This is a  foolproof plan to keep hunger from gnawing away at your weight-loss goals.  You’re driving along on your way to work, to the gym, or to pick up the kids and—bam—it hits you—that overwhelming gnawing hunger. The next thing you know, you’re pulling into a drive through and ordering up a storm. Here at Define Fitness Studio, we believe in news you can use to help you reach your goals!

Tips

• Eat on Time. Scientists say that failing to eat regularly scheduled meals can boost the body’s output of insulin, which can, in turn, increase appetite and slow calorie burn.
• Plan Ahead. Don’t wait until you’re starving to think about food: Tuck portable snacks like jerky, apples or almonds in your purse so you’ll be ready when hunger strikes.

Isn’t it fascinating (and frustrating) how the “I have to eat now!” feeling can hit even if you’ve been making good nutrition a top priority? Experts are discovering that when you eat, what your food tastes like, and even how much you drink can have a major impact on how often hunger pangs strike.

We asked leading nutritionists to share with us the five most common reasons you’re frequently famished, as well as their top tips for maximizing satisfaction and keeping hunger at bay.

1. You eat the right foods at the wrong times.
Eating at different times every day can make it difficult for you to tune in to your body’s hunger signals, says Cindy Moore, MS, RD, director of Nutrition Therapy at the Cleveland Clinic. Haphazard eating can hurt your metabolism as well. When British researchers asked women to eat meals at either the same time or at different times each day, those who followed a predictable pattern ate less and burned more calories than those who ate at a different time every day.

The Solution: Plan ahead.
Reviewing your nutrition journal helps you zero in on when you’re most likely to fall prey to eating at erratic times. (If you haven’t been tracking your food consistently, try doing so for a few days.) Then, says Moore, create a schedule that focuses on eating within 2 hours of waking up and every 3 to 5 hours after that for the rest of the day. If you tend to lose track of time, set your watch or cell phone to beep when you should eat.

2. You eat breakfast, just not the right kind.
Although any breakfast is better than none, the foods you choose can have a major impact on how satisfied you feel for the rest of the day. Take convenient foods like cereal, cereal bars, toast, lattes, commercial  juices and smoothies.  It might appear to be a healthy choice when you don’t have time for a sit-down meal, but its mega-dose of simple sugars and total carbohydrates may have you feeling ravenously hungry in an hour or two.

The Solution: Build a better balance of nutrients.
The key to making your breakfast hold your appetite at bay until lunch is building a morning meal that contains a balance of protein, fat and carbs. It’s important to combine adequate amounts of protein along with some carbohydrate high in fiber, and some healthy fats to provide sustained energy throughout the morning. Opt for quick easy healthy choices such as 10-15 raw unsalted almonds, 2 to 3 hard boiled eggs, and  1-2 cups of raw or steamed broccoli.  These foods are quick and easy to prepare, but if you are really in a time crunch in the mornings, prepare your breakfast the night before.

3. Your diet is clean but flavorless.
If grilled chicken and steamed veggies are staples on your dinner plate, you could be headed for trouble if you’re a hard core foodie, or if you just get bored eating the same thing all the time. We don’t want to give ourselves additional emotional or psychological road blocks to our healthy diet if we don’t have to. We need to remind ourselves sometimes that the purpose of food is to fuel our bodies, but there’s nothing wrong with looking for healthy ways to enjoy our fuel more and get some variety.

The Fix: Spice it up.
Getting creative in the kitchen will give your stand-by recipes new life—and keep you more satisfied in the long run. “Experiment with fresh, flavorful herbs, like basil, gingerroot, oregano, and mint. Also, adding acidity (a dash of lemon juice or balsamic vinegar) and sweetness (a teaspoon of honey or stevia) can make your staple dishes more complex in taste—and more satisfying. Texture is also key: Aim for combinations of creamy, crunchy, and chewy. Try tossing chopped walnuts on your greens or mix  macadamia nuts into your yogurt.

4. You stockpile your calories.
Do you often eat so sparingly during the day that by the time dinner rolls around you’re famished? That strategy can backfire, leading to uncontrollable overeating in the evening. When you skip meals it’s harder to think straight, so you’re less concerned with the implications of what you eat.

The Fix: Frontload those calories.
Eating earlier in the day and not skipping any snacks or meals is a better strategy for most people to head off disaster later on. Even if you’re not hungry, be sure to eat something. Treat yourself the way you’d treat your kids—you wouldn’t let them skip meals.

5. You drink your meals.
With the ever-increasing popularity of lattes for breakfast and smoothies for lunch, many of us are drinking our calories away. But drinking too many caloric beverages can ultimately leave you feeling unsatisfied. When researchers at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, gave study participants 450 extra calories daily in the form of either fluid or solid food, those who ate the extra solids ate less later in the day whereas those who drank the extra fluids did not. The reasoning: Chewing causes the release of hormones that signal fullness, and solid food is digested more slowly than liquids.

The Fix: Rethink convenience.
Slurping down a meal might seem fast and easy, but in the time it takes to drive to the coffee shop, stand in line, and pay for that latte, you could have had something just as quick—and far more satisfying. Try some apple slices with peanut butter or a cup of greek yogurt with some berries. If it’s the comfort of a hot drink you crave, brew a cup of tea to go with your meal.  If you are going to use shakes or smoothies as a regular part of your nutrition routine, make sure they include an ingredient that contains lots of fiber, so that you will have more of a feeling of fullness. I like to add a tablespoon of almond or peanut butter, and some  fresh or frozen fruit to my shakes and smoothies. In other words, focus on food combinations that will get you through to your next meal—no starving required.

June 23rd, 2011
Categories: diet, exercise, healthy choices, healthy living, meditation, nutrition, obesity, personal training, reflection, self improvement, Uncategorized, working out, Workout, yoga . Author: admin

2 Comments

Comments RSS TrackBack Identifier URI

Leave a comment