Im so exhausted im ready to get out of the 300’s I weight in this morning at 307 wtf. I was 304 yesterday. I can’t seem to get my head to think the same way as my stomach. It like last night at dinner my husband made pasta with a low fat low sodium cream of onion/ground turkey veggie meal. And it tasted so good that I just kept eating . I had two plates and then snacked on some of my husbands Easter candy with out even realizing it. I felt so guilty last night. Does any one have any advice on what I can do to either get my mind and stomach on track or make me feel full and satisfied?
I've found three things work for me: one is keeping track (in a journal of some kind, physical or digital) of how much I eat, entering the amount when I eat so that I'm forced to confront it immediately and be reminded of my portions; the second is putting the left-overs away immediately so that I have to go to the extra effort of opening the tupperware and reheating the meal to have a second portion; the third thing is forcing myself to wait 20 minutes before getting seconds. I often find, esp. with high-protein meals, that if I wait a bit I find that I'm not in fact hungry and the craving from the deliciousness of the food has dissipated.
One thing that really helps me is balancing my meals around the protein and vegetable components. While I do low-calorie eating, not low-carb, I do find that really carbolicious stuff--pasta, rice, a sandwich on French bread--makes me craaaaaave like nobody's business. I could probably get away with weighing nothing but my carb portions and continue to keep my calorie counts right where they are, because those are the portions that tend to "creep."
Instead of going the low-fat route, try balancing meals using your carbohydrate portion as your "limiting reagent," so to speak. Instead of a pasta meal, have a turkey and vegetable meal with a small amount of pasta as a side. Vegetables are really important both nutritionally and calorically; they pack a big nutritional wallop, take up plenty of space, add fiber, and have fewer calories for their volume than almost any other food.
I do find a big ol' plate of pasta really tasty and satisfying--but I also find that it "tastes like another plate," as my dad says. Making sure that my meals contain a good balance of starch/veg/meat or other protein means that I don't get that big spike/drop pattern in my blood sugar that triggers my hunger. Also, I'm more satisfied with my food when there's more variety on the plate.
Building on Nola's point: when you do have carbs, especially things like bread and pasta, be sure you're eating whole grains and multi grains (this includes brown rice over white rice). These are not only healthier for you, providing things like fiber, but require more work to break down in your body, therefore consuming more energy and helping you lose weight. Also, whole grains will make you feel more full than the more processed kind.
I have learned to eat smaller portions than I used to, however, I am still someone who like a big meal. I try to make meals that allow me to have a large portion while still staying within my calorie goals. I don't do low fat or "diet" foods - fat helps you feel full and satisfied and "diet" foods tend to be higher in sodium and lots of weird chemicals.
One of my personal favorites is pasta carbonnarra (http://www.3fatchicks.com/diet-blogs...ads-carbonara/) with a small portion of pasta and LOTS of veggies. It's got an egg, two pieces of bacon, some parmesan cheese, and a pile of veggies the size of my head all for around 400 calories. It is good as a cold pasta salad as well.
There are some really good recipes in a sticky over in the calorie counters section - ones that allow you to have a "feel full" meal without breaking the calorie bank.
Ferumbras has some really good advice as well!
Another good idea is to brush you teeth after you eat - that tends to make you not want to eat again. Or I have a clementine for dessert - it's a healthy low cal sweet treat that tells me "dinner is done".
Do you know what a portion size is? I got a meal plan from a nutritionist once and it came from the The American Dietetic Association You can visit their website and they have a link ”For The Public” there's lots of information there to read.
Here are the portion sizes. Think of these as universal unit sizes of food that you can begin to measure your food intake by.
Depending on your height and gender one might need more than one portion of each item per meal. You figure out how many calories you want to eat per day then break those calories down per meal. Then decide how many portions or serving per item.
Make yourself a food journal and write down all the calories you eat. You should eat from all the food groups.
Here's an example of the food meal plan I got. I made it into a food journal/diary. You fill in the blanks by adding how many starches (items) and then add up the calories. If you have 2 starches then that would be 160 calories. I eat 3 meals per day because it fits my lifestyle, you can change it to fit your plan.
This is your road map stay as close to plan as possible. I write down the food I eat then I make four columns and keep track of the calories, carbohydrates, fats and proteins. (cal, car, fat, pro) You can just keep track of calories.
I think you'd do a lot better by being more accurate in your calorie counts. To take your starches example: your average slice of wheat bread has 66 calories while a slice of rye is 83; meanwhile, 1/4 cup of cooked brown rice is 55 calories while for white it's 121. All starches are not alike, clearly, and assuming they are will give you a very skewed understanding of how much you're eating. I really recommend a calorie counting program that tells you how much calories are in your basic foods (as well as some brand-name products) and lets your create your own based on recipes and package nutrition labels.
