It's a Slippery Slope....

I had the craving for sweets all day. Went to the gym did cardio and pilates, ate healthy. Really wanted to eat something bad and So I filled a bag of popcorn and went out. Came home took two older kids to dinner (had a spinach and shrimp salad) but then ate one of the kid's sliders, the meat and 1/2 of the bun.

Nothing at the movies but came home and finally caved, 3 small cookies, 2 bites of Hagaan Daz ice cream bar, 3 spoonfuls of pudding. I hope I can get back on track tomorrow...

One of the kids said "I can't figure out why your not thin; On the 2 days you go to school you walk 3 miles a day, you go to the gym 4 or 5 times a week and you eat very healthy." I said, "I'm wondering why as well!"

Anyway, off to bed. Tomorrow's a new day.

See I told you....

I had to travel to a not great area this morning...I was stressed upon arrival so I ate some popcorn, caffeinated coffee, and a small white roll with my corner bakery salad. Now I just want to eat whatever. I had some decaf tea when I got home. It's interesting how, for whatever reason, you can lose the will to keep on the healthy track. Not sure if the stress caused it, the little bit of white carbs over the last few days. Who knows. But it is going to take more than a herculean effort to get myself back on track (even though I am hardly off track). I need to make an attitude adjustment.

Once you eat one thing, something else creeps in...

On the 23rd I ate an unhealthy lunch. I was downtown with my daughter, at her suggestion we stopped in an Italian place, the kiss of death for me. I could have gotten a chicken caeser salad but got calamari instead and minestrone soup. Her pizza didn't come right away, so she ate my soup. I tasted a bit of pizza. I had eaten carrots and hummus for a snack. Not only did I have a stomachache but I was so thirsty from the salt that I couldn't get enough water. Interestingly, once you begin to eat healthy, you are much more sensitive to unhealthy stuff. It definitely makes it more difficult to eat.

So I came home and wanted to just go off and eat that pudding, cookies or ice cream. Not sure why I didn't but I am back on track now.

Also, going off the popcorn....

The Compulsion Was Too Strong I Ate...

Some of that delicious Belgian Chocolate Pudding I warned you about and a piece of pretzel bread. You might say "What's the Big Deal?" Well, there's a couple of things. This will not be enough carbs. One, if I only ate this each day, I would be fine. But I always want more. Two, I think there is a chemical reaction with my body and carbs. I start hanging onto water weight, my mood declines, etc. You may think I am starving on this healthy diet, I'm not. I have been eating plenty. It's just a compulsion. Not sure what triggered this mini-binge. But nothing was going to stop me from eating something in the unhealthy carb category.

I Was Praying There's Be Whoopie Pies on Sunday At Trader Joes!

I did my weekly Trader Joe's Run and was feeling the cravings. I think this is tied into the ole menstrual cycle. Menopause where are you!!! Anyway, thank God there were no Whoopie Pies. I was looking for a reason to get some sweets. What a battle it is sometimes to not give in...I ate so much popcorn yesterday my mouth hurts from the salt. And no, it's not an option to have that whoopie pie or candy bar or cookies. Because I can't have just one. I did have one glass of red wine on Sunday. I felt okay Monday. One or none seems to be the magic number!

Had 2 Glasses of Red Wine Last Night - Headache this A.M.

And yes, I drank water. Did not go to my pilates class! I was able to fit into pants yesterday that I was vacuumed packed into in Florida a few weeks ago. So I am losing some weight. I think I will cut down on the popcorn and try carrots and hummus as my stress, shovel-in-my-mouth food. Still trying to cut down on portion sizes. Feel like I am losing weight from the head down. I remember weight loss as being an all over thing. You slowly shrink...

Anyway, next time I have wine, it'll be one glass...as a white wine drinker, I am finding the red tasty after having gotten of the white stuff.

I am Eating Less! Yeah! Try Bob's Hot Cereal! Become Fabulously Regular!

When I went into the city today for my class, I brought a bag of popcorn and some carrots and hummus. That was plenty of food. I used to bring in my lunch, a salad with meat, cheese and fruit and then have an apple and cheese on the way home.

I am feeling thinner and better. I've also switched from McCann's oatmeal (which is delicious) to Bob's Red Mill organic Whole Grain High Fiber Hot Cereal with Flaxseed. It has 10 grams of fiber. It has a nutty flavor. It is extremely filling and will make you fabulously regular! You will feel so slim.

I took 3 Spoonfuls of Trader Joe's Belgian Dark Chocolate Pudding

Don't buy it, it tasted like chocolate cake batter, a slice or should I say lick, of heaven. It's that time of the month and nothing was going to keep me from tasting that pudding!

Anyway, I am back on track, still have the red wine headache, although it may be PMS, who knows...

Eating way too much popcorn...

It's not just calories, it's which calories do what!!!

Why That Big Meal You Just Ate Made You Hungry

• By MELINDA BECK

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Every few months, a new study purports to prove that a calorie is a calorie is a calorie, and that the only way to lose weight is to burn more than you take in.

But veteran dieters know something that some researchers apparently don't: Certain foods seem to fuel the appetite like pouring gasoline on a fire. Some people find that once they start eating bread, cookies, chocolate, potato chips -- or leftover Easter candy -- they lose all sense of fullness and find it difficult to stop.

That's the concept behind "The Skinny," a new book by Louis J. Aronne, longtime director of the Comprehensive Weight Loss Program at NewYork Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center. He makes the best case yet why what you eat and when you eat it can make a big difference in appetite, satiety and how much willpower it takes to cut down. "It's true that a calorie is a calorie," Dr. Aronne says. "But what that doesn't take into account is how some calories affect what people eat later on."

Appetite Stokers

Some foods make it harder to stop eating:

• Bread
• Sweets
• Juice
• Pasta
• Wine or beer before dinner
• Artificial sweeteners

*Source: "The Skinny" by Louis J. Aronne

Discuss

• Have you found ways to cut your appetite? Join the discussion at Journal Community.

After 23 years of treating patients -- some of it espousing liquid diets -- Dr. Aronne has concluded that refined carbohydrates and foods with high sugar and fat content promote what he calls "fullness resistance." They interfere with the complex hormonal messages the body usually sends to the brain to signal that it's time to stop eating. People feel hungrier instead.

This happens in part because refined carbohydrates raise blood-sugar levels, setting up an insulin surge that drives blood sugar down again, causing rebound hunger. That insulin spike also interferes with leptin, the hormone secreted by fat cells that should tell the body to stop eating. Obese people have loads of leptin, but it either doesn't get to the brain, or the brain becomes resistant to it. "This is not a failure of willpower, it's a physical mechanism," Dr. Aronne writes. The body also becomes resistant to insulin, setting the stage for diabetes.

Other researchers have described similar phenomena. An article in this month's Medical Hypothesis argues that for some people, refined foods with high sugar and carbohydrate content can be just as addictive as tobacco and alcohol.

Eating foods high in protein, vegetables, fiber and water have the opposite effect, Dr. Aronne says. His plan recommends revising what you eat, one meal at a time, to restore your sense of fullness:

Breakfast: Loading up on lean protein -- ideally from egg whites or a protein shake -- in the morning reduces hunger all day long. Eating muffins, bread, sweetened cereal and juice does the opposite. A study of 30 overweight women at Saint Louis University School of Medicine found that those who ate eggs for breakfast consumed 140 fewer calories at lunch, and ate less for the next 36 hours, compared with women who ate bagels in the morning.

Some people argue that they aren't hungry in the morning, but Dr. Aronne notes that ghrelin, the hormone that typically signals hunger, adjusts to habitual meal patterns. After a few days of eating breakfast, you should find that you are hungry in the morning, and are eating less the night before, he writes.

