Once you’ve discovered how to listen to what your body wants, it’s time to interpret these cravings and give your body what it wants.
If you’re craving pizza, it’s probably the tomato sauce your body is asking for. In this case, you could try having some healthy tomato soup, some tomato juice, or a nice, fresh tomato salad.
If you are craving something healthy like watermelon or broccoli, by all means indulge! But of course most people tend to crave things that they really love to eat. Maybe watermelon is your favorite food, and if so, that’s great. But most people have less healthy favorites like pizza and French fries as their favorites.
Remember, MSG can cause you to crave foods that your body doesn’t need.
You have to break away from the addictive cycle, so you should at least cut down on MSG if you don’t eliminate it entirely.
I find I crave cheesecake a lot. For a long time I thought maybe I was craving the calcium, but then I realized I don’t just crave cheesecake, I crave strawberry cheesecake!
Once I started eating fresh strawberries once a cheesecake craving hit, I rarely craved it anymore. Sometimes I would still want cheesecake after I ate strawberries, which signaled that I just wanted the flavor of cheesecake. I knew that wasn’t a real craving, so I had to make the decision to either ignore the craving, or give in and indulge.
The thing is, you CAN give in and indulge from time to time. You just can’t go overboard if you want to lose weight. I would have a very small slice of cheesecake, eating slowly and savoring each bite for the longest time possible.
If I was still craving it after that slice, I would wait at least two hours before giving in again, for another very small slice. And each time I had to decide whether to indulge or not. The strength of the craving was the major deciding factor in whether I would indulge.
Life is short. It’s too short to deny yourself entirely. Once I realized that, it was easier for me to lose weight. You see, sticking with a diet is really tough when you never get to eat anything you enjoy!
But when you allow yourself treats and indulgences from time to time, it’s a lot easier to keep going. You have more of a reason to keep it up.
You remember the four food groups, right? Unless you’re relatively young, you were probably taught about the four food groups in school. Supposedly those were the foods we needed to make up a healthy diet.
These days, it’s all about the “food pyramid”. The USDA has devised a new way of teaching people about the right foods to eat, dividing foods up even further. It contains 6 groups of foods instead of four.
Well, this food pyramid is actually a lot smarter than the original four food groups, because it actually distinguishes fats, oils, and sweets from healthier foods.
Additionally, fruits and vegetables are in two different groups.
As you can see, the largest group is the base of the pyramid. This group contains breads, grains, and other starches (like corn and potatoes). This is the group the USDA believes you should eat the most of.
These grains and starches help give you energy, but they can be loaded with carbohydrates that can raise your blood sugar. It’s best to stick with whole grains, and go easy on the really starchy foods like potatoes.
The USDA recommends that adults consume around 6 to 11 servings of grains and starches per day. Be careful to monitor your portion sizes carefully!
A single slice of bread is one serving, but a slice of thick-sliced bread is TWO servings, and a standard 6-inch sub sandwich roll is THREE servings!
The next level of the pyramid contains fruits and vegetables.
Originally fruits and vegetables were in the same food group when it came to the “four food groups”, but a distinction needed to be made. You need to eat both fruits AND vegetables in order to have the healthiest possible diet, so the USDA decided to draw a separation between the two.
Ideally, you want to have at least 3-5 servings of vegetables and 2-4 servings of fruit each day. A typical serving of vegetables is 1 cup raw or 1 cup cooked. A typical fruit serving is 1 small fresh fruit or 1 cup canned fruit.
The next level of the pyramid shows dairy and protein. The dairy section is smaller than the meat section, because you don’t need as much milk per day as you do protein.
You should be getting at least 2-3 servings of dairy per day, preferably low-fat or non-fat. This could include things like milk, yogurt, or even low-fat ice cream.
Proteins include meats and seafood, dried beans, eggs, cheese, and peanut butter. Yes, cheese is included in protein rather than dairy.
You want to get 4-6 ounces of protein daily, ideally from low-fat varieties such as most seafoods, egg whites, low-fat cottage cheese, and skinless poultry. Tofu is also a good choice if you like it.
