I'm learning to make my sandwiches with one slice of bread, cut in half. But I don't know what to do with the pan of shells & cheese that are left over from lunch besides eat them.
Cindy's exactly right. It isn't necessarily how much bread you have, it's more what type. You can have two bread slices for your sandwich, just use dense whole grain bread. It will fill you up better, take longer to digest, which leaves you feeling "fed" for longer, it won't trigger the fast burn that refined starches=sugars do, so you don't get hungry again as fast.
I've found that while I slip every once in a while and have a piece of cake, or a bite of chocolate, that sugar triggers sugar cravings, just as salt triggers salt cravings. Once I'm eating in a way that satisfies my hunger and keeps my blood sugar level, the cravings taper off. It takes a while to get there, but it's amazing to be able to stand at the grocery checkout, look at the ranked candy bars and go, "...um. No." Like, that *ever* happened before. The word "binge" was invented for my unsatisfiable chocolate jones. Now, if I want cake, I'll have dense carrot cake instead of yellow cake with chocolate icing. It's still cake, but it has nuts and carrot and pineapple instead of *only* flour and sugar. It's satisfying, and in moderation, it doesn't trigger a sugar binge. If I have a chocolate craving, I buy two or three pieces of fabulous dark bittersweet chocolate and luxuriate in every bite, between sips of some red and yummy wine. It's a whole different thing from inhaling a half-pound bag of peanut M&Ms or a Baby Ruth, a Snickers and a large York patty all at the same time. After which I go around vibrating and glowering and snapping.
But, mileage does vary. This is just mine.
No low carb diet. EVER. No way, no how. I love bread too much. And potatoes. And pasta. And Dr Pepper. Take away carbs, you take away all the pleasure of eating, AFAIC.
Substitue Diet Coke for the Dr. Pepper and Susan is me. I HAVE to have carbs/sugar otherwise, like some others, I get snippity.
diet Coke has no carbs. The dietician at the diabetes center said, "I drink lots of diet Coke, don't worry about it. Did you know the aspartame studies were funded by the Sugar Board?"
Heh. The people who were in SF for Nillyfest got to witness me getting my low-blood-sugar bitch on at a restaurant hostess who wouldn't seat us at the *completely empty* tables. Tep + low blood sugar = smiting
I understand a low blood sugar cranky feeling (I don't get them, but one of my best friends-who will be in NO with me-does) but, I feel a little defensive about the hostess. I was a hostess for a long time while in school- even though the tables are empty, they may not have servers for them. They cut down on waitstaff at certain times so that there's an overlap. Waiters who come in at say 9 will have certain sections, leaving one or two open for the people who come in at maybe noon (when those will open up) and then the 9 people will leave at 2 when lunch is dying down and their sections will be empty to be filled by those who come in for the dinner rush. If the place got an unexpected bump from a large group coming in at one of the times when one shift was gone, there may be empty tables, but they're not open in the sense that the section is unmanned.
t /service industry bug
My dentist told me to knock off the diet coke habit. I've been doing really well - one or two a week instead of one or two a day - but it's not easy.
people always say that eating higher fiber makes you feel fuller longer- I don't actually notice that. but i can say that mood swings for blood sugar swings - that I do notice. I can eat some sugar. It is just that I need to think about it. - or maybe more importantly Notice what I eat.
When I had the GD, it helped me establish what an acceptable amount of carbs per meal/snack actually is. I always eat whole grain bread, anyway--but if I only use one piece, I can also have a half an apple or a handful of chips with my sandwich. It's a matter of figuring out what I want to blow my carbs on for any particular meal.
This is my ideal, of course. It doesn't happen every meal or even every day.
Portion control is my biggest battle. I suffer from portion creep. It keeps getting slightly bigger until I realize I've gone over the edge and getting back down is difficult.
Congratulations Stephanie!
heather - I understand you defense. but it was really wierd. Those were the tables we were going to be sat at- but they weren't set - meaning oddly , that there were no menus on the table. We just wanted to sit at them - and said we realized that the the tables weren't set, but we were more than willing to forgive this lack if they would let us sit.
Notice what I eat.
Dingdingding! This. It was the one thing I was SO resistant to, being aware of everything I ate. It's why some diet plans and some doctors have you keep a food diary, and I hated doing that, because I do eat out of boredom or when I'm sad or scared or happy or celebratory, you know, ALL the time. And I hated being forced to confront that about myself.
But being mindful about what I eat also means that I can allow myself to fully enjoy the things I do like to eat. That means eating the stuff I'm meh about isn't such a chore when I think of it as taking care of myself.
Changing my way of eating did require giving up some pleasures. But once I became aware of the difference in how I felt, it wasn't a "sacrifice" anymore.
