Dr. Mericle's Diet Health Weight Loss and Exercise Blog

Four Steps to Hunger Control

Axiom Number Two: Hunger Control

Trying to lose weight without understanding how to control
your hunger -impossible. Probably the main reason so many
diets fail is because they ignore hunger. Hunger is one of
the human's strongest drives, right up there with procreation
and survival. Diets that attempt to restrict calories by
controlling portion sizes are almost universally failures.
All the positive imagery in the world will not stop your
hunger, even for a nanosecond. Hunger is just like a river.
You can dam it up for a while, but it will eventually
spill over and occasionally "burst" the dam itself.

Nutritional density

The first and most important step in controlling your hunger
is to feed your body what it is hungry for, not a big gulp
at the local convenience mart. All the food in most large
commercial grocery stores, fast food restaurants and
convenience marts is not what you need to turn off your
appetite. The only way you can even begin to shut down your
hunger is to feed the body complete foods. Here in America
that means organic whole foods.

Evolutionary Biochemistry

As man evolved, he did not have convenience marts and fast
food on every corner. Today, the biochemistry of man is still
anachronistically Neanderthal, while on every corner are
heavily processed foods that the biochemistry of the human
is not prepared to process. Incomplete foods rob the body
of precious minerals and micronutrients. Whole foods, on
the other hand, are complete and add these precious
nutrients back to the body. Processed sugar is a good example
of how the biochemistry of the human has not evolved while
the food industry has figured out ways to process almost
every known food substance. It's no wonder that today we
have so much cancer, heart disease and stroke.

Hunger control step number one

Eat at least one whole food and organic meal a day. Whether
you prepare this from the MericleDiet, which makes it very
easy to have good whole food vegan sugar-free meals on short
notice, or you prepare these meals yourself, makes no
difference. Your body needs some whole foods. Once you
have established a routine of at least one whole food
organic meal a day, you can start working on the rest
of your hunger control.

Hunger control step number two

This is one of the most important and "difficult" steps to
accomplish. You have to stop or at least really restrict
simple sugars (as we have recently covered). Why is this so
important? Simple sugars like sucrose, honey and high fructose
corn syrup, deliver huge loads of fructose and glucose at
the same time. Not only can the human biochemistry not handle
this as you all know by now, but they are very "addicting"
chemicals. If you can't stop your sugar habit, you will never
be able to really control your hunger. This is extremely
critical to ever regaining control of your hunger, your weight
and the well being of your immune system.

Hunger control step number three

Understand that you will get hungry. This may happen both
before your main meal of the day as well as after it.
Be prepared. Stock your refrigerator with "healthy snacks."
Organic carrot sticks in water work for me. I come back from
a run hungry, reach in the refrigerator and out come the
carrot sticks. Peppers work well this way, celery or
any other organic veggies. Keep large amounts of prepared
salads ready as they make a great snack that is very
low on the glycemic index. Whatever works for you, keep a
good supply on hand, including fresh fruits such as apples
and bananas. For myself, being the potato chipaholic (I've been
to Potato Chips Anonymous many times), it took some practice.
Now, I don't even reach for the potato chip bag, I go
straight for the carrots, even if there is a bag of chips
on top of the refrigerator.

Hunger control step number four

Learn to think in percentages. Controlling your hunger
is a huge project. I think it is actually more difficult for
those of us who are adult onset diabetic or pre-diabetic.
Understand that you will fail, more initially than later on.
Most people just can't stop bad eating habits overnight.
This is an ongoing work-in-progress and will be for the rest
of your life. Don't ever get down because you failed, just
strive to do better the next time. It is too easy to fail,
and then just give up all together. Initially you may fail
two or three times a day, but keep eating that one whole
food organic meal a day. Soon you will be failing two or
three times a week, and be a whole lot healthier. You will
never be perfect, but as long as your weight and health are
what you want them to be, you can go out and enjoy the
ambience of pizza and beer or some great Mexican food -and
not "worry" about it.

I would like to leave you with this quote from one of my
daughters, Danielle. You may cast a jaundice eye my direction
for using one of my own family as an endorsement. Let me
quickly dispell any thoughts of that, as in our family, it
is extremely difficult to even get noticed, much less
some positive words.

Danielle Mericle

In a lot of ways it comes down to your old saying,
"balancing getting through the day with getting through
your life." There actually is a balance if you can
find it. For example, last night we made a big Mexican
feast for friends. I made a Mexican rice that required
long grain white rice, which I know isn't good. I also
made chili rellenos which, although thankfully had no
eggs, had quite a bit of cheese. But because I had eaten
mostly brown rice, beans, and steamed veggies all week, I
could easily eat that meal last night without worrying
about it. Knowing what to avoid and then when you can
get away with it -is the key.

Danielle Mericle
Ithaca, New York

Copyright © John Mericle M.D. 2005 All Rights Reserved

The MericleDiet is the clear and easy path to that one
organic sugar-free whole food meal a day. To visit
the MericleDiet click on the link below.

http://www.DrMericle.com

Thanks for your time.

posted by John Mericle M.D. D.A.B.R. @ 9:39 AM