Did you take sugar out of your diet?
If so, you might find that just a moderate amount here and there won't make that much difference and will increase your enjoyment of the food that you're eating while you're losing weight.
After all, you want to start learning healthy eating habits, and the aim of the game is to lose that weight for good. One of the best ways to achieve this is to put yourself on a diet, that you will be able to live with for the rest of your life. Could you live without sugar for the rest of your life, could you eat artificial sweeteners for the rest of your life ? Well, I guess some people like the artificial sweeteners, so I won't go into that - that's a whole another story.
While sugar doesn't offer your body any nutrients other than energy, it does add enjoyment to your food, and when eaten in moderation, is not going to break your diet.
Sugar is not the evil ingredient that some have made it out to be in the past.
In fact, I was surprised to read that sugar does not increase blood glucose levels as much as you would think and that two teaspoons of sugar apparently will give you the equivalent amount of calories to half a slice of bread - not that much when you think about it.
Granted though, it is easier to drink two teaspoons of sugar in your tea than it is to eat half a slice of bread.
If you're definitely eating too much sugar, cutting back on it slowly, is very effective in adjusting your taste buds to less sugar, rather than going cold turkey.
You can also cut back on it by looking for ingredients such as fruit juice, corn syrup or high fructose corn syrup or molasses in products that you purchase from the supermarket.
But if you have cut out sugar altogether, it may not be necessary. Balance is the key and learning how to moderate your consumption of foods such as sugar can be one way of learning healthy eating habits for healthy and sensible long term weight loss.
Source:
Saxelby C., (2002) Nutrition For Life Hardie Grant Books p. 52 - 55.
How many times have you caught yourself after an entire day and not had anything to eat because you got too busy ?
What about eating too much when you went out with friends at the all-you-can-eat restaurant ?
Or what about the classic de-stress gorging on biscuits, chips or other highly processed food in front of the TV?
Any of this sound familiar ? Well, if it does, you're not alone.
These symptoms are all common and I think it's fair to say that we're all prone to them. It's when they start to become habit that the problems start.
There is a solution though to these very real eating problems and it is usually solved by just eating regularly.
When you eat at 2-3 hour intervals, three things happen.
- You eat at set times rather than waiting until you have a break to eat;
- You are less tempted to over-eat on food you know has way too many calories and not enough nutrients;
- You will be fuller when you go out with friends and will be less prone to taking advantage of the all-you-can-eat meal deals.
Good examples of this kind of eating plan can be seen in meal plans that include snacks between the major meals and before bed and have smaller portion sizes.
If you are having particular problems with the frequency and amount of food that you are eating at particular times of the day, try the meal plans listed in Melt The Fat.
