August 2005. I just received a great question from an Inner Circle Member and wanted to pass it on to all of you.

Q: I have a question for you and am looking for some advise. I recently had a total hysterectomy in June and am now starting to get my energy back. For exercise I have been lifting weights at home and walking. My problem is my eating. I am always hungry and eating constantly. If I stick to a low protein diet, I am okay. Before surgery, I was losing weight but after surgery I was eating junk food, such as chips, soda, cookies, ice cream, etc. I know these are not good for you but I can't stop the craving. Please help.

A: Boy can I relate to that and do have a couple of suggestions.

1. Get rid of the junk except for one treat per day. Plan for it and eat it as planned. As an example I’ll plan for chocolate pudding or fritos or something with or as a meal during my day and will enjoy every last bite of it. You should, too!
2. If you can’t stay out of it, get rid of it. There are things we can’t have in our house because we can’t stay out of it. We will eat and eat it until it is gone and so it is banned from coming through our doors. Do not invite the enemy into your camp. Kick it out and don’t let it back in.
3. Remember that the more “sugar” and processed carbs you eat (i.e. junk food) the more of it you will want. Your body goes through an insulin and blood sugar spike after eating it which then plummets when the sugar is exhausted, causing hunger pangs and a deep desire for more of the same. If you don’t have it to begin with, your body doesn’t go through this cycle.
4. PLAN what you are going to eat at each meal of the day and stick relatively closely to your plan. It’s when we don’t plan and have an ample supple of junk food on hand that we rely on it vs thinking about what we SHOULD eat and cooking a meal. I sit down every Sunday and plan my exercise and meals for the coming week. Taking 10 minutes to do that, and another 60 minutes to make sure I have the food and it’s prepared (I keep it simple and eat from my mini-meals program so that it is cooked for me each week along with using simple options like canned tuna and cottage cheese, fresh fruit, etc). This makes it simple.
5. Don’t try to cut back your calories too much at once. If you are starving yourself to lose weight (i.e. you are always hungry) then figure on eating a good bit of calories broken over many meals during the day. If these calories are mostly from whole foods vs processed foods, you’ll find that you are much more satisfied. If you aren’t ravenously hungry at that level for a couple of weeks, you can then cut out 100-200 calories a day from that level until you find that that amount of food more than satisfies you and then cut back a bit more. Remember, though, that you will be much better off exercising more at some point than cutting your calories back too much. Bodies can’t maintain themselves at much beyond 1,500 calories a day.