Dieting and bored out of my mind

[GlorifiedRice]

Hi

Im on that South Beach diet. Ive gotten thru Phase 1 and plan to stay on it 2 more weeks,

But Im bored silly!

Does anyone know of a Gourmet Diet or Exotic Food Diet or Ethnic Food Diet?

[lesliec]

Let's invent a Foie Gras on Toasted Sourdough diet. Accompanied by Madiran wine, 'cos that's good for you

[pastrygirl]

What is boring you? Need more flavor? More variety? Lots of ways to add flavor without much carbs or fat - Kimchi, lime pickle, dijon mustard, hot sauce, vinegar, lemon juice, herbs, spices...

[gfweb]

Gin and diet tonic diet. Eat any non-carb you want and wash it down with at G+T. Everything tastes better.

[prasantrin]

Stop "dieting". Eat smaller portions and less "crappy" food.

I have a hard time understanding why North Americans insist on dieting. There are many cultures in this world that eat far tastier food than the average American / Canadian yet the people of that culture are generally healthy and not overweight. Japan, Thailand, China, Korea, France, Italy ...

From my experience, I know I can follow a typical Japanese diet (which does not mean eating Japanese food exclusively, but as a person in Japan eats) in Japanese portion sizes and lose weight (every time I returned to Japan, I would lose 10 pounds and maintain that loss through my stay).

[PSmith]

Not sure what the "South Beach" diet is. Will need to Google it.

I have struggled with my weight for the last 20 years. I tend to over eat when I am bored or when I the weather is cold. Plus I only have to read the words "a la carte" on the menu and I put on 2-3 lbs.

Recently I have had success doing the 2/5 diet. For two days of the week I only have 600 calories and then I eat "normally" for the other five days. Normal does mean low sugar, low fat and restricted alcohol.

One thing I have discovered is that my taste buds are heightened during the fasting days and I have found that I now cope better with hunger pangs too. Now if I am eating out somewhere in the evening, I will only have a banana, soup and a orange during the day and I find that my meal tastes amazing.

[dcarch]

Stop "dieting". Eat smaller portions and less "crappy" food.

I have a hard time understanding why North Americans insist on dieting. There are many cultures in this world that eat far tastier food than the average American / Canadian yet the people of that culture are generally healthy and not overweight. Japan, Thailand, China, Korea, France, Italy ...

From my experience, I know I can follow a typical Japanese diet (which does not mean eating Japanese food exclusively, but as a person in Japan eats) in Japanese portion sizes and lose weight (every time I returned to Japan, I would lose 10 pounds and maintain that loss through my stay).

If I have a really good way to lose weight, I would be wealthier than Bill Gates. In general, I am in agreement with prasantrin.

Since this is not a thread about the science of dieting, I will try to stay on topic.

Go to any Asian ethnic food store, Chinese, Japanese, India, Korean ----- and buy up lots of stuff to try out. Things you don't know what they are, just cook and eat. You will like many of them, and those you don't like, you will after trying a few times.

dcarch

[Mjx]

Echoing pastrygirl, what's being boring (just to establish a baseline for any suggestions)?

[Porthos]

I know you asked about other diets but I'd like to address what I do to make South Beach work for me.

I/m back on South Beach (mostly). The biggest manner in which I don't comply is that I flat refuse to eat low-fat cheese. That is followed by eating more nuts in a day than Dr A suggests. I've dropped 27 pounds since late January doing it this way. While he says not to weigh your food, I weigh my proteins because I know what will satisfy me and leave me feeling sated after the meal without over-doing it. I also weigh my nuts because for some reason I can't seem to get the quantity I want just by looking. At work I have a digital scale I bought at Costco put away in my desk to help keep my on track when eating nuts.

With that intro to my feelings about adhering to the diet here is what works for me. I enjoy fresh veggies (carrots, bells peppers, celery and sugar snap peas) and make them part of my morning and afternoon snack. BUT ... I also have about an ounce of cheese, an ounce of lunchmeat or about 3/4 ounce of nuts. I'm not doing this diet for my cardiac health, by the way, and that is why I am a bit more liberal with the non-lean meat. Anyway by having a small bit of different protein or nut sources with my snacks I have variety. Back to the veggies - I keep a jar of salsa around and use that as a legal dip to add variety.

