In my last post (which I suspect bored you cos it certainly bored me!) I mentioned that my eating is ‘kinda’ in hand.
It’s not perfect but I’m not inhaling stuff I shouldn’t be eating. (I should confess that, at my worst a few weeks ago I willingly ate packets of normal crisps. With gluten. Just normal packets of chippies. Bizarrely though I waited for the allergic reaction – being a coeliac and all – nothing came.)
Rather than craving junk food or my trigger food it occurred to me that I needed to find some other fast / takeaway options.
In my old hometown I had my favourite (and safe – coeliac-wise) takeaway haunts… but since moving I’m yet to discover Chinese, Thai and Vietnamese takeaway havens.
However after recently eating Thai takeaway and being reminded how much I love the spicy taste, I’ve been buying supplies to ‘mix’ it up at home a bit as well. Years ago when I did Weight Watchers, I had heaps of cookbooks and was good about trying different recipes, but now I just eat the same things week after week.
So I’ve been trying the “Passage to” range by Passage Foods* cos they’re all gluten-free. The Vietnamese Lemongrass Chicken was okay, though nothing to write home about, but the Beef Rendang was scrumptuous. In fact I couldn’t wait until lunch the following day to have my leftovers.
As I said in my last post, I’m pretty sure I still eat too much but I do feel more satisfied after particularly tasty meals. I have a few other mixes in my cupboard to try and have been hanging out for the Sri Lankan Coconut and Cashew Chicken mix.
Another thing that may (or may not) be helping my appetite is that I have again weaned myself off diet coke.
Long term readers may recall that I cut it out of my diet a couple of years ago. After some difficulty I started seeing benefits which surprised me – namely that I wasn’t hungry all of the time.
The same thing has happened this time, though not to the same extent. I was eating very healthily last time and suspect my low GI diet helped me feel satiated longer.
Basically my decision to go cold turkey this time came as a result of the fact I ran out of Vanilla Diet Coke (VDC). It’s hard to buy and I was initially too lazy to go to the one supermarket in town which sells it. Despite the fact I’d been drinking about a litre a day, day one passed without incident, though I struggled through days 2-4.
Ten days after I cut it from my diet my mother visited and I asked if she could bring a small bottle of VDC which I knew was wallowing in her fridge. She did and I treasured it and had it for afternoon tea. And it was delicious!
It’s over two weeks now since I have been VDC-free and I’m going to try to settle into a routine where I have one a week – or normal diet coke when out for breakfast or coffee. (I don’t drink tea or coffee!)
I haven’t been anywhere near a scale so have no idea if the reduced bingeing and lack of VDC is having any impact. But, perhaps that’s a good thing. If I got weighed and nothing had changed I would most certainly wonder WTF I was torturing myself.
What’s your take on diet soft drinks? Okay in moderation; a food replacement option; or never ever?!
PS. This is not a sponsored post, I just like to give a shout-out to food brands which cater for we coeliacs.
February 15, 2013
I don’t touch them. At all. I went through a stage where I did and found that I was putting on weight & feeling so bloated & eeeeuw. I also found that I tended to crave foods that I shouldn’t- soft drinks (fake or otherwise) tended to correlate with binge episodes. I read somewhere that the brain sends out the same messages to the pancreas when fake sugar hits it as it does when the real thing does. Because I have PCOS, I have issues with insulin resistance, so as far as I’m concerned diet soft drinks just cause me trouble- so I don’t bother.
February 15, 2013
Hmmm…. I’ve wondered about the fake sugar high (and if it’s akin to a high GI food – making me hungrier after!
February 15, 2013
yeah, that’s what’s going through my head. I’ve read studies that indicate that, but have a friend in pharma clinical research. She’s on a mission to find out one way or another for me.
February 15, 2013
I have on average one diet soft drink per week – the caffeine free diet coke – at my Mum’s house when we have our weekly dinner. I figure one won’t kill me. I used to drink a lot more when I was younger and much more overweight but they didn’t really help with the weight control. They just made me feel like I could eat more because I was sacrificing in that area.
