Mastering Your Diet Through Discipline! Plus, An Overview Of The Glycemic Index And Thermic Effect Of Food

Do you have the necessary discipline to master your diet?  You may not think you do now, but you certainly can!  And, it's a lot easier than you may think...

What Does It Take To Master The Discipline Required To Diet Successfully?

We began to touch upon discipline and the mental component of it in this post and continued the discussion here.  Today, we'll recap some of those items and look further into what we can do to help ingrain the mental toughness needed to consistently eat well and make progress toward your goal of a 'Better Than Average You'. 

So much of the discipline required for sticking to a longterm diet plan lies in a handful of little tricks.  Let's take a look at some:

Work Toward A Weekend 'Splurge Meal'

One trick that helps you stay on the right track for the long term is to eat consistently clean throughout the week and take a meal or two (not too many...) on the weekend where you go all out and splurge on something you're craving.  If you're exercising and/or working out consistently and sticking strictly to a calorie range that's within or below your BMR guidlines then this isn't going to set you back too far.  For most of us, keeping those portion sizes small during the week will really begin to yield it's benefits during these 'splurge meals'.  As an example, I love sushi and will often partake in too much of it at one sitting on occassion.  Due to eating those smaller portions, I can't eat as much as I think I could and this is a good thing!  I'll fill up faster, probably feel sick and not really care if I have any more for a while.  The lingering effects are typically:  higher scale weight for 24hrs or so, a lack of hunger the morning after this meal, a very limited desire to eat (in this case, sushi) this meal again and very often a solid reduction in total caloric intake the day after one of these large meals. 
As you can see, mentally this is somewhat of a roller coaster but it's rather welcomed when you're sticking to a strict diet and eating plan.  Knowing that you're always a couple meals closer to having pretty much whatever you want is good to keep you focused.  It helps you work toward a goal - even if it's small and simple like a tasty meal. 

Put Off Your Next Meal For 15 Minutes

I often find in the mornings that I get hungry soon after breakfast and well before lunch time.  I know I'm going to eat something between these two meals but I want to split up that time period as much as possible - I want to be as far from breakfast as I can and as close to lunch as I can (so I can mentally push lunch that much further ahead).  Basically, I'm trying to lengthen the amount of time between breakfast and my next meal by convincing myself that I'll be satisfying my hunger closer to lunch time.  This can be a fight!  Your mind will start telling you over and over again 'Go ahead, eat now!  It's OK!' and you have to make a concerted effort to NOT give in.  If you work environment allows you to get distracted, then take advantage of that.  Delve into a project that will take 15 to 30 minutes or so to complete then revisit your hunger once you're done.  You don't want to be increasing the span of time to 3 or 4 hours by any means, but if you're like me and occassionally find yourself feeling hungry about an hour after breakfast, then you're going to have to implement a plan to widen that gap a bit. 

Split Up Your Meals

My schedule often finds me not able to complete a meal in one sitting.  It's frustrating but at the same time helpful to my daily eating plan.  I often like to have a Muscle Milk meal replacement drink for breakfast - it's quick, easy, full of everything I need and tastes delicious!  I'll mix it up with about 16oz of water and use half of it to swallow my vitamins in the morning.  Once I arrive at the office, I usually put my shaker cup aside for a while, get some work done and don't get to finish it until about an hour or so later.  I have then effectively stretched out my breakfast for a few hours without feeling or thinking I'm hungry.  Mentally, I'm not concerned about my next meal, snacking on something or falling off the wagon so to speak. 

Drink A No/Low Calorie Beverage Between Meals

For me, this is diet soda.  Caffeinated drinks of one flavor or another rule the day in my world.  If I'm concerned about getting too hungry too fast, a nice, bubbly, caffeinated diet soda is the perfect tool for me to use to pass the time between meals.  It may not be for everyone, but I enjoy it and recommend it to those who have a good grip on their caffeine tolerance. 

What Does All Of This Have To Do With Discipline?

Discipline simply comes down to consistently making the right decisions.  There are some things in life that you're probably very disciplined at.  Think about those areas for a moment.  What is it that keeps you disciplined and consistent?  What keeps you focused on making the right decisions? 
When dieting for the goal of a complete body transformation, there are quite a few variables involved that can have you straying off course.  It's helpful to have some tools at your disposal so that you can more often than not make the decisions you need to insure success.  You will have to continually battle with yourself mentally.  Some days it will be easier than others.  Some days you'll feel like you can live like this forever and others you'll wonder how you've ever kept it up this long.  It comes down to winning that mental battle as often as you can. 

I know this sounds funny, but the best way to win is to trick yourself.  Us the methods above to continually fight against any thoughts or feelings that will try to get you to stray off course.  Know that by waiting an additional 15 minutes until your next meal is nothing.  Tell yourself that you can eat whatever you want at this weekends 'splurge meal'.  Take 15 minutes to plan what you're going to eat during that meal!  Drink your favorite carbonated beverage and revisit the idea of having that next meal once you start feeling hungry again. 

Always keep asking yourself:  "Will this - meal, snack, bite, taste, drink, etc - get me closer to my goal?"

