by Rita Black
Use the 5-4-3 guideline of five servings of vegetables and fruits, four 3-ounce servings of protein and three healthy fat servings as a minimum foundation to keep you nourished and stabilized and your plate full for few calories.
Keep refined food calories under 15 percent, within your Buffer Zone.
Recognize blood sugar dips, re-regulation, and leptin resistance not as real hunger but for what they are. If you have been eating in an imbalanced way and begin eating in the Food Mastery Zone you may experience pangs and feelings of your body re-regulating your insulin levels. If you have been out of balance with your eating and then begin eating healthfully, it will take a few days for your body to get your insulin in a more manageable place. It also takes time for your mind to begin recognizing the satiety hormone leptin and letting you know when you are full again. So, if you feel these pangs, just say to yourself “Oh, there’s my mind and body healing itself back into balance—cool!” Learn to love those feelings instead of fearing them and trying to feed them. After a few days in your Food Mastery Zone, the feelings of fake hunger will diminish, and you will start feeling great.
Mastery Craving Guidelines
Cravings happen when the mind associates an internal or external cue (an emotion, a place, time, or visual cue) with a need for food as a comfort, reward, or pastime. The “craving” you experience might feel like it’s coming from your body but usually it is the reward neurotransmitter dopamine agitating you (aka Carb Zombie) for a treat. Often the craving won’t let up until you give it what it wants. During your 30-Day Thin Thinking Practice we will use daily meditation and hypnosis to combat cravings, but here are some other ways to refocus your mind and master cravings:
Focus on a new reward. When you believe you are “doing without,” an old fat thinking food reward, the craving doesn’t go away. It becomes stronger. Focus on a new treat and reward, breaking your mind’s focus on the old one.-Take a walk and focus on the reward of feeling refreshed afterward.
-Take a catnap or meditate for ten minutes and focus on the reward of resetting your mind.
-Eat a healthy snack and focus on feeling light and stabilized instead of imbalanced.
Plan meals the night before. Focus on what you can have, not what you can’t. By making these decisions ahead of time, you create impulse control without relying on your willpower reserves.
“Fast” in between meals and snacks and from dinner until the next morning. When you are “trying not to eat,” you feel deprived and crave the food you cannot have. By cultivating the process of “fasting,” which implies creating an absence of eating, in order to rest the digestive system and promote health and longevity, you’ll see yourself as doing something powerful and positive. You feel good about resting from eating and quieting the part of the mind that “expects something.”
Get curious and look deeper than the food cue. Cravings are often the plea for deeper self-care in disguise. The call for a cookie might really be a need for self-nurturing. The desire for wine, cheese, and crackers might really be a signal that you need to find a healthier way to let your hair down at the end of the day. When you are feeling a craving that you know isn’t hunger, ask yourself this question: “What do I really need right now that is hiding under the idea of food? Do I need a break? Do I need more fun in my life? Do I need to give myself some empathy?” The more you dig and begin giving yourself deeper self-care, the more the surface cravings begin to vanish.
Use sauces or condiments for flavor and pleasure. Flavorful sauces and condiments add pleasurable flavor to a meal for a limited number of calories. When putting a meal together, I think in terms of the type of protein I want, what vegetable to serve with it, and what flavor can I use to add personality and sizzle.
Here are some sauces and condiments that elevate protein and vegetables into enjoyable, mouth-satisfying, craving-busting meals. These flavor add-ons are low in calories (no more than 60 calories a serving) but provide huge flavor, making the difference between a boring, skimpy meal and a sensuous feast!
Marinara sauce
Curry simmer sauces
Asian-themed sauces
Thai green curry sauce
Salsas
Hot sauce
Chicken stock packets (It’s amazing sprinkled over vegetables.)
A tiny bit of olive oil, sesame oil, or even butter over vegetables
Master Your Carb Zombie Guidelines
I would like to dive a bit deeper into how you can learn to balance enjoying your Buffer Zone foods while steering clear of waking that powerful force within, the Carb Zombie. I want to walk through some tools with you to get that Carb Zombie back in hibernation should you tickle the pleasure center in your brain and throw your body out of balance.
Anyone who has struggled with weight knows the feeling of being “possessed” by this monster that seems to drive him or her to eat even when they rationally do not want to. The Carb Zombie mechanism doesn’t care about your weight goals, your need to be healthy, or even your happiness. The Carb Zombie just wants to be fed refined foods at any cost. Research studies have shown rats willing to experience electrical shocks in order to eat refined foods. In other studies, rats continued to drink sugar water, stimulating the reward centers in their brains until their stomachs exploded.
By staying within your Food Mastery Zone, you keep the Carb Zombie in hibernation and out of our Weight Struggle Zone and avoid the fate of those poor rats. Mastering this state of balance will mean tuning in to your body and noticing the effects that various foods have on you. Here are some guidelines as to how:
“Hibernate your Carb Zombie” with three days of eating 5-4-3 foods without the grains or 15 percent Buffer Zone foods. If you have been eating a diet riddled with refined foods, you may need to balance your body out for three days or so by eating primarily foods from the 85 percent part of the Mastery Zone and staying away from the 15 percent entirely until you feel stabilized and nourished. Once your Carb Zombie is in hibernation, you can slowly experiment with adding in some foods in the Buffer Zone.
