What Foods Can You Can Eat Every Day That Suppress Your Appetite

Are you currently trying to lose unwanted weight? Are you struggling with cravings and mindless eating? Are you feeling hungry, but you have reached your calorie limit for the day?

Try adding the following foods in your diet:

1. Ginger. Ginger has a strong, pleasant flavor, and helps you avoid overeating. I know ginger is a hard sell, but it has so many health benefits it’s worth getting use to. Start with Ginger tea, it’s mild and may help with you lose weight.

 I had the worst chest infection back in 2015 (Covid-15 perhaps?) I went through a round of antibiotics and that did not help. I fought this thing for 3 months; I could barely breath and every day was a struggle. Then one night while out, a friend could hear my labored breathing, she told me to eat a piece of ginger with raw honey 3 times a day. I did just that, it was hard at first but by day 3 I could breathe, and I have been a big promoter of ginger ever since.

• Add a little grated Ginger to your smoothies and meals. Make ginger tea or buy Ginger Tea bags. You can even eat slices of crystallized ginger.
  
  
  • Ginger is loaded with antioxidants, has fiber, amino acids, and helps your body ward off germs. Ginger’s antibacterial power helps keeps your mouth healthy. It’s a natural nausea remedy. It also has anti-inflammatory properties that help sooth sore muscles, eases arthritis symptoms, lowers blood sugar, eases menstrual cramps, helps lower cholesterol, and helps you fight off chest infections. Basically, Ginger is the bomb!
    
    
• Avocado. The avocado fruit (Yes, it’s a fruit!) has many health benefits. It has more potassium than a Banana. Avocadoes are loaded with fiber which make you feel full. They have heart healthy monounsaturated fatty acids (the good fats), which has natural appetite suppressant properties.

• Although there are many calories and fat in avocados, they are a healthier option than junk food and sugary treats.
  
  
  • Have avocado toast for breakfast, not only is it healthy but you’ll be one of the cool kids. Apparently, it all the rage with the hipsters. You can also add it to salads and smoothies or use it as a base for sauces and dips.

• Cayenne pepper. Spice things up with cayenne pepper it will help suppress your appetite and aid in weight loss. One study found that using cayenne pepper can makes you eat fewer calories, so why not try it.
  
  
  • The chemicals in cayenne pepper help boost the metabolism, make you feel less hungry and help burn fat in the body.
    
    
  • Add Cayenne pepper to your meals as you cook. It can be sprinkled on salads and added to soups. However, be careful to not keep it near your cinnamon, you may grab the wrong spice and load your oatmeal up with Cayenne, I can tell you it’s a rude awakening.
    
    
• Apples. An apple a day keeps the doctor and unwanted pounds away.

The fiber and pectin in apples can make you feel full, so you’re less likely overeat.

• Apples are crunchy, juicy and sweet! They can feed the craving for sugar and the craving for something crunchy without sabotaging your weight loss goals.

• Apples take more time to chew than other foods. This gives your body the time to process what you’re eating and send signals to your brain that you’re full faster.
  
  
  • The multiple varieties of apples also keep things interesting, however my favourite are the Pink Ladies.

Simply put… they’re juicy, they’re crunchy, they’re Delicious!

Enjoy these natural appetite suppressants as you diet. Keep in mind that exercise and a generally healthy overall eating plan are also important for losing weight.

4 Steps to help overcome Emotional Overeating

Has this pandemic become the battle of the bulge? Do you have love / hate relationship with the scale? Are you gaining weight that seems to stay around forever? The cause might be emotional overeating.

I am guilty of this, now matter what the emotion stress, depressed, anger and even when happy food is my comfort. When happy it’s disguised as a celebration, I’ve earned the right to eat whatever I want. However, I have noticed that different emotions have me seeking out different comfort foods. When I am stressed or angry, I tend to want sweet comforts. When I am sad its junk food like chips or take out. When happy its all the above.

What is emotional overeating?

Emotional overeating is a complex topic, but to simplify you are eating your feelings!

As defined by the Mayo Clinic Emotional Eating is eating to suppress or soothe negative emotions, such as stress, anger, fear, boredom, sadness and loneliness. Major life events or, more commonly, the hassles of daily life can trigger negative emotions that lead to emotional eating and disrupt your weight-loss efforts.

Food is a source of comfort for us emotional eaters. Sadly, the comfort doesn’t last it’s a temporary rush of feel good emotions then the guilt of overeating kicks in and then you are berating yourself for sabotaging your diet and weight-loss goals.

Try these easy steps to help with your emotional overeating.

1. Know your triggers. When you feel the need to eat your feelings it is usually triggered by an event, thought, or feeling.

If you are not yet mindful of your triggers start a journal. Start by writing out your feelings. Are you stressed, bored, sad or is this real hunger that you are feeling?

