Carbohydrate cravings!

Jeffrey

Anybody else have these? My new medicine makes me crave something immense. I try to eat wheat bread with peanut butter as a nice alternative. And grapes. But today I bought a half pound bag of hazelnut wafers haha.

Definitely not a good buddhist its so easy to give in to a craving.

vixthenomad

You gave me some good advice on this thread:

http://newbuddhist.com/discussion/11960/i-have-attachment-to-chocolate#Item_16

Mountains

What kind of medication (if I may ask)??

Ada_B

My medication does the same for me, yet I have managed to lose about 16lbs to date (slowly but steadily). My "secret" is to make sure I eat plenty of high fibre, low GI carbs with my meals, to even out my blood sugar and if I really get hungry, I either move a meal earlier or I have some fruit.

For nibbly sort of cravings (not actually hunger), I might have some berries or sugar-free jelly. Or maybe some yoghurt. I also love alcohol free beer, which is very low calorie (unlike its alcoholic relative) and the bubbles seem to fill me up.

Sugar is the worst thing you can eat for carb craving, as it actually increases your insulin levels, thus making it worse in the long-run. So if I'm really hungry, I'll eat crackers, or soup, or a sandwich to fill me up, rather than snacking. Today I had Thai-style butternut squash soup and bread for lunch - Nom nom, which filled me up until 5pm, when I had some fruit to tide me over till dinnertime.

taiyaki

i crave pizza intensely. it's almost stupid how much pizza i eat.

i'd think gradually working on a better diet is best.

sigh

Mountains

Any food other than pure protein or pure fat will increase your insulin levels. What you want to avoid is the vicious cycle that high carb foods (any kind of simple carbs like sugary foods) induces. You eat more, then you want more, then you eat still more...

If you get a food craving, eat something with complex carbs like grain, nuts, etc. Be careful with fruit, as sometimes that will be as bad as a candy bar (I could live on Medjool dates, but...). Eating something with some substance, even something like a hard boiled egg, as a snack will satisfy your food craving, but will give you a longer lasting fill than something empty like cookies (sorry, biscuits) or a candy bar.

Jeffrey

Mountains, Olanzapine it makes the body use fat preferentially to sugar in metabolism. Yes I often eat leftovers, but my eyes got so big when I saw the wafer noisette package, humans were not designed to resist wafers!!!

Ada B, I also like NA beer

Jeffrey

Oh and thanks vixthenomad

Jeffrey

Still the portion size of the cartons of cookies that the supermarket bakery makes hould be illegal. I didn't buy them because I didn't want to have a 10000 calorie evening lol haha