It is an hour after dinner and I really don't feel like eating any snacks. In fact, while eating healthier foods I rarely am very hungry any more except right around meal times. That is despite the fact that I'm eating far fewer calories daily than I was in the heyday of our fast food years.
Processed foods are often full of refined sugars and highly modified starches which get into your bloodstream fast but also burn off quick. And soda is mostly sugar and water with some flavoring.
It is a bit like heating your house with a wood stove burning just kindling. Real hot, real fast but burns out fast too. If you've ever tended a fire you will get that analogy. That yo-yo affect on my blood-sugar used to have me ready for another meal just a few hours after a big dinner.
Higher nutrient, higher fiber foods fill you up more for fewer calories and the carb "burn" lasts longer. When we started I wasn't sure I was going to be able to take the "no eating after 8:00 PM" rule. Once we got into it I was surprised how much easier it was to do than I expected. Sometimes I even have to make an extra effort in the evening to eat enough calories to just make the "2 lbs loss per week" range.
The end result is that I hesitate to even call what we are doing a "diet" at least not in the way I used to think of the word. I'm certainly not starving all day. I give the credit to changing what we were eating instead of just eating less of the same foods that we were used to. Keeping healthy alternatives AND WATER around helps too.
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