The daily challenge: strategies to overcome hunger and cravings

**VII. Daily Challenges**

No matter how much you believe in the Atkins lifestyle, or how unwavering your resolve, the reality is that we live in a society teeming with unhealthy foods.

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In fact, cakes and ice cream can be found at every celebration, refined flour breads and sugary desserts beckon at every dinner party or restaurant, bagels, Danish pastries and other cookies are eaten at every office meeting, not to mention the foods that can be found in every vending machine, convenience store, food counter and fast food chain.

If you've already experienced the benefits of the Atkins method-whether for health or weight loss-you're already ahead of the game.

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You will be convinced that the Atkins lifestyle can be effective in the short term, and at the same time you will understand the relationship between sugary foods and high sugar and blood sugar levels.

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Now we need to continue to learn how to improve, which will help you stick to the Atkins Plan forever.

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If one day you start to be lazy, gradually destroying your past achievements and causing your weight to rebound, the resulting health problems and emotional disorders are almost inevitable.

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Throughout this chapter, we will continue to focus on the daily challenges of life and the strategies for coping with them.

The way to keep yourself from losing control is to firmly remember your achievements.

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These results are the energy, health, and perpetual slimness that come from sticking to the plan.

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You must always pay attention to your eating habits, not just sometimes, or most of the time, but consistently.

Unfortunately, as the old adage goes, when doing what is in your own best interest, the biggest enemy that often hinders your success is yourself. So, let's first look at which devils are working against us.

**The lingering hunger and the frenzied desire**

To successfully stick to the Atkins Plan and control your weight in the long term, you must overcome various temptations and find ways to bravely resist them.

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Imagine yourself as a general developing a comprehensive military plan.

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At this point, the enemy is the food that you know you can't eat but is still tempting you with its immense appeal.

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Putting aside your diet plan and the constraints of good nutrition, you are now simply a member of the human race.

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Like most people, a weakness in something can occasionally lead to your "naughty" behavior.

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A wise general understands his own strengths and weaknesses and takes the existence of his opponents seriously.

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Learn how to change what you can change-your reaction to food; acknowledge that there are things in the world that cannot be changed, such as the allure of certain foods.

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These temptations will not disappear. Even if you resist M&M's chocolate today, other sugary foods will tempt you tomorrow.

During the weight loss phase of the Atkins program, the physiological "achievement" was the suppression of hunger through lipolysis/ketosis.

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If you went through the first stage, you probably still remember the feeling of freedom when you were no longer a slave to your appetite.

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This is a wonderful side effect of burning body fat into energy.

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The weight loss phase is just one step. Once you successfully complete the first phase and become slimmer and more energetic, you can gradually start eating some sugary foods. When your body burns fat and sugar to produce energy, you will stop experiencing appetite suppression.

Fortunately, even during the lifelong weight maintenance phase, you still have a "secret" weapon to continue controlling your hunger.

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The way to overcome this crazy craving is to maintain your Atkins sugar balance (ACE) or keep the amount of sugar you eat below this value.

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Maintaining your own Atkins sugar balance level can help your body burn sugar and fat for energy, which means that the blood sugar fluctuations that cause your crazy cravings for sugar may be reduced.

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In addition to physiological mechanisms, you also need to improve your endurance.

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People who want to maintain their figure forever must never be tempted by food, and they can easily overcome temptation using different methods.

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Once you resolve never to eat things you shouldn't, you'll experience an extraordinary sense of relief and pride in overcoming your desires.

You may need to strengthen your relationship with your familiar friend "self-control" in the future, which means finding strategies to deal with occasional hunger and restrain crazy desires.

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These strategies are triggered by stress, excessively long intervals between meals, sugar intake exceeding one's individual ACE level, or eating high-glycemic foods that you haven't had in a while. The specific methods are as follows:

◎Spread your sugar intake throughout the day. If you eat a lot of sugary foods at lunch, you'll experience persistently high blood sugar levels, a sharp drop in energy later in the day, and strong cravings for sweets.

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Therefore, I chose a sandwich without bread dough instead of the regular kind.

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Make sure the salad contains enough protein and the dressing is made with a tasty oil.

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> Eat protein or fat-rich foods with every meal or snack to slow down the rate at which glucose enters your bloodstream.

◎Eat regularly. You must eat a meal or snack within 4-6 hours after waking up.

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When you become indiscriminate in your eating, it's easier to lose control of yourself.

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Although our culture has always maintained the habit of three meals a day, many people prefer to eat more meals, but eat less at each meal.

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This dietary approach is actually beneficial to health because it helps maintain stable blood sugar levels.

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The key is not to miss any meals, because skipping a meal will make you excessively hungry before the next meal.

◎ Snacking. The best way to prevent crazy cravings from turning into demons is to succumb to them and eat some low-sugar snacks.