If it's not going to, don't make more work for yourself by taking a step or two backwards!


What's This Glycemic Index Thing?

The Glycemic Index is a ranking of carbohydrates based on how they affect blood sugar levels.  Essentially, those feelings of highs and lows after eating specific meals.  The energy felt immediately after having a candy bar and the subsequent crash afterwards.  These highs and lows are triggered by the sugar that enters your body through the food (carbohydrate) you eat and the release of insulin from the pancreas to metabolize this sugar (again, carbohydrate.  All carbs are metabolized down to sugars in the body). 

Too much sugar at once = sugar high
Which triggers a large dump of insulin into the body
Too much insulin at once = crash after sugar high

Modulating the body's release of insulin has many important health benefits but our focus at this time is on the effect it has on our diet.  The more consistent or modulated it's release is, the less highs and lows we'll experience and the more consistent energy and feeling of well being we'll have.  I can't say enough about how true this is.  It takes a little time to get into a mode where you're eating the correct carbs at the right times but once you do, it feels great! 
As we continue on with more in-depth looks at diet plans and foods to eat, we'll focus on the types of carbs in those meals, how they should affect us and why we're eating them when we are.  As we touched upon yesterday, what we're looking to take advantage of is:

- The consistent modulation of insulin release through complex carbs
- The benefits of the Thermic Effect (see below) created by fibrous carbs
- The manipulation of insulin to shuttle nutrients at the cellular level when our bodies need them most

To modulate insulin release throughout the day, consider having appropriate sized (both volume-wise and calorically) servings of the following complex carbs:

Oatmeal
Brown Rice
Sweet Potato

To fill in the gaps between meals and/or stave off those late night cravings consider eating as much as you want of the following fibrous carbs (without dressing!):

Lettuce
Cucumbers
Celery
Spinach
Broccoli
Cauliflower

To take advantage of insulin release to shuttle nutrients into our cells...Wait a minute -  we need to discuss this further to get a better understanding of why we want to do this...Here's the 60 second, quick and dirty version:

After working out or exercising (weights, cardio, running, etc) our bodies are in need of various macro and micro nutrients to replenish our natural stores of these nutrients, rebuild tissues that have been broken down and basically bring the body back to a state of homeostasis - a balance it likes to be at.  This means that we need to feed our bodies the nutrients it needs after a workout.  Not 'whenever we feel like it' after a workout, but right away!  Our bodies are primed to receive whatever we throw at it immediately following an intense workout.  This is the ideal time to quickly get high quality nutrients into our bodies and shuttled into the cells so they can repair, rebuild and replenish in time for our next workout.  Utilize a 'High Glycemic' carb coupled with some quality protein (whey) to insure your body gets everything it needs!

So again, to take advantage of insulin release to shuttle nutrients into our cells, consider these high impact carbohydrates immediately after a workout:

ON Recovery
Cytomax powder
Gatorade
Natural Grape Juice


The Thermic Effect of Food

When we eat, our bodies use energy to chew, digest and metabolize food.  When our bodies use energy, we (obviously) express it in terms of calories.  Therefore, the foods we eat provide us with energy - some of which can theoretically be used to provide the very energy to our bodies needed to process the food we're consuming.  Fibrous carbs are a great example of this effect because they provide very few calories but require a lot of energy to digest due to their cellulosic and/or fibrous makeup. 
Imagine for a moment that you consume 100 grams (about a cup worth) of sliced cucumber.  This will yield about 15 calories in energy for our bodies to use.  Let's assume that your body requires 25 calories of energy to chew, digest and metabolize that 100 grams of cucumber.  This would give us a net calorie deficit of 10 calories:

100grams of cucumber = 15 calories of energy provided

15 calories of energy provided - 25 calories of energy required to digest = -10 calories

That's the beauty of the Thermic Effect of Food!  You can have a positive effect on your caloric intake while eating a high volume of food to keep you sated - that's hard to beat!  Give yourself a boost in the right direction and continue to consume fibrous carbs. 

In future posts, we'll look more in depth at the importance of spices such as cayenne on the metabolism and how other spicy and/or heated foods can contribute to additional calorie expenditure by the body. 

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How To Deal With Intense Cravings While Dieting

Cravings - We all get them and it can certainly be tough to not succumb to whatever tasty morsel of goodness is tempting us from our diet plan!  Sorry folks, but the bad news is that those cravings aren't going to go away.  The good news however, is that there are several tips and tricks to use to get you through those dark and desperate times when the stomach conquers the mind!

What Are These Cravings?  Where Do They Come From?

It's strange just how powerful some cravings can be.  One I often get as I start reducing portion sizes, calories and/or carbs is for a large, warm cinnamon bun with melted icing.  Fortunately, these aren't typically readily available so I really have to go out of my way to get one!  But, the big question is, why a cinnamon bun? 

