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virginiapond
virginiapond Posts: 1 Member
in Introduce Yourself
Hi, my name is Virginia, I'm a single mom that works one full time job and a part time job. I'm struggling finding a nutrition plan to help me loose weight that is simplistic, quick to prepare and helps curb my cravings. I find I crave carbohydrates really bad in the evenings, and the evenings is when I'm more prone to binge eating as well. I'd appreciate any recipes or tips from anyone that has similar struggles. Thank you in advance! I'm excited to change my habits to increase my energy and loose weight. I was also thinking about trying a life coach to help me stay on track and help me with accountibility. Anyone have thought on this subject? If so did it help your journey?

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  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 38,182 Community Helper
    Hi, Virginia, and welcome to the MFP Community!

    It's not perfect for everyone - no one thing universally is - but I'll share the plan I used to lose from class 1 obese to a healthy weight in a bit under a year, and to stay at a healthy weight for 6+ years since (after around 30 years before that of overweight/obesity):

    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10636388/free-customized-personal-weight-loss-eating-plan-not-spam-or-mlm/p1

    It's more of a "remodel your eating" approach, not a set of strict eating rules. Like I said, it won't be everyone's cup of tea, but it's one way to consider, that has worked for me (and some others).

    It's kind of common to crave carbs, sweets, or food generally, in the evening. If you think about it, that's when we're gradually becoming more fatigued from our day, more distant from our sleep/rest, and our bodies may crave energy. Food is energy!

    For that reason, it may be worth considering whether there are things causing fatigue that can be attacked more directly, rather than indirectly via food. For example, how's your sleep quality/quantity? Can it be improved? How's your stress level? (Stress is fatiguing.)

    If there are issues there, are there non-food stress management methods you can practice that would help? (Just reducing the stressors is perfect, though that's not always practical. Other than that, people use techniques like mild exercise, warm shower/bath with nice-smelling soap, calming music, adult coloring books, journaling, prayer, meditation, etc.).

    Also, if sweets cravings are part of the picture, a thing that helped me (and some others here have said likewise) was to increase my intake of whole fruit, which is sweet but filling and tends to be more nutrient-dense. I learned this from a registered dietitian, who said that sweets cravings might be a sort of wired-in response to being short on certain micronutrients that for much of human history came from fruits, so came to be internalized as sweets cravings. I don't know about that, but I know that working on the "more fruit" idea for a few weeks, really reduced my cravings for candy, baked goods, and that sort of thing. I still eat those occasionally, but it's not a craving anymore.

    Wishing you much success here!

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