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Snacks can also keep your metabolism at its most efficient, allowing you to burn calories for energy and avoid hunger. This can alleviate hunger and build up energy reserves.

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Whether you call it a small meal or a snack, enjoy your morning and afternoon treats.

◎Drinking water. Drinking water can also make you feel full.

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Sometimes we confuse the feeling of hunger with the feeling of thirst-especially as we get older.

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Many people have found that drinking a glass of water before meals reduces their food intake.

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A bowl of meat broth will have the same effect.

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Always remember that you should drink at least 8 cups of water (227 grams each) every day.

**Be cautious when eating your favorite foods.**

One misconception about the Atkins method is that it tells people to never touch bread, pasta, and other high-sugar foods again.

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Once you live according to Atkins' method, you'll realize that this statement is absolutely incorrect.

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For many people, a meal without bread, pasta, or rice cannot be considered a meal.

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You can eat these staple foods. The Atkins method simply encourages people to choose staple foods that are better for their health, but always in moderation.

For example, if you've always had trouble controlling your cravings for bread, try different kinds. Soon you'll understand why you want to avoid bread made with refined flour.

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One option is low-sugar bread made with alternative ingredients such as resistant starch (which resists enzyme breakdown in the digestive system and has no effect on blood sugar).

Pay special attention to labels indicating low-sugar and high-protein foods.

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These two terms are not synonyms, so check the carbohydrate value and subtract the fiber content to get the net carbohydrate content, which is the only calculation needed when living according to the Atkins method.

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When you browse the menu, you'll see that low-sugar breads regularly appear in the plans of those with a lower Atkins sugar balance (ACE), while 100% whole wheat breads appear in the plans of those with a higher Atkins sugar balance.

Besides knowing which type of bread is better, here are some other ways to help you enjoy bread without overeating:

◎ Make bread the only food you eat during the day that can cause high blood sugar.

Allow yourself to eat only one slice of bread a day.

◎Slice the bread very thinly.

◎Only eat the bread crust.

◎Eat only low-sugar bread.

**Key Factors for Choosing Bread**

When you enter the lifelong weight maintenance phase, choose the right amount of bread (and biscuits), because there is a difference between one serving a day and one serving every two or three days.

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(The Atkins sugar balance value is, of course, a factor to consider when making a selection.)

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To be precise, all breads are different. How do you find breads and cookies with relatively low net sugar content and cookies without artificial fats? You might not find healthier breads in the bread or cookie aisle of a supermarket. Instead, bakeries (including those in supermarkets) may have special selections of healthy options like corn rye bread or seven-grain bread, and natural food stores and grocery stores may also stock long loaves made from spelt wheat, soy, or sprouted (sometimes called live) grains.

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Your goal is to find bread that is minimally processed, whole wheat, and high in fiber, plus a few grams less net sugar and a lower ranking on the Atkins Glycemic Index (AGR). Here is the selection procedure:

Check the ingredients. Compare the ingredient lists of standard baguettes and specialty breads.

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Most pasta contains a small amount of sugar, some of which has a natural sweetness from the grains, but many also contain added sweeteners such as fruit juice, barley maltose, honey, or molasses.

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Some loaves of bread have only about a teaspoon of sugar added to counteract the taste of yeast, but larger amounts of sugar are used to darken the color or make the crust crispier.

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Avoid foods with high sugar content.

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Some special foods do not contain sweeteners.

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Other types of bread, such as bread with cinnamon and raisins, not only contain large amounts of sweeteners but may also contain artificial fats.

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Most breads do not contain added fat; you should read the label carefully.

Compare the content of each ingredient based on the nutrition facts label.

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Typically, 28 grams of flour contains 13-17 grams of sugar. Each serving of white bread contains less than 1 gram of fiber, while 100% whole wheat bread generally contains at least 3 grams, which means that whole wheat bread has a relatively low net sugar content.

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Additionally, pay attention to the weight of each serving. Most nutritional information refers to the content of one slice of bread, which typically weighs 28 grams, but can vary between 24 grams, 38 grams, 14 grams, or even half a slice! The ingredients of unsliced ​​bread are based on weight, with a standard serving size of 57 grams.

**Definition of Terms.** On bread labels, you might see the following terms, which mean:

Organic: Grains have not been sprayed with pesticides or fertilized.

For grains that produce seeds: whole grains or whole cereals are added (usually rye, but corn and wheat are also common).

Stone milling: Flour is usually processed between two rotating stone millstones, rather than by high-speed rollers. Stone milling preserves more nutrients, while the high temperatures generated when processing wheat with high-speed rollers destroy nutrients.

Unrefined processing: Flour undergoes only the most basic processing, so it contains most (if not all) of the nutrients from the germ and cellulose.