I love salads and typically both my lunch and dinner is salad and a protein - most likely chicken - second choice for variety is fish. By varying the dressing and ingredients for the salad and seasoning the chicken or fish different ways I get a variety of flavors over the week. For my carb (I only do my carbs at dinnertime) I will have a slice of sourdough or whole grain bread with butter.

Breakfast is the hardest for doing different things. My "problem" is that I can eat my scrambled eggs and side of bacon 5 days a week and enjoy it. Not much help there.

I keep Ghiradeli dark chocolate squares around for one kind of dessert, I have learned how to take 3 or 4 small bites of that precious square instead of my old way of just stuffing the whole thing in at once. I also have girl scout thin mints in the freezer. 2 of those consitute a dessert for me. Also, Peanut M&Ms are legal if eaten in controlled quantities. I tried a couple of the dessert recipes in the book and felt like I was eating diet desserts - not real desserts - and feeling like I'm eating diet food puts me off big time.

One thing I will observe is that I don't use the recipes in the book. I've been cooking for 45 years and the principles laid out in the book are easily followed by just making a few adjustments.

I don't know if any of this helps but there's my input.

Not South Beach but it has helped me with how much liquid to get into my system each day (something I found years ago somewhere on the net. Take your weight in pounds, divide by 3, and this is how many ounces of liquids per day you are advised to consume. This is only something I read and not a hard-and-fast statement of how to do it.

Edited April 16, 2013 by Porthos (log)

[Dave Hatfield]

Try the Montignac diet. (Google it for details)

Very much like Atkins, but a sensible Atkins.

At heart no simple carbs, eat everything else.

Its worked for me for nearly 20 years and I'm a guy who likes to cook & eat.

[heidih]

Try the Montignac diet. (Google it for details)

Very much like Atkins, but a sensible Atkins.

At heart no simple carbs, eat everything else.

Its worked for me for nearly 20 years and I'm a guy who likes to cook & eat.

We had an in depth look at that style of eating here

[GlorifiedRice]

Echoing pastrygirl, what's being boring (just to establish a baseline for any suggestions)?

No carbs, no fruit...

Just meat,veg, cheese and ricotta...

You are supposed to lose cravings for carbs after 14 days of this, but I havent so Im still on Phase 1 ...

In compensation Im overeating in other areas, like last night I ate the entire baking dish of roasted veg..

Im a mess...cant wait till May when I see the nutritionist...

[Bernie]

Host's note: this post was moved from the Dinner 2021 topic, so the diet discussion can find new life.

 

 

A better way to diet.

Select a time slot to eat. Same time slot every day

6 hour slot works for me but 8 hour slot is easier.

During the time slot, eat and drink anything you want, as much as you want.

Outside that slot nothing but water! No biscuits, snacks, no sugar in tea or coffee.....

 

For a 6 hour slot you should lose about 5lbs a month, 8 hour slot about 3 lbs a month.

 

Strangely you will find after the initial gouging (you will feel hungry outside the slot) you will moderate your intake.

 

You can drop the slot to 4 hours but that makes it hard on everyone else and you are going to be irritable and obnoxious to everyone around you for the first couple of weeks..

 

My doctor recommended this method as far more reliable than restricting intake.

Edited July 7, 2021 by Smithy
Added host's note (log)

[weinoo]

10 hours ago, Bernie said:

A better way to diet.

Select a time slot to eat. Same time slot every day

6 hour slot works for me but 8 hour slot is easier.

During the time slot, eat and drink anything you want, as much as you want.

Outside that slot nothing but water! No biscuits, snacks, no sugar in tea or coffee.....

 

This doctor makes some of the quacks I've seen over the years seem positively brilliant.

 

Just eat less, and get off your asses.

[heidih]

My sister and her hubby did that for a while. She is a walker and he normally is active but awaiting knee surgery so even with physio he put on a few. It worked for them because it set limits that were clear and they could fit it into work schedule. The biggest change for my sister was cutting out the lattes she drinks all day. The owner of the coffee bar in her office building was even bringing them up to her and handing her the 1st of morn as she walked to elevators.

[Margaret Pilgrim]

Not prescribing this, but a friend who wears a size 0 has a simple regime.   She eats ONLY when she is hungry, never just because it is some normal meal time.   That means she seldom has more than tea in the morning, eats a normal lunch and a late dinner, or sometimes a very light dinner.  She has a very healthy appetite when she does eat, and shies away from nothing.   She makes me aware of the number of times I eat when I'm really not that hungry but just because it seems like mealtime and/or the food is there.   