It's not likely that my body is in dire need of the over-processed, highly sugared ingredients in that sweet and sticky treat.  It's more likely that it's a desirable trigger for me to consume carbohydrates.  Again, we have to ask why?  My body has sufficient fat stores to use for energy even if I'm consuming very little carbs.  If it gets really bad and I drop carbs down to near zero, the body will naturally catabolize (burn for energy) muscle tissue to get you through (this leads to a state of Ketosis which is something you often strive for on a low carb diet for very short periods of time.  More on this in a later post...) 
The real reason why these cravings come on is because like just nearly everything else in life, our bodies want to take the path of least resistance to get what it needs.  Why go through all the effort to tap into fat and/or muscle stores for energy when a sticky cinnamon bun will do the trick?!
The problem is, when working hard on a total body transformation into a Better Than Average You, we can't fall victim to the cinnamon buns syren song. 

How Can I Beat These Cravings?!

So, you've been good.  You've done a fantastic job of keeping portions and calories down, your macronutrients are at or near the levels that work for you and you've kept your activity up.  Things are going great and then all of a sudden you sit down to watch your favorite television show and you get a killer craving for (insert your favorite high fat, carb dense food here)!  What do you do?  Give in and take a step backwards?  Fight through it and starve yourself?  There's no need to do any of those!  There are some easy solutions that will help you make it through!

Eat Protein

Having a low fat source of protein isn't going to hurt when you get a craving for something.  Let's say you get a massive jones for chocolate - dig into a scoop or two of a tasty chocolate flavored whey protein powder.  Drink it as fast as you can!  Once it slams into your stomach, there's a good chance that feeling of hunger goes away...
Cook up some egg whites or a whole egg plus a few whites (whole eggs average 70 calories, whites average about 16 calories).  It takes a little time to put together but you get to eat something with volume rather than just drinking liquid.  One whole egg and 10 whites is a LOT of food for only 230 calories!  Have a lot in front of you and going through the motions of chewing this much food really does wonders mentally when you're restricting portion sizes and calories. 
A 4oz cut of chicken breast (preferrably spiced with something - I like red pepper flakes and/or chile powder for the extra thermic benefits).
Or, a 4oz cut of lean beef or lean ground beef.  Mix up some 97% lean beef with the chile powder and red pepper flakes as mentioned above and top with a piece of provolone - delicious!

None of these high protein sources will throw you too far out of your daily calorie and macronutrient range.  If you're going to err on the side of too much in one macronutrient, protein is the one to do it with.  It is the hardest macronutrient for your body to convert into fat if it's not thoroughly used - unlike carbohydrates and fats.

Eat A LOT Of Fibrous Carbs

There have been many a night where I've sat down and eaten bowls of lettuce and cucumbers in front of the television.  No dressing or just a squirt or two of one of those no calorie spray dressings does the trick.  Eat as much as you want!  The green, fibrous carbs aren't going to hurt your calorie or macronutrient profiles for the day.  The interesting thing about these particular 'low glycemic' carbs is that they often require your body to burn more calories to digest them then they give off in energy.  This is referred to the Thermic Effect of food and is something we can use to our advantage in our Total Body Transformation.  These foods can literally help you lose weight. 
I enjoy eating cucumbers on salads but when it comes time to slice one up and snack on it in front of the TV, it gets old quick!  I may eat half a good size cucumber and after that I'm no longer hungry and don't feel like eating anything else.  In my case, they certainly do the trick! 
The lettuce and cucumber 'salad' has a similar effect.  At first it's great because you know that you can eat as much as you want and it just won't matter.  It doesn't take long before you realize that you don't even really feel like eating that much.  As mentioned above, just having the ability to eat as much as you want is a great mental relief even if you don't follow through and stuff yourself. 

Be Mentally Strong

This, my friends is where discipline comes into play.  It ultimately is a contest in your head alone and you need the mental strength to make the correct decisions that will keep you on the path to your goal.  Do you need those chips, chocolate, popcorn, icecream, pizza, etc?  Is your body going to fail to function without it?  Of course not!  Plus, it's going to be far better off if you substitute any of those with a high quality food source.  Believe me, I know how hard that mental fight can be.  I've fought it many, many times and have been on both the winning and losing side.  Take it from me, you will thank yourself EVERY TIME you stick to your plan and avoid the high fat, high carb foods.  I have fallen victim too many times to gallons of icecream only to feel absolutely terrible afterwards.  Those first few bites are fantastic and I love them every time.  The next few servings (yeah, that's right - servings.  As in 100's of calories per...) taste pretty good too.  Then, the sick feeling kicks in and I know I've made a BIG mistake.  I've succumbed to the craving and feel absolutely terrible because of it.  I know I'm one (or two!) steps further from my goal and have to mentally reset to get back on track.  Spare yourself having to go through this!  Those few bites are just not worth it.  I know most of you are going to read this and understand completely where I'm coming from but still do it anyway (I will too again, I can guarantee it!) but please try to be strong and not succumb.  You'll be happy that you did.


Feeling hungry yet?  Make sure all those sweet treats are at least a drive to the store away - don't have them close enough where you can easily grab a handful and start munching away.  Have a cucumber or two on hand, some lettuce, readily available lean protein sources and you'll be doing yourself big favors when those cravings do come!

Next Up:
- A closer look at the mental strength and discipline required for dieting
- A brief overview of the glycemic index that we touched upon today
- Further discussion of the Thermic Effect of food which we also spoke about today Sphere: Related Content