The final group includes fats, sweets, and alcohol. You should keep these to a minimum. Remember, you do need some fat in your diet, but excessive fat can lead to obesity, especially when consumed with excessive amounts of carbohydrates.
You should have a maximum of 1-2 servings from this group per day, especially when trying to lose weight.
It’s not easy keeping track of all of these things, so I don’t actually worry too much about counting each and every serving and adding it all up during the day.
What I do is I develop menus for the week, and I plan each meal in a specific way. That way I don’t have to worry about adding things up, because it all happens quite naturally.
Here’s an example of my weekly meal plan:
BREAKFAST
3 servings grains
1 serving fruit
1 serving protein
1 serving dairy
LUNCH
4 servings grains
1 serving fruit
2 servings vegetables
1 serving protein
1 serving dairy
1 serving fat (if not at dinner)
DINNER
2 servings grains
1 serving vegetables
2 servings protein
1 serving fat (if not at lunch)
SNACK
1 serving fruit
SNACK
1 serving vegetables
That’s 3 meals and two snacks per day, which might seem like a lot of food when you’re dieting, but it’s not. You MUST keep eating regularly to keep your metabolism high. If you don’t, your weight loss is going to be much slower than you’d like.
As you can see, this gives me each day:
9 servings grains
3 servings fruit
5 servings vegetables
4 servings protein
2 servings dairy
1 serving of fat
This is a good balance. It’s right in the middle of the grains, on the low end of protein and dairy, and on the high end of fruits and vegetables. That’s what really got me the best weight loss, because fruits and vegetables are obviously lower in fat and calories than meat and dairy, and I stayed right in the middle for grains to give me enough energy without overeating.
This is what a typical menu would look like:
BREAKFAST
3 servings oatmeal (small bowl)
1 serving applesauce (in the oatmeal)
1-ounce bacon or ham
1 cup non-fat milk (half over the oatmeal)
LUNCH
2 sandwiches with:
2 slices whole grain bread each
lettuce and tomato
3 ounce low-fat turkey on each
1 tbsp. mayonnaise (half on each)
1 apple
1 cup non-fat milk
DINNER
Noodle Stir-Fry with:
2 servings whole wheat pasta
1 cup steamed broccoli
2 ounces grilled chicken
Herbs and 0 calorie seasonings to taste
SNACK (between breakfast and lunch or lunch and dinner)
1 cup cantaloupe cubes
SNACK (between lunch and dinner or after dinner)
1 cup salad with fat-free dressing
As you can see, this keeps you eating all day long, and you get a considerable amount of food each time. If you’re hungry, eat! Just be sure you’re really hungry.
It can be quite difficult to tell if you’re actually hungry or if you are just bored or depressed and want to eat.
Before you eat anything, try to listen to your stomach, not your head. If your stomach is growling or pinching, you’re really hungry. If it isn’t, then you just want to eat.
Remember, you can indulge sometimes, too. If you’re craving corn chips, go for it! But grab out a handful and put it into a bowl, do NOT eat straight from the bag!
It’s very important to learn portion control. You can’t eat unlimited amounts of almost any food without gaining weight. Yes, you can eat to your heart’s content on cucumbers or lettuce, but most foods need to be limited.
In the next chapter, I’m going to make a list of foods you can eat whenever you’re hungry, including foods that you can have in practically unlimited quantities.
We’ll also look at some food substitutions you can use to satisfy cravings for higher-fat foods. While this won’t always work, sometimes it does.
Whenever you can cut calories with substitutions, it’s a great thing!
This chapter is all about telling you what you can safely eat. We’re going to talk about foods you should eat whenever you’re having a craving for something fattening, stuff you can substitute for the bad stuff.
The main thing is to keep your fridge and cabinets stocked with plenty of foods you can eat in unlimited or substantial quantities.
First, let’s talk about some things you can eat in unlimited quantities. These are foods that, if you eat them until you feel like you’re going to puke, you still shouldn’t fear gaining any weight!
