Cream in my coffee

sarapilar · Post by **sarapilar** » Tue Aug 31, 2010 3:03 am

I am new this week, and have ordered the paperback book off of Amazon.

Here's my questions / problem: I love cream in my coffee. I drink mostly decaf coffee, but have maybe 5 large cups a day. I've tried to put low-fat milk in it, but nothing beats Half & Half. But, that is a TON of calories.

One thing I am good about, on the N Days, is to avoid sugary foods. So, that's good.

But, I feel that my N Days are for crap due to all the calories and fat in my Decafs.

Also...being in "Phase 1", my weekend binging was pretty bad with tons of deserts and fattening foods. My jeans are getting tight and I want to stick with this, but just scared to gain. I've just lost 80lbs on a strict diet these past 12 months....and I'm so scared to gain it all back.

Please advise!

oolala53 · Post by **oolala53** » Tue Aug 31, 2010 3:45 am

Actually, caloric beverages are allowed only if you are bona fide hungry between meals. This will be a sacrifice for you, I know, but you are going to have to stop having unlimited coffee because it constitutes a snack rather than a beverage. You can have one, but it's doubtful you'll stay hungry after such a lovely drink. So your N days should get more moderate.

RE: weekends, you need someone else to advise. The only time I don't overeat is when I'm busy, busy, busy, which isn't easy for me to plan, to my chagrin.

I still do recommend that you stay with it, though. If nothing else, the discipline of N days will help you if decide later to be more traditional.

sarapilar · Post by **sarapilar** » Tue Aug 31, 2010 3:52 am

oolala53 wrote:Actually, caloric beverages are allowed only if you are bona fide hungry between meals. This will be a sacrifice for you, I know, but you are going to have to stop having unlimited coffee because it constitutes a snack rather than a beverage. You can have one, but it's doubtful you'll stay hungry after such a lovely drink. So your N days should get more moderate.

RE: weekends, you need someone else to advise. The only time I don't overeat is when I'm busy, busy, busy, which isn't easy for me to plan, to my chagrin.

I still do recommend that you stay with it, though. If nothing else, the discipline of N days will help you if decide later to be more traditional.

So, I can have one - maybe with my breakfast? What about using non-fat milk for my other decafs during the day?

Maybe I should have more satisfying 1-plate meals - more fat in them?

On S-Days can I have unlimited cream in coffee?

wosnes · Post by **wosnes** » Tue Aug 31, 2010 4:06 am

How much cream do you put in your coffee?

gratefuldeb67 · Post by **gratefuldeb67** » Tue Aug 31, 2010 4:12 am

just try to use regular milk instead of half and half..
good luck

i wouldn't worry about this at all myself.. i don't think coffee with or without cream constitutes a snack.
enjoy NoS!

gratefuldeb67 · Post by **gratefuldeb67** » Tue Aug 31, 2010 4:13 am

ps.. congratulations on your fantastic weight loss this year!

oolala53 · Post by **oolala53** » Tue Aug 31, 2010 12:06 pm

Go ahead and experiment. It sounded in your first post that you would not be happy with coffee plus anything less than cream, so I was assuming you would go for the cream every time. I also assumed you were having coffee out of habit, not hunger.

Although we aren't supposed to be counting calories, for the record, half and half has 157 calories per 4 ounces. If you're like me, it would be pretty easy to pour that much in a large cup of coffee. One of those a day is no big deal, but 4 or 5? I don't think No S was meant to work with an extra 600 calories a day of beverages. That's as much, if not more, than people eat in snacks. I'd say it is something to think about. You'll discover over time if it is worth more to have the richer additive, and fewer cups, or not.

If the issue is hunger, then your ideas about altering your meals may be the ticket.

Please remember that S days are about relaxing the rules, but if people continually eat large amounts of rich foods on the weekends beyond what they are hungry for, they won't lose weight, at least not without heavy duty exercising. However, if you're just starting out, just go with it. Honor the N days scrupulously. Be hungry for your meals. Keep working on training yourself to enjoy your hunger and then enjoy enough food so that you're not stuffed. Let that work its magic.

Spinningwoman · Post by **Spinningwoman** » Mon Sep 06, 2010 6:52 pm

Hey, no - I thought that didn't sound like anything I remembered, so I looked it up. Page54 of the book says quite definitely that no s does not count drinks as snacks even if they are caloric. The only restriction is on sugary drinks which count as sweets. I drink coffee often, either with cream or as capuccino made with whole milk.

oolala53 · Post by **oolala53** » Mon Sep 06, 2010 7:09 pm

Spinning woman, with all due respect, one person's often is another person's infrequently. I doubt very much you are drinking 600 calories of coffee a day.

The fact that No S "allows" drinks doesn't mean you will lose weight if those drinks cause you to take in more calories than you expend. REinhard has also said that if a person consistently overeats on S days, he can't help them and they will remain fat, even though the rules allow for total free rein in eating.

Reinhard admits that sugar was never his problem, so he many not relate to people who can sit down and eat a whole cake by themselves, which I'm sure some people on this board have done. In the same vein, he probably couldn't relate to someone drinking a half a gallon of orange juice between meals or multiple cups of coffee with cream between meals day after day, month after month. The whole point is not to be constantly thinking you need to take in nourishment and that you, while still trying to be relaxed about it, take note of your true needs.

However, I'd like to hear how things are going for sarapilar. Has the coffee with cream issue resolved itself?

Spinningwoman · Post by **Spinningwoman** » Mon Sep 06, 2010 8:10 pm

In a spirit of scientific enquiry, I just made two 9oz cups of coffee, one with cream and one cappuccino. (I gave one to my husband to drink, don't worry<g>.) I weighed them as I added the milk and cream and in both cases, I calculate that the caloric value was about 100 calories for the addition.

I drink at least 4 of these a day, and my breakfast cup is 12 oz, not 9. Some days I undoubtedly drink 6 - I work from home and love coffee.

I'm not saying that this amount couldn't be a problem. But it seems to me that the time to diagnose a problem and to start adding extra rules to the system is when she has got the actual system down and finds she isn't losing, not in the first week when she's trying to do the really difficult bit of giving up snacks. If a perfectly legal coffee gets her through that stage, that seems to me in the spirit of the diet - it does say that if necessary you should 'pile the plate high' etc to start with rather than end up failing the system.

oolala53 · Post by **oolala53** » Mon Sep 06, 2010 10:38 pm

That makes a lot of sense. Hope everyone who needs to hear it is listeningl You can be sure I'll be mulling it over and seeing how it resonates with me, even at 8 months and counting.

gratefuldeb67 · Post by **gratefuldeb67** » Tue Sep 07, 2010 12:46 am

Spinningwoman wrote: But it seems to me that the time to diagnose a problem and to start adding extra rules to the system is when she has got the actual system down and finds she isn't losing, not in the first week when she's trying to do the really difficult bit of giving up snacks. If a perfectly legal coffee gets her through that stage, that seems to me in the spirit of the diet - it does say that if necessary you should 'pile the plate high' etc to start with rather than end up failing the system.

agreed