If you can figure out your triggers, then it will be easier to take control of them.

My trigger is work stress and now due to ‘The Vid’ and being in lockdown I am seeking comfort in food much more then normal. Your triggers may be the same or it could be family and relationship issues.

2. Eat when you’re hungry. Learn to listen to your body and pay attention to real hunger pangs. Make sure to also keep hydrated so an you don’t confuse being thirsty with being hungry.

3. Make alternative plans. For example, if you know that you are going to have a stressful day at work, and this causes you to stress eat then plan and try to prevent it. Try substituting a more positive action that also brings you comfort or reduces your stress like looking at dog videos on Instagram. Nothing better than watching a cubby French bulldog getting stuck in a box. Maybe dog videos aren’t your thing, but you get the idea.

– Take a long walk or workout after work to get rid of stress.
– Instead of running to grab that bags chips after an argument, watch your favourite sitcom to get you in a happier mood. Or get out of your comfort zone and call a friend instead of texting.

The plan is to find other ways to deal with your stress and negative emotions.

4) Find your tribe.  Surround yourself with people that your are comfortable with, that support and lift up. Create a support group to help each other with your fitness and health goals.

Your are not alone, many of us eat our feelings and most of the time without realizing it. It’s nothing to be ashamed of and we can change. Take small steps to create your new habits and reach out when you need help.

Respect the workout, or walk on home

Yesterday Cultfit  wrote “For most of us, running/cycling/working out (_______ Insert anything here) is a very personal space.” My personal space is my Muay Thai class. I’ve been doing some sort of martial arts for the last 13 years. I originally started off doing Jiu Jitsu, I had gotten as far as my blue belt when work, a move and a demeaning boyfriend got in the way.

Then one day about 4 years ago I got a personal trainer who happened to have a background in Muay Thai therefore every other training session was a Muay Thai session at my request. I LOVED IT! I had forgotten how good it made me feel to throw punches and kick pads. I found my passion again. Now my trainer/friend is teaching his own Muay Thai class which I am a part of.  This is my place of empowerment. I feel strong, invincible, and unbreakable therefore I do not want anyone coming into my personal space unless they share the same passion for the art as I do.

I look forward to the rush I get after doing a 20 minute warm-up of burpies, mountain climbers, and 21’s. I’m in a zone – my heart rate is through the roof and I can barely breathe because I’m so focussed on pushing myself and creating new physical limits. Distractions in class that pull me out of my zone really stress me out and impact my workout.  And as a result, my place of empowerment and stress relief is starting to become a place of stress.

I do my best to keep a distance from the distractions  (yeah I have this irritating nice gene that prevents me from saying shut the F -up and do your workout).  I should not have to walk on egg shells in my place of empowerment. All I ask is that you respect the workout and the fact that I, along with others that share the same passion, take it seriously.  Socializing should take place before and after class – not during!

Have you had disruptions to your personal space? How did you deal with it?

Happy Movember

Today is Movember 1^st,  gals aren’t you excited? By the end of next week you will be seeing dudes everywhere sporting very bad mustaches in support of raising awareness for men’s health issues; specifically prostate cancer and mental health.  This is the only time of year when it is socially acceptable for guys to look like 70’s porn stars and the girls dig it.

Any man willing to look a little ridiculous for a cause is very sexy. So guys grow out the rock star, biker, or the porn star and wear it with pride. My personal favorite is the Rock Star.

 

Here’s a  style guide to help all you ‘Mo Bro’s’ out,

 

Side note: All you single guys out there, if you are on the fence about participating in Movember here’s some food for thought. Girls like guys that are willing to put aside their Rico Suave ways to support a cause. Also it is a great conversation piece and chances are very good that you will be chatting it up with ladies all night long.

What’s YOUR ideal self?

This photo was posted on Facebook and there were numerous positive comments but sadly there was also negative feedback.

Comments like:

“Not Sexy”

“Grandma Ass”

‘No Muscle tone”

I am always saddened when people are quick to criticize. I think they missed the purpose of this picture; it’s telling women to love themselves.  Be confident, feel sexy and people will see you that way.  If you have curves love them, if you are naturally lean love your frame. The message we should be getting is be the best healthiest version of you, not society’s version of what’s sexy.

Trends change and so does societies perceptions, in the era of the lovely Marilyn Monroe the hour-glass figure was the sign of a real women.  I am sure all the lean, more athletic type figures were berating themselves for not having enough meat on their bodies, bigger breast and hips. Now skinny is what is being promoted as the new ‘Sexy’ and every women over a size 6 is freaking out (sadly I too get sucked into this).

We should be promoting ‘Healthy’ as the new sexy. Our bodies are an individual as our personalities. No two bodies are the same nor should we strive to be the same as someone else.  Even the beautiful Ms. Monroe struggled with self-confidence and society’s demands for her to live up to her sex symbol status. We will never live up to other people’s ideals so why bother trying …live up to YOUR ideal.

