Carb Craving Crushed - Input on This!

First, do not try this at home!

You all know I am an experimenter. I take my licks on here all the time for going off script and yesterday was not exception and I almost wasn't going to post this at all but I would like to get some thoughts on what happened here.

Let me start by saying yes I ate some carbs yesterday and I am not looking to get yelled at because I did it on purpose but the result is what I am looking for feedback on. I also want to say again do not try this at home and I am not suggesting this is a solution.

OK, so yesterday I was going nuts, I was having carb cravings all day long and nothing was satisfying me. I think I made a big mistake by going on my 4.5 mile walk before I had any kind of breakfast so my body just went nuts all day. Now I also want to say that my meals were all low carb.

Anyway around 5:00pm I had had just about all I could take. I didn't cave in but I decided to see if there was something I could do to crush the craving. My daughter was making some chocolate chip peanut butter cookies (no, I did not have any) and as tempting as they were I wanted to see if I could come up with something that might work as a strategy. Again I am not suggesting this is a solution and PLEASE DO NOT TRY THIS!

So I took some all natural (no sugar added) peanut butter and mixed in some oat and seed granola that I got from whole foods for my daughter to mix into her yogurt in the morning. So while the carb count does not fit into the low category I wasn't eating a cookie or a candy bar either. So I coated the spoonful of peanut butter with the granola and ate it over a couple of bites. I made a 2nd smaller spoonful and put it all away. I ate the 2nd spoonful over the next 10 minutes or so. 

I was half expecting things to get worse because as I have experienced and read about frequently on this board when we give into carb cravings its a downhill slide. What actually happened was #1 I was completely satisfied and #2 I was not hungry again the rest of the night. I made Bison Chili for dinner last night ate 2 bites and could not eat any more because I was not hungry. I woke up this morning and I was NOT hungry. Finally about 10:00am I was ready for some breakfast.

Now before I get all the backlash lets talk about what was in my granola. There was some honey so there were some fast acting, fast digesting carbs in there but nothing crazy. The oats and seeds and pumpkin seeds are all slow digesting slow acting carbs, so really fit into how I work out, I just didn't really eat them at the right time which should have been before or after a workout. 

So my fascination here is the satisfaction and the amount of time I went without being hungry (or at least not wanting food).

Any thoughts? If you feel the need to call me a phony or a slacker or cheater or any of the other wonderful things the haters like to chime in with, feel free, I am open to all input here and so far have only been offended by the accusation that I encourage young girls to puke up their food.

No yelling from this corner.  I think the clincher on making it work was the peanut butter.  The fat and protein combined with the carbs is what helped to keep you satisfied.  If you'd just had the granola I'm getting it would have just made your cravings and/or hunger worse in the long run. 

I remember a long time ago someone telling me that if you're going to eat carbs combine them with some fat and protein to make them last.  It helps avoid the big blood sugar spikes that lead to more cravings and hunger. 

I think you are probably right on the money here. I thought about checking my blood sugar over a couple of hours, but I did not have any lancets for my blood sugar monitor. I will pick some up and do a couple of checks. I may actually do two comparisons. Granola on its own over a 2 hour period with checks every 15 mins and then the granola and peanut butter.

Let me know the results - that will be interesting.

You fed an emotion/craving that needed to be fed! It was something you wanted instead of grazing on carbs until you found that super food! You were satisfied and content! That's my 2cents worth! Sometimes those little licks, bites, and tastes are all we need!

Hugs

Donna


PS... I'm a PBS lover... Redlight food for me!

I want to be clear that this was not an emotional eating. I believe the craving was because I exercised after fasting which is not good. I do know this increases my hunger. But I was not emotional yesterday which may also be why I did not crave any more after I ate the granola. So you may be on to something here with there not really being an emotional component. Its also quite possible that my body was needing some nutrient that it wasn't getting from my regular diet and I could have been equally satisfied with a multi-vitamin, so that is on the table as well.

It's the fat in the nuts, seeds and peanut butter.  Whenever I try to de-carb, I increase my fat intake.  It helps me stay away from the carbs.  Of course the best thing is to stay away from the carbs in the first place, but you (phony, slacker, cheater) already know this.  :)

Could be the fats but I had some good fats with my lunch yesterday, but you could be right. You know I am a preacher when it comes to fat intake. The more I think about this though I may have just been missing some nutrient and probably could have been equally satisfied with a multi-vitamin. There really was nothing in the granola that was particularly nutrient dense and the peanut butter was nothing special, basically ground up peanuts.

I stand by my earlier post, it was the fat.  That strategy has worked for me too many times before for me to back down.  The rest was not really needed, the fats made you feel satisfied and that was enough to get through the day.  I sometimes make a "hot cereal" with crushed flex seeds and light vanilla soy milk with some cinnamon and Splenda.  The fat in the flex seeds is enough to break my carb craving and leave me satisfied. 

On the upside, I did not indulge in any food/alcohol adventures this weekend and I managed to get 10 workouts in 6 days plus a 4.5 mile walk on my "rest" day.