Once your Carb Zombie is hibernating, keep her hibernated by using your Mastery Zone Eating Strategy and staying below your “carb ceiling.” After years of maintaining my weight and helping others manage their weight, I have come to appreciate how important it is to get 72 to 80 grams of protein a day (the four 3-ounce servings) and limit carbohydrates below what I call “the carb ceiling” of 75 to 150 grams. (That amount is equivalent to five or six servings of complex vegetables and one or two fruit servings plus a whole grain serving and small, refined carb serving. See the Carbohydrate Comparison Chart to get a sense of this). Eating this way creates a hunger-free state—the Food Mastery Zone. The more time you spend in this place, the easier it is to release weight. You become more confident and peaceful, too, because you—not the refined foods—are in control.
Become Carb Aware as you begin eating within your Food Mastery Zone and read labels and use your tracking app to know how many grams of carbohydrates are in various foods you consume. Educating yourself about the foods you eat and how different foods help you feel when in your body will allow you to make educated choices with your Inner Coach. These choices will be based on how various carbohydrate foods either allow you to feel stable or trigger fake hunger and cravings. Understand that even foods that are seen as healthy, like brown rice, dried fruit, and certain fruits that contain higher levels of natural sugar like pineapple and mango, could trigger your fake hunger. If a food does that, steer clear of it. By becoming aware and tuned in, you become an educated, rational consumer of what you put into your body.
Don’t fret about having to count carbohydrates. You will quickly learn the amounts in the servings of foods you usually eat from recording your food on the tracking applications that I recommend. They track protein and carbohydrate intake for you.
Keep your trigger foo
ds out of your Food Mastery Zone Eating Strategy. Remember your trigger foods are the ones that take your power away even after you eat a small serving.
If you start to awaken the Carb Zombie—put him back to sleep ASAP. One of the mistakes people often make when they eat a refined food is to say “I’ll start over tomorrow” and eat more refined food. Would you pour gasoline on a fire once it’s started? That is what the effect of eating more refined food does. It pulls you deeper into your Food Struggle Zone—the lair of the Carb Zombie. Instead—if you feel yourself being pulled in by the Carb Zombie—hit the fire with water by stabilizing yourself immediately with a serving of protein and pulling back from complex or refined carbohydrates for the rest of the day—bringing yourself back into balance.
If you get pulled into the Carb Zombie’s Weight Struggle lair, get out by following the steps to force the monster into hibernation. If you find yourself in the Food Struggle Zone from a few days of overeating refined carbs, follow the steps to hibernate your Carb Zombie by eating only in the 85 percent 5-4-3 foods from the Food Mastery Zone for about three days. This should bring you back into balance.
Tune in and learn your “balance” when you eat foods within the 15 percent. In the first few months you will have to be very mindful when eating within your 15 percent Buffer Zone. Tune in to how various Buffer Zone foods make you feel while you are eating them, ten minutes after, an hour after, three hours after and so on. You will learn quickly what foods work best for you within your Buffer Zone. Use this type of food forensics and adapt to foods that work best for you and keep you free from feeling imbalanced, fake hungry, or craving.
If you are sensitive to sugar or flour or both, avoid foods containing these ingredients and eat low-carbohydrate treats instead. There are many Weight Strugglers who have a genetic vulnerability to sugar and flour. You will know this if even a tiny bit of sugar or a flour-based product starts your Carb Zombie rumbling. If this is true for you—do not despair—there are many great foods you can enjoy in your Buffer Zone that do not contain sugar or flour. See the Resources section for some low-carb treat ideas.
If you drink alcohol, focus on 5-4-3 eating the following day. Drinking alcohol can be managed when you keep the servings within your 15 percent and you have a foundation of being nourished and stabilized. However, be careful because alcohol may tickle your Carb Zombie and leave you feeling hungrier the next day. This is the fake hunger triggered when the alcohol creates an imbalance in your system. Make sure to eat a protein-based breakfast and lunch the days following an evening when you drank alcohol. It is also best to keep alcohol intake to a minimum, especially while in weight-release mode. That’s not only because of the calories but also for the way it diminishes your impulse control.
Notice the sweeteners that work for you and those that don’t and use those sparingly. Ahhh, the whole sweetener or artificial sweetener debate. Again, dear apprentice, you will need to make some decisions for yourself. There are many theories and studies that have been dismantled over the years with various sweeteners. You are now the adult in charge, and I invite you to do your own research in the world and on yourself and make your own decisions. I know many Weight Masters who use (not abuse) sweeteners like sucralose (Splenda, etc.) who feel fine about using it. There are studies that support having a low-calorie sweetener; since it allows you to keep your calories down, it can be a tool in your weight release. There are also more natural and low-calorie sweeteners like xylitol and Erythritol that work well in baking and for sweetening drinks. There are others who prefer to train themselves off the taste of sweet altogether. I have seen many people use brown sugar or agave as the healthy alternative to white sugar, not knowing that these more natural sweeteners can wake up the Carb Zombie as easily as white sugar for many people.