Lunch: Some dieters try to cut calories by skipping this meal. But going more than five hours without food causes hunger hormones to rise and fullness hormones to drop, and sends more of the calories consumed at dinner straight to fat cells. Dr. Aronne recommends starting lunch with a salad -- at least two cups of lettuce -- then more vegetables, and then lean protein. Skip the cheese, croutons, bacon and creamy dressings, he advises. Using vinegar alone will cut your appetite and slow the rise in blood sugar.

Dinner: The end of the day is fraught with temptation. Obese people consume significantly more calories at dinner than slimmer people. Here, too, load up first on salads, clear soups, or high-protein appetizers like shrimp cocktail, then have a lean protein main course. Unlike some other diet plans, Dr. Aronne's program allows a half-cup of grains or a small dessert at the end of the meal, but only if you're still hungry.

Eating bread before dinner makes people lose their sense of fullness and eat more, Dr. Aronne warns. Alcohol makes it worse by lowering your resistance and promoting fat storage.

Snacks: Like many other weight-loss experts, Dr. Aronne believes that midmorning and midafternoon snacks can act as mini appetite suppressants, preventing blood sugar from dropping too low. But the same principles apply: high-sugar, high-starch, high-fat snacks -- including those little 100-calorie cookie packs -- start a vicious cycle of more cravings, whereas fruit, nuts, vegetables and clear soups can halt them.

Beverages: It should go without saying that juice and sweet soda can add hundreds of extra calories a day. A few studies have shown that even artificially sweetened beverages can prompt people to crave real sweets during the day. Cut back on all sources of liquid calories, Dr. Aronne advises; stick with water.

To be sure, if you eat as Dr. Aronne suggests, you'll consume fewer calories overall. The point is, eating protein early in the day may make it much easier to cut down. "It definitely does make a difference," says Ned Sadaka, a New York investment manager who consulted Dr. Aronne to drop 30 pounds that had crept up on him in recent years. He's lost 21 pounds and 5 inches off his waist since January.

Not everyone agrees that consuming more protein cuts appetite. Harvard School of Public Health's Frank Sacks led a study recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine that compared 811 overweight adults on four diets with varying levels of protein, fat and carbohydrate. "We found absolutely no difference in their satiety and hunger levels," Dr. Sacks says. All the groups lost similar amounts of weight.

Other weight-loss experts say that's not surprising, since there were only modest differences in their fat, protein and carbohydrate intakes, and many participants didn't stick to their plans.

Eric Westman, director of the Lifestyle Medical Clinic at Duke University Medical Center, who espouses the same kind of low-carb plan that Robert Atkins made famous, says in his experience, "There is almost complete appetite suppression when you eat protein."

The debate will doubtless continue -- weight loss is an extremely complex area, and not everyone's metabolism is the same. Dr. Aronne suggests trying his plan yourself: "Have 200 calories of egg white omelet or protein shake for breakfast, and then another day have 200 calories of juice and look at your hunger, hour after hour." Sometimes being a clinical trial of one is the best way to do your own research.

• Email HealthJournal@wsj.com

I Had 2 Glasses of Red Wine Last Night...

I have a headache this morning and did not wake up in time to go to the gym! The wine tasted very sweet to me. My husband said it was not sweet. Perhaps I could taste the sugar in it? I don't know. What I do know is that I could do without the headaches. What I like about not drinking alcohol is that you wake up earlier, feeling better and are more productive.

Note: Still had a headache 36 hours later!

Happy Easter - 45 Days

Easter baskets for the kids was a non-event for me. I did take a deep breath into a bag of freshly-opened M&Ms this morning. They smelt good! I went out to eat with the in-laws yesterday and ate pretty well, flank steak with roasted red potatoes, carrots and a salad to start. No bread or dessert. Pellegrino with lime.

I woke up this a.m. feeling like I had a slight hangover, must've been the richer food or some ingredient in it.

Today we went our for Chinese and I ate as healthy as I could.

