Breads and pastas

Shull_rachael
Shull_rachael Posts: 430 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Pastas and breads are my weakness and I crave them. What do I do?

Replies

  • nicolemarie__
    nicolemarie__ Posts: 9 Member
    Eat them in moderation! Go whole wheat where you can if you haven't already.
    They aren't bad for you, just fit them appropriately into your diet
  • Shull_rachael
    Shull_rachael Posts: 430 Member
    I'm so bad with moderation. Tips?
  • acheben
    acheben Posts: 476 Member
    Shull_rachael wrote: »
    I'm so bad with moderation. Tips?
    - Only cook a single serving.
    - Put the leftovers in a container in the fridge before you eat your serving.

    Beyond that, you have to want to lose the weight more than you want an extra serving of bread or pasta.

  • DisneyDude85
    DisneyDude85 Posts: 428 Member
    Only cook what you are going to eat. Pre-log. If you log 2 oz of pasta, and that's all you cook, that's all you are going to eat :) I had a sandwich yesterday on a white roll. It was delicious. I went over my cals, but I usually even out by the end of the week!
  • Unknown
    Unknown
    edited November 2015
    This content has been removed.
  • Yi5hedr3
    Yi5hedr3 Posts: 2,696 Member
    Easy - it's sugar!
  • Shull_rachael
    Shull_rachael Posts: 430 Member
    I'm not sure about my protein intake. Thanks everyone for the tips!
  • jgnatca
    jgnatca Posts: 14,464 Member
    I keep my bread in my freezer. I eat a little protein and fat with my carbs so I don't get hungry again so fast. I tell my inner hedonist I will never deprive it of bread, so down, boy. Settle. Food is food, food is lovely, and we will never starve.

    Try drinking a full glass of water between servings. To slow you down, fill you up, and give you time to re-think if you really need to be eating more.
  • Shull_rachael
    Shull_rachael Posts: 430 Member
    That's a good point I eat really fast a habit from childhood I need to break.
  • DisneyDude85
    DisneyDude85 Posts: 428 Member
    I prep most of my meals so everything is pre-portioned. This has really helped me listen to my hunger signals. Old DisneyDude would have eaten pasta til my stomach felt like it was going to burst. Now, I portion everything out, eat slowly and deliberately, and stop when I am out of food. I rarely have had an instance where I felt I needed to eat more. I am re-training myself to listen to my hunger signals. It has really made a difference in being able to control myself when I am eating away from home.
  • Shull_rachael
    Shull_rachael Posts: 430 Member
    I need to do that I'm going to try to find some health recipes online and just have a cooking day.
  • Shull_rachael
    Shull_rachael Posts: 430 Member
    I'm trying to break the habit of eating until I feel like I'm going to bust.
  • IILikeToMoveItMoveIt
    IILikeToMoveItMoveIt Posts: 1,172 Member
    I'm from an old world Italian family and raised on delicious pastas and breads. I crave them often and find I feel fuller longer if I eat a lot of protein and pre-portion pastas. I try to keep carbs down because I will eat all day otherwise.
  • Shull_rachael
    Shull_rachael Posts: 430 Member
    I need to get my protein up I'm sure
  • vivmom2014
    vivmom2014 Posts: 1,649 Member
    You don't need to eat whole wheat pasta over regular white pasta.

    You DO need to work on portion size. Pasta is caloric. But you don't need to give it up - just eat less of it, and fill up on other things - meat (if you eat meat), seafood, vegetables, nuts, dairy... they will help with your protein intake as well.
  • talismanicmagic
    talismanicmagic Posts: 36 Member
    edited November 2015
    I LOVE PASTA!!
    I try to keep it at 50-100g, mixing with zucchini noodles and having a protein with it.
  • scolaris
    scolaris Posts: 2,145 Member
    I only make pasta once a month now. When I eat it I give myself the big 100 gram serving which is very generous. I use the barilla protein pasta with legume flour because I hate whole wheat pasta. I usually pair it with a meat sauce for even more protein. And when it's over, bye bye til next month!
  • Expatmommy79
    Expatmommy79 Posts: 940 Member
    Look up siritaki noodles. 0 carb, and less than 20 calories a bag. They have a bit of a bite and work really well in place of pasta or rice. They soak up all the sauce so you get lots of flavor.

