Wacky ... could it work?

Cruising ebay and found a diet book "Cookies and Hot Fudge Diet."
Didn't buy it, but am so frustrated by my chocolate cravings I just
might fall for it. Any suggestions out their to quiet some mighty
strong urgings to eat a one-pound Hershey bar? I'm desparate! Thx
all.

Pbusterparfait wrote:
Cruising ebay and found a diet book "Cookies and Hot Fudge Diet."
Didn't buy it, but am so frustrated by my chocolate cravings I just
might fall for it. Any suggestions out their to quiet some mighty
strong urgings to eat a one-pound Hershey bar? I'm desparate! Thx
all.

Hersheys has a chocolate hard candy (I've forgotten the name, offhand,
it might be Tastations), and it's very chocolaty. Sucking on one would
last a long time, and they aren't many calories. I used to use them for
chocolate cravings when I was on a low fat diet, before I went low-carb.


168/125/125 7 years: LC since 2/18/97 maintaining since 3/17/99
--
jamie )

"There's a seeker born every minute."

Don't eat a one-pound Hershey bar

But look at the calories reading on it, an measure how much of it you can
eat to stay in the 500-700 calories range. That shouldn't be one pound of
it, but still a decent portion. If I googled correctly, that should be 3
servings of it (660 calories).That's also the normal calory intake of a
normal meal. So, go ahead and eat your three servings at lunch. Just eat
only that at lunch, and don't go above the three servings. If you feel
you're not hungry (hint: if the bar doesn't taste good anymore, you're not
hungry for it anymore) anymore somewhere during your "meal", stop and throw
away the remaining bars. Then, resume your normal eating habits for the
remaining of the day - except no more bars. If you still feel like eating
some, you can do that again for 4-5 days... After a few days, you will
probably feel fed up with chocolate and actually start craving some
something else. For me, that was vegetables and pickles, never ate the stuff
with so much pleasure in my life...
If you eat normally the rest of your meals, you should not unbalance your
diet severly (just be cautious if your diabetic) on such short time period.
You should also not gain weight in the process, since the calorie intake
remained within the norm - actually, you might even lose some weight. The
only risk would be some constipation, but this should disappear once you
stop, though you might also consider eating a little more fibers.
The problem is not really with wanting to eat some chocolate; as long as it
is done in small quantities and as part of a meal and not binging, it won't
hurt you in any way. Real chocolate (black 70% cocoa) is actually slow carb
(glycemic index around 20, that's under brown rice) and cholesterol free.
Two small chunks (10g or so, sorry, I'm metric) of chocolate of about any
kind rates the same as a 0% yogourt. So, if you're stuffing yourself with
fat free yogourts in order to avoid your crave for chocolate, you are
actually over-eating. Might as well eat *a little* chocolate instead of the
yogourts.
The problem is when you want a whole pound of it, because that's binging.
That's the reaction to all the craving, and the craving is the
counter-reaction to all the restriction you put on you. The problem is that
you will pig out on chocolate, because you brain fully knows that you are
doing something "wrong" and breaking a taboo. If you're breaking a taboo,
and if it's your one occasion in a lifetime of restriction to eat chocolate,
you *will* pig out on it, because if you're doing a crazy thing that feels
good, you might as well get as much as you can while it lasts!
Hyper-restriction only leads to boulimia. At the extreme, some people
oscillate between anorexia and boulimia all their life.

It's perfectly possible to lose weight while eating chocolate. It's also
perfectly possible to lose weight *only* by eating chocolate, or bananas, or
pasta, or eggs, or raw tripes. Actually, I'm pretty sure some fad diet has
been designed around any of these at one point or another. They all work the
same way : if you eat the same thing all the time, you stop craving for it
and you get used to the taste. Then, your normal regulation steps in, you
start listening to your hunger again (since you're then only eating to
sustain yourself, not for pleasure) and your body is revolting against
eating always the same thing, so you have nausea and all. So, yes, it's
possible. No, it's not really healthy, it is even dangerous for your health.
No, you cannot survive a lifetime on such a diet, and since it teaches you
nothing about eating properly, you will gain weight again once you stop
them.
But this also means that a single serving of chocolate, if it is part of a
meal (meaning, the rest of the meal is lighter because of it) won't kill
you. It won't make several pounds come back at you at once. A real balanced
diet you can keep for life is one where you eat everything in reasonnable
portions. I have been losing almost 30 pounds during the last couple of
months. I have been eating of everything, including chocolate, French fries,
cheese, restaurants... The difference is that a whole chocolate tablet used
to last me a single day, now it survives the whole month...

"Pbusterparfait" wrote in message
om...
Cruising ebay and found a diet book "Cookies and Hot Fudge Diet."
Didn't buy it, but am so frustrated by my chocolate cravings I just
might fall for it. Any suggestions out their to quiet some mighty
strong urgings to eat a one-pound Hershey bar? I'm desparate! Thx
all.