Weigh-Ins are on MONDAYS - Updated July 3, 2017

Surgery Date: October 20, 2009:

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Find Your NTTs! (Non Triggering Treats)

One of my newest and favoritetest (I love inventing new words) blogs is Refuse To Regain

It is awesome. 

It is fabulous. 

It is written by two ladies:
  • Dr. Barbara Berkeley, M.D., an obesity specialist and runs an obesity clinic.
  • Lynn Haraldson, who has lost 168 pounds and has kept it off.
A recent POST by Dr. Berkeley was about how to eat after weight loss and recommended that we find our NTTs.  (Non Triggering Treats)

Dr. Berkeley says:
"NTTs are foods that are sweet, savory or even a bit salty that feel like fun but don’t throw you under the bus.  A regular ice cream bar might send you off on a binge, but a Weight Watcher’s ice cream sandwich might not.  You might concoct your own NTT (one of my patients loves smooshing frozen blueberries in low fat creamer and splenda) and discover that it does the trick when you simply have to eat something during American Idol.  Every long term eating plan needs some NTTs."

Here are a few NTTs on my list:
  • Two No Sugar Added Fudgecicles
  • 25 calorie Swiss Miss hot cocoa with sