Is there any safe appetite suppressants on the market

[StillHurtin]

I work at a pre-school and the food isn't exactly "adult" friendly. It packs a lot of fat and calories and is more "kid" friendly (foods kids love). There are days where she cooks lower fat foods but most days the main entree is fattening and a lot of calories. I try to have just a small amount of that and have more fruits and veggies. However, a lot of time the veggies are either mashed potatoes, french fries, or green bean cassorole. I have tried taking a salad for lunch but I am getting very bored w/ eating salad every single day. My H has some Stacker 2 left (w/ ephedra) left so I tried that. It worked great for my appetite. Well, I know ephedra isn't good for you but I ran out and nothing has ephedra in it anymore b/c of the health reasons. My willpower really stinks. If the food is in front of me, I eat it. I want to loose the weight I gained (30 lbs) from when I started working there over a year ago. I am very active when I work b/c I do work w/ small children. In my 8 hour shift I may sit for a total of 2 hours for meals. The rest is spent walking around. I bought a pedometer and an average day at work I walk about 3 miles.

 

Anyone know of any safe, appetite suppressants on the market? I heard water was the safest one but it doesn't work for me. Another co-worker and have both gained a lot of weight since we started working there. I work w/ 10 other women and all but one is overweight. One started shortly after I did and was her ideal weight, now she is 20 lbs overweight.

[tattoomytoe]

Water is the only one i could think of. Warm liquids help too, like teas.

 

how about bring your lunch to school? way cheaper than any diet drug.

[moimeme]

First of all, why is this pre-school not serving healthy food to these kids? Haven't the admins at that school figured out how fat kids are getting and how badly they need to learn good nutrition right from the start?

 

Anyway. The answer is to make your own lunch and bring it. It doesn't take that much time at all to whip up some lunchtime grub for yourself. If your lunch room has a microwave and fridge, you can take some of the great frozen diet meals there are and nuke them for lunch. If there isn't a microwave, thermoses are still available to be bought and you can heat up some soup or other leftovers and take them in a thermos.

[tattoomytoe]

and watching little kids eat and then cleaning them up should help in killing your appitite!

[sophia34]

I would pretty much stay away from any appetite suppressant in pill form. Those things just aren't healthy!

 

However, here's my secret: Strength training. I did cardio for years and still had trouble controlling my appetite and weight. I couldn't figure it out, because I was out power walking two to three miles about four times a week. But I was still ALWAYS hungry.

 

Then I started strength training. I use dumbells (2 lb., 5 lb., 8 lb., 10 lb., and 15 lb.) for a variety of exercises--I keep them stored under the bed to keep them out of the way. I use them to do a video in "The Firm" series three times a week (called Body Sculpting Basics--cheesy 80's video but great workout). Now that video really kicked my butt the first few times I used it, but afterwards, I noticed I just wasn't as hungry! The more weight training I did, the better I was able to control my appetite. In two months, I lost five pounds and a pants size, gained a lot of muscle and tone, and just feel great. I've also bought "Firm Parts, Tough Tape" and "Maximum Body Shaping," also videos in the Firm series, to mix up my workouts.

 

So I would recommend adding 3 45-minute strength training sessions per week (lift a few children!). After my results--and the fact that I went from being an all-day snacker to not even wanting the stuff--I'm a true believer.

 

As to the horrible school food, I'd also say bring lunch--and not just salads! It is so easy to make a tuna wrap out of a spinach tortilla, low-fat mayo, spinach, tomato, pickle and whatever else and just roll it up. Add some Baked Lays chips and it's a fantastic lunch. Starkist makes these "flavored tuna in a pouch" that I swear by. Throw one of those in a bag with some veggies and a tortilla and you're ready to go. Can also make this wrap with ham or any other meat or just with veggies.

 

Other quick-and-easy healthy lunches: Pita bread with hummus and an apple; rice and soy sauce with some veggies stirred in; Bush's baked beans on rice; big apple with peanut butter, with fruit salad. All a few of my favorites! They're quick and very filling.

 

Sophia

 

(P.S. Another thing I've found is that eating sugary foods leads to craving more sugary foods. I also had a horrific sweet tooth that made me want cookies, cake, candy bars all the time. It was one of the hardest things I've done, but I decided one day to cut out refined sugar. I still have fruit. The first two weeks, I thought I would die. But again, after that point, I started realizing that I just didn't want it anymore. The addiction had been overcome! I keep on hand no-sugar-added frozen fruit bars in the fridge and some Ghiardhello dark chocolates if I really want something decadent--some sugar, but not a lot. This has also been a great way to break my snacking cycle. I now think refined sugar is pretty evil...almost as bad as nicotine when it comes to getting you hooked on it.)

[Patiently waiting]

Hey, I know a great way to lose weight, find out your husband cheated on you, start seeing a MM, who says he's never leaving his wife, fall in love with him anyway and beat yourself up about why you even entertained the thought of going out with in the first place! I lost 15 lbs in 2 wks, looked great!

 

But as with any "diet", the weight starts creeping back, esp. when you are home alone with the refrigerator......try lots of veggies, keep em handy....and yes, 8-10 glasses of water a day. You'll be running to the bathroom so much, you won't have time to overeat!

[StillHurtin]

Thanks for all the great advice. I have thought about bringing my own lunch, besides salads, and it wont work. The teacher I work for is on WW and she had to stop eating her meals in the classrooms b/c the kiddos kept asking her if they could have her food!!! LOL! She got tired of being asked every day for her food so she started eating it at her desk. I can't do that. I have to be in the classroom the whole time, I don't get to go to a desk and eat my lunch like she can (which isn't fair but I have no choice).

 

 

Patiently waiting, my H DID have an affair 18 months ago (why I came to LS) and yes, I did loose 30 lbs in two months. It was the worst time in my life going through that pain. I couldn't eat, couldn't drink, couldn't sleep. It was he!!. I never want to go through that again. I gained it all back plus some when I started working at the pre-school.

 

Thanks again for all the great advice.