These are also foods that contain vitamins, minerals, and other essential elements.
They are foods you can feel good about eating, and you don’t have to feel guilty, even if you overeat them. They are also rich in antioxidants and perhaps other important elements that scientists haven’t even discovered, yet!
Foods to you could eat in large quantities:
Apples
Asparagus
Beets
Blueberries
Cabbage
Cantaloupe
Carrots
Cauliflower
Celery
Cranberries
Cucumbers
Fresh Herbs or Dried
Garlic
Grapefruit
Green Beans
Greens
(All Types)
Honeydew Melons
Lemons and Limes
Lettuce
Mangoes
Mushrooms
Onions
Papayas
Peaches
Peppers (All Kinds)
Pineapple
Radishes
Raspberries
Spinach
Strawberries
Tangerines
Tomatoes
Turnips
Watermelon
Zucchini
You can combine these ingredients into delicious recipes that taste great, too. This will help keep you motivated. The better tasting the food is that you’re eating; the more likely it is you will stick to the system.
These ingredients can work very well together. For example, you could take some of the vegetables like tomatoes, cabbage, onions, carrots, zucchini, celery, and green beans and make a very nice soup.
You could also use unlimited fresh herbs or dried herbs to flavor it.
You could make a nice fruit salad using various fruits, flavorings, and herbs.
Mint and cilantro both go very well with many different types of fruits, and lemon or lime juice with a touch of salt can make a sweet fruit salad a bit more savory.
Lemon juice can also be used on its own with herbs, or blended with fruit to make a dressing for salads.
A salad of spinach and sliced mushrooms tastes amazing with a vinaigrette of raspberries, cranberries, or strawberries with lemon juice, red wine vinegar, salt, and pepper.
Experiment with using these ingredients to make various recipes. You can also add small amounts of foods that aren’t on the list, comprising a recipe mostly of these items and using other foods as flavorings.
For example, you could make a soup using these vegetables and using a small amount of boneless, skinless chicken breast to flavor it and add protein. Or you could make a delicious salsa with tomatoes, onions, jalapeño peppers, cilantro, and lime juice, and then serve it over lettuce with a 1 cup of black beans.
The combinations are practically endless, especially when you start using foods that you can’t have in unlimited quantities to bring flavors together.
Now you need to know some flavorings you can use in unlimited quantities. Some condiments are high in sugar or fat, and you should avoid these for the most part. You can enjoy small quantities of them, but it’s best to limit them.
Flavorings to enjoy in unlimited quantities:
Mustard
Vinegar (All Types)
Spices (No Sugar, No or Low Sodium)
Herbs
Lemon Juice
Lime Juice
Make sure the flavorings you buy do not contain MSG. There are many seasonings on the market that do. The salt replacement Accent, in fact, IS monosodium glutamate; so avoid this one at all costs! Look for flavorings that contain as little sodium as possible, but you don’t have to avoid it completely.
Next, let’s look at some various types of proteins you can add to the unlimited foods to bring a meal together and make it more filling.
You should limit these foods to smaller servings, but you should make sure to use some of these every day.
Proteins to enjoy in smaller quantities:
Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breast
Turkey Breast
Most Types of Fish
Lean Beef
Beans (All Types)
Other Lean Meats
Tofu
Nuts
Lean meats, beans, nuts, and tofu are filling. They also provide nutrients like iron that are essential for a healthy body. They should be used more as a flavoring for other foods than a major part of the meal, especially when trying to lose weight.
Vegetarians can obviously leave meat out entirely, opting for vegetable-based protein sources. There is a lot of controversy about whether soy-based products like tofu are good for you or not, but I personally use it in small quantities.
Flavorings to enjoy in smaller quantities:
Salt
Ketchup (Preferably Sugar-Free)
Olive Oil (Limit Carefully)
Agaves Nectar (Liquid Sweetener, Natural, Won’t Spike Blood Sugar)
Soy Sauce (High In Sodium, So Limit)
You shouldn’t eliminate salt from your diet completely, as your body does need a bit of salt to run properly. But these should be limited as much as possible.