What 1,200 Calories Look Like
Okay, Apprentice, now that I have walked you through setting up your Food Mastery Zone Eating Structure and the guidelines to master hunger, cravings, and your Carb Zombie, I would like you to see menus of a few days of eating in the Food Mastery Zone.
Here is a filling and nourishing example of Calorie Budget for Weight Release of 1,200 calories. (Chart V). Notice that the refined foods add up to 180 calories over the course of the day and that I honored the 5-4-3-2-1 servings. Notice, too, that I include more protein than the four 3-ounce servings. I’ve included the grams of carbs and protein so that you can see how this day is balanced.
If you are on a higher calorie budget, you can add bigger servings or another snack.
CHART V: 1,200 Calorie Daily Budget
Here is a Food Mastery Zone day of fast food meals that you can eat and still come in on a 1,200 – calorie budget within a low carbohydrate range and keeping the protein servings at the meals to provide stability. The 15 percent Buffer Zone choice was within the 180-calorie range. (Chart W)
CHART W: 1,200 Calorie Daily Budget with Fast Food Meals
Case Study: Barbara Created Her Own Way Of Eating
My client Barbara released 20 pounds in three months with the Shift Weight Mastery Process. She was never obese, but because she didn’t have a good relationship with food, she was overweight.
“I hated dieting, but I was afraid of not being on a diet. I needed the structure of a diet. When I wasn’t on a diet, I went crazy, eating everything that wasn’t nailed down and feeling sick afterwards. I was convinced that I was out of control with food.
“When I started my journey to weight mastery, I began to trust myself and my instincts. I was able to feed myself mostly healthy, nourishing foods that I enjoyed. I loosened my restrictive grip and started allowing for treats in my day: some chocolate, some wine, and popcorn. If I was on a strict diet, I would have considered those treats bad foods, but I had room for them with the 85-15 Percent Food Mastery Zone Eating Strategy and a realistic Calorie Budget for Weight Release.
“With my loving Inner Coach, I figured out the best time of day for me to eat food with the most staying power, such as protein and vegetables. And, I noted the times that were best for giving myself treats. For a treat, I ate a few bites of cake. I didn’t need the whole thing.”
“I let go of the fear of food and saw I could be in charge and nourish my body and soul. I created my own structure that worked for me. It was a very freeing process. Now I feel masterful and in charge of how I feed myself.” Barbara B. (Released 20 pounds, maintaining for 3 years)
WEIGHT MASTERY SKILL 3 SUM UP: Mastering Your Relationship with Food
Instead of deeming food as “good” or “bad,” you can develop a healthy way of eating where all food serves you well, giving you one or more of the following:Nourishment
Stabilization
Balance
By using the 85-15 Percent Food Mastery Zone Eating Strategy, you live life on your terms within your Calorie Budget for Weight Release. You choose from a wide variety of food and have meals and snacks that honor your lifestyle and personal taste preferences. Using this Weight Mastery Skill helps you to be consistent and release weight over time.
Staying within your Food Mastery Zone avoids false hunger and prevents cravings that might lead to overeating and bingeing.Get at least four 3-ounce servings (72 to 80 grams) of protein a day.
Stay under 75 to 150 grams of carbohydrates per day, including complex carbs-vegetables, fruits, a minimum of whole grain, and 15 percent Buffer Zone foods. Your carb ceiling will depend on many things: how carb sensitive you are, how many refined foods you eat, and how stabilized and balanced your body is.
APPRENTICE PAUSE: Are you feeling full…of information, that is? You have learned the first three skills of weight mastery. These skills engage you in the creative art of balancing energy in different ways, depending on who you are and the way you live. During this process, you are starting to become the artistic master of your weight destiny. Finally, the power is in your hands!
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Congratulations! You have finished building the first floor of your home of Weight Mastery with the three weight skills! Now proceed to the next level—THE ENVIRONMENT SKILLS—to continue building.
CHAPTER 27
THE SECOND LEVEL
The Three Environment Skills
People who practice the three environment skills consistently are the ones who have released weight and kept it off the longest, according to the research from the National Weight Control Registry (NWCR). Now you are going to learn to build the next level of your Weight Mastery Home. The second level consists of these three powerful skills.
THE ENVIRONMENT SKILLS
Skill 4 Self-Monitoring. You track your food intake, some nutritional values, and your exercise. You monitor your weight to check your progress and stay on track.
Skill 5 Stimulus Control. You keep your environment set up for success.
Skill 6 Building a Powerful Support Team. You surround yourself with people who are advocates for your journey to weight release.
I am sure you have wished, as I did when I struggled, that you could live on an island far away from all the temptations of everyday life in order to release weight. But unless you are enrolling in a popular weight loss reality show where you will be sheltered at “The Ranch” or have a lot of money to check yourself into a health spa for a few months, chances are you are going to be releasing weight in the real world.
When I struggled with my weight, I always gave my attention to the diet aspect of losing weight and not my environment. With hindsight, I see that I wasn’t a failure at releasing weight, but my environment was set up to fail me and sabotage my best efforts.