I was REALLY hungry at first when I started my new meal plan, especially in the evening. Now I hardly ever am, even though I'm eating the same. I think a couple of things changed. First, my body adapted. At first it was really fighting the alteration in food habits. That was something I just had to push through for two or three weeks. Part of what helped me was realizing it was not always real hunger but craving. Now I can tell the difference, when I couldn't before. It was really uncomfortable at first, but now when it's cravings I can say, "Nah, not really a problem, body." and do something else, and forget about it. (When it's really hunger of course, I eat. But I know my meal and exercise patterns and when it's really hunger.)
The other thing has been mentioned by a couple of people here. I find that pasta and breads, especially in the evening, make me crave more. When I switched to a little more protein, and protein at every meal, it got much better. I make sure to get at least 70g of protein every day (which is not much compared to a really high protein diet, it's only about 20% of my calories). Also I pretty much dropped pasta/bread from my evening meal. It's mostly just meat and veggies now, and I keep the pasta/bread before about 4:00.
And I do use a calorie counting program, and a scale. "One slice" of bread is supposed to be one ounce, but lots of those "rustic" or bakery breads are much more! And most bagels are way more than what the old serving sizes specify.
I agree with a lot of the comments that mention food diarys. Since I've been counting calories I have become more aware of the recommended portion sizes on the back of packets of food because usually they tell you that 100gs of the product is x amount of calories. So I stick to that because it's easier for me to keep track of.
Unfortunately, when I first cut back on portions I felt very hungry at night a few hours after dinner for the first 5 days or so. I would have a piece of low calorie fruit, like a satsuma, and a hot tea to supress my apetite and rationalise with myself that I'd had my dinner and now it was getting too late to eat. I found the most effective way to combat these cravings were to just ride out the storm, now I get full if I eat too much of something. It's kind of amazing because I never thought I would.
Find something creative to do that takes a lot of concentration. So NO TV etc do something like drawing, knitting, playing video games, Something interactive that draws you in and you will forget totally about food until your stomach grumbles. Then you have to focus on what you will do AFTER eating a small portion, do NOT linger planning your meal a lot or contemplate about second portions. No thin woman gets seconds to a meal so if you want to get there you have to get there.
Focus on the other stuff and make meals something necessary but short and uninteresting for you. You'll feel great when you will start forgetting to have a meal.
What also helps is a VERY strict day plan. Eat exactly the same hours every day and the same calorie amounts on the same meals. Sleep exactly the same time. Then you will get used to your plan easier and not lose to cravings.
I'm going to jump on with Nola and the others who find that watching out for those carbs does the trick. I don't follow a low carb diet, but I usually try to eat a protein with any carbs I do eat. Apparently doing that keeps the blood sugar spikes more under control -- what I know for me is that it helps me from getting out of control hungry/crave-y. I try to mostly choose whole grains, and will do things like eat a HUGE half sandwich (mostly meat and veggies) instead of a mostly-bread whole sandwich. Pasta is a small side dish to my turkey meatballs with marinara and spinach saute. The meal you described of low fat creamy turkey on a big bunch of pasta, yeah, I would have polished off a plate of that and wanted another, for sure! Eating this way, I am rarely craving like a lunatic and wanting to eat everything in sight. I am pretty satisfied by my food and my portions these days. Rarely get that "HELP, I CAN'T STOP!" feeling anymore at all.
I would also just add that back in the 90s, I did a low-fat diet where fat grams was pretty much all I counted. That led to a diet made up mostly of large amounts of carbs -- pasta, rice, etc. I lost a good amount of weight doing that while I kept it up. But I have never been hungrier in my entire life - to the point that there was no way I could have done it forever. The whole thing was just miserable. And not a day goes by that I am not thankful I discovered this way of eating, being very mindful of carbs. It means that I can actually lose weight, eat delicious foods in the right quantities, and not feel like I'm deprived at all.
to you. Keep experimenting and see what works for you. I PROMISE that losing weight does not need to be an experience of deprivation and misery if you find the plan that works for you. Keep reading here and working it out!
Here's the pamplet contents That the nutritionist gave me that might be helpful to you. After reading this is when I started to figure out the nutritional aspects of human diet needs. If you can control your calories you can control your weight. Good Luck!
