Training & Nutrition - Attn chocoholics and sweet freaks

Ok one issue that is holding my weight loss gaols from happening is my personal addiction to chocolate and sweets in general. Every night about an hour after dinner I find myself craving something sweet and had been fulfilling this desire with icecream. Obviously this is hurting my efforts to loose weight. So I have seen these comercials for Nabisco Thin Crisps which they make Oreo, and Chips Ahoy flavors as well as Cheese Nips and a think a couple of others. A bag is 100 cal with 20 of those from fat and none from Sat, Trans, or Polyunsaturated fats. So far I have found that 1 bag of these actually does seem to fulfill my desire. Hope it continues as I am sure these 100 cal are much better than the huge number I was getting from a big bowl of chocolate PB swirl. :)

So check them out if you are like me...that was the point. :D

Glad you like 'em ... cause I hated them.

-mark

Why did you hate them?

Hmm...I hate chocolate but love sugary candy.

Fruit usually satisfies my cravings. If you like ice cream maybe you can try yogurt?

I know it's completely useless to try to give up everything!

Why did you hate them?


Maybe because they were too "dry."

-mark

Hmm. I thought it was just a marketing gimmick, with the portions pre-wrapped. So it actually is lower in fat AND sugar, huh?

I think that kind of stuff is good as you transition to a more healthy diet. It's hard to go cold turkey. I started drinking diet soda, and after about 6 months I stopped having any desire for either the real stuff or the diet stuff.

How about some green tea with a bit of Stevia? That cures it for me...

Stay out of Starbucks. They've got this stuff called Chantico. It's like drinking chocolate fondue.

I think those oreo crisps are pretty good. I also like sprinking/eating cacao nibs with stuff.

I know green tea is good for you, but the taste just doesn't do it for me - it reminds me of chicken soup. Oh well.

Ha, where I used to live people drank green tea all the time. I always thought it was like drinking a tea made from leaves that fell off the tree. :) It is supposed to be quite good for you though. Lots of anti-oxidants or something like that.

Have you tried dried dates not whole. Sweet but without the e's .............

I think my cravings for chocolate is really a craving for the caffeine in chocolate. My cravings for candy is my craving for carbs. I think my mind plays tricks on me, I try to stay busy in the evening. Caffeine free diet pop seems to help a little, but I think it just bloats my stomach until I don't feel like eating anything.

Good luck,

Ebbtide.

Plain yogurt with fruit?

I'd like to throw in that I'm an a-hole because I'm 5' 10" 148 lbs (skinny I know), and I eat a tub of ice cream a week plus other crap. I don't gain any weight, in fact I lost 20 lbs last year because I did alot of endurance training.

I personally believe you can eat moderate junk-food if you exercise enough. But that's easy for me to say, as I have a ridiculous metabolism.

I'd like to throw in that I'm an a-hole because I'm 5' 10" 148 lbs (skinny I know), and I eat a tub of ice cream a week plus other crap. I don't gain any weight, in fact I lost 20 lbs last year because I did alot of endurance training.

I personally believe you can eat moderate junk-food if you exercise enough. But that's easy for me to say, as I have a ridiculous metabolism.


That's a fallacy. You don't have to be fat to have atherosclerotic plaques in your arteries. Take it easy on the fatty foods.

-mark

Not wanting calories or a sugar rush, I used to drink a lot of diet sodas until someone told me how they make nutrasweet and splenda.

Try the "Skinny Cow" ice cream brands. They use skim milk and a ton less sugar, but it still tastes creamy and smooth. It hasn't lost any taste at all. Put it next to Edy's Grand ice cream, close your eyes and taste both, and you'll be hard pressed to tell the difference between the two.

Koffee

The Edy's Light is also good, but has some more calories than Skinny Cow. Actually, the Edy's Light is the best light ice cream I've had. It tastes like the full fat version

you can go to the extreme with edy's. They make a no fat, no sugar added ice cream that I find quite tasty. Chocolate vanilla swirl is the way to go.

Just stop with the ice cream; don't buy it and keep it in your freezer. Ice cream is incredibly high in fat, saturated fat, and it's the worst thing for you. Once in a while, fine.

