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I’m really struggling to stop eating all the carb heavy food. Every day I feel a ”treat” won’t hurt and the thought of not eating these things makes me feel anxious. I know they will cause damage in the long term but this doesn’t help me. I’m starting to feel very out of control of it all. Any tips on getting into better food patterns?
Moderation, not abstinence. Rather than think "I can NEVER have ...." try "if I plan in advance, I CAN have a small portion of ...". I plan out my daily carbs first thing, so then I can have the small slice of toast with my boiled egg, or a couple of baby potatoes with my dinner. The other tip is to look for lower carb options. For example I swapped roasted squash for roast potatoes, soybean pasta for wheat pasta, and tried the various lower carb breads. Cauliflower makes acceptable rice or mash. This is what works for me. Best wishes
I think in terms of what I can have not what I can't. Luckily I like vegetables, meat, fish, eggs, dairy, cheese, nuts and base meals on those things. I still have puddings, sugarfree jelly with berries and cream, strawberries and cream, fruit crumble with the topping made from ground almonds and low sugar granola or Kvarg deserts.
Weekend treat of a piece of dark chocolate or Protein nut bars or nuts or cheese for any snacks.
I’m really struggling to stop eating all the carb heavy food. Every day I feel a ”treat” won’t hurt and the thought of not eating these things makes me feel anxious. I know they will cause damage in the long term but this doesn’t help me. I’m starting to feel very out of control of it all. Any tips on getting into better food patterns?
Make your treat something low carb, and increase the amount you eat at mealtimes.
Have desserts with sugar free jelly, berries, cream, real custard, even real icecream, full fat yoghurt.
If you like baking there are lots of delicious recipes on the sugarfreelondoner website.
Plan your carbs and have something suitable on hand, swede and cauliflower to replace potato pasta or rice is a good start.
I use a pressure cooker for swede as it is the most effective way I have found to make it easy to mash, my favourite way of preparing it.
I’m really struggling to stop eating all the carb heavy food. Every day I feel a ”treat” won’t hurt and the thought of not eating these things makes me feel anxious. I know they will cause damage in the long term but this doesn’t help me. I’m starting to feel very out of control of it all. Any tips on getting into better food patterns?
I’m really struggling to stop eating all the carb heavy food. Every day I feel a ”treat” won’t hurt and the thought of not eating these things makes me feel anxious. I know they will cause damage in the long term but this doesn’t help me. I’m starting to feel very out of control of it all. Any tips on getting into better food patterns?
I think with a lot of western foods, and the way we grew up, we developed a "sugar addiction" which is hard to break as the food industry is very very strong and gets away with murder, literally by the stuff they sell us. For example, I am from Canada and one restaurant I grew up with was 'Tim Hortons' a famous doughnut shop. It is in the culture to buy a french vanilla latte (filled with addictive sugars and carbs but tastes delicious) and a chocolate or glazed doughnut which again I want to eat just writing this. When I resided in the UK, I used to eat a lot of croissants and orange juice for breakfast (thought what harm can come from this?), and where I am now in Taiwan, just yesterday my work gave a gift box of 4 pieces of white bread bakery goods after a meeting. Carbs and sugar are everywhere.
I think the most important thing is to create a baseline to create some kind of homeostasis in the body in regards to carb and sugar intake. I say, if the body intake of food is zero and your in a fasted state, you would likely be drinking only water. Let's call this blood sugar stable range. No peaks, No lows, except for minor deviations based on mood and activity level.
Now what foods cause the most dramatic spikes? I think by far its sugary drinks. Nothing worse than those and they are just liquid sugar and carbs, so those need to go -including fruit juices-. Stick with water as it will reduce hunger.
Most of what we call 'hunger' isn't true hunger pangs (which can take weeks to develop without food), it is just sugar cravings. If you fast regularly, you will know your able to go a long time with your body feeding off its own stores. I know when I do my weekly 48 hour fasts, the first 24 hrs is the easiest, then between 30-36hrs I start thinking of eating anything, and usually that is anything sugary -french breads and pastries. Fortunately, I am sleeping during the worst of it, and when noon comes around the following day, I break the fast with some tomatoes and nuts, and those thoughts go away.
