Or you get home, and head straight for the pantry or cupboards that stash all the goodies?

That happened to me today.  At work.

I had a good breakfast, but didn’t bring any snacks with me – normally I’ll have some fruit, veggies or a granola bar.  But I forgot today in a rush to get out of the house.

So it’s 11:00am and I’m starving!  I have my lunch, but it’s too early for lunch.  Luckily I had some soup and had that as a “snack”.

But this shows you the importance of eating less, more often.  First your body needs fuel – no matter what your size is.  When you starve yourself, your body needs that fuel from someplace else.  It will get it from muscle – not where it should go to.  It will get it from fat, sure that’s OK BUT ideally you want to eat so that your body gets the nourishment it needs.

By starving yourself you will end up bingeing (as opposed to BINGing – the act of using Microsofts new Bing search engine) and eating more than you wanted and once you’re done bingeing you will feel guilty… which leads to entirely other issues.

Eat less more often.

Bring some fruit to work, raw veggies even chips (count ‘em out — I do).  You can buy flavored rice crackers now from small bite-sized pieces to the larger ones (and they are good).  Yoghurt is a great snack — there are dozens and dozens of snacks you could have without getting to the point where you’re so hungry that you will settle for anything — which is usually something high in fat/sugar or carbs — all of which you end up craving but in many cases are empty calories.  Meaning you’ll eat it, then feel hungry within 30 minutes again.

Eating less more often works – when I follow it I can have a light supper and when I get home from work – food ISN’T on my mind!

Here is to your health!

Mohamed

Technorati Tags: binge eating disorder, binge-eating, bingeing, binging

• On Day 0, I introduced the topic of 50 Weight Loss Tips
• On Day 1, I introduce the first topic of 50 which was making lifestyle changes to promote weight loss.  The fact is that without lifestyle changes, you will not loose weight.  Loosing weight is more than diets – you need to promote weight loss on a daily basis for the long-term if you want to keep the weight off.  That is where lifestyle changes help you reach that goal.
• On Day 2, I asked you to Break Up With Ronnie, Leave the King And Ditch Those That Are Making Fast Moves On You!  What was it that I was really asking?  Simply to ditch the fast food to start your lifestyle changes, and work your way towards a healthy, maintainable weight.  Fast food contains a lot of calories, in addition there is enough sodium (salt) in one meal to meet your needs for the entire day!  Besides salt, look at the amount of fats contained in most fast food meals and you will see why eliminating this is a must if you want to get your weight down to something that is manageable.

Today is Day 3 of our series, 50 Weight Loss Tips and we will go over effective ways to satisfy your cravings without binging.

Effective Ways to Satisfy Cravings, Without Binging

What is Binge Eating?

I think we’ve all been there.  We get so disappointed with our weight, or the fact that we are not loosing weight that we loose all will power for a brief second… or hour and we eat anything and everything in sight. 

There is binge eating, and something called binge eating disorder.

Binge eating may happen occasionally – however if you find yourself gorging on food regularly, usually in secret you may have bing eating disorder.

According to the Mayo Clinic – when you have binge-eating disorder, you may be deeply embarrassed about gorging and vow to stop.  But you feel such a compulsion that you can’t resist the urges and continue binge eating.

How can you tell if you’re binge-eating versus having a binge-eating disorder?  They are both very similar in nature.  For instance, when most individuals start gorging they will tend to eat 10,000 to 20,000 calories worth of food!  Contrast that to a normal diet consisting of between 1,500 and 3,000 calories in one day.  You can see where the term binge-eating comes from.

Here are some common symptoms of binge-eating:

• Eating even when you’re full
• Eating rapidly during binge episodes
• Feeling that your eating behavior is out of control
• Depression
• Anxiety
• Frequent dieting without weight loss
• Frequently eating alone
• Hoarding food
• Hiding empty food containers
• Feeling depressed, disgusted or upset about your eating

There is some great information at Mayo Clinic on binge-eating disorder, you can view this information at http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/binge-eating-disorder/DS00608.

What has been the extent of your binge-eating?  Mine has typically been a soda pop or two, and perhaps a bag of chips.

Binge-eating, no matter what type is bad for you.

So how do you satisfy those cravings?

First off – understand what is a craving and what is habit.  For example if you’ve grown accustomed to eating a bag of chips 5x per day at set times then stop, chances are at those set times your body will want the food.  This is habit – but will lead to the craving which could lead you to binge-eating.

You don’t want that.

The answer to how to satisfy those cravings is simple.  Eat the food.  In moderation.

I enjoy potatoe chips, nachos etc., but what I did early on was to really control and try to substitute the crunchy, salty snack with something similar.  The result was baked pita.  Add a little light margarine to a pita, some spices and cut it up into bite sized bits then bake.  The result is great!

But pita doesn’t always cut it – so I would buy chips, but count out one serving.  This would be my treat, and it helped me control and restrict binge-eating.

Here are 5 Great Ways to Control Your Cravings:

1. When you feel a craving, try drinking water.  Water is too plain?  Crystal Light is great!
2. Have some soup.
3. Munch on vegetables, green is great but orange works as well (cauliflower, broccoli, carrots etc.,).
4. Fruit is good for your health – apples, bannanas work wonder to control appetite.
5. Pickles!!!  I take 3-5 pickles along with  1/4 cup of mixed veggies (pickled veggies) and some cheddar cheese.  Makes a GREAT snack and cures cravings!

Want more?  How about 10 MORE Ways to Control Your Cravings?  Check them out over at Readers Digest – http://www.rd.com/living-healthy/10-ways-to-control-your-cravings/article27417.html

Here are a few more tips from other readers:

• 50-100mL of 100% pure, not from concentrate, Cranberry juice mixed with 32 ounces of water. Maybe a little bit of lemon juice if you like.
• Peanut Butter and Celery. Saltine crackers, white rice. I remember reading that drinking one glass of water will fill you up because most people don’t realize that they’re actually thirsty vs. hungry.
• A banana and water always does the trick for me. If not a quick a PB sandwhich.
• Distraction is the key for me. When I’m bored I eat. When I’m stimulated and engaged with whatever the task at hand is, I can’t be bothered to eat. Mind you I have found it’s helpful to have some bits and pieces on hand, like nuts, dried fruit or whatever, to stem the low blood-sugar shakes. Given that my doctor (and my wife) keep nagging me about my weight, I guess it says quite a lot about the stimulation levels in my life over the last few years!
• Eat 3-5 smaller meals per day.Chewing gum.

What other tricks have you used to curb your cravings?

If you’re in Canada, you must remember the PARTICIPACTION commercials – well this blog works the same way.  If you get involved and post comments – it entices others to share their experiences which in turn helps everyone else lose weight and learn to keep it off.

I moderate all posts to eliminate the thousands of spam that I get

There are many things that you can do to make a BIG impact to your life.  What have you done?  What will you try to do?  I encourage your participation to help you lose weight and to motivate other readers to do the same!

If you found this post valuable, please consider DIGGing it, STUMBLEing it or promoting it through other social media that you may be using.

Here is to Your Health,

Mohamed

Technorati Tags: binge eating disorder, binge-eating, lose weight, Weight Loss