On plateau and having sugar cravings

Today's weight : 140 pounds.

I am been on plateau since last Christmas. Actually one month today! I took to eating nuts. Brazil nuts, almonds, walnuts.

I am having sugar cravings too. So bad that I am thinking about sugary cookies and soft drinks all the time. This is a horrible. I am not losing weight at all and I am thinking of sugary food all the time. Eating fruits does not help. Banana is supposed to be high in sugar carbo rite? But I still have the cravings after eating one banana. I resorted to eating two teaspoons of brown sugar. Brown sugar is healthier than white one. But note that honey is a better choice than brown sugar.

What is the cause of my sugar craving? I don't eat enough? I ate simple sugar? But I didn't have rice for dinner. I am addicted to sugars in fruits? Nutrients deficiency? I have to find out the cause before I can stomp out my cravings.

Quoted from http://www.mcvitamins.com/sugar_cravings.htm

Sugar cravings

What can you do?

Don't keep sugar-laden products at home. Make sure that you have to drive to the store, so you can have time to possibly change your mind.

Remove corn from your diet. Since much of the sugar in processed foods comes from a corn base, leave corn out of your diet until you have given up sugar for at least two months. If you have been eating a lot of sugar, you are probably allergic to corn. Any form of corn - cornstarch, corn sweetener, cornbread, corn on the cob - can bring on a craving.

If you are tempted to eat sugar, thinking that it will bring your blood sugar level back to normal, don't do it. Instead eat complex carbohydrates such as potatoes, whole wheat bread, crackers, or even nuts. After eating these foods, your blood sugar level will return to normal.

Always read labels - there is always a lot of hidden sugar available. This would include corn syrup, dexatrine, barley malt, rice syrup, glucose, sucrose and dextrose.

Eat protein in small portions. Proteins are broken down into amino acids. This makes possible the release of glycogen (stored sugar) which raises the blood sugar level. If you eat too much, too much sugar is released and you may crave sweets.

Moderate exercise works miracles. It shuts down the mechanism in the brain that controls appetite.

Substitute those things sweetened with maltose, sorbitol or other forms of complex natural sugars, when using an artificial sweetener such as saccharin, or Nutrasweet the body gets fooled into thinking the sweetener is sugar and it produces a boost of insulin. The blood sugar level goes low and you start craving sugar again.

Substitute carob for chocolate, but make sure there is no hydrogenated fat which is difficult for the body to use.

Don't drink soft drinks - sugar free soft drinks upsets the body's calcium-phosphorus ratio. See Soda

Try avoiding any foods that you are allergic to. Do not eat fruit until you stop having cravings. Fruit contains fructose and glucose, which will raise your blood sugar. For a sugar-sensitive person, fruit can change the mineral relationship.

Don't drink coffee, it can lower your blood sugar and you might experience those hypoglycemic symptoms and bring on the sugar cravings. Helpful supplements: Some dietary supplements to curb sugar cravings.

Glutamic acid (the amino acid L-glutamine) fuels the brain. It can curb those sugar cravings. Take 500 milligrams three times a day.

Chromium stabilizes the blood sugar. Eating sugar in large quantities can cause mineral loss, most notably chromium, which is particularly important for blood sugar regulation. Chromium protects from the cravings and overeating that are triggered when blood sugar levels are unstable.

Add extra GTF (glucose tolerance factor) chromium to your supplements

Could it be I am eating too much protein? Another thing to monitor. The correlation of protein in my diet to carbohydrate. I am of mixed metabolism type. Perhaps I should eat less of protein and that will stop my sugar craving.. In the meanwhile, I am going to heed the advice above and get a new bottle of multi-vitamins that contains chromium.

Soy Products, a No-no?

Today's weight : 140 pounds.

Oops I have been drinking tons of soy milk these days to replace cow's milk and it is linked to thyroid dysfunction! I am stopping my soy milk intake.. I have like 1 cup everyday or more if I need a cold drink.

http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=53425

Looks like I should avoid soy milk if I want to lose weight successfully. Soy products seems to be doing more harm than good for the body. No tofu too!

http://www.westonaprice.org/soy/index.html
http://www.soyfoods.com/nutrition/isoflavoneconcentration.html

If I was never fat...

A thought cross my mind some days ago. What if I was never overweight and fat? What if I have always been slim and attractive? Do I attract more opposite sex? Do I get a better paying job because I have more confident and more attractive? You know, being fat is really confident zapping. People who were never fat do not think so. They will just keep telling you that being fat is no big deal. It is what you have inside you that matters. Inner beauty, it sounds like a joke sometimes. That is because they have never feel the disdain people have for overweight people.

The world is fast becoming superficial. People are judged by their looks. Had I had a perfect figure all along, perhaps I would turn out differently.

Maybe I am the one judging people, looking at fat people, thinking they need to eat less grease and move around more. Maybe I would be the one to urge slow fat people in front of me impatiently because they are hindering me. Maybe I will be the one who claims that fat people are stupid. Maybe I am the one who just don't understand how can anyone fat still eat that much food. Maybe I am the one sneering the flabby lady in front of me in the fitting room queue waiting to try on a slim cut jeans(they are only for the ultra skinny). Maybe I am the one discussing with my best pal, how can that fat girl over there snag such a hunk? Is he into fat girls?

Maybe if I am slim and making the above thoughts, actions and statements, I might just be labelled as cruel and an airhead.

Weight loss - slow

Today's weight : 139 pounds.

Back from Blogging Break!

Phewww... the very bad thing about Christmas's and New Year's would be the food that is given as presents to my family. And it doesn't help when the three of our family members have Birthdays in December.. That means cakes! I managed to stay clear from all the treats during the festive season but post-christmas, chocolate giftboxes are going at a discounted price. Furthermore there is a trend of selling different blend of dark butter together in a package. I thought it would be nice to do some chocolate tasting. Ok.. I ended up eating more chocolate than even. But they are dark... Still I have to cut them out from my diet. Dark or milk, they are not 100% cacao. They have to go...

I bought a box of Guylian Belgium Chocolate. In it, are three different blend of cacao butter. 56%, 65% and 70%. The only difference which I can tell between all three is the sweetness. Less cacao, more sweetness. I don't think it should be this way. Will be reading up more about chocolates.

I have my eyes on Meiji's package. 4 small blocks, up to 99%. Wow... almost pure cacao. Heheeheh. By the way, dark chocolate is consider a neutral in Raw Food Diet.

I must say that all these candy, cookies and pastry eating is not helping with my weight loss. Today I will start anew with my Raw Food Diet.

In this new year, I will continue to work hard in my weight loss and learn more about health. The more I read, the more I realised that people are misguided with the partial information they got online. Moreover, don't people remember only part of what they learn? Does this means that the information that we pass on to our friends, relatives are inaccurate? How can we do this without realising? I am sure I am guilty of this as well. I must remember to tell them, read up more about the issue. Even better, if they feedback to us new information, we will be learning more.