Healthy Food Choices
GUIDELINES FOR HEALTHY FOOD CHOICES
It is important to:
* reach and stay at a reasonable weight
* be careful of serving size
* avoid skipping meals
* increase you daily activity
EAT LESS FAT
* Eat smaller servings of meat. Eat fish and poultry more often. Choose lean cuts of red meat.
* Prepare all meats by roasting, baking or broiling. Trim off all fat. Be careful of added sauces or gravy. Remove skin from poultry.
* Avoid fried foods. Avoid adding fat in cooking.* Eat fewer high-fat foods such as cold cuts, bacon, sausage, hot dogs, butter, margarine, nuts, salad dressing, lard and solid shortening.
* Drink skim or low-fat milk
* Eat less ice cream, cheese, sour cream, cream, whole milk and other high-fat dairy products.
EAT MORE HIGH-FIBER FOODS
* Choose dried beans, peas, and lentils more often.
* Eat whole grains breads, cereals, and crackers.
* Eat more vegetables–raw and cooked.
* Eat whole fruit in place of fruit juice.
* Try other high fiber foods, such as oat bran, barley,bulgur , brown rice, wild rice.
USE LESS SALT
* Reduce the amount of salt you use in cooking.
* Try not to put salt on your food at the table.
* Eat fewer high-salt foods, such as canned soups, ham, sauerkraut, hot dogs, pickles, and foods that taste salty.
* Eat fewer convenience and fast foods
EAT LESS SUGAR
* Avoid regular soft drinks. One 12-ounce can has nine teaspoons of sugar!
* Avoid eating table sugar, honey, syrup, jam, jelly, candy, sweet rolls, fruit canned in syrup, regular gelatin desserts, cake with icing, pie or other sweets.
* Choose fresh fruit or fruit canned in natural juice or water.
* If desired, use sweeteners that don’t have any calories, such as saccharin or aspartame, instead of sugar.
Healthy Food Choices
(For a 1200 calorie diet, you can add more calories on to fit your diet plan.)
Each day you need to eat a variety of foods. Each person's daily calorie and nutritional needs are different. A nutrition counselor can help you work out how many choices from each food group are just right for you. By eating foods from each food group, you will meet your basic nutritional needs. For a healthy diet, each day you should have at least 4 choices from the starch/bread group; 5 meat or meat substitute choices; 2 vegetable choices; 2 fruit choices; 2 skim milk choices; and not more than 3 fat choices. These choices add up to about 1200 calories per day the choice are in parenthisis.
The food listed in each group are just examples. Many others can be part of your daily meal plan.
STARCH/BREAD
Each of these equals one starch/bread choices (80 calories)
You have _______ (4) choices each day.
1/2 cup pasta or barley
1/3 cup rice or cooked dried beans and peas
1 small potato (or 1/2 cup mashed)
1/2 cup starchy vegetables (corn, peas, or winter squash)
1 slice bread or 1 roll
1/2 English muffin, bagel or hamburger/hot dog bun
1/2 cup cooked cereal
3/4 cup dry cereal, unsweetened, use Splenda
4-6 crackers
3 cups popcorn, unbuttered, not cooked in oil. Use an Air popcorn popper.
VEGETABLES
Each of these equals one vegetable choice (25 calories)
You have _____ (3) choices each day.
1/2 cup cooked vegetables
1 cup raw vegetables
1/2 cup tomato/vegetable juice
MILK
each of these equals one milk choice. The calories vary for each choice.
You have 2 choices each day. (or 2 oz.) Big babies may have 4 oz.
Each of these equals one meat choice (75 calories):
1 oz. cooked poultry, fish or meat
1/4 cup cottage cheese
1/4 cup salmon or tuna, water packed
1 Tbsp. peanut butter
4 1/2 egg whites (76.50 calories)
1 whole egg
1 oz. low -fat cheese such as Mozzarella, ricotta, Feta
Each of these equals 2 meat choices (150 calories)
1 small chicken leg or thigh
1/2 cup cottage cheese or tuna
Each of these equals 3 meat choices (225 calories)
1 small pork chop
1 small hamburger
cooked meat, about the size of a deck of cards
1/2 of a whole chicken breast
1 medium fish fillet
FRUIT
Each of these equals one fruit choice (60 calories)
You have _____ 2 to 3 choices each day.
1 fresh medium fruit 1 cup berries or melon
1/2 cup canned in juice or without sugar
1/2 cup fruit juice
1/4 cup dried fruit
Help !! portion control/over eating!
You'll feel great when you will start forgetting to have a meal.
to you. Keep experimenting and see what works for you. I PROMISE that losing weight does not need to be an experience of deprivation and misery if you find the plan that works for you. Keep reading here and working it out! 
