Everyday Systems

Hi. I'm brand new to this, just starting today and have one question. I understand that it's fine to have some milk or juice. Can that be between meals or only with them?

Thanks.

I would say only with meals.

As a card carrying hypoglycemic, I had a hard time with cutting out snacks at first. On my bike ride home I would just lose it, so I started drinking a glass of milk after work.

But strangely, after a week or two my body got used to not snacking and now I don't need the milk most days.

My approach may not be for everyone (especially the hypoglycemics!) but I cut out every drink but water and green tea. I find if I have a drink with any kind of sweetness to it, it makes me crave more instantly, plus making me crave the worst kind of all: soda.

I save the soda for my S days, and on my N days I drink water and lots of it. I very quickly go from craving soda to craving water, water and more water! It becomes the most refreshing, delicious drink after a few days of drinking only that. I feel like my body really appreciates the change, and I feel a lot more clear-headed and calm when I'm not downing glasses of fructose and sugar. I never thought as a kid that I'd crave water, but I've experienced this many times as an adult.

Milk isn't an issue for me because I loathe it, so I don't have an opinion one way or another on whether it's a good drink or not. Skim milk certainly shouldn't be an issue, between meals or not.

This is one of those borderline issues that you can decide either way.

I tend not to drink caloric drinks between meals, but I have, and don't count them as failures.

Milk and juice are very caloric, and juice is also very sweet, but they taste very caloric, it's hard to drink them in the astonishing quantities that people drink soda. I have yet to see someone drinking a 64 ounce big gulp of orange juice. So I think the caloric danger is limited.

What about the danger that they'll smudge your clear boundaries around when you should eat? Because they're drinks, not food, you've got some safety buffer there. But obviously there's still some smudging going on, particularly with double smudging sweet juices. Some people may not be able to handle that level of ambiguity, but I think most people will gain far more from having a legitimate emergency crutch to lean on when they get hungry.

So I'd advise not worrying too much up front. Allow yourself a glass of milk or juice if that's what it takes to get you to the next meal without snacking. If this becomes a problem, then reconsider the issue.

Reinhard

Thanks for all the advice. Thinking about it I think juice is probably pushing too far, while milk isn't since I don't really like drinking milk all that much.

But having it as a background option is helpful.

reinhard wrote: I have yet to see someone drinking a 64 ounce big gulp of orange juice. So I think the caloric danger is limited.

Obviously you've never met my brother or I. He, being an Ironman, has his excuse. I have just always loved juice.

No bottle of juice is safe in our prescence. Be scared, grapefruit juice, be VERY scared!!

BTW, on NoS, I have figured out my way around getting 'juiced' all the time. I buy cans of frozen juice and only make one cup at a time. Yea, that's how serious my problem is.

jesslyn

A juicaholic, huh?

Maybe the solution is to apply a version of glass ceiling -- a "shirley temple" glass ceiling.

Reinhard

Actually so far I've had great success with the "Don't be an idiot" part of the NoS diet in the juice department. I just count it as my one glass of allowed non-water/tea drink (my own rule) during a meal. It's going great!

But I like the glass ceiling for its real use. As a 25 y/o college student, I definitely have my share of drinking nights. So far I've been keeping it to 1 beer or wine on NoS days (since I'm not much for hard liquor so much as for sugary "girly" cocktails) and no more than 2 alcoholic drinks of any kind on S days.

Thanks for the tips!
Jesslyn