After discussing with my husband we came to the conclusion that my portion sizes must be too big. I am exercising plenty and except for popcorn my diet is healthy; whole grains, fruits, vegetables and non-fat dairy. I do eat more popcorn than the serving size allows. So I'll have to shave off some kernels....

I dreamt last night that I went on an Eating Binge!

I felt bad about it in my dream and relieved when I woke up that it was only a dream. This is my 2nd dream like this. I wonder if it means that this new way of eating is getting cemented into my subconscious (or am I just stressed)! Who knows!?

Not Getting Thinner - Must Keep Plugging Away

Both my husband and I are surprised at the lack of weight loss in the last 40 days. I am exercising enough: 2-3 yoga classes a week, 2 pilates a week, cardio and weight-lifting.

I am not eating any white sugar or flour. I am not drinking any alcohol. I am no longer eating pepperoni or cheese sticks, etc. I do sprinkle some parmesan cheese on spinach. I am eating nonfat yogurt and non-fat milk, except in my tea I put 2%. I am eating whole grains, fruits and vegetables. I am eating at least 1/2 as much red meat as before and more fish and chicken.

Some possible culprits - marinades on the fish, portion sizes too big, too much popcorn. Too much food. I think I need to cut my portion sizes, eat slower so I can get full, maybe not drink so much tea (about 5 cups of decaf a day) so I can have a couple hours in between each meal with nothing in my stomach (frightening thought!).

40 Days and Feeling Great! Some Insights

How we overeat without realizing it:

1. We do other things while we are eating: chatting, watching t.v., reading, driving. I just got that I am supposed to sit and eat and be focused on my food, that way you take your time and are aware of what you're eating. I just started sitting down to eat my breakfast after probably 14 years of standing.

2. Eat too fast: I am always in a rush and shovel my food into my mouth. I don't give my brain time to tell my stomach it's full before I overload myself. On Sunday I came home from the gym and drank my smoothie. I still felt hungry after 30 seconds and ate a chicken sausage. Then I felt full and fat.

3. Shovel in food when we are stressed: I was feeling stressed yesterday but was out of popcorn. I went to Trader Joe's and bought some, did not allow myself to eat in the car, or the store for that matter, got home, ripped the bag open, poured it in a bowl and shoveled it in. At least it was popcorn and not cookies, or whoopie pies for that matter!

Day 36 - Off Sugar, Flour, Alcohol, Caffeine, Butter & Cheese and I Feel Great!

Another day of feeling great. I just need to get a little more sleep. I have been reading too long at night and am only getting 6 1/2 hour and I am trying to get 8. I've been reading that is the ideal for avoiding weight gain and for mental health etc. I am standing on my own which is what I've been working on and life is not bad when doing it without my "crutches."

I did eat a little more popcorn than usual. I was stressed getting a project done for one of my classes along with dealing with a health issue of one of the kids. For some reason the shoveling food into my mouth and chewing helps relieve stress and popcorn is not a bad choice. I am not eating popcorn and wishing it was cookies!

35 Day Excorcism Was Successful!!!

The food whisperer has succeeded. My craving for the white stuff has disappeared. My body has finally given up the ghost of unhealthy carb cravings! I noticed yesterday that I was not really hungry. I ate my 3 squares with a couple of snacks. I only ate when I was hungry. I noticed I just felt hungry, not that desperate-search-the-pantry-I can't-get-satisfied hunger. Today I felt the same way. I went into The Corner Bakery, one of my nemesises, and got a salad, perused all of the sweet treats and did not salivate. I was hungry for the salad and nothing else.

Normally on Thursdays, I bring a big lunch to my class and eat it around 11 a.m. I am starving at that time. Today I had a small bag of carrots with hummus and some popcorn and that held me over until 1:30 when I had my salad.

I am also feeling thinner. My first thought was, now I can treat myself. Then I remembered this is a life change for me, not a diet. There is no going off and rewarding myself with food. I could reward myself with a nice piece of clothing...

I don't know if this is permanent but I am enjoying it. Perhaps its hormones or a monthly thing but we'll see!