I've made it a rule for myself not to drink anything but water, and any foods I eat at home or buy should be 'whole foods' and no bread. If I eat bread or high carb foods, I will only eat them if they are offered by a restaurant (like a dinner roll with a meal), or in a social setting where someone gives them as a gift, because its the sugar addiction cycle which I don't want to stay in.
Try to break the sugar addiction the food industry wants us to stay in.
Only my pennyworth, but are you 'afraid' of feeling hungry? The problem with starch carbs is that they are so bulky that without them surely we won't feel 'full'?
I have found, genuinely to my surprise, that eating a meal without starch (ie, no potatoes/rice/bread/pasta) which consists of meat/fish and then green vegetables too (green beans, broccoli, cabbage) in large amounts will actually 'sate' me. I never thought this possible. I relied on starch carbs to 'fill me up' and stop me feeling hungry.
Fear of hunger is a natural human instinct - we are programmed from cave man days to eat everything we can, when we can, as it may well not be there tomorrow!
It is the 'bulk' of starch carbs that is so 'reassuring'.
But as well as getting us that way (!) (ie, we're scared we'll hungry without starch carbs), the other challenge starch carbs create is that it behaves like a 'drug' - it creates the very appetite it sates. Yes, it fills us up for a while, it 'sates' us, BUT then it creates the next hungry feeling once it's gone....(sugar does the same, probably faster!)
What, do you think, is your main carb weakness? Given the choice, would you go for starch or sugar? I think that's important in tackling how you resist it, and what your strategy should be.
For example, I have learnt that my real weakness is for 'sweet fat' (er, buttercream icing, that sort of thing!). I don't want sugar on its own (eg, sweets), and I find starch pretty boring without 'fat' (eg, buttered potatoes, butter on spaghetti, butter on bread)(about the only non-buttered starch I can tolerate is rice!!!!).
Then there are all the issues about WHEN you are most vulnerable? Is it when you are hungry, and you just want to 'stuff your face' (!), or is it as a 'little something for me' when the day has been long? Again, trying to examine when you are at your weakest can help you build up barriers. My 'weak time' is last thing at night. I have been 'good' all day, and now I want to reward myself with my 'treat' (chocolate, sweet cream, eg icecream, cake with buttercream etc)
If you learn to recognise your triggers, and what your behaviour is when they strike, it's the first step to getting control over the situation.
You're absolutely right to keep that in mind! Lost one toe and have two with dry gangrene. A stark reminder for me to watch what I eat. But it is certainly a challenge!
You're absolutely right to keep that in mind! Lost one toe and have two with dry gangrene. A stark reminder for mr to watch what I eat. But it is certainly a challenge!
Some really good advice on this thread. I've made note of a few things so thank you peoples. Good luck @Wilsonh23 you'll get on top of it I'm sure. I'm the same as you, it's hard.
I do think it's essential to long-term sustainability to work 'with' your body and your appetites etc - we all have different weaknesses and strengths. I can pass by a bowl of plain salted crisps with total indifference, but show me a creamy raspberrry pavlova and I'm scoffing the lot! I like 'late night' treats' so that's a vulnerable time for me, and I have to plan around that weakness. My SIL is a cheese-freak (!), but chocolate 'doesn't exist' for her (etc etc).
But it's individual for each of us.
Then, too, it's a question of over the 'long long term'. What we can cope with for, say, a few months, just to fight back on the Hb1Ac etc, is maybe not what we can do 'for the rest of our lives' and so we have to moderate our daily 'normal' intake, and, maybe, allow for 'special times' such as birthdays/holidays etc etc. Again, it's very individual.
I actually find moderation harder than abstinence. Once i start stopping is harder than never starting. Theres a phrase I can resist everything but temptation. I believe it’s about knowing yourself well enough to know if a taste will satisfy you or be the start of a slippery slope.
I tend to employ the “I won’t have it now/today” rather than think of forever, to avoid feeling overwhelmed and so that I feel I retain the choice.
Yes, I like the 'deferred gratification' tactic - I just postpone the treat. (Sometimes indefinitely, sometimes not.)
The issue of moderation vs abstinence is an interesting one. It may be for some that a kind of 'switch' is thrown, that once thrown to 'on' can't be easily, or at all, thrown to 'off'.