    Practice small changes, open face sandwich instead of 2 breads. Or Cut sandwich in 1/2 and only eat 1 per sitting. Add large sides of cooked veggie or salad to help fill you up.
  • yenny58
    yenny58 Posts: 10 Member
    acheben wrote: »
    Shull_rachael wrote: »
    I'm so bad with moderation. Tips?
    - Only cook a single serving.
    - Put the leftovers in a container in the fridge before you eat your serving.

    Beyond that, you have to want to lose the weight more than you want an extra serving of bread or pasta.

    Great advice! I love pasta also, and I just cook the servings I need. It works well for me.
  • fireguy262
    fireguy262 Posts: 263 Member
    try substituting with other "pasta". my new go-to "pasta" is spaghetti squash. the bought a veggetti and zucchini into "pasta" and it was great....the biggest hurdle is tricking your mind into believing its real pasta
  • VisofSer
    VisofSer Posts: 130 Member
    In my opinion, you can either make small gradual changes that reduce how much and how often you eat until that amount either equals zero, or is a manageable amount; or you can change your environment so drastically that your old options are not available to you, and changing your environment back is too costly.

    The first step for any of it however, is to be tracking what you do and eat. Weighing everything and being strict and meticulous is going to produce the best results for accurately understanding how much you eat, but starting with a general diary is a simpler way to get started and build the habit.

    A tip I find especially helpful is if you find you eat until you are stuffed, you are usually eating far too fast. Put a timer next to you when you eat and set it for 20 minutes. Slowing down gives your body a chance for the signal hormones to say you are eating, there is food in your belly, and usually results in you feeling fuller faster, and thus eating less.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    edited November 2015
    Shull_rachael wrote: »
    I'm trying to break the habit of eating until I feel like I'm going to bust.

    Measure it out in advance. Eat it with a healthy sauce (I always make mine at home and include lots of vegetables and lean meat). Trust that a serving is enough and stop eating rather than eating as much as you think you want or continuing to eat until you feel like stopping. Slowing down is good too, but I found that if I just ate a serving of pasta with an amount of sauce that fit in my calories -- sauces can be quite low cal, too -- I was satisfied. Maybe add a salad too, if the meal seems too small.

    But I find a serving of pasta plus a healthy, low cal sauce can be a quite voluminous and satisfying meal.
  • whmscll
    whmscll Posts: 2,254 Member
    Shull_rachael wrote: »
    I'm so bad with moderation. Tips?

    I have this same weakness for bread, especially real San Francisco sourdough and French baguettes. If it's in the house I find it exceptionally hard to eat it in moderation...I usually end up eating way too much. So I usually don't have it in the house. I consider it a treat on a par with cake and cookies.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    edited November 2015
    Shull_rachael wrote: »
    I'm so bad with moderation. Tips?

    when i make pasta and whatnot, I cook no more than an appropriate serving for myself and an appropriate serving for my wife...there are no leftovers.

    i've also discovered that you don't need a ton of pasta when you have a good hardy sauce or stew to top it with.

    we have pasta probably once every couple of weeks or so.

    also, if you are unaccustomed to practicing portion control and moderation...you'll have to learn them...and like any skill which must be learned, it must be practiced...it doesn't just come to you.

    alternatively, if you just can't control yourself at all, it's probably best just to not eat it or keep that kind of stuff around in the house. this is one of the reasons we don't really keep potato chips and tortilla chips in the house unless we're having guests or a party or something...i'll eat all of the chips...which is ok on those occasions, but would do a number on me day to day.
  • HeidiCooksSupper
    HeidiCooksSupper Posts: 3,839 Member
    Weigh the pasta before you boil it. If you only boil 1 serving, you can only eat 1 serving. Then load it up with veggies to stretch it. Try switching out pasta with whole grains (brown rice, bulgur, farro, etc.). The whole grains are better for you and give that same yummy-starch-filled-up feeling we all love. Sweet potatoes and winter squashes are also great replacements for pasta and breads.

    Sadly, I not only love to eat bread, I love to make it. I also love butter. When I'm keeping track and logging, I'm better abut limiting my consumption. I just made a "new meal" on my food diary to record last night's snacking tomorrow. I hope it has the intended effect. I start using it tomorrow.
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
    For bread I avoid buying the really good stuff, because it's so delicious, and it goes bad quickly... bad combination for me. Overall I just don't eat it much unless there's some at restaurants or I REALLY crave a sandwich or some toast.

    For pasta, I just measure 1.5 serving and only cook that (I had some at lunch actually).

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