Diets, hunger, fruit and butter

joasia · Post by **joasia** » Wed Mar 05, 2008 3:26 am

Just my random thoughts along this crazy journey of finding balance with food. I woke up this morning with the "I will stick to the weight watchers program even if it kills me" mind set. Why I do this I don't know. I guess all dieters crave speed of weight loss. Which never works and leads to binging. But anyway, by evening, while I was walking the dog, I actually raided a orange and grapefruit tree from the grove I was walking past. I ate one grapefruit and half of an orange. They are ripe this time in California. That is how crazy hungry I was. I can't stick to a program that restricts my calories to the point that I am stealing fruit from orchards=). And you know you are hungry when you attack fruit. The more I have battled my weight, the more I realize that small, slow sustainable steps work, period. Calorie restriction makes you, well raid fruit trees.

Anyway, on to thought #2. There was a commercial on tv, black and white with a family eating a stick of butter on their potato, and vegetables (from the 1950s presumably). The commercial was selling some kind of spread made with healthy oils or something, because "today we know about saturated fats". They really treat people as if they were stupid. First of all, there was a lot less obesity in the 50s, that is a proven fact. Second, people ate dinner, probably homemade, and they did not eat an entire stick of butter on their baked potato. The propaganda is thick.

Last thought, a fellow co-worker is doing Jenny Craig and has lost 13 pounds. Today he was eying my lunch like he was about to pounce. And sure enough he didn't last through the afternoon, I saw him eating an enormous cupcake later on in the day.

Post by **reinhard** » Wed Mar 05, 2008 3:13 pm

milczar,

Amen to both thoughts.

1. "Can't stick to it" is THE problem as far as diet is concerned. Losing weight, that's easy. Most of us have done it hundreds of times

2. It's amazing, fat as we are, that we have the gall to be smug in regard to the skinny fifties. I suspect that the generation 50 years hence will be equally smug about us -- hopefully with far more justification.

Reinhard

wosnes · Post by **wosnes** » Wed Mar 05, 2008 4:12 pm

One of the tricks I've used when I'm trying to determine if I'm hungry or just craving something is that if vegetables or fruit or a bowl of soup sounds good, I'm hungry; if only a sweet/salty/fatty snack or treat will do it, I'm just craving something and I can ignore the "hunger." Or, if I'm having a craving, then I should eat some vegetables or fruit first, then if I still want the treat --well, I'll go ahead and have it. I'll probably eat less of whatever because I've started to fill up with the vegetables and fruit.

As for the "skinny fifties" -- I remember watching I Love Lucy as a kid in the fifties and thinking that Fred and Ethel Mertz were "fat". I happened to catch an episode the other day and realized that they weren't fat at all by today's standards! They appear to be more slender than many folks are today.

Dawn · Post by **Dawn** » Thu Mar 06, 2008 4:13 pm

Wosnes's hunger test is definatley something to keep as part of the No-S plan. No one ever got fat from having a light and healthy snack in between their resonable meals. The idea of using our common sense is just too scary somethings. That is one of the things I am looking forward to getting in touch with once the habit if fully established - some good ol common sense about things involving food!

mimi · Post by **mimi** » Thu Mar 06, 2008 7:24 pm

I agree! What a simple, but effective, way to determine true hunger from a craving. I love it! Thanks Wosnes!

swimfit · Post by **swimfit** » Wed Mar 12, 2008 12:33 am

Very new here. I too have had the mindset more that once "today I'm going to stick to WW no matter what" and usually by afternoon I had chucked that thought, and given up. Same thing with counting calories, carbs, fat grams you name it. Tonight at dinner I had the thought to eat what everyone else was since I could have 1 plate. What freedom ----no having to worry about how many points, how many carbs, how many fat grams, now many calories. It was just an awesome feeling to not have the guilt or sit there eating something I don't really want because that was what I was "supposed to have"

Blondie · Post by **Blondie** » Wed Mar 12, 2008 12:58 am

Indeed. Wise thoughts, all.

Although I don't really eat a lot of junk or fatty stuff, there is something so freeing about the idea that I COULD eat french fries if I wanted. I don't know about you guys, but once I got over the anxiety of the OMG-if-I-eat-cheese-I'll-never-be-thin-again and just ate a freaking grilled cheese once in a while, I found that I didn't need a grilled cheese or pizza or whatever else all the time. I've found that, while actually LOSING weight on NoS was slower at first, building the habit (even starting with eating three hefty, heavy meals a day) was soooo important for the mental side of it.

However, I am laughing at the thought of Milczar stealing fruit from an orchard, dog in tow.

Jammin' Jan · Post by **Jammin' Jan** » Wed Mar 12, 2008 1:22 pm

Milczar: raiding the orchard is just too funny!

Wosnes: You are absolutely right about your hunger test. I'm going to remember/apply that.