Killing Cravings

My Nutrition Update: Kill the Crave!

My dietitian, Carol asked me if I've blogged about my eating and lifestyle changes. I've certainly blogged about sports, but not so much about nutrition. I think that what I've come to realize along my journey is that it truly is about balance. I hate to sound cliche, but truly, it is the deal. I think I used to be this overweight craving machine. When I first started my journey the only thing I changed was exercise. I did drop 10 pounds just making that change, but I lost no other weight. Part of me just didn't want to change how I was eating. I loved food, I still do! I love cookies, and candy, junk food and chips, I mean who doesn't? It tastes good and food is everywhere. I used to hang out at coffee shops and eat scones and slug down a million calories in whatever whip cream topped cappuccion I could get. Now I hate caffine and don't touch the stuff and the sugar in a scone makes me feel sick.



When I first decided to embrace food changes, like so many others, I went into some extreme ideas. I went from avoiding fruit because it contained sugar, I thought I must avoid carbs because they make you fat. I avoided fat because fat makes you fat! I wanted to avoid meat because meat can give you high cholesterol. All this avoidance and yet I still was overweight! I felt like I was a slave to cravings. I moved from one crave to the next and finally, I'd find myself just giving up and stuffing my sorrows in a bowl of ice cream. I'd look in the mirror and didn't know the person looking back at me. Then I thought a bit about the brain, God gave me. Something called, LOGIC. All these extremes, clearly this was not the answer, it had to be about balance.



For those who know me personally, you know I'm a huge animal lover. For my own personal reasons, I decided to beome a vegetarian. I really haven't met too many overweight vegetarians and not being a huge fan of meat anyway, it seemed like the right thing for me. That's probably the most extreme thing about how I eat now. Other than scrapping the junk food and caffine. I used to eat cookies and chips and ice cream with no thought of how those things affected me, and practically daily. Now I eat those things only occasionally and instead when I crave sugar, I eat a piece of fruit instead. I've learned that my body craves the very nutrients it's missing. When I crave sugary snacks, I ask myself, have I had any fruit today? Often a piece of fruit is the cure.



I used to worry about how much bread I'd eat, now I hardly give it a thought at all. I enjoy bread and I don't deprive myself of it. I don't treat it like the enemy. Instead I count how many starches I have every day, 9 sounds good. If I find myself craving starches, like breads, I ask myself, have I had enough protein today? Being a vegetarian triathlete, this can be a challenging area for me at times. Sometimes I crave starches when really my body wants lentils or beans, something with protein in it. If I haven't had enough protein that day, I'll have a slice of cheese or drink a glass of milk or chow down some super yummy tofu or eat some lentil soup, sometimes I'll make a protein shake. Oh and the other big one is salt, if I want a salty snack (like potato chips), I ask myself how much water I have consumed that day and often I rectify the issue with a tall glass of the good stuff. And as for fat, I don't even count how much fat I eat anymore, I really don't! I don't deprive myself of it either. I have a pat of butter every morning on my toast and I eat almonds almost every day. But I never eat french fries, deep fried junk or oils really of any kind. There is still that part of me that believes toast is the conduit that gets butter into my body, I really LOVE butter. So it's a daily treat. I'd rather have butter on a slice of toast or drizzled on some popcorn than a bowl of ice cream. So I do. Why not?



This past year, I've really learned how to listen to my body and what it needs. I've found that giving nutrients to my body in a planned way kills cravings. Taking that premptive plan helps me not get into a crisis situation. Also, I realize vitamins are somewhat out of fashion, science is out to lunch on how much benefit you really get from them. But I feel they do work and do help me reduce cravings and give my body the nutrients it lacks in my vegetarian lifestyle. Also, I am hard on my body, I really beat it into submission with all my sports activities. For me, I literally take a fistful of vitamins every day, this too has been the key to my success. Here is my list of vitamins:

Omega-3 Vegan (algae based)

Vitamin D

Calcium

Multivitamin

Chondroitin, Glucosamin (for my joints)

Ginger (for muscle soreness)

Cranberry (for the health of my kidneys).

My blog: http://competingiswinning@blogspot.com