Advice needed to stop binge eating / craving the unhealthy stuff

Fire_Fox

SunshineButterfly wrote: »

I hope I am posting this in the correct section.

I am quite slim and short 5 foot 2, but due to having children I have quite a fat tummy. Infact I would even go as far as saying I look pregnant!

I am trying hard with exercise and am trying to have 3 healthy meals a day.

My problem is I pile my plate up rather than having smaller portions and I constantly crave food!!

I have just eaten a very large tea yet I still feel asthough I want to go in the kitchen and find carp to eat!!

Thyroid issues are also in the family which means I may struggle not to pile the weight on in the future.

My bmi and weight is classed as average.

I will give today as an example of what I have eaten health wise...

Breakfast - special k cereal 1/3 bowl with semi-skimmed milk

Lunch - Carvery (I had 3 tiny roasties and a small yorkie pud) but most of it was veg, veg and more veg (and 1 slice of beef, 1 slice of turkey).

Tea - Lean beef mince, onion, carrot, brocolli, cauliflower, fresh spinach, mushroom, peas, parsley, pepper, red pepper and boiled rice.

I was thinking of trying to avoid all chocolate, crisps and pop completely and instead buying sugar free boiled sweets and allowing myself 5 per day rather than binging on worse foods. Although I will try not to have those sweets. More like a back up plan for binging emergencies?

Exercise I have done today (though I do not exercise every single day, though am going to try to for the next fortnight)... I swam 56 lengths in a 25 metre pool without any resting. And I had a 2 and a half hour walk at a leisurely pace.

According to myfitnesspal I burnt around 900 calories.

Any advice is extremely welcome. I was doing Slim Fast, but a few pointed out the high sugar and fat and I realised because they taste so sweet this was just fueling me even more for craving sweet things.

Breakfast Throw the Special K in the bin, it's heavily processed rubbish and turns to blood glucose very quickly. Have a larger more substantial breakfast that contains protein and fat, perhaps eggs. If you have starchy carbs have a small portion of lower glycaemic index ones like barley or low sugar baked beans not wheat. Research suggests those who have a good breakfast eat less the rest of the day and make healthier choices when they do eat.

Lunch more protein and less carbs. Potatoes and Yorkshire puddings turn to blood glucose very quickly, you don't say what vegetables you had but many root vegetables are fairly high in carbs.

Tea: regular white rice turns to blood glucose fairly fast, switch to barley, beans or lentils, or have a tiny serving of brown basmati rice. Try not to have meat twice in one day, have more seafood or fish especially oily.

Why would there be an emergency in which you would need sugar free sweets? If you have junk in the house you will eat it, get rid of as much as possible, have low sugar fruits like berries if you need something sweet. That will also tick the blue/ purple box for fruit and veg which I don't see in your sample day.

You seem to be a little frightened of fat, with the result that you didn't have any healthy fats - oily fish, nuts, seeds, coconut, avocado, whole olives, cocoa / low sugar dark chocolate. Try to have some at each meal and snack.

Two key nutrients that are linked to reduced bodyfat especially in the abdominal area are calcium from dairy products and long chain omega-3s from oily fish. Official guidelines are three servings of dairy per day and two servings of oily fish each week but more is better.

A favourite healthy snack of mine is low fat soft cheese (own brand Philly) mixed with natural sweetener such as xylitol, cocoa powder and peanut butter, served with mixed berries. The cocoa and nuts supply minerals and bulking fibre which seem to be low in your sample day. Low levels of certain minerals can cause cravings, fibre is important to keep us feeling full.

Walking at a leisurely pace is not really classed as exercise for most of us, it is physical activity and is great for health but not the best choice for weight management. You should be doing 10,000 steps every day which is several miles, formal exercise is on top. Swimming isn't the best choice either, you want to be doing intense activity and interval training (harder easier harder easier), this was associated with up to twice as much fat loss in one study.

IME very few people can do more than about four hours of intense exercise a week, if you can train daily for a fortnight you are not working hard enough and/or are risking injury by not giving your body rest or active recovery days. Mix it up with some intense weight or strength training to boost growth hormone (cuts fat and boost lean muscle). Something like Flexi bar DVDs or a BodyPump class, the former particularly will work on your control of your deep abdominal muscles helping to flatten the tummy. :j

Fire_Fox

SunshineButterfly wrote: »

I don't understand how to figure out which is healthy / unhealthy.
My cereal box is currently a mixture of shreddies / special k / fitennesse (no idea how thats spelt).

I eat tea between 4 and 5pm as I eat at the table with my children.

Most cereals are based on very finely ground wheat plus sugar and salt for flavour, most are processed and few are healthy, easy to digest to spike and trough the blood sugar. The human body simply has not evolved to cope well with modern wheat flour.

If you really want cereal have porridge made with jumbo or steel cut oats, or homemade muesli made with jumbo oats and barley flakes. Nuts, seeds or plain yoghurt for protein and fat.

If you are eating that early, you will need to eat again before bed or your blood sugar will be dropping, aim to eat something every four hours.

SunshineButterfly wrote: »

stir_crazy I am not keen on raw veggies or fruit, but keep carrot sticks in the fridge. But they end up gone off before I get to eat them. My brain eggs me on to eat the carp and ignore the healthy stuff.

You'd think after quitting smoking I would have better willpower.

Thinking of starting my 30 day shred dvd again today. Plus maybe give my Zumba for beginners dvd a try. Motivation is needed lol.

