I read a book called "Hungry" by Allan Zadoff a few weeks- it was a story about a morbidly obese man and his journey to being healthy. He was a serious binge eater. One of the things he stated he did that helped him was to classify foods as "red"- those foods which he could not control himself with, "yellow"- foods he could usually control himself around, and "green"- foods he could always control himself around. He made a list that changed over time and just would not tempt himself with the red foods, would sometimes have the yellow foods, and could always eat the green foods.
Last night i binged on pizza. Sure, it had a whole wheat crust, but I ate way too much and felt sooo sick afterwards. Lesson learned: Pizza is a "red" food for me.
Here are the foods that I really don't do well controlling myself around, my "red" foods:
Pizza
Sweet Potato fries
Pasta
Homemade Bread
Cereal
Granted, I don't usually eat many of those things on the Beach, but even wholewheat breads, whole grain cereals, and whole wheat pasta, I eat more than I really should.
Sweet Potato may be a "yellow" food in reality because it *is* allowed on the plan, but I just can't stop eating it when I start. I'll have 2 or 3 servings of sweet potato fries.
As long as I stick to the plan, I'm pretty good about my serving size, and I tend to eat more vegetables than anything else, but still.
I thought it was an interesting idea and it might help people to work on listing out those terrible tempting foods that undermine our progress.
OK, RED... NO NO NO breads of any sort!!!!!! Not even whole grain. RE: because it sabatoges anything I do! I am insulin resistant and found out that I'd be better off not even attempting it.
Yellow, I think more of these as I can be around it outside of the house, but dare not enter them into the house for sake of eating out of "boredom"
With sweet potato fries...I only cook 2 servings for the 2 of us. Otherwise, we will overeat them. If they are still frozen, then it is difficult to overeat. I actually count them out!
Red for me...chips, sometimes nuts-mostly pistachios & almonds, crackers & dry cereal
Red - Anything with sugar in it. I'm a sweet baby and love my sweets and sugar craves sugar so I can get into trouble really fast.
I cannot have cool whip or ready whip in the house, I like the texture and can't leave it alone, so I just won't buy it.
Of course Pizza and chips, as long as I don't start then I'm ok but after phase 1 I don't crave them anymore. I'm shocked that pizza isn't even an issue anymore and the chips really are more about doing something with my hands then liking them.
Bread, typically only if we are at a restaurant. The one time I've been out since I've been on SB I didn't do a very good job of resisting. I made the excuse that it was whole wheat and had lots of flakes of oatmeal on the outside. Hopefully I will do better next time, but as often as we go out to dinner this is probably not a real threat.
Red - chips, chocolate candy(was a yellow for awhile but I've been slipping), anything with high fructose corn syrup, french fries, full fat cheese, salted nuts
yellow - garbanzo & lentil crunchies, other chocolate like sf fudgesicles and unsweetened chocolate almond milk, pizza, unsalted nuts, Peanut butter,peaches,
green - veggies, cereals & grains, bread, bananas, berries,apples
Red french fries, bread of any kind,crackers, pasta, cereal, Granola becuase I will eat it ALL, nuts, cool whip.. because I can easily eat a whole tub, pizza, chinese food!
Yellow ,SF fudgicles, dark chocolate "brownies" yogurt.
Green Salad, any veggies, cheese, dairy, frozen fruit... basically all the good stuff I am supposed to eat.
Good to give this some thought
Green - fruit (most of the time, see red exceptions), veggies, dairy, lean meats, beans
Yellow - nuts (sometimes becomes a red), chocolate (one week a month this is a red), cheese, grains/starches
Red - popcorn, sweets/candy, Wheat Thins, fudgesicles, cold cereal, most Mexican food except healthy versions I make, doughnuts, sushi, peaches and strawberries when they are local and in season, potato chips
Red/Yellow/Green Foods
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