article "The Science of Appetite"

The cover story on last week's edition of Time magazine The Science of Appetite helps explain why it's so hard to not reach for that donut. When something unexpected (like food everywhere we look) happens after thousands of years of evolution all our hard-won adaptations can just turn around and bite us in the butt.

It quotes from Sharman Apt Russell, author of Hunger: An Unnatural History, a book I'm keeping an eye out for at the library.

From the article:
"Human beings emerged into a world in which food often was scarce, often spoiled and—when we learned the art of hunting—sometimes bit back, making the idea of eating a lot when you could both sensible and necessary. If you never knew when you were going to have dinner again, it was best to gorge when the food was there."

I think the most important lesson here is if you've ever felt like a failure, weak-willed or otherwise wanting when you fall off the wagon. It's not your bl**dy fault! Just start again tomorrow and maybe try to come up with a new strategy to out-think your body by using your intelligence.

Keeping track

Regardless of how you do it keeping track of what you eat helps. Sometimes just pouring out your feelings about food can help you learn why you over-eat and how to avoid it. Writing down what I was going to eat before I actually did resulted in most of my success.

I found some of the best information on why and how to journal your weight loss on The Skinny Daily Post back in 2004.

It doesn't matter where you write it down - I haven't put pen to paper in months now what with this blog and my fitday software. A nice journal is, well, nice but my first journal or body log looked like thisand it worked just fine.

Since then I've had several different kinds. I've used stickers and fancy pens - anything to help keep my interest. I've pasted in pictures clipped from adverts and magazines to help inspire but I tend to end up in front of the computer in the evening so blogging and fitday will do for now.

The book that started it all - for me anyway

Easy Low-Carb Living was written by a couple, (he's a doctor, she's a good cook) who lost weight and turned their health around eating low-carb. They wrote this book to simplify many of the popular low-carb diet plans and condense the theories into their most common, easy to follow principles.

The best part of the book is it's brevity. In only 100 pages the Haakonsons outline the principles of low-carbing, summarize several popular plans (my edition was published before South Beach so it may only be in later editions) then goes on with meal planning (very important) a few recipes, a couple of food log pages to fill in and a very basic carb counter.

Their latest book is Slow Carb for Life which they sell through their web site.







Patricia has also published a cookbook Easy Low Carb cooking. I've got a couple of spare copies if anyone thinks it would be worth the postage. My favorite recipe from that book is:

Chicken with Creamy Mushroom Sauce.
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
2 tablespoons butter
2 cups fresh mushrooms, cleaned and thinly sliced
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
fresh ground pepper to taste
1/4 teaspoon Fine Herbs
1/4 teaspoon cornstarch
1 additional teaspoon Fine Herbs

• Trim any fat from chicken breasts. Place cleaned chicken breasts between waxed paper and pound with rolling pin until slightly flattened.
• Make a spice mixture using the basil, thyme, pepper and Fine Herbs. Sprinkle both sides of the chicken with the herb mixture.
• Melt 1 tablespoon of the butter in a medium hot frying pan. Add the chicken and brown on both sides, approximately 3-4 minutes a side, until the juices run clear. Remove the chicken to a baking dish, and place in a warm oven (250F).
• Add remaining tablespoon of butter to frying pan. Saute mushrooms until tender, approximately 3-4 minutes.
• Reduce heat to medium and add the cream to the mushrooms and stir vigorously, loosening any brown spots at the bottom of the pan.
• Add salt and ground pepper to taste, with 1 teaspoon of Fine Herbs. Reduce heat and simmer for 2-3 minutes. Combine 1/4 teaspoon cornstarch with a small amount of water and add to the sauce to thicken, while stirring constantly.
• Remove chicken from oven and place in the frying pan, for a minute of two, turning to coat with cream sauce.
• Serve chicken and spoon creamy mushroom sauce over each breast.
• Makes 4 servings.

I halve this recipe all the time with no problem. I also find that the cornstarch isn't really necessary or if you have it, a pinch of ThickenThin not starch or just plain xanthan gum will do fine.

Helpful reads

I've been noticing that lots of people other than my immediate family and friends are finding my blog and I'm feeling like maybe there should be a little more substance. Since I'm always offering advice I thought maybe I could include a tag named after everyone's favorite gaming searches - 'hints, tips and cheats'. In this case cheats will probably refer to foods that feel like you're cheating but shouldn't really sabotage your low-carb efforts.
Not everything works the same for everyone but if you keep trying you might just find the one thing that changes how you feel about food. I'll start with a couple of books that helped me.


Passing for Thin: Losing half my weight and finding myself. By Frances Kuffel
Losing weight is really, really hard and doesn't have much at all to do with how hungry you are. I love Frances' voice and her honesty. Her book gave my own weight-loss mission a jump-start just when I needed one. Also since Frances has gained back most of her weight - it's a warning of how not to think about food and eating.

The Four Day Win: End your diet war and achieve thinner peace. By Martha Beck
If you're an Oprah fan you probably already know her. I saw her book in the library, read the jacket cover and yelled "Yes!" (in my head - it's a library, eh?). She seemed to get why so many of us yo-yo diet and her solutions will probably help a lot of people. To get an idea of what the book is about you can read the article "Taking the Weight Off ...Again" online.
I have to admit that while I did bring the book home from the library (twice) and read chunks of it I haven't really followed her plan. The little I did read though, changed how I felt about my dieting and gave me just a little more control than I had before. Good enough.

Head-ology

A few hints from the Cognitive Behavioural Therapist (Hi MB)

• If you snack while watching TV and tend to sit in the same spot - move your furniture around or at least change where you sit.
• Have something to do during commercials, journaling, meal planning, a couple of sit-ups/stretches, knitting whatever keeps you occupied.
• Would you be better off with the TV in the bedroom? (If you eat in bed - forget it).
• Clean up after dinner and turn the lights off in the kitchen. No need to go back in, right?
• Drink a glass of water when you want a snack and wait five minutes before you have the snack.
• Put all your snacking foods in one cupboard and avoid opening it.
• Give yourself regular rewards for small successes.
  
• Put a picture of your next reward on the snack cupboard.
  
• Eat from smaller plates.

I had a great time with the smaller plates. I went out and bought a couple of interesting melamine plates - you see them all the time under my food!
Try Target - red and orange salad plates. The Ty Pennington series at Sears,
Crate and Barrel, Pier 1, heck get to Zeller's or any discount store that carries Corelle and check out some of their funky patterns. If you have a local consignment/used housewares shop there's a treasure trove of cheap single plates and bowls. If you've got money to spare check out an antique shop and buy yourself the perfect piece of fine china. Smaller meals look so much nicer this way.