Another Great Way to Beat the Late Afternoon Sugar Craving

I’m no stranger to dieting, battling cravings, trying to fit fitness into a busy lifestyle, or any aspect of trying to balance personal fitness into my life. If there’s a popular diet out there, I’ve most likely given it a go at some point.

Over the years, though, I’ve learned there’s no short-cut to getting healthy. It takes work and determination has to become your new best friend. It’s a struggle every single day. And you will have good days…and there will always be bad days.  But I’ve learned a lot of things about me and my body and more specifically how to listen when my body is trying to tell me something.

One of the biggest things I’ve had to realize is I didn’t listen to my own body nearly enough before. In fact, sometimes I would actually tune it out, which is counter-productive to getting into shape and in-tune with your body. Obvious, right? But I didn’t realize I was doing it for a long time. It’s about reading the signals and deciphering them correctly.

If you are anything like me, you may have started a gazillion different exercise programs over the years and found that your body is more tired when you add a lot of exercise into your life. That’s normal. So, it’s important to make sure you give your body more time to repair when working your body so hard. When you add stress, physical and mental, to your daily grind, your body is in more need of repair. So, if you were getting 7 hours of sleep before you began your exercise regimen, you should probably bump that up to 8 or 8 1/2 hours until your body has adjusted.

But that’s not what I did.  I was still going to bed and waking up at the same time every night, same as I had done before. And I would wake up tired. I upped my coffee intake, which wasn’t that bad since I drink it black, but the added caffeine would deplete my waterstores. Then, I’d need to drink more water and couldn’t drink enough to overcome the caffeine. Plus, with the added exercise, I actually needed even more than that. It was like burning the candle at both ends. Not healthy at all.

Cupcakes. One of my favorite foods to satisfy a chocolate/sugar craving. Why is it that there are so many holidays where sweets are involved. I say we boycott them all! (Just kidding.)

The other problem I started to encounter is the late afternoon sugar craving.  Don’t get me wrong, I’ve had trouble with sugar cravings before, but these were serious monster-like cravings that I just couldn’t control. Every afternoon after lunch, I would pace like a prowling cat, wandering around looking for something to satisfy my craving. Once I found what I wanted, usually something chocolate and loaded with all the bad stuff and tons of calories, I would literally binge. This is the kind of binging that gives you tons of guilt afterwards. I would feel so badly after, I believed all the exercise I had done was for naught. And inevitably, I would eventually give up whatever program I was on and go back to my usual ways. Defeated again.

What I now understand is my body was trying to help me. My own body was trying to tell me what I needed and I interpreted the signals completely wrong. I was exhausted and water-depleted. My brain was trying to send signals for me to rest and drink more water, and I was interpreting those signals as sugar cravings. Most of the time when we feel strong cravings come on, it’s a sign that something is missing. But the secret is to figure out what it is you’re missing instead of going with your first feeling. Mostly, you body will not need sugar or chocolate, no matter how strongly you feel the urge to eat it!

Now, when I know the late afternoon is approaching, I’m very mindful of my food and water intake. I want to make sure I have given my body the proper nutrients and water before the cravings have a chance to sneak up on me. That’s the first step. Next, when I feel cravings start, I don’t react right away. When I catch myself pacing, I analyze what I’ve missed in my diet first. Then, I evaluate how much water I’ve had and how much exercise. If I’ve exercised a lot and haven’t had a lot of water, I make sure to correct that.

If, after all of that, I still have cravings, which I sometimes do, then I take a nap! This is my latest tool in the battle of the sugar cravings. If I’m having some bad cravings even though my diet and water are in check, then the last thing I go to is my sleep. I’ve found that when I’m tired my cravings shoot up and my resolve sinks to almost nothing. So, I lay down and take a power nap. Usually not for more than half an hour, but it works wonders on my brain and body.  It sounds simple, and it is, once you learn how to interpret the signals your brain is sending.

I’m still no expert on reading my body’s signals but I continue to learn every day. It’s nice to know that my body is looking out for me. Especially when I just thought it was trying to sabotage all of my efforts before. Still, it’s a continuous journey to health. The more I learn, the more I grow…healthier!

To a healthier, happier and longer life!

Making Plans for the New Year

We’re just a couple of days away from 2011 and I’ve been making some preparations and taking some recipe test drives this past week.  First, I made some sugar-free sugar cookies for Santa with my son. I used my favorite recipe with Fructevia instead of sugar. That stuff is really amazing! I couldn’t tell the difference between the Fructevia and real sugar…the texture is even the same. You simply use half the amount that you would of real sugar because it’s twice as sweet as sugar.  The cookies turned out great!

Sugar-free Christmas cookies

And my 5 year old son loved them, too! I made some cream cheese icing, too, using Neufchatel cheese, vanilla extract and Fructevia. Soooo amazing!

Sugar-free sugar cookies with sugar-free cream cheese icing for Santa

I also attempted to make these delicious Peanut Butter Cups yesterday. I’ve been perusing the recipes on Steviva.com and they look amazing. There are several others I want to try. But the Peanut Butter Cups just looked too good to pass up. So, I made them up yesterday. The only problem is the chocolate didn’t stiffen for me…not sure what I did…and they ended up as runny paper cups of blah. So, back to the drawing board for those. I also ended up with twice as much peanut butter filling as chocolate, so I’m going to re-try the chocolate and use the other half of the peanut butter filling. Hopefully, my second attempt will render some lovely little 100 calorie candies with very little sugar.