February 15, 2013
One a week seems fine. I have to admit it wasn’t the caffeine in it that worried me either – more the other stuff.
Given that I have – at stages in my life – consumed 2 litres or diet coke a day, I am pretty sure one a week is okay!
February 15, 2013
I go back and forth with DC, I get so addicted. When I got pregnant I went off DC completely. I couldn’t handle anything artificial at all, it made me nauseous and I was worried it wouldn’t be good for the babies. I stayed off it for two years and started again. I have quit twice since, but am again drinking it. I can’t do once a week, unless it is at a restaurant. Once it is in my home I drink it!! I think in moderation it is fine. I struggle with moderation with it!
February 17, 2013
I’m with you Jess… I think sometimes would be okay, but I’m not great when it comes to moderation!
February 15, 2013
I hardly ever drink coke/sprite, I don’t think it is so good for you. I usually just drink water but occasionally will have a soft drink. I think whatever they put in the diet versions wouldn’t be so diet so skip them altogether. Glad to hear you are mixing it up in the kitchen, sounds fun.
February 16, 2013
Thanks Lou Lou. When I cut out diet coke when I was dieting last time I occasionally had a ‘real’ soft drink when out… but it’s hard not to think of the wasted calories I have to confess!!!
February 17, 2013
Every once in a blue moon (maybe once or twice a year) I’ll have a diet coke with a little Dr. Pepper squirted into it, but I’ll tell you, it is rather disgusting to me now. The only other time I drink soft drinks is when my tummy is upset (which rarely happens…less than blue moons!)…I keep regular (not diet) ginger ale on hand for that.
February 17, 2013
Am trying to imagine the diet coke with Dr Pepper. Isn’t Dr Pepper another softdrink?
Hmmm….
February 17, 2013
I think I could die for a Vanilla Diet coke! 🙂 I got a taste for it when I visited US five years ago.
There is an alternative explanation for the purported fattening effect of diet drinks: people who drink the most diet sodas are dieters, and dieting makes you fatter, especially if you try to abstain from eating by drinking a lot. Too few calories in your diet leads to overeating later on.
I try to avoid drinking diet cola (i.e. Pepsi Max) too often though, mostly because of my teeth.
February 18, 2013
Yes Satu. My uncle was a dentist and during my DC addiction years he used to say the only thing that saved my teeth was the fact that I also drank a lot of water – constantly washing the enamel-eroding acids etc off my teeth!
February 18, 2013
I gave it up on January 1st and still haven’t had one since. I don’t think I’d tolerate it now at all.
Personally the biggest difference I’ve seen is in my wallet.
February 18, 2013
Yes, I should think about the savings too Rebecca!
February 18, 2013
I think its really good that you are stepping away from one of the foods you consider yourself addicted to. The psychological pull of VDC matters as much as, if not more than, the actual impact of the VDC on your health/eating. VDC doesn’t control you.
Also, I LOVED your last post. Not boring at all. It was refreshing and honest.
February 18, 2013
Thanks Julia!
February 19, 2013
I was reading comments over on Jess’s blog and your post title caught my eye – I love curry & coke!
I don’t like diet soft drinks, but I do love regular Coke. I’m not willing to give it up, but I do limit how much I have. It works for me.
February 19, 2013
Moderation is a great thing!
February 24, 2013
Hi Deb, not commenting much these days, but still reading! Wanted to chime in on this one because my husband suffers a similar addiction to diet coke, or regular coke but because of his weight that is only a very occasional indulgence. Since moving to Germany he has switched to ice tea because coke is served in tiny little bottles over here and generally considered very unhealthy. I don’t much care for soft drinks, they taste too artificial and too sweet for my liking. Which is probably a good thing as I certainly consume enough other stuff that contributes to my obesity. I am liking the direction you are going in with your attitude towards food and eating!
February 25, 2013
Thanks Kerstin!