I highly recommend David Kessler's new book.

[Catshrink]

The end of overeating: Taking control of the insatiable American appetite.

It is NOT a diet book! I'm not even half way through it and it's changed the way I think about food already. He discusses physiological responses to food and how our brains are wired to prefer certain types of foods over others. He backs this up with examples of scientific research.

The eye opener is the interviews and conversations with food and restaurant industry executives. In these, they say how they layer fat, sugar, and salt on their offerings to get us "addicted" and trick us into eating more.

This makes me want to go back to baking my own bread and making all my own foods so I can control, really control, the amount of sugar, salt, and fat I actually eat.

Here is the Amazon link. Read the reviews!

http://www.amazon.com/End-Overeating-Insatiable-American-Appetite/dp/1605297852/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1242484063&sr=8-1

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41QYjM0Ll4L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA240_SH20_OU01_.jpg

Edited to fix my typos. Sigh.

[Droopy]

1. Thank you for posting about that book

I'm going to have to pick it up and see how well it works with this deal I'm doing at the weight loss clinic.

[Catshrink]

2. At least it will give you insight into what is in restaurant food.

Another one I found very helpful was "The Instinct Diet" by Susan Roberts. It is a diet book but she's a dietician and explains her reasoning for the seemingly odd combos she comes up with. Her suggestion that helped me the most was that if you get hungry between meals, add more fiber to your food. I started adding a teaspoon of ground flax seed to my cereal or yogurt/fruit and I don't get hungry between meals.

The two of these books together got me back on track. At least now if I eat sugar or eat out, I have an idea of what I'm eating, can moderate how much or what I choose, and get back on track without beating myself up over it.

Amazon link for The Instinct Diet:

http://www.amazon.com/Instinct-Diet-Your-Instincts-Weight/dp/0761150196/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1242597723&sr=8-1

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51b4iwKST6L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA240_SH20_OU01_.jpg

[Droopy]

3. I bought the Kessler book

I went right to the bookstore and got it after reading the jacket. I think it's actually going to give me a better understanding of what I'm already doing and keep me on track.

Here's the basics of what I've been doing for the past 4 months and I've lost 71 pounds in that period of time:

Eat 3 meals and 2 snacks a day.
Eat low fat protein with meals.
Eat unrefined carbohydrates with meals.
Avoid caffeine.
Avoid alcohol and soda.
Avoid artificial sweeteners.
Avoid rich or fatty foods.
Avoid white flour foods.
Drink 8-10 glasses of water.
Do not skip meals.

That's what my little remind card that I keep in my wallet reads. It doesn't specify what kind of food to eat as snacks, but the manual says a low fat protein and an unrefined carbohydrate. A typical snack for me is 2.25 ounces of low fat cheese and an orange. The only fast food I eat is at Subway. It will be interesting to see if Kessler has anything to say about them.

[Catshrink]

4. Congratulations on the weight loss!

It took me about a year to drop 35 pounds and I was pleased with that. Of course, I had a few weeks off here and there but I did plug away at it.

I haven't come across Subway in the book yet. He seems to love taking on Applebee's, Chili's, and Friday's although he mentions many others also.

I think the big thing is to stay away from prepared/processed foods and ingredients. I can't control what goes into them. Even when I buy bread, I'm suspicious of what's really in it. I used to make my own but have gotten away from it. Maybe I'll take it up again. I actually haven't been eating much bread but instead having high fiber crackers with my lunch. Yeah, they're processed but they are portable. Wasa bread isn't bad.

My snacks are pretty much the same as yours -- fruit and cheese. I usually go for an apple and string cheese because I like them. They both take a while to eat also -- the apple requires a lot of chewing and the string cheese just begs to be played with.

Let me know what you think of Chapter 4.

[Droopy]

5. Thank you

Regarding my weight loss; I was a pretty big guy when I started on my current program. Damn near 300 pounds. I checked your profile and saw that you are a woman. They say women usually lose weight at a slower pace than men even though they may be eating the same diet and getting the same amount of exercise. And the bigger you are the quicker the weight will come off in the beginning. There were weeks where I lost almost 7 pounds in the beginning. Now days it's 2-4 pounds a week. So I wouldn't feel bad about 35 pounds in a year. It's a major accomplishment. :thumbsup:

I'm about to start reading that book here after I respond to a couple of messages. I will let you know what I think about chapter four in this thread.