My plan for the New Year is to re-start the DSP again. I have the 2-week jumpstart guide and I think I will start with that. I want to prepare ahead several things I can use when I have cravings or low days. Substituting Fructevia for sugar will be a great way to make some great alternatives to candy, cakes, cupcakes, or whatever kind of crazy cravings I may run into. I just watched this great video to help me prepare. It’s nothing really new to me, but it’s a great reminder to give me a quick boost!

I also picked up this great recipe for Oatmeal Protein Cookies that I think I’m gonna try to whip up.  They really sound good. And who couldn’t use more whole grains and protein, right?

I got a new bathroom scale for Christmas from my lovely husband. It tracks my weight, fat percentage and water percentage. I really love the gift, but I did NOT like what I saw when I stepped on it. My other scale was really, really old and I think it’s been lying to me for a while. I thought I was around 142-145 lbs. but when I got on the new scale it showed 153 lbs.  And that’s not the worst part…it’ showed my body fat percentage as 39%.  I nearly sat down and cried. I’m so far away from my goal. It was really overwhelming. To say that the rest of my day I was a little depressed would be understating it a bit.

So, with 2011 just around the corner, I’m planning my attack. I don’t really mind gaining a few pounds during the holidays…I really like to have a lot of the holiday foods that only come around during that time.

Christmas feast

Christmas cocktail...amaretto and whipped cream!

But I have apparently done more damage than I planned. Or I was more in the hole in the first place. No matter how you look at it, I have a long road ahead of me.

I’m considering signing up for the “Biggest Loser” challenge on base. It’s a month-long challenge to burn fat and get in shape. We got for ourselves a Wii for Christmas with the Wii Fit and Wii Sports programs. I’ve done it some. But I’m also going to be doing the Zumba classes plus some strength training. I have my first physical therapy session next week, too. So, hopefully, getting up and moving around a lot will help me on my newly committed journey. I’m positive it will go better than the last time around.

So, here’s to a new year with new beginnings! Happy New Year everyone!

To a healthier, happier and longer life.

tak

Day 6: What Does ‘Detox’ Feel Like?

When I woke up this morning, I didn’t really feel bad. I could feel the dull pain in the back of my head and neck. So, I knew I would be contending with that for most of the day. But my spirits were quickly lifted when I stepped on the scale – down 2 lbs! Wow! Very cool…

By the time I got downstairs, though, I was freakin’ starving!! I was practically doubled over from hunger pangs! What in the world? So, I quickly reached for a little cottage cheese cup to abate the awful feeling in my gut. It worked, thankfully, until I was able to get a proper breakfast. I have learned my lesson: no more days when I eat more carbs than protein! That does not do my body good!

But the headache had come back…full strength. I could feel I was in complete detox mode.  I kept wondering if it was from sugar, starches or alcohol or was it from my allergies? It could be any of them. Hard to pinpoint…and maybe it is because of ALL of them. All I know is I sure didn’t feel much like doing anything. But, life keeps going…

I came back from taking Aiden to school and made me a nice veggie-egg scramble for breakfast. Once I ate that my body seemed to want to ‘thank’ me. I started to feel tons better! Seriously.

The headache subsided and my energy shot up. I stayed satiated for hours and forgot to eat a snack.  I looked up and it was 1:00pm…four hours since I made my breakfast. I was actually hungry then so I made a pork steak with applesauce for lunch. It was perfect and hit the spot just right.

The rest of the day went by so fast. I had a volunteer group meeting and got home around 5:30pm. My husband wasn’t feeling much like eating a big meal so I didn’t cook. He (being the Carb Type that I suspect he is) was feeling cereal for dinner. I popped some rolls in the oven for him and some bacon-wrapped scallops in for me. He ended up eating 3 rolls and a bowl of Kashi cereal for dinner…something that I will never do again! I ate 6 scallops (wrapped in lovely bacon) along with some applesauce. Later I munched on some dry roasted cashews. Perfect!

And I still had lots of energy. I wasn’t falling out, splayed all over the couch like I normally would be in the evening hours. Usually Denny needs to coax me to exercise…he’s definitely a night owl where I am definitely not. So, when we have exercise planned, typically it’s me trying to get around it and he brings me back. But not tonight. Denny was the one who was head-bobbing in his chair before 7pm. I asked if exercise was still on the agenda, but I was met with sad puppy eyes, pleading with them to ‘have mercy.’

It’s not all his fault…he’s been having to get up extra early (against his natural rhythm) and be at work an hour earlier. He’s really not fond of early morning hours. If he had a job that required him to work into the late evening hours as opposed to the early morning, he’d be a much happier man. So, understandably, he’s been very tired when he gets home from work lately. And we didn’t get in our exercise…again.

Stevia powder is up to 300x sweeter than natural sugar and doesn't affect blood glucose levels.

I did get my Stevia in the mail, though. I made myself a couple of cups of hot tea and added the Stevia…and it was nice.  I had ordered the “intro” pack that included a bottle of Stevia and a bag of Fructevia (for baking) to get me started.  Last night after Denny brought it home, I tried a glass of ice tea (I had a small pitcher already made in the fridge) using the Stevia and only used about a third of a teaspoon. But oh my gawd, it was way too much! I couldn’t drink it and had to pour it out. That stuff is strong. So, I learned very quickly that Stevia cannot be used the same as sugar or even Splenda. So, when I made hot tea today I used a lot, lot less and it was perfect. Very nice. I think we are going to get along just fine.

And how about those 2 lbs I lost? Hehehe!

To a healthier, happier and longer life.