Eat Out Eat Well

Calorie Tips, Healthy Eating, Food Facts

Are You Really Hungry Or Is It All In Your Head?

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Argument.  Stress. Overwhelm. Fatigue.

Cookies in the shopping cart.  Candy bar from the gas station.  Chips from the vending machine.  Raiding the refrigerator for leftovers followed by ice cream.

Sound familiar?

You could be stuffed to the gills but all you can think about is getting that cookie, candy bar, chips, or leftovers and chowing down – even though you’re not hungry and probably won’t enjoy what you’re about to eat.

There’s Real Hunger And There’s Head Hunger

Real hunger or physiological hunger is your body’s way of telling you that it’s time to eat food because your body needs nourishment.  It’s when you have that empty, rumbling feeling in your stomach, a headache, maybe some lightheadedness and difficulty concentrating.  It usually starts around four hours (plus or minus) after your last meal.

Head hunger or psychological hunger doesn’t really have physical symptoms and can happen at any time. It can be triggered by emotional situations, habits you associate with food or eating (like watching TV, working on the computer or driving in the car), by food cravings, or can be a form of procrastination.   Whatever triggers your head hunger can make you think you’re hungry when you’re really not.

Emotions:  Common Triggers For Eating

Emotions are common triggers for eating. Head hunger is a form of emotional eating that is usually in response to stress, sadness, loneliness, anger, fear, fatigue, overwhelm, or boredom.

Head hunger also serves as a distraction because the eating it provokes can be a way to distract yourself from difficult situations, projects, and encounters.

The feelings and situations that create head hunger are a part of your life.  Eating won’t make them go away.  Eating in response to head hunger often keeps you from figuring out what’s causing the feeling in the first place.

“I want chocolate” might really mean “I need comfort” or “I worked my tail off and I really need to be recognized for it.” Those trips back and forth to the fridge or the vending machine might be the ultimate form of procrastination – is there a project that needs to get done that you’re struggling with?

What To Do

Wouldn’t it be great if it was as simple as figuring out what’s causing your head hunger and dealing with it.  Actually, that’s the answer. Eating can’t really satisfy your emotional needs.  Left unmet, those needs will trigger your head hunger over and over.  So, you overeat, you mentally beat yourself up, you feel awful, and the whole process is triggered all over again.

To break the pattern, first stop beating yourself up when you do eat in response to head hunger (as opposed to eating because you’re starving and your stomach is growling like crazy).

Devise a plan to figure out what caused you to eat in the first place.  Try keeping a written record of what happened and how you felt before your head hunger took control. Looking back at a series of entries might give you a clue.  Once you get a handle on your triggers, come up with a plan to deal with them and make a “go-to” list of ways to reward, calm, comfort, and/or distract yourself without resorting to eating when you’re not actually physically hungry.

Allow yourself to figure out what “real” hunger actually feels like and the feelings that accompany true hunger.

When Is The Perfect Time To Start Your Diet?

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Do the stars, moon, sun, and all of the planets need to be in alignment for you to start your diet?

Diet, not a word I usually use, generally implies deprivation and a way of life that is not easy, comforting, and fun.  So no wonder there are tons of excuses and reasons not to start.  Who wants to be deprived of food – especially favorite food?

Does This Sound Like You?

You’ve decided that you want to lose weight.  Do any of these thoughts and actions seem familiar?

  • “I’ll wait until Monday to start” – and then you eat enough through the week and over the weekend to gain more weight.
  • “Wow, it’s Monday, but it’s so and so’s birthday on Wednesday and we’re going out to dinner and then we’ll have cake – so I might as well wait until after Wednesday to start.”  And then it’s Thursday and you go back to “I’ll wait until Monday.”
  • “I don’t have the right kind of food in the house and it’s raining outside and I can’t get to the gym – so I might as well chow down today and wait until I can stock up on the right stuff” (and when is that?).
  • “I was so ‘good’ all week and then on Friday I went out and had drinks and dessert and a ton of bread.  So I figured I ‘blew it’ and might as well eat what I want all weekend.  I can start again on Monday.”  Of course Monday comes along and another verse is added to this tune.

There’s Always A Reason — Or An Excuse – Not To Start 

You get the idea.  You can always find a reason not to start your new healthy eating plan.  How about listing the compelling reasons to want to start.

Just Start

Diets don’t work.  Maybe they do for the short-term for some of you, but it’s rare to have long lasting weight loss from a restrictive diet mentality.

Try a different approach.  Healthy eating habits are the key to success.  Finding what works for the long term may require some out of the box thinking and creative solutions.  Go for it and give it time.  Just start.

Have you ever watched an athlete look for an opening through a crowded field of players obstruct his or her way?  The athlete just keeps looking for an opening – an opportunity.  The ultimate choice might be unconventional and require lateral movement or some pulling back before surging forward, but without making some kind of move nothing’s going to happen  — no momentum will be gained.

Look for your opening and take it – stop waiting for that elusive perfect moment or the perfect time to work on changing your eating habits.  You can keep telling yourself that you’ll start tomorrow — but will your “habit changing tomorrow” ever come if you don’t take some positive action to make it happen?

 

Iced And Frozen Coffee Drinks: Refreshing But A Caloric Bomb

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The weather is heating up and the drinks are cooling down.  Unfortunately, some of those delicious iced and frozen coffee drinks that seem to be offered everywhere can really bump up your calories and fat grams.

Keep in mind that you can always order plain old iced coffee or even an iced Americano (almost no calories for 16 ounces) and doctor it with non-caloric sweetener and skim milk.  You’d even come out ahead if you use controlled amounts of sugar and a bit of half-and half. Or have an iced brewed coffee with classic syrup:  12 oz (tall), 60 calories.

Calories in Some Iced And Frozen Coffee Drinks

Note that despite the differences in names for various sized cups, all stats (with the exception of Burger King) are for a 16 oz. size cup.

  • Starbucks Mocha Frappuccino with whipped cream, 16 oz. (grande): 400 calories, 15 g fat (9 g saturated), 64g carbohydrates.
  • Starbucks Mocha Light Frappuccino with nonfat milk, 16 oz. (grande): 130 calories, 0.5g fat, (0 g saturated), 28g carbohydrates.
  • Iced Caffe Latte with nonfat milk, 16 oz. (grande):  90 calories, 0g fat, 13g carbohydrates.
  • Dunkin’ Donuts Coffee Coolata made with whole milk, 16 oz. (small):  240 calories, 4 g fat (2.5 g saturated), 50g carbohydrates
  • Dunkin’ Donuts Vanilla Bean Coolatta, 16 oz. (small): 420 calories, 6g fat (3.5g saturated), 92g carbohydrates
  • Dunkin’ Donuts Iced Latte made with skim milk, 16 oz. (small):  80calories, 0g fat,   13 g carbohydrates
  • Baskin Robbins Cappuchino Blast Mocha, 16oz (small):  400 calories, 13g fat (9g saturated), 65g carbohydrates
  • McDonald’s: McCafé Iced Caramel Mocha, 16 oz. (medium) made with whole milk and whipped cream:  300 calories, 14g fat (8g saturated), 36g carbohydrates
  • Burger King: Iced Seattle’s Best Coffee Mocha, 22 oz. (medium):  260 calories, 3.5g fat (2.5g saturated), 54g carbohydrates

Bottom Line:  Ways To Shave Calories From Iced Coffee Drinks

Try these:

  • Ditch the whipped cream.
  • Swap full fat milk for 2% milk, 1% or skim.
  • Watch the sugar:  ask for one pump instead of two, ask for sugar free syrup, add non-calorie sweetener instead of sugar, don’t sweeten at all.
  • Change the size of the drink that you order:  instead of a venti or an extra large order a grande or large – or drop down to a tall or a medium (or even a small) sized drink.
  • If you have a two a day (or more) habit – like a coolata in the morning and a frappuccino in the afternoon – substitute a plain coffee or iced tea (easy on the milk and sugar), or even a latte with nonfat milk for one of those choices.