My ideal:

To be an injury free (currently treating tendonitis in my wrist and tennis elbow), perfectly healthy size 10 woman, that eats healthy 80% 75% of the time with the 20%  25% beer and nacho nights.

Now tell me what’s YOUR ideal?

Do you need to break up with your food?

This blog post is probably not going to help my single status but I think this is something that needs to be shared. In the past couple of years I have developed food intolerances.

Food intolerance – Occur when the body is unable to deal with a certain type of foodstuff. This is usually because the body doesn’t produce enough of the particular chemical or enzyme that’s needed for digestion of that food.

My definition of a food intolerance would be uncontrollable passing of gas. Stomach bloating so bad that people will ask ‘So when are you due?’ thinking that you’re ready to give birth that second. Stomach cramps that have you doubled over in pain and praying that you will let rip the mother of all farts in hope of alleviating some of the pain. You smell like you’re a rotting on the inside. Granted anything coming out of your ass generally does not smell good but if you are having a reaction to your food it’s like rotten garbage sitting in the sun for weeks on end. Weight gain, some people are lucky and experience weigh loss but not this gal! You go from extreme bouts of constipation to 20 minutes bathroom sprints for a day maybe two. The bathroom sprints make you happy you are having a movement but by trip number 3 you begin to wonder just how full of shit you really are.

Two years back I was in my night school class studying Nutritional Symptomology when we started discussing the difference between food allergies and intolerances. As the teacher was going through the symptoms of an intolerance I realized he was talking about my issues. Finally it made sense, but the big question now was what am I intolerant to?

One way to find out if you have intolerances is to do an elimination diet. Eliminate the following foods Eggs, Dairy (includes cheese, yogurt, butter, chocolate), Soy, nuts, wheat and sweeteners; since they are the biggest culprits for food allergies and intolerances. Then slowly add them back into your diet and see if you have symptoms, remember you do not get an immediate reaction, you may feel symptoms the next day or even two days later.

Or you can visit a naturopath and get a get a blood test that specifically tests for food intolerances. Our doctors test for allergies not intolerances. This blood test can be costly but it’s a quick way to see what your issue are. This is the route that I went and I found out that I am intolerant to dairy, eggs, corn, kidney beans, almonds, and brewer’s yeast. I’m not gonna lie I shed a tear over this because this was going to change my life. Brewer’s yeast I love a cold beer on the patio in the summer sun with friends, DAIRY can anyone live without it!

When I eliminated these foods I felt great, got my will to live back (okay I’m just being dramatic) but I did feel like a new person. I even noticed that my skin looked better, I had more energy and my mood did not fluctuate. Hey when you are not walking around like a 9 month pregnant women waiting for the mother of all farts to be released; you are going to feel nothing but happy thoughts.

However I have relapsed, I am back to where I started and I feel awful. It’s hard when you’re single and a big part of your social life is having dinners and drinks with the girls every month, in the summer it’s about every two weeks. So YES I relapsed somewhere between the beers, poutine and nachos I hit rock bottom. I need to break up with my food once again. I know some of my friends find it hard to believe that beer and cheese  are my issues but it’s the sad cold truth. I also know it is hard to understand until you go through it. As much as I love those things I HAVE to give them up! It’s for my health and well-being.

On the plus side I will lose the extra weight I have gained, my skin will glow, I will not look preggo and no longer will I be spewing toxic fumes from my ass. It all good! I’ll miss my cheese and beer but I will get over it, they are not things I have every day and I can switch to wine right?

If any of this resonates with you I highly recommend you take the next step and get tested for food intolerances. Remember when you start feeling better still avoid those foods, because the symptoms will come back. Sadly when we are feeling good we forget what is was like when we weren’t feeling so great. Maybe take a picture of your bloated, pimply self and stick it on the fridge as a reminder and motivation.

Good Luck and remember you are not alone!

 

 

 

 

 

4th Annual Eat-Clean Diet® Makeover Challenge

Hey Ladies do you need some motivation to get in shape? Why not take the Eat-Clean Diet makeover challenge . You could win a trip to Toronto, a photo shoot and spread in Oxygen magazine, a feature on eatcleandiet.com, a one-hour in-person consult with Tosca Reno (my fitness hero and the women I want to be when I grow up) plus $3000!

Let us know if you enter we would love to follow your progress. I’m going to do it, I have dreams of one day being published in Oxygen Magazine and maybe this is my way of getting in there. Last time I checked they did not have a Single Gals workout struggles advice column (they totally should! I’d be more than happy to help out the readers like myself that read Oxygen Magazine while eating a burrito). All kidding aside I do have my certification in Holistic Nutrition but I am just an average gal looking to keep fit and healthy all while having the occasional beer with my occasional nachos.

Good Luck!