I have a friend who, if she starts to eat cake, feels she 'can't stop' till the entire cake is eaten. And, of course, that can happen to those vulnerable to alcohol - they get one glass inside them, and then the whole bottle is gone.
Again, I feel we just have to learn what our danger zones are, our vulnerabilities, and work around them.
I knew someone on the Lighter Life diet programme, and she said their tutor used the Parent/Adult/Child explanation - that for some, when they start on something 'forbidden', such as chocolate/cake/alcohol, go into 'child' mode and basically say 'I SHALL eat this entire cake if I want So There!' in a rebellious sort of way. But other times they can be 'parental' and say 'No, you SHALL NOT eat ANY of the cake my girl!'
The preferred option was to go for Adult - the mature, in control, sensible 'OK, I can eat this amount, but not that amount, and I will be happy and manage this perfectly well thank you.'
Yes, I like the 'deferred gratification' tactic - I just postpone the treat. (Sometimes indefinitely, sometimes not.)
The issue of moderation vs abstinence is an interesting one. It may be for some that a kind of 'switch' is thrown, that once thrown to 'on' can't be easily, or at all, thrown to 'off'.
I have a friend who, if she starts to eat cake, feels she 'can't stop' till the entire cake is eaten. And, of course, that can happen to those vulnerable to alcohol - they get one glass inside them, and then the whole bottle is gone.
Again, I feel we just have to learn what our danger zones are, our vulnerabilities, and work around them.
I knew someone on the Lighter Life diet programme, and she said their tutor used the Parent/Adult/Child explanation - that for some, when they start on something 'forbidden', such as chocolate/cake/alcohol, go into 'child' mode and basically say 'I SHALL eat this entire cake if I want So There!' in a rebellious sort of way. But other times they can be 'parental' and say 'No, you SHALL NOT eat ANY of the cake my girl!'
The preferred option was to go for Adult - the mature, in control, sensible 'OK, I can eat this amount, but not that amount, and I will be happy and manage this perfectly well thank you.'
I think I more sort of missed it happening.
I could go all day without eating, but once I started in the evening, I more than made up.
A food diary showed me the amount of calories, and I found it quite eye opening.
So I made a conscious decision to change my ways.
I think the biggest change was switching from sweet foods, (cake, donuts, chocolate, biscuits) to savoury hot spicy foods. (Chocolate is still my downfall, once it's open, we'll eat it until it's gone, so it tends to be a limited event now)
I planned food, introduced breakfast back in, limited snacks, nowadays I mostly cook from scratch, it's a vegan green Thai curry soup tonight for example.
Didn't check weight at the time but was Ok.. 70 yrs...sugar level can't recall but was high enough to be told to seek emergency attention. Had emergency surgery a few days later. Was eating anything I wanted...Not worth it!
Didn't check weight at the time but was Ok.. 70 yrs...sugar level can't recall but was high enough to be told to seek emergency attention. Had emergency surgery a few days later. Was eating anything I wanted...Not worth it!
Did you know you were a diabetic at the time, or did symptoms just come on in your foot suddenly and the medical folks told you had blood sugar and were a diabetic and the toe needed to go. Like how many warning signs were ahead of you before you got to that point?
I’m really struggling to stop eating all the carb heavy food. Every day I feel a ”treat” won’t hurt and the thought of not eating these things makes me feel anxious. I know they will cause damage in the long term but this doesn’t help me. I’m starting to feel very out of control of it all. Any tips on getting into better food patterns?
If possible, have someone help you manage your eating...portion control..food buying. If it's only you it is harder to control. The struggle is real and it can become depressing not eating whatever you want.
Trust me, the damage in the long run isn't worth it. Once you know the treat is there you would want to have it. Try getting rid of or giving away some, if not all, the treats you still have to lessen the temptation. There are also healthier and still tasty alternatives. Take one step at a time and you will do better. Still trying here also but doing better
Did you know you were a diabetic at the time, or did symptoms just come on in your foot suddenly and the medical folks told you had blood sugar and were a diabetic and the toe needed to go. Like how many warning signs were ahead of you before you got to that point?
There were some signs didn't realise or pay any mind. When told I was diabetic, still bought sugary cereal on the way home. Kept my toe covered to hide the changes until discovered by a family member. Symptoms were by no means sudden. Went to ER the next morning where emergency surgery was performed. Almost lost leg with further infection.
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