How Big Are Your Dinner Plates — And Why It Matters

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Have you eaten in some restaurants where the plates are so big that the server can’t find room to comfortably fit everything on the table?

Maybe your plates are so big that you have trouble getting them into the dishwasher.

Does it make a difference other than for convenience?  You bet it does.

The Size Of Your Dinner Plate Can Affect Your Weight

We eat off of big plates. Since 1960 the overall surface area of an average dinner plate has increased 36 percent. The average dinner plate we commonly use today measures 11 or 12 inches across. A few decades ago plates measured 7 to 9 inches.

In Europe, the average plate measures 9 inches while some American restaurants use plates that are around 13 inches in diameter.

Portion Sizes Have Increased Along With Plate Size

1960 sized portions would look a little lost on today’s large plates.  Plop a small portion of spaghetti and meat sauce in the middle of a large plate and the temptation is to add more – usually pasta – to fill up the plate.  That’s how you feed both your eyes and your stomach.

The additional problem – aside from eating more food at the meal — is that with more food piled on your plate, the idea gets embedded in your brain that a larger portion is better and that it takes a larger amount to fill your plate. Your brain then figures that If you need that much food to fill your plate then it takes that large amount of food to make you feel good.

Some Easy Things To Do

When you switch to a smaller plate you eat a smaller serving.

Control your portion sizes by decreasing the size of your plate. Try switching from a dinner plate to a salad plate or look for vintage plates that are smaller in diameter. Research has shown that by switching to a 10 inch plate from a 12 inch plate you eat 22 percent less.

Incredibly, smaller dishes can also help you feel full even though you’re eating less. Studies show that people are more satisfied with less food when they are served on 8 inch salad plates instead of on 12 inch dinner plates.  But don’t go too small because eating too small a portion might send you back for seconds.

Keep This In Mind

We eat an average of 92% of what we serve ourselves. Since we pile more food onto larger plates, the larger plates means we eat more food. A two inch difference in plate diameter  — decreasing the size of our plates to ten inches from 12 inches — would mean a serving that has 22 percent fewer calories.  It’s a smaller serving but not small enough to leave you still hungry and heading back for seconds. For an average size adult who eats a typical dinner of 800 calories, the smaller portions that would result from using a smaller plate would lead to a weight loss of around 18 pounds a year.

Is Sea Salt Healthier Than Table Salt?

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The short answer:  no – even though sea salt might be marketed as a health food.

Sodium chloride is the chemical name for salt. Even though the words “salt” and “sodium” aren’t exactly the same they are often used interchangeably. You might find the word “sodium” on the Nutrition Facts Panel on the back or side of a package but yet see a phrase like “low salt” used on the front of the package.

Chemically, table salt and sea salt are not much different although they might taste different or have different textures. Sea salt and table salt, by weight, have the same amount of sodium.  They both can have an effect on your blood pressure.

Sea water is evaporated to make sea salt.  There is little processing and the water source, along with the trace minerals and elements left behind after evaporation, add flavor and color.  Sea salt comes in different degrees of coarseness and types of grain or flake.

Table salt, mined from underground salt deposits, goes through processing to eliminate minerals. It usually has an additive to prevent clumping and may have added iodine, which sea salt doesn’t have.

When you read the labels on sea salt and table salt, they can lead to a bit of confusion.  Because sea salt crystals are larger than table salt crystals less sea salt will fit on a teaspoon so the sea salt may seem to have less sodium.  However, by weight it does not.  But, by teaspoon, table salt has 590 mg of sodium in a teaspoon which weighs in at 1.5 grams.  Sea salt has 400 mg in a teaspoon but that teaspoon of sea salt weighs in at 1 gram.

Should You Limit The Amount Of Salt You Eat?

The recommendation for daily sodium intake is a maximum of 2300 mg and not more than 1500 mg a day for people 51 or older, if you’re African American, or if you have diabetes, chronic kidney disease, or high blood pressure. Don’t be fooled by the salt shaker.  Adding salt to food is certainly a source of dietary sodium, but processed and prepared foods account for the greatest amount of sodium in American diets.