blew it today

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clarrypaul
clarrypaul Posts: 3 Member
in Motivation and Support
well darnnit

About a month ago I weighed 235 pounds and my doctor said that I needed to reduce the pounds now!

About a month later I am on 229 pounds. I aim to get to 187 pounds around the end of the year.

I exercise around 3-4 times a week and generally burn around 800 Calories. I would consider the exercise intense. I would run at moderate pace for 12 minutes, walk for 2 and then hit the free weights for the rest of the time.

I am so happy that I can start feeling the results around my arms, legs and (very subtly) the waist. I can even run 1.5 Miles in 12 minutes! I'm happy with that because about 4 weeks ago, I could barely run 500 yards before stopping from exhaustion.

I use myfitnesspal and it appears that I eat around 1800 Calories per day (about 200 C above my target but 700 C below my daily intake). I would consider our eating habits pretty good. We cook together everyday so we know what's going into the food and when not to put too much of one thing.

The problem is that I am on medication (I have bipolar) and my doctor gave me a drug called Seroquel. One side effect of seroquel is that you could gain weight and feel bloated. Some people I spoke to said that they gained around 5-10 pounds over 4 weeks.

I feel recently that I started getting sugar cravings. For example, I would crave a mars bar at lunch and after dinner I would crave m&ms (for example).

Today, I blew my calories by eating 200G of M&Ms when going to see a movie. It's not something I do regularly but I feel bad about wasting a good week.

What do you guys do when you get high sugar cravings?

Replies

  • NikiChicken
    NikiChicken Posts: 576 Member
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    Cravings are hard. I try to distract myself with something else. Going for a walk helps! The physical activity makes me feel good about myself and then I don't want to ruin my physical efforts by eating the chocolate I was trying to stay away from. Also, the less I give in to my cravings, the less often the cravings happen.

    I also keep really GOOD chocolate around. I make sure it is individually wrapped small pieces. If I absolutely HAVE to have something, I'll break into my emergency stash. Because it is good stuff, one piece usually satisfies me and because they are individually wrapped, it's harder for me to take more than a serving and fool myself into thinking "it's only one serving!"

    Lastly, splurges happen. It's not what you do on one day that makes or breaks your diet. It is what you do for the long haul. If you are good 95% of the time, that other 5% is certainly not going to ruin all the rest of your efforts. The trick is to not let than one day turn into a stream of days, weeks, months or years.
  • ladymnlite
    ladymnlite Posts: 19 Member
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    I just got started here a week ago so I still have cravings for things that aren't so good for me. I try to eat healthy pretty much all day but at least once a day, I splurge on something that I'm craving. Most of the week, that has been a craving for chocolate. My best advice would be to give in to a craving at least once a week so you don't feel totally deprived. Then on that day, do enough extra exercise to make up for the craving.

    It also helps to put things into perspective. M&Ms may not be as bad for you as other things - like doughnuts or cheesecake. Just try to pick the healthiest of the unhealthy cravings that you are having. Look at labels and try to figure out what will satisfy that craving while containing the least amount of sugar.

    Also, don't be afraid to get creative - check the sugar on a single serving of chocolate chips or in chocolate syrup. Items that you usually wouldn't consider eating alone like you would a bag of candy. Maybe a couple of chocolate chips or a glass of chocolate milk might offset the craving while doing less damage than an entire bag of candy would.
  • genkimomof2
    genkimomof2 Posts: 50 Member
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    Four things help me with my cravings:
    1. I log it as if I ate all that I wanted. I have a heart attack over the calorie count, and then think better of it. I will either eat half of what I wanted or make a substitution or do a delay. Having kids helps in this case because they usually want half of whatever I'm eating anyway. Win-Win.
    2. I don't deny, I delay. OK, you can have those M&Ms, but not now, later, at _:__. Usually at least 30 minutes-several hours later. By then I forgot I was craving it. If I am still daydreaming about it, I'll indulge, but only after I've already done #1.
    3. I substitute. I figure out what it is really that my body is craving. Caffine? Unsweetened tea/coffee. Sugar? Eat an apple. Salty? eat a pickle. Crunchy? eat a cracker or rice cake. Et cetera. I also talk to myself a bit. "Ohh, this apple is sooo sweet. i really wanted something sweet and this hits the spot" to remind my brain it is getting what it wanted so it can relax now.
    4. My true weaknesses that I simply cannot say NO to are not allowed in my house. if I'm not at home, I will delay or log and eat half what I wanted ( my kids are happy to relieve me of the other half) while enjoying the half I did allow myself.

