Back to my series.

While giving up dieting is a good idea, giving up sensible eating, obviously, is not. But the goal is not so much to curtail your intake as it is to keep your appetite under control so that you don’t feel like eating so much.

One way that has been endorsed by many is to drink lots of water. Now, while water is necessary for life and good health, drinking water to mask hunger isn’t such a good idea. The effect will only last a short while, until it empties out of your stomach, and then you will be back to being hungry again.  Additionally, when you respond to hunger with water, it is not really appropriate. Water is for thirst and food is for hunger and mixing things up like this is one thing that makes dieting so hard.

So, let’s say you are hungry. What do you eat? As you probably know, carbohydrates are digested quickly and can be used right away for energy. Unfortunately, they burn quickly and the energy level plummets. Protein digests slowly, but doesn’t provide energy so much as it provides muscle repair. It turns out, though, that if you eat them together, so they are mixed up in your stomach, the whole mess will digest slowly like the protein, but still provide energy from the carbohydrates. And this energy will be longer lasting. Sounds like what we are looking for, right? The suggestion is to eat between 1/4 and 1/3 protein and 2/3 to 3/4 carbohydrate with each meal or snack. And it even helps if you have the protein first, so it is already in the stomach, slowing down the digestion, before you send the carbohydrates down.

The best carbs, of course, are the ones that come from natural sources – fruits, vegetables, whole grains. And if you want to get energy from them, they can’t be really low calorie vegetables like salad vegetables. These have a place in filling out a meal, but you want to be sure to eat carbs that have some calories, because this is where the energy comes from. Just steer clear of the empty carbs – we all know what they are – when you need an energy boost!