and other Christmas and Hanukah goodies. We buy new clothes. And yes, we buy presents.

So if you want to do something just a little bit different this year…why not give up all of those extra pounds of fat we all tend to put on during the holidays, and instead of over-indulging, why not find room in your heart to brighten up the life of an autistic child? It doesn’t have to be money. Technewszone.com is about getting technology, music, and the arts into the hands of autistic children. They accept all sorts of non-monetary donations: Anything an autistic family may not be able to afford to buy, due to the high costs of therapy and specialty diets.

So check out my two Suite articles linked to above, think about adding the cause of autism to your holiday list, and then do something to help. As David’s website says, if everyone who visits this blog donated only 50 cents, then together we could bring a miracle into the life of an autistic child.

Crispy Sesame Chicken Wings

Crispy Sesame Chicken Wings

Low Carb Styles

Crispy Sesame Chicken Wings

I haven't experimented with chicken wings much; they are expensive in my neck of the woods. Used to be, if I was going to spend $5 for just the meat portion of a single meal, I'd pick up a nice steak or piece of Salmon. Since I can't eat either of those anymore, except on very rare occasions, I grabbed a marked-down package of chicken wings the last time I was at Walmart.

Marked-down wings are rare here too, but does happen now and then, so I guess I'll be on the look-out from now on, because these chicken wings came out crispy with just the right amount of mouth-watering ginger and sesame. Plus at $5 for two meals, it makes them doable.

My favorite go-to has always been a good old-fashioned hot wing recipe, with Heroine Wings coming in at a close second, but I can't do Parmesan Cheese anymore -- so I opted for a sweet Teriyaki. When doing a PSMF diet round once, I threw together soy sauce, diet maple syrup, ginger, and garlic and used that to baste my chicken breast; but I can't use diet maple syrup so I decided to switch out the maple flavor for some sesame.

In the late 90s, before good-tasting sugar substitutes were available, us Atkinites used a little bit of real sugar, and counted it at twice the carbs. I know that, today, die-hard Atkinites would cringe at that, but that's what we did. It worked just fine for me and many others, but that's not what I'm suggesting, here. I'm just saying...

Cause I've been reacting to corn lately (which I'll get to in another post soon). I've had to revamp my way of doing things. So even though I actually used brown sugar in this recipe, just use whatever type of sugar substitute works best for you. My husband isn't crazy about anything that's too spicy, so if you want to spice these up a bit, they could withstand a little minced chili pepper, dried crushed chilies, or hot garlic chili paste.

Crispy Sesame Chicken Wings

About 1-1/2 lbs of chicken wings cut in half and wing tips removed
1/4 cup soy sauce (San-J Organic Tamari)
3 tbsp water
2 to 4 tbsp sugar substitute
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tsp minced garlic
1 tbsp minced fresh ginger
2 tsp sesame seeds

Place the chicken wings in a gallon zip-lock bag. In a bowl, combine the rest of the ingredients; stir well, then pour over the chicken wings. Marinate for several hours, preferably overnight. Bake on a wire rack in the center of the oven, at 350, until crispy -- about 1 hour.

*Photo by wEnDaLicious