    good luck!
  • methodman78
    methodman78 Posts: 126 Member
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    Four things help me with my cravings:
    1. I log it as if I ate all that I wanted. I have a heart attack over the calorie count, and then think better of it. I will either eat half of what I wanted or make a substitution or do a delay. Having kids helps in this case because they usually want half of whatever I'm eating anyway. Win-Win.
    2. I don't deny, I delay. OK, you can have those M&Ms, but not now, later, at _:__. Usually at least 30 minutes-several hours later. By then I forgot I was craving it. If I am still daydreaming about it, I'll indulge, but only after I've already done #1.
    3. I substitute. I figure out what it is really that my body is craving. Caffine? Unsweetened tea/coffee. Sugar? Eat an apple. Salty? eat a pickle. Crunchy? eat a cracker or rice cake. Et cetera. I also talk to myself a bit. "Ohh, this apple is sooo sweet. i really wanted something sweet and this hits the spot" to remind my brain it is getting what it wanted so it can relax now.
    4. My true weaknesses that I simply cannot say NO to are not allowed in my house. if I'm not at home, I will delay or log and eat half what I wanted ( my kids are happy to relieve me of the other half) while enjoying the half I did allow myself.

    good luck!

    lol I do some of these, glad to not be alone in food madness

    Its the person who goes to the shop and buys the bad things, if that is you then leave a note in your purse or wallet, you can still put the bad stuff back in the shop
  • tinak33
    tinak33 Posts: 9,883 Member
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    well darnnit

    II feel recently that I started getting sugar cravings. For example, I would crave a mars bar at lunch and after dinner I would crave m&ms (for example).

    Today, I blew my calories by eating 200G of M&Ms when going to see a movie. It's not something I do regularly but I feel bad about wasting a good week.

    What do you guys do when you get high sugar cravings?

    Well, when I go to see a movie, I will eat before hand so I am full and won't want any "movie food" ( I can polish off a med/large popcorn easy...) OR I bring my own snacks!

    If I am not at the movies, and am craving sugar, or something sweet, I put it into MFP, along with everything else I have eaten that day, and what I was hoping to have for dinner and see how many calories i have or am over by. If it's a LOT, then I will made adjustments or just take out the sweets. Or go for a 20 min walk so I won't feel so bad. hahaha

    But I find the longer I deny the craving, if it's a really bad craving, the longer it stays with me and sometimes the craving gets bigger.
    I have also found that since I have been eating so well, when I crave something sweet like candy or cookies and I actually HAVE one, it doesn't taste good anymore. I have one bite and think "this is gross and I'm not going to waste calories on this...." Toss the rest. No major calories lost, and craving is GONE.


    ETA: You aren't alone in this and we all have our days where we just attack the brownies/cookies/chocolate...
    Don't let the one day of eating a bag of M&Ms mess up your whole week! It's one day. It's one time. Do well the rest of the day/week. I generally eat well 80-90% of the time (depending on how dedicated I feel) and eat not so well the other 10-20%. These past few weeks I have been very good only because I know that next week will be chaos on my food logging and the week after will be about 50% chaos. haha
  • clarrypaul
    clarrypaul Posts: 3 Member
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    thanks everyone. Just woke up (in Australia) and going for a long bike ride. Thankfully the cravings stopped. Back to the gym this afternoon!

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