If you have willpower once a week in the supermarket you don't need willpower every night in the kitchen. Nobody in your household needs junk, sugar is toxic for everyone. For those quitting smoking (which you have done! ) it's recommended for people to get rid of the cigs, ash trays and lighter. Then change the routine, so do things in a different order or sit in a different chair after dinner. A lot of the same stuff applies to poor food choices, work out your trigger situations and don't put temptation in your path. By considering sugar free sweets you are doing the opposite, promising your body a hit of glucose that never comes so feeding the cravings.

Many people don't enjoy plain vegetables, but most like stir fries, soups or vegetable curries. A huge fruit salad with canned evaporated milk and flaked almonds is a bit sweet without being quite so unhealthy as junk food. Or homemade flapjacks or berry chocolate cheesecake, stewed rhubarb and custard. Use a small amount of a natural sweetener such as xylitol if you need it.

margaretclare

I agree with FireFox. Very good, sensible advice.

Tbh I think stress is a big factor to my binging at the moment. Maybe once the stress is over I will find it much much easier.

You'll be in your grave by then. Seriously. Stress will never be over - if not one kind of stress then another. Stress is a part of life.

My brain eggs me on to eat the carp and ignore the healthy stuff.

So re-programme your brain. You also ask what is healthy and what is not. Good question! Some will say no food is unhealthy, it's a question of how much and when. Some say sugar itself is addictive. Others say: avoid highly-processed items, which would be mainly white items. White sugar, white flour etc. Artificial fats, the kind that are marketed as 'healthy' - Flora etc. Some say: if it doesn't swim, fly or walk on legs then don't eat it, also anything that didn't grow on a tree or in the ground. Example: processed orange juice bad, raw orange good.

heartbreak_star

I think generally eating clean, not eating less, is the way forward

HBS x

sophlowe45

Can someone help clarify, so three portions of dairy a day?

but butter and hard cheese are not good? what type of cheese is good to buy? i buy cheddar! And is greek yoghurt and full fat milk ok?

But if you buy low fat versions of cheese, does it not mean it is more processed with less nutrients?

I have worked my way up from mild to medium cheddar (the aim was to use less but I like cheese). Next step is to try mature cheddar.

I read this here

Cottage cheese, feta, soft goat cheese, Neufchatel and mozzarella cheese are among the full-fat cheeses with the lowest fat content. Other relatively low-fat cheese options include Pecorino Romano, Edam, Cheshire, Munster, Muenster, Gouda, cheddar, blue, Limburger, Gorgonzola, cream cheese, Camembert and Brie, all of which contain between 33 percent and 50 percent fat. Reduced-fat, low-fat and fat-free versions of cheeses contain even less fat.


Read more: http://www.livestrong.com/article/350884-which-cheeses-are-lowest-in-fat/#ixzz2PXNCKU2x


Goji berries are sweet.

Fire_Fox

Butter doesn't count because it's not a good source of calcium, funnily enough cottage cheese and low fat soft cheese (Philly type) are not great sources either at the other end of the 'fat spectrum'! Hard cheese is fine in sensible portions: you only need 30g of half fat cheddar or 20g of parmesan or 40g of mozzarella for one of your three servings. :T All averaged out to 30g in the official guidelines for ease.

Some reduced fat cheeses are traditionally produced but simply from semi skimmed instead of full fat milk AFAIK, some are heavily processed with added sugars and other nasties. They are all processed to some extent but it's tough to get enough bioavailable calcium without dairy or a supplement. I suspect prior to dairy farming our ancestors ate more small bones in fish and long cooked meat stock as well as plant sources.

Plain Greek yoghurt is great (150g is a serving), IMO as is full fat milk (200ml is a serving). Tho the official healthy eating guidelines do advocate reduced fat milk, actually is only 4% fat so nothing to get our knickers in a twist about if we enjoy it and are not overeating saturated animal fats generally.

I *think* the majority of the calcium is carried with the casein portion of the protein, so how much of this protein is in the product affects the calcium content. Cottage cheese is lower in casein, higher in water and higher in whey than parmesan. Ageing cheese somehow increases calcium content, maybe by reducing water? Hopefully someone else will comment if they know better than I why calcium content varies so much.

daska

from my very restricted knowledge of cheese making I'd agree. Obviously the choice of full fat or skimming off the cream will make a small difference but the process of making hard cheeses involves several steps that gradually solidify the curds and force out the whey prior to the cheese being pressed. One of the problems of making hard cheese at home is preventing it from drying out too much while it's maturing so I suspect it's the production processes and reducing the whey which is the most likely reason.

OP - did you see oops' thread? https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4445133

CharlieRabbit01

One thing I've found is if I've got snacks in the cupboard I'll crave them.

I tend to buy a treat when I do the weekly shop ie one of those larger bars of dairy milk or a bag of Haribo etc and I work on the principle once its gone its gone.

I always portion out a recommended serving size (my OH always rolls his eyes when my ramekins come out) eat what's there and thats it.

In all honesty it took me ages to be good and spread my snacks out across the week but you get used to it eventually you just have to keep up with it and not buy any other snacks before your next weekly shop.

pat.finlay

I found that using smaller plates for my meals really helped me cut down on my portion sizes! It makes you feel like you're eating more as it looks like a large portion compared to the small plate! Hope this helps.

Good luck

janiebaby29

I can recommend the clean and lean diet by James duigan , he does a 14 day detox then a sensible unprocessed meal plan which does work , this cuts out sugar , caffeine , a lot of the bad stuff that creates the cravings in your body , my body shape has definitely got leaner and I combine this with working out twice a week at the gym using a combo of weights and cardio .
Some of his food ideas are a little way out but it's an easy one to adapt to your situation .
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Clean-Lean-Diet-Best-ever-Macpherson/dp/1856269329