There are great substitutes for ice cream; I tried SO GOOD, a frozen soya dessert, and it's delicious! ANd much lower in fat. ALso chapmans makes low fat,or sugar free ice cream. I see plenty of low fat frozen desserts available, and many of them are very good.

The Skinny Cow is low in fat... that's the beauty of it! It's like 2 grams of total fat (1 gram of it is saturated fat) per ice cream sandwich, and their ice cream cups have even less fat: .5 g of fat and 0 saturated fats. It is absolutely the creamiest low fat ice cream I've ever tasted. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm :p

Koffee

Cut it with the ice cream already! :eek: I'm doing the LA Diet and that is prohibited in this stage. Just reading about it makes me wanna.....eat some! So cut it out already.

Pierre's make a brand called Slender. The chocolate flavor is oh so good! They make'm with Splenda and it's very low in fat.

My vote is still for the green tea if you are like me and need to loose weight.

Also, fat free hot cocoa may do the trick.

Cut it with the ice cream already! :eek: I'm doing the LA Diet and that is prohibited in this stage. Just reading about it makes me wanna.....eat some! So cut it out already.

Pierre's make a brand called Slender. The chocolate flavor is oh so good! They make'm with Splenda and it's very low in fat.

My vote is still for the green tea if you are like me and need to loose weight.

Also, fat free hot cocoa may do the trick.

Don't click, then. ;)

Koffee

The Skinny Cow is low in fat... that's the beauty of it! It's like 2 grams of total fat (1 gram of it is saturated fat) per ice cream sandwich, and their ice cream cups have even less fat: .5 g of fat and 0 saturated fats. It is absolutely the creamiest low fat ice cream I've ever tasted. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm :p

Koffee
Enjoying your ice cream moment? :D

I haven't read all the posts, but maybe someone can tell me why I'm not losing weight. I've been riding 7 days a week for a few months now. Here's my riding schedule:

Monday/Wednesday/Sunday ride to Baskin Robbins
Tuesday ride to Pizza Palace (all you can eat!)
Thursday ride to Pasta King
Friday night ride to happy hour for $2 beers
Saturday ride to IHOP for stuffed French toast brekkie with bacon/sausage.etc.

7 days a week and I think I've gained weight!

Well, you have to ride more than 10 minutes for 7 days a week! ;) :D

Koffee

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< addicted to clicking.

Whats the LA diet?

This is gonna sound crazy, but try the chocolate calcium chews. Viactiv Milk Chocolate. Caramel is the second best. Strawberry is good too, but this is a chocolate thread! They help with that after-dinner craving. I have to remind myself that they're good for me - I tend to restrict them because they taste like candy. 20 calories and 500 mg of calcium.

"Three out of four people like chocolate....and the fourth one lies."
:)

Whats the LA diet?
I tried it for a month -I'm going to move on to something that may be easier for me to understand and follow. I've met people who claimed they had very good fortune with it. But I didn't get a well enough explanation of the how-to's from the couselor at the office I went to.

The diet itself is actually called the LA Weight Loss Diet. First they have you do a 2 day cleanse then they assign you a number of proteins, starches, veggies, fruits and dairy products to have in a day and lets not forget the nutrition bars they sell.

My problem was that I could not afford to keep a stock of these "nutrition bars" they have them built into the plan. So along with the other items mentioned above, your also suppose to have 1 or 2 of these nutrition bars which have soy in them. They try to get you to finance those by purchasing a supply of them based on how long it will take you to reach your weight goal.

Now, I wanted to make it work w/o those bars by purchasing my own soy products with comparable nutrition information. But I couldn't get an explanation from the counselor -at least not to my satisfaction- as to how to get this to work. I'm sure if I had worked at it long enough, say went to another office and sat with a different counselor, I could have pulled it off. Plus, I did not have to look long enough before finding someone who was having good success with it to buddy with.

