Diet Foods & Fake Sweetener Experiment

DeLarla · 01-17-2006, 06:32 PM

Since having my band removed 12/27/05, I have been nearly perfect on my 1200 calorie diet. Till last night! I think I proved my surgeon's advice about avoiding artificial sweeteners.

Before discharging me from the hospital, Dr. Billy told me how he wants me to eat. His number one rule is: No Equal, Nutrasweet, Splenda or any artificial sweeteners, no diet, lowfat, nonfat, fat free or anything labeled as such. If I want a Dove Bar, eat one as long as I count the calories in my daily total, and I'm allowed 1200 calories a day.

Since then I have avoided my favorite drug - diet Pepsi (or Diet Coke, I'm not picky.) Yesterday I had my first Diet Coke in the morning, then another late in the day. (Long story, hubby was cleaning out the fridge & was going to throw away perfectly good Diet soda since we don't drink it, so I figured I'd finish off the case then quit for good.)

My husband has mountains of goodies in the house, and they haven't bothered me till late last night. I've made it this far without eating past 7:00 p.m. till last night. Last night it was absolutely impossible for me to avoid peanut butter cookies. I started with two, but then I figured I'd better enjoy them so I had a glass of milk. This put me over my calories. Soon I was picking all the cashews out of his roasted nuts, then a handful of peanuts. I figured, "it's too late now" so I ate a couple more cookies and poured a 2nd glass of milk. I am THRILLED that I stopped there, but horrified that I broke over 20 days of perfect dieting because my cravings and willpower were stronger.

After yesterday's experiment, I am 100% convinced that Dr. Billy is correct when it comes to artificial sweeteners. He said the ingredients are derived from sugar and have the same "spike and valley" effect on our bloodsugar that carbs have. That means a couple hours after the diet soda crash, you'll crave bad carbs. I brought the case of soda to work and will stay away from the CRAP.

I was so upset that I got up at 4:30 a.m. this morning and calculated my binge. I ate 1125 extra calories during my rage last night, and I was determined to burn off every single calorie. I exercised for 1.5 hours but still only burned 800. I need to burn 325 more before going to bed because I've come too far to stop now.

**Jack** · 01-17-2006, 06:48 PM

Come on De...come on De.....(chanting).....come on De.....

I know for CERTAIN for me the 'diet' stuff gives me no help & a LOT of misery...PLUS within a matter of a few hours the Dragon (preBand) would be running at full fury and vengeance...

I'm sure you have read tons of stuff on the aspartame hoax....

and YEA!! for your success.....

The absolute best advise I ever got from 40+ years of dieting and studying nutrition, was "Eat when you are hungry; drink when you are thirsty"....and they of course meant 'REAL' food....it's not nice to fool Mother Nature....

our enzyme systems meant to harvest ultimately the actual ATOMIC energy off the ATP>DTP>MTP pathway in the Krebs cycle can not be thwarted easily....and the resultant glitch in production of proper hormonal substances and other vital processes.....

DeLarla · 01-17-2006, 06:52 PM

No, Jack, I have not heard of the Aspertame hoax. I usually don't understand half of what you say, so can you break it down for my simple brain? I'm curious as to what you mean.

Oh 2 Be Free · 01-17-2006, 07:13 PM

lol

Okay, time to pick up your pants and move on... don't dwell on the dirty deed, move foward!

I suggest you have hubby help you burn off the rest of that 300 calories since it was his nuts you were digging in. ( LOL)
Share the accountability :biggrin1:

We all get weak, you just gotta get it back together and it sounds like you are doing just that. :clap2:

Jachut · 01-17-2006, 07:28 PM

Its exactly the same as my experience with bread. Some things just make you out of control.

Plus who wants to eat stuff that is so far down the food chain, you cant even remember where it is derived from. Chemical crap is what it is, and I'm afraid it will give me a brain tumour or something.

When I was pregnant I was really sensitive to MSG. Raging thirst and inability to sleep for oh, 4 days was a sure sign I'd ingested that toxic little chemical. The amazing thing was once I had an internal no fail barometer I was amazed at how many places use MSG. We went out for pasta one night and sure enough, I was awake for days. Pasta for pete's sake, whoever thought an Italian restaurant would put MSG in their food?

Oh well, a good lesson learned I guess, stay away from the stuff. And you didnt really do too badly, and burning it off is a great idea too. Chalk it up to experience.

La_madam · 01-17-2006, 08:07 PM

Lisa, I give myself one bad day a week, so dont beat yourself up over lasts night fiascal..you'll be fine.

It is usually Mondays for me since I weigh Monday mornings..my bad day is all day Mondays..it gives me all the rest of the week to do good. I love weighing in on Mondays it makes me accountable over the weekend and I make better food choices on Sat & Sun

mousecrazy · 01-18-2006, 03:49 PM

I am a little skeptical about artificial sweeteners, too. I think it is a worthy experiment...cut them out and see how you feel. Cindy

Sunta · 01-18-2006, 05:01 PM

Are you familiar with Stevia? It has no impact on blood sugar and no peaks and valleys like carbs and fake sugars. A girl in my office has very bad hypoglycemia and is extremely careful with what she eats and she swears by stevia because it is the only sweetener that doesn't cause any cravings.

bushbaby · 01-18-2006, 05:59 PM

This has not been the first that I have heard to avoid the artificial stuff. Gosh I am getting old cause now I can't remember if it was on the board or not. I'll quit too. Let's see if this works!

**Iluvharleys** · 01-18-2006, 07:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sunta

Are you familiar with Stevia? It has no impact on blood sugar and no peaks and valleys like carbs and fake sugars. A girl in my office has very bad hypoglycemia and is extremely careful with what she eats and she swears by stevia because it is the only sweetener that doesn't cause any cravings.

I do like the Stevia, I just wish it wasn't so darn expensive!

NJChick · 01-19-2006, 09:05 AM

I'm read so many things about artificial sweetners its scary. I have them but try to limit myself. I've know some one to get heart palpatations from it (and this is a very fit person, not over weight), and I know some one who passed out b/c of it (so the hospital says). I only use it in my coffee. Once in a great while I'll have a glass of Crystal Light. Splenda gives me headaches.

The other thing I stay away from is the stuff they use to make fat free chips. That stuff will reak havoc on your system IMHO !!! If I have chips they are baked.

Lisa, I give you credit for staying on 1200. Its so freakin hard unless you eat bushells of veggies.

I find that the more "diet" stuff I eat, the hungrier I am, so I try to eat "clean."

Good luck sweetie and get rid of the crap in your house... tell DH to keep it in his car. I couldn't survive cashews and just knowing my daughters jar of pnut butter is in the cabinet is enuf to drive me nuts.

Hugs

vinesqueen · 01-19-2006, 09:31 AM

Over the Christmas break I was drinking way to many of the minute maid light fruity beverages. And my fybromiagia went nuts. And by too many, I mean 1 or 2 cans every day.

Didn't affect my hunger levels, but my my entire body hurt. Too much artificial sweeteners is bad for me.

Corn makes me go nuts and want to eat everything in sight. Espeically corn syrup, and it's amazing how many different products use it to sweeten their stuff!

Kryssa · 01-19-2006, 09:42 AM

Aspartame is the devil. It's a migraine trigger for me, and if I don't get a headache I eat the house 2 hours after ingesting it. Splenda is better, no headaches and not as much hunger. Stevia is great, but hard to use and extremely expensive too. Some mornings I just put the sugar in my coffee...at least its natural and cheap.