[heidih]

17 minutes ago, Margaret Pilgrim said:

Not prescribing this, but a friend who wears a size 0 has a simple regime.   She eats ONLY when she is hungry, never just because it is some normal meal time.   

Since I cook and eat to what suits me that is what I tend to do. I get lectured about it when the 99 year old is around. My solution - never eat at table with him. He seems to have forgotten that I had an eating disorder of traumatic severity. @mizducky took us through her changed food plan and cooked up some very flavorful, def not boring things.  https://forums.egullet.org/topic/88713-eg-foodblog-mizducky-the-tightwad-gourmand-shapes-up/

 

[Bernie]

12 hours ago, weinoo said:

 

This doctor makes some of the quacks I've seen over the years seem positively brilliant.

 

Just eat less, and get off your asses.

The reality is that just about MOST diets fail in the long term, unless you stay on it forever. Even then the body will readjust its long term chemical processes to cope with the change. Weight starts to creep up.

You are dead right  @weinoo Basically you need to eat less or exercise more

Fuel in fuel out.

Easier said than done for most people.

Trouble is by exercising more you will usually increase your appetite. It is just the way the brain works. Habit brain says " more exercise, more volume more snacks more often"

 

Surprising humans cannot re hydrate just drinking water, we obtain ~40% of our water needs from carbohydrates. If you are on a diet low on carbohydrates, the body will convert some of the fats & protein into carbohydrates. (your personal fat reserves (i keep mine round my kidneys and belly ☹️) and your muscles when that runs out)

One of the reasons exercise stirs up the appetite. It makes you thirsty (sweat, increase respiration) which causes the brain to require carbohydrates.

Most will remember days of heavy exercise or work where you just couldn't drink enough water to quench your thirst. You keep drinking till you need to pee, but you are still thirsty.

If you drink beer though you will quench your thirst (well till the alcohol takes over)

 

On this type fasting diet you will eat less per day and your brain readjusts to the appetite occurring at set times. You will retrain your habit brain to increase appetite at set times, not purely in response to exercise.

 

Variations of this type of diet are actually embedded in some religions. Think strict orthodox & sabbath, Lent for the Christians or Ramadan.

 

[Duvel]

10 hours ago, Bernie said:

Surprising humans cannot re hydrate just drinking water, we obtain ~40% of our water needs from carbohydrates.

Could you give a reference for that, please ?

[scubadoo97]

On 7/7/2021 at 6:49 AM, weinoo said:

 

This doctor makes some of the quacks I've seen over the years seem positively brilliant.

 

Just eat less, and get off your asses.

Agree

Diets where you cut out this or that are not sustainable for the most part

 

5 yrs ago before heading to Europe on  a trip to buy Armagnac barrels with a stop in Austria along the way,  I knew we would be doing a lot of walking with steep inclines.  So started walking a bunch and continued after our return.  Along the way, lost a lot of weigh by just walking and eating less.  No food restrictions at all.   Eat anything you want but just eat less of it.   Still following that rule and have kept the weight off.  Don’t walk as much as I use to but still walk a lot.  I take stairs over elevator often as well depending on the number of floors.  My maternal grandmother as I knew her was always very heavy but as she got closer to 90 lost a bunch of weight.   Her advice, eat less

Edited July 20, 2021 by scubadoo97
Spelling (log)

[Margaret Pilgrim]

@scubadoo97 BINGO.

[lindag]

On 4/15/2013 at 9:33 PM, gfweb said:

Gin and diet tonic diet. Eat any non-carb you want and wash it down with at G+T. Everything tastes better.

I'm a fan of summertime Gin & Tonics too.  However,  I've never found a diet  tonic that didn't spoil the drink.  What do you use?

[liuzhou]

1 minute ago, lindag said:

I'm a fan of summertime Gin & Tonics too.  However,  I've never found a diet  tonic that didn't spoil the drink.  What do you use?

 

More gin. 

[gfweb]

57 minutes ago, lindag said:

I'm a fan of summertime Gin & Tonics too.  However,  I've never found a diet  tonic that didn't spoil the drink.  What do you use?

Schweppe's Diet Tonic is all I'll drink.  The rest are too sweet and not bitter enough.

[Duvel]

52 minutes ago, gfweb said:

Schweppe's Diet Tonic is all I'll drink.  The rest are too sweet and not bitter enough.

Try adding some gin - changes it for the better 😉