[Droopy]

6. I found both chapter 3 and 4 eye-opening

I've been taking notes and comparing some of my favorite meals with what Kessler and the food executive say. It's definitely proven accurate in my case. One of my favorite meals is from a local chain of restaurants called Skyline Chili. When I used to eat there I would get what's called a small 5-way and 3 cheese coneys. I'd wash it down with about a quart of sweet tea. I went there often enough that all of the waitresses knew my order. The 5-way consists of spaghetti, chili, onions, beans, and a mountain of cheese; and then I'd get extra cheese, and top it all off with their secret recipe hot sauce. Cheese coneys consist of of a hot dog and a hot dog bun, chili, onions, mustard, and another mountain of cheese. The food portion of the meal alone contains about 2000 calories. The spaghetti turns into sugar almost as soon as it hits your stomach. What they call chili is really just a meat sauce that contains sugar and a lot of salt. The cheese is full flavored cheddar and loaded with fat. The hot sauce probably doesn't contain a lot of calories, but more than likely a lot of salt. The white bread hot dog buns are also quickly converted to sugar once it enters your stomach. The hot dogs, of course, are loaded with fat and salt- that may be their only ingredients :). A search for sweet tea shows that there is 120 calories in a 12 ounce serving of sweet tea and I'd drink 3 times that amount with my meal. So 2360 sugar, salt, and fat laden calories for one meal, and I ate there often.

Another local favorite of mine is the Wing Zone. Their specialty is chicken wings. My favorite meal there is 15 honey-garlic wings and a quart of sweet tea. That is almost exclusively sugar, fat and salt. The wings are deep fried and spun in the sauce. I would get extra sauce which contains a bunch of sugar and salt. And of course we have the sugar laden sweet tea. There's about 1100 calories in the wings and, of course, another 360 for the tea making the total calories for the meal 1460. I ate there often enough that they knew my order as well.

Those two restaurants are located in the same shopping plaza within a mile of my house. But we are not done yet. There is also a Dairy Queen located in the same plaza that I would often frequent for desert. My favorite treat there is called a Pecan Mudslide. It has about 3 scoops of ice cream, pecans, caramel syrup, and chocolate syrup. I would get extra syrup in both flavors. The Dairy Queen site says that a Pecan Mudslide with double extra syrup contains 820 sugar and fat laden calories.

In the morning before work I would typically eat 3 donuts and a pint of chocolate milk- nothing but sugar and fat. I would eat about 2 or 3 candy bars over the course of the day- sugar and fat again. And of course we have the mindset of someone who is in denial. I would often think, "I don't understand why I'm so heavy. I only eat one meal a day and a few snacks."

Added on top of all of that was beer- another reward type of indulgence. I'd usually have a few beers after work and really get my drunk on on the weekends. Beer is about 150 calories per 12 ounces. I was known to consume an entire 14 inch pizza after drinking a twelve pack- I don't even want to look. I also smoked 2 packs a day up until a little over a year ago. Reward is my middle name.

After all of that you're probably wondering how I only weighed 290 and hadn't had a heart attack. I don't know either. I got my blood sugar and cholesterol checked before I started losing weight and amazingly I was within healthy ranges for everything except my triglycerides, and I was only 28 points over on that. I go to do a 4 month evaluation today at the weight loss clinic and I did blood work for that as well. My counselor there already has the results and sent me an e-mail saying that I have the blood work of a very healthy 12 year old. I'm 36. It must be good genes.

[Catshrink]

7. WOW!

It's really eye opening, isn't it? I think just knowing helps so much.

I had to go to the mall tonight to get a watch battery replaced. I passed the DQ and thought of you and the pecan mudslide. Gotta tell you, that's one my my favorites also and I haven't had one in a long time. But I kept going. Sigh.

Your blood work is amazing -- it probably is good genes. Since losing my weight, I'm off my blood pressure and chloesterol meds. If I ever get the next 30 off, I'll be even better.

Enjoy your reading!

:hi:

[Blue_Tires]

8. thanks for this...