But my job is sponsoring a fitness program and they are picking up the tab for us to participate in a diet that is modeled after the Meditterranian Diet! I get to work with the Dr. and author of the diet! He even autographed my book. I'm too excited. This diet means that I get cheese, wine, and whole foods instead of the fat free stuff in exchange for staying away from additives, perservatives, fool colorings and hydro-genated oils. I'm still looking over the material. His book is called the Fat Fallacy, the diet is called "The Path." As I mention, it is basically the French diet or the Meditterainian (sp) Diet. I believe this will work better for me than the LA Diet which is somewhat -basically modeled after the Food Exchange System which I have a difficult time understanding.

It's going to be weird going from fat free milk to organic milk.

I found that trying to give up all the sweets entirely just doesn't work, so instead of something like ice cream or cookies, which are high in everything bad, I'll normally go for a candy bar, which, since it's smaller than a big cookie or a bowl of ice cream, doesn't do as much damage. Sure, it's still not good for you, but all things being equal, it's less bad for you.

I have a HORRIBLE sweet tooth. And like you... I usually tend to have the craving at night. So, I try to eat/drink something that is heathly and won't make my butt big. I like to buy fat free hot chocolate (for the chocolate hankering) or sugar free jello, or fruit. Sometimes I will bake some cookies or something where I "adjust" the ingredients to make them healthier (replace flour w/ whole wheat flour, butter with apple sauce, whole eggs to egg whites... etc) I usually stick to it pretty good, except when I feel like a rebel. Which isent too often...

A bag is 100 cal with 20 of those from fat and none from Sat, Trans, or Polyunsaturated fats.

Just for the info for whoever doesn't know (and not to sound like a jackass). Polyunsaturated fats are good. Polyunsaturated fats are just a more precise term for the type of unsaturated fat (meaning the fat Carbon chain has more than one double bond, hence poly prefix). So they are a good thing.

Oh, and I'll have to try those things out cause I definately need something sweet once in a while.

Sugar free Jell-O with F/F whip cream, almost 0 calories and the same amount of guilt, have two if you like!

I know this may get me strung up by my ankles, but try giving up all forms of processed sugar completely for 2 weeks. My naturopath put me on a 2 week "elimination" diet to figure out some of my ailments (no sugar, wheat, potatoes, corn, caffeine, booze, nuts, etc.), and giving up sugar was one of the coolest things I've ever done (don't worry I've relapsed since). The body gets just as addicted to sugar as it does to other stimulants like caffeine. When you first eliminate sugar, you get the same withdrawal symptoms - headaches, crabbiness, lethargy - but after 3 or 4 days your body recoups and you feel like a million bucks and the cravings are gone. You can still eat natural sweets like fruit or yogurt, but the processed stuff is what commandeers our bodies. It’s NOT impossible to do. Just give it 2 weeks and see how you feel and how many pounds you lose (I lost 7 and wasn't starving). If you saw "Super Size Me", he went through the same kind of food and sugar addiction, and had to keep supplying his body with sugar or else it went into withdrawals.

In addition, as an active cyclist you need to eat a balance of healthy carbs and proteins. One reason the body craves sugar so much is that you’re not giving it the carbs it needs. I saw a nutritionist another time and she quickly pointed out that my body was dying for carbs, which I was sneaking in as chocolate or butterscotch an hour or two after dinner. I upped my healthy carb intake just a little and the sugar cravings went away.

I still eat chocolate and sugar occasionally, but it's nice to not have it control your life or ruin your diet goals.

Good luck!

I had the same problem. I was a chocolate addict. :mad:

Heck I'd hit the baking chocolate when all else failed. I'd keep low fat and carb ice cream around to avoid the real chocolate hit but that stuff has to be made of something and that something ain't likely good for you.

I have gradually weaned my self away from sweets altogether. I eat dried fruit, sometimes with a trail mix combo, and regular fruit. I try to drink whenever I have cravings.

The problem is that we think that with all the exercise we get that we can eat anything sometimes. That really is not the case. Where I am now it is a real struggle to lose weight so I just have to keep to the healthy side of the road at all times.

That's a fallacy. You don't have to be fat to have atherosclerotic plaques in your arteries. Take it easy on the fatty foods.

-mark

Is there any way of eradicating atherosclerotic plaques from the arteries?????