My Path

Was reading a little more of the Weight Loss book this morning. I'm trying to get through it so I can read some other books I have lined up. In the latest section he was talking about Meal Replacements (drinks and soups). I was a bit surprised. In a nutshell, he's for them, at least for people who need to lose weight a little bit more quickly for medical reasons. ... I can imagine people reading it thinking, who wouldn't want to lose weight a little bit more quickly?! Who cares if I have medical reasons or not?! ... To be fair, he does mention to make sure that you choose a brand (he doesn't mention any particular brands) that has been developed by a qualified nutritionist, which is good. Also, he only advocates them to replace meals where you'd just be eating quickly and/or mindlessly anyway - it really doesn't matter what you eat, and on top of that, you'd be more likely to eat something unhealthy. Not meals where you have time to eat mindfully or you'd be having fun and socialising with others. For him, that's meals like breakfast and morning tea. It differs for everyone. For some people, it's that time in the afternoon when you're craving something bad. That's what I can relate to! But is a meal replacement shake or soup the solution for me? (How is soup a meal replacement anyway?! Surely soup is a meal? Anyway...) I guess it would depend on whether a) the replacement has fewer calories than the food I would have eaten, and b) the replacement satisfies my cravings enough that I can resist eating any other foods. As for a), I quickly googled 'dietitian-approved meal replacements' and the one that came up had 'at least 850kj'. Obviously, you'd have half of that for a snack. And that's a lot less kjs than a giant chunk of ham topped with a chunk of cheese, or a chunk of bread smothered in peanut butter, often followed by some chocolates or candied nuts (for 'dessert' ;) ). So that's a yes for a).
As for b) ... how could half a glass of floury, fake-chocolate-flavoured soy protein make me feel more satisfied than the above-mentioned? I just can't see that happening, not in the long term, anyway. I'd need willpower to resist eating more, no matter what I chose to satisfy my hunger. Surely it would make more sense to eat something similar to what I'm craving, like a thin slice of toast with thin slices of ham and cheese, or a small handful of unsalted nuts. One thing I do know is that this is a danger time for me. The only time when I achieve a green tick for afternoon tea is on the weekend, when I'm too distracted to eat anything. I've noticed that often I'll eat something healthy at work, but then when I get home I just want to stuff my face with whatever I can find. It's something that I really need to fix, or else I'll have a lot of trouble losing weight. Often I do this (or do it worse) because I'm stressed. Sometimes just the trip home is stressful! Then I think, well, I deserve some chocolate. It'll make me feel better. Perhaps, if I'm not actually hungry, I need to replace food with a non-food thing that I 'deserve', instead. Is there anything that makes me feel better like food does?! I'll have to think about that one!

I've been told that I tend to over-think things. I certainly do think about things a lot, I'll say that! I can't believe I went on about this so much. But thinking about things and working them out is how I deal with things, and I enjoy writing, so I don't care. Now I want to concentrate on thinking of ways to deal with my cravings and change my after-work habits. Hmmm!

5.11pm - I've been thinking: I need motivation! I need variation! I need something new and novel! I'm a sucker for gimmicks! So I've decided to start a new 'thing' which I'm calling This Week's Focus. Every now and then I think to myself, "I should try and get to bed earlier", or "I should drink more water", or "I should exercise more", or "I should try to resist my cravings". (As I whinged on about earlier today!) But I never actually get around to doing it, not seriously, anyway. I thought if I focus on a different thing each week, it'd be fun. It's not too scary to do something new just for one week, is it? If it turns into a habit, that's great! And if it doesn't, well, it only had to be for a week, so there's no need to feel bad. Perhaps I'll try it again for another week sometime in the future. I made a space at the top of my tracker to put a statement/goal for the week. So this week it's:

* Focus On: Combating cravings and eating a healthy snack after work.
Every time I open it up, there's my focus in big, pretty-coloured letters. I'll see how I go! And if I can do it every day for a week, what will I reward myself with? Not food, that's for sure! ahhahah

This post was transferred from calorieking.com.au