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tundrabird · Post by **tundrabird** » Tue Jul 04, 2006 7:29 pm

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gratefuldeb67 · Post by **gratefuldeb67** » Tue Jul 04, 2006 7:34 pm

Hi Bird

It's not the carrots which are your enemy, it's snacking itself..
Snacking is usually not even accompanied by real hunger and often very mindless, and can be quite detrimental...

So, no, the carrots probably won't kill you and, are a very healthy food, when considered out of context.. But the habits are the structure which we are trying to build..
My suggestion.. Add carrots to your meal

Good luck and have a nice day!
Peace and Love,

Deb

Sinnie · Post by **Sinnie** » Tue Jul 04, 2006 7:46 pm

Hi Bird! It's pretty much what Deb said...It's not that veggies are a problem food and truly something we should be getting more of. I struggled with this issue too - their healthy and basically no calorie so why not? The premise is we are trying to build a *habit* In order to do that all snacking needs to come to a halt as much as possible. Water is great for between meals because it keeps you hydrated (and I've noticed great improvement in my skin). This way you will be extra-sure your meals are well balanced since you only get three of them!

Hope that helps clarify a little.

On a side note, you do have a point. If you NEED something, and the choice is chocolate bar or carrots -- you're right, go for the carrots!!

tundrabird · Post by **tundrabird** » Tue Jul 04, 2006 8:48 pm

Thanks for your replies gratefuldeb67 and Cynthia, I appreciate your comments. (Especially Cynthia's last note!) I see your point about building a habit and that even healthy snacks don't contribute to the habit (the 'Slippery Slope' argument...today carrots, tomorrow chocolate). On the other hand, I can't see any real harm in interpreting the no-Snacks rule as "no bad snacks" especially, as C. points out, if eating something healthy stops one from eating something less healthy. I guess the trick will be not to Slide down that Slippery Slope. Thanks again!

Sinnie · Post by **Sinnie** » Tue Jul 04, 2006 10:52 pm

No problem at all, TundraBird

Think about it this way. If you are replacing snacks with veggies all the time, that in itself is huge progress and 1/2 your weight problems fixed right there!

Good luck and please do stick around.

Cheers

Cynthia

Mia21972 · Post by **Mia21972** » Tue Jul 04, 2006 11:45 pm

Hey Tundra~ snacking is my albatross, as well. I've temporarily replaced "no seconds" with "no stupidity" so I can avoid the I-wanna-snack-trap. I'm allowing myself to eat until I'm full at meals so I get into the habit of not snacking later. Welcome and good luck! ~Mia

ThomsonsPier · Post by **ThomsonsPier** » Wed Jul 05, 2006 9:49 am

I agree in that I see no problem with altering the 'no snacks' rule to 'no bad snacks' provided you can trust yourself to maintain that. If you get in to the habit of snacking on carrots at a certain time of day, what are you going to do when it gets to that time and you only have a large slice of chocolate fudge cake to hand? Your body will be used to an intake of calories at that point, so you may have to force yourself to eat cake (a chore, I know).

I'd try cutting out the snacks first and drinking a glass of water if you feel hungry. If you really can't cope after three weeks, add healthy snacks back in.

Post by **reinhard** » Wed Jul 05, 2006 9:27 pm

Tundrabird,

Healthy snacks are certainly an improvement over unhealthy snacks, but they're still indirectly dangerous (and a tad directly dangerous).
How?

1. They mess up your routine. Habit needs clear rules about when you eat. With these clear rules, habit gets strong and no-s becomes automatic and easy. Without them, it's very hard.

2. Healthy snacks usually wind up making your meals less healthy. Why bother wasting plate space with veggies when you know you can eat them as snacks?

3. It's tricky to keep your snacking healthy. You have to make many more "is this healthy? borderline?" decisions every day. You will probably make more wrong decisions, and even if you don't, it's exhausting to have to think about this all the time.

4. Even if they're healthy, snacks make it impossible to monitor your food intake without paying an exorbitant amount of attention. With just three input opportunies a day, you can *see* excess. When you snack, your eyes aren't enough any more, you need to count.

It's possible to snack and successfully navigate all these dangers, but it's hard, and I don't find the payoff is worth the risk. Thomsonspier gives good advice about using (preferably non caloric) drinks to get you through snack cravings.

I certainly don't want to discourage you from trying "no unhealthy snacks" if it's that or nothing. I just want to alert you to some dangers that you may not have considered so you can make a more fully informed choice.

Best of luck, whatever you decide.

Reinhard

operababe · Post by **operababe** » Wed Jul 05, 2006 11:01 pm

ThomsonsPier wrote:you may have to force yourself to eat cake (a chore, I know).

TP, I like your sense of humour, but you speak the truth. Allowing for snacks does nothing to change the habit of snacking. We know that snacking is to blame for the excess weight many of us here are now learning to lose. It's that slippery slope, and those are 2 eSSes that we can do without.

And then Reinhard comes in with a list of excellent reasons as to why with the No S diet we do not snack on N days. I'm finding that I don't snack on S days either, and rarely does a weekend come where I am indulging in seconds. That's happened maybe 3 times, and all 3 times my seconds were salads. My only S on the S days is one dessert. That's what I love, that's what makes me happy and not feel deprived.

Tundrabird, be careful when you choose to eat snacks....snacking is a habit that can be difficult if not impossible to manage. And you want to manage it, or else losing weight and getting healthy will be that much harder to achieve.

navin · Post by **navin** » Thu Jul 06, 2006 8:10 pm

I can also give a simpler reason why you would want to stick to the rules. Most of the people here, at least as far as I can tell, that have lost and/or kept off weight have done so by following the No-S rules. As the old saying goes, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it".

Really, it's not as hard as you might thinik to give up snacking.. I was faced with a similar dillema about the time I started this thing. I thought I'd die if I didn't make it through work without a snack, so at first I considered trying to find a decent, healthy snack that can replace trips to the vending machine. But I ended up seeing just how bad it would be to give up snacks, so I did. My meals had to adjust, and the first week or so was pretty tough, but I made it, and now I almost never even consider having a snack.. I just don't need to anymore.

cab54 · Post by **cab54** » Tue Aug 15, 2006 7:35 pm

For me, just drawing that line and not snacking on anything at all is best.

I KNOW that I will eventually find the way to cross over from celery and carrots, to nuts (like two huge handfuls of cashews-

)because they're healthy, right? ---

---to a half-sandwich because "it's only a half", to candy and donuts eventually. That's what I would do. You may be better at it.

gettnbusy · Post by **gettnbusy** » Mon Aug 21, 2006 6:28 pm

CAB54 & Reinhard & Deb & everyone else for all that matters are right on the money for me. I think sticking to NO SNACKING AT ALL is best. Maybe one day food addiction will not be problem for us and we can "blur" the rules a bit and know how we will compensate. I think they are right when they tell us to stick to the rules. They are very hard (sometimes darn near impossible) but necessary to break our very bad habits. I am so tired of being fat.