Olive oil is one of the healthiest oils you can use. Studies have shown that people who consume around two tablespoons of olive oil daily for one week show less oxidation of LDL cholesterol, as well as higher levels of antioxidants in their blood.
Olive oil can help protect against ulcers and gastritis. It may help prevent colon cancer. It contains vitamin # and phenols. In short, it is probably the best fat you can possibly consume.
As with nearly anything, it should be consumed in limited quantities. It is still very high in calories, and of course, is pure fat. Eating enough of it will cause you to gain weight, but it should still be used in small amounts because of its protective benefits.
Agave nectar is a natural sweetener that comes from a type of cactus.
It tastes very sweet, but it won’t spike your blood sugar like process sugar, honey, syrup, and other sweeteners. It’s also considered much safer than aspartame and other chemical sweeteners.
Now that we’ve talked about the foods you should eat, let’s talk about the foods you should avoid whenever possible.
These are foods that can really mess up your weight loss efforts, and it’s best to avoid most of them completely, or carefully restrict them.
For the most part, you should feel free to enjoy the foods you love, just in lesser quantities. Unfortunately, many of the foods you love will contain these “forbidden foods”.
Because I believe in indulging on occasion in order to keep yourself happily sticking to your weight loss plan, I don’t exactly advocate cutting these foods out completely.
What I do suggest is that you limit these foods very carefully, indulging in them only when you are having a desperate craving for them and you feel like you might go overboard and binge if you don’t have them at that moment.
Sugar
Sugar, specifically white sugar, is a very bad substance. I highly recommend avoiding it as much as possible.
While it’s unrealistic to expect you to never eat anything that contains white sugar again, you should try to avoid it whenever possible.
Sugar is believed to be a major instigator of diabetes. It causes blood sugar levels to rise rapidly, and then they can cause an over-production of insulin.
When you have too much insulin in your body, it can cause your cells to hold on to fat. It can also cause your liver to create extra fat from the calories you consume.
Excess insulin can cause blood clots that lead to stroke and heart attack, raise LDL (bad) cholesterol levels, and can cause plaque to form in the arteries. It can also raise your blood pressure by causing your kidneys to retain salt.
If your body continuously produces too much insulin, it can lead to a condition known as insulin resistance. Insulin resistance can lead to severe obesity, and it can make it extremely difficult to lose weight.
Sugar is one of the worst substances you can eat, and I highly recommend avoiding it.
Remember, sugar isn’t found only in cookies, cakes, and sodas. It can be found hiding in places you wouldn’t expect it. Sugar is often found in salad dressings, gravies, sauces, condiments, cereal, and even bread and breaded meats!
White Flour
White flour is another substance that causes blood sugar levels to rise very rapidly. White flour is used in most baked products, as well as various types of breading, and even as a thickener in many sauces.
Like sugar, it is a substance that causes very severe blood sugar spikes, which can then lead to crashes. White flour is one of the worst culprits, so I highly recommend avoiding it as much as possible.
White flour is found in so many different things, it will be difficult to avoid them all. If you’re a huge fan of baked goods, it will be almost impossible to avoid it altogether.
If you aren’t going to cut out white flour completely, I urge you to cut down sharply on your consumption of it. White flour is one of the worst things you can consume, and second only to sugar, in my opinion.
Switch to whole grain products whenever possible. Limit white flour products, and only indulge in them on rare occasions. I like to have cake on birthdays, but for the most part I try to avoid white flour completely.
Potatoes
I know potatoes are delicious. In fact, they are one of my favorite foods. But they spike blood sugar. Potatoes are very high in carbohydrates, and they are “bad carbs” – the kind that raise blood sugar very quickly.
Sweet potatoes, on the other hand, don’t raise blood sugar so quickly. Even though they are technically “sweet”, they just don’t have quite such an extreme effect on blood sugar levels.
If you’re going to eat potatoes, I do suggest eating sweet potatoes rather than other types of potatoes. Not only will they not spike your blood sugar, but sweet potatoes are also very high in vitamins, while white potatoes have very little nutritional value.
White Rice
White rice is another major cause of blood sugar spikes. It is consumed around the world, and people believe that because Asian people eat a lot of white rice and seem to be so thin and healthy, that white rice must be healthy.
The problem is, they aren’t looking at the other factors involved in the health of so many Asians. Asians tend to get a lot more exercise than Western people.
They eat far less meat and junk food. They consume a lot more fresh fruits and vegetables. And they eat a lot of healthy seafood.
Because white rice causes these extreme blood sugar spikes, you should substitute brown rice for white whenever possible. The blood sugar spikes are mitigated by the fiber, which is left intact on the outside of the grains in brown rice.
In most cases, high-fiber ingredients won’t cause the type of blood sugar spikes seen in their refined counterparts.
There aren’t a whole lot of foods that I would suggest avoiding completely. Basically, if a food has little or no nutritional value, it’s not worth eating and should be avoided.
You can indulge in these foods on occasion, but I would keep it to no more often than once per week. That doesn’t mean you can have white rice once per week, potatoes once per week, sugar once per week, and white flour once per week! It means you should have ONE item per week that contains one or more of these items.
And remember to control your portion. Just because you can have these items only once per week does not mean you should eat an entire cake at one sitting!
You should eat when you’re hungry. It’s that simple. The trick is in learning how to know when you’re actually hungry, and when you want to eat because you are tired, bored, stressed out, or just craving food.
This is actually harder than it sounds for many people. After years, perhaps decades of eating for the wrong reasons, you may have to train your body to recognize hunger again.
Hunger usually involves stomach pinches, pains, or growling. If your stomach isn’t growling, you’re probably not really hungry. But this isn’t always indicative of hunger.
Sometimes you may feel food moving around in your stomach from your last meal, and this may mimic very closely the feeling you have when you’re hungry.
Before you rush to eat after your stomach starts growling, wait just a little while to see if the growling subsides. If it doesn’t go away in 10-15 minutes, or if you feel weak or jittery, it’s probably true hunger. If the growling goes away, it might have been the feeling of food being digested.
I suggest eating several smaller meals per day rather than 3 large ones. When you eat smaller meals, you can help boost your metabolism. The more often your body is consuming food, the faster your metabolism will become.
You see, your body will digest food slowly to make the energy it gets from food and the full feeling last as long as possible if it thinks it isn’t getting enough food.
When you’re consuming a lot of food regularly, it realizes that there is an abundance of food, and it will respond by digesting food quickly and giving you plenty of energy.
I don’t recommend waiting a certain amount of time between meals. Ideally you’ll be eating every 2-4 hours, just small amounts, but you may need to eat an hour after a meal, of you may not feel hungry for 4-5 hours. Just learn to listen to your body’s own hunger signals.
You should aim for eating smaller, almost snack-sized meals about 4-6 times per day. Eating three meals per day will mean you’re eating more at each meal.
This can spike your blood sugar and cause you to crash, leading to cravings when you’re not actually hungry.
Eating a lot at one meal can also cause you to experience something commonly known as “food coma”. This is mostly caused by eating a large amount of food at one time, especially foods that are high in refined carbohydrates.
It takes a lot of energy to digest food. It can be especially taxing when your blood sugar spikes and crashes. This causes energy to be diverted from other systemic functions, causing your brain to feel “foggy”, and the rest of your body to feel weak and tired.
While the tryptophan in turkey can indeed cause sleepiness, it is probably mostly the “food coma” effect that causes you to feel so tired and sluggish after a holiday meal. Thanksgiving and other holiday meals are usually very high in carbohydrates and sugar, and people tend to overeat at these meals.
The same thing can happen to you anytime you eat a large meal, especially one that is high in refined carbohydrates.
When you eat smaller, lighter meals, you will feel energized after eating, rather than tired and run-down.
Remember, the primary goal of eating smaller meals throughout the day is to keep your metabolism charged up. The higher your metabolism, the faster the weight will melt off.