| |
| |
|
Weight Loss Information |
|
|
|
Tips to Help Control Food Cravings
Food cravings can be triggered by various things including low blood sugar, stress, and other emotional triggers. The best way to take control is to understand how to balance your meals and snacks to avoid the traps that trigger food cravings. 1. Do not skip meals. Eat three meals a day and include snacks when needed. Try not to let more than 5 hours go between meals and snacks. This will help keep your blood sugar stable and avoid getting to the place where you are extremely hungry. Low blood sugar and extreme hunger can be a dangerous combination and almost always leads to overeating. Plan ahead and keep healthy snacks around. 2. Include protein, fat, and carbohydrate at each meal and snack if possible. Instead of bringing an apple for a snack, try having half an apple with some peanut butter or a slice of cheese. This will help keep your blood sugar more level throughout the day. 3. Keep food records. Food records are invaluable to help identify your eating patterns. For example, you may experience sugar cravings every afternoon at 3 p.m. This could mean that you need to eat an appropriate snack at this time or it could mean that what you had for lunch may not have been the right choice. It also could indicate a high stress time for you where a quick break might be in order. 4. Avoid very low calorie diets. Eating less than 1200 calories a day will likely lead to food cravings because it is basically a starvation diet. There are few people who need to be on this low of a calorie level and studies show people who go on very low calorie diets have increased food cravings and can become preoccupied with food. If you are unsure what calorie level is right for you, contact a Registered Dietitian in your area by going to www.eatright.org/cgi/findanrd3.cgi or get a metabolism measurement. Go to www.healthetech.com to find out who can run a metabolism measurement for you in your area. 5. Include whole grain carbohydrate sources with each meal. The fiber content of these foods helps to keep blood sugar levels stable to avoid any blood sugar drops which can lead to food cravings. Look for 3 grams fiber or more per serving on the nutrition label. 6. Clean up your environment! Avoid keeping trigger foods in your house or office if possible. It will be hard to choose healthy snacks when a bag of chips and a package of cookies linger on your shelf. The less temptation you have, the better. 7. Don't be too rigid! Enjoy your favorite desserts and snacks once in a while. If you completely eliminate them, you will become focused on these foods and end up eating too much. Enjoy your favorite treats once in awhile. Once you have the craving: If you really crave a food (i.e. chocolate), you have two choices: 1. Allow yourself a small portion when you feel the craving (i.e. 2 Hershey kisses a day) or find a substitute (i.e. Swiss Miss sugar free hot chocolate or Chai tea). 2. Try to wait 15 minutes before giving in to a craving. Try to engage in another activity such as journaling, or taking a walk. Sometimes even a 5 minute distraction can help ward off the cravings. If you do give into a craving and eat more than you would have liked, do not beat yourself up. Try to learn from the craving. What could you have done differently to have prevented the craving? Then- Let it go! We are all human. Guilt will only make things worse and we have to allow ourselves learning curves. © Meri Raffetto, 2005 About the Author Owner of Real Living Nutrition Services, Meri Raffetto is a Registered Dietitian and a recognized professional in the area of nutrition and wellness. She has developed online weight management programs that focus on a healthy, non-diet approach to weight loss. For more information or to sign up for our free newsletter, visit http://www.reallivingnutrition.com.
MORE RESOURCES:
Weight-Loss - Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Tips to Help Control Food Cravings Food cravings can be triggered by various things including low blood sugar, stress, and other emotional triggers. The best way to take control is to understand how to balance your meals and snacks to avoid the traps that trigger food cravings. Plot Your Weight Loss Course I'm sure you already know that weight loss and improved fitness don't happen overnight. But did you know that there are steps that you can take to improve your chances of weight loss success before you even start your healthier eating and exercise plan?There are five distinct stages of behavioral change. How To Get Rid Of Your Belly Fat Or Pooch The best way you can get rid of your pop belly or pooch is not by doing a certain AB exercise or by using the latest AB gadget---its through Proper diet and exercise.Sit-ups, crunches, AB lounges, & other AB gadgets all play a very small part in getting rid of your pop belly or pooch. Tips for Weight Loss For a healthy body, it is very important to have ideal body weight. Try to reduce your weight gradually. The Truth About Weight Loss: The 6 Biggest Myths About Dieting! All of our behavior results from the thoughts that preceded it, so the thing to work on is not your behavior, but the thing that caused your behavior, your thoughts. - Dr. Determine Your Stage and Plot Your Weight Loss Course We all know that losing weight and improving your overall fitness are things that don't happen overnight. But, did you know in order to be truly successful that important steps need to be taken before you even start a diet or exercise program? The first thing you should do is identify where you fall on the behavioral change spectrum. Savoring Moments Through Mindful Eating We all eat. But how mindful are we of every bite we take?Your mother always told you to slow down and taste your food. Does A Quick Weight Loss Diet Really Work? Only if you're trying to fool the scale on a specific date and time.Quick weight loss is advertised by diet marketers all the time. Little Known Facts About Changes In Our Diet To say that Americans are obsessed with dieting is an understatement! Pick up any magazine, tune-in or turn-on any source of advertising and you're bombarded with the latest diet schemes and food fads. More often than not, they are endorsed by some familiar Hollywood celebrity, or promoted using some other cleaver technique. The Mini Tummy Tuck Procedure What is a mini tummy tuck? Officially called a partial abdominoplasty, a mini tummy tuck simply removes unwanted skin and fat from the area below the navel. This type of procedure has substantially increased in popularity. Fast Weight Loss and Exercise - Pay Now or Pay Them Later! Why have I allowed myself to get into this shape? Have you ever said that? With life comes responsibility and with decisions comes consequences. It's your choice today to do something positive. How Green Tea Can Help You To Lose Weight Green tea has been highly valued in Asia for centuries for it's medical properties. In the recent years green tea benefits caught the attention of western scientists. Weight Control For Webmasters Are you gaining weight sitting in front of the computer? It's easy to do.It's easy to get stuck in a rut and forget about your health needs. How to Lose Weight: Food for Thought When it comes to weight loss, most of us would like to engage in what psychologists call "magical thinking." We'd like to believe that some easy trick or ritual would allow us to shed pounds while eating anything we liked. Myth: Gastric Bypass Patients Dont Need to Exercise to Lose Weight Nothing is more disappointing than hearing a gastric bypass patient brag that they didn't have to exercise to lose weight. It's true; patients will lose weight without lifting a finger. Cleansing the Body for a Detox Weight Loss! Cleansing: How to Kickstart your Alkaline LifestyleDue to the highly acidic diet that most people in the UK are used to, our bodies urgently need to be cleaned up! It is important to do a cleanse to rid the body of impurities, normalise digestion and metabolism and realign the body to an alkaline pH level of 7.365. Dash Diet -- Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) Hypertension is another name for high blood pressure. Blood pressure is the force exerted on artery walls when the heart is beating and when it is at rest. Lose Weight NOW! - The Truth or Consequences Diet? If you knew when you were going to die, would you really want to know? If you knew when you were going to lose your life, would you do anything different? If you had a choice of living longer or living a better quality of life, which would you choose, longer or better?People say, "if only" they had known they were going to have this happen to me, they would have done things differently. IF ONLY?I had not stressed so much about life. Your Metabolism and Fat Loss If you know someone that has been trying to lose weight and get into shape, you have probably heard words such as, "I just eat one meal a day to lose weight" or "I'm afraid if I eat, I'll gain weight" but sadly, this misnomer is why so many people are in the "battle of the bulge". People all over the world still believe that eating breakfast, or even three meals a day will cause them to gain weight. Diet Pills: Tremendous Temptation, Huge Frauds False campaignsMore than 50 percent of Americans and Canadians are overweight or obese. More than a half the advertising campaigns for diet pills and dietary supplements are intentionally false or fail to reveal the truth, according to the FTC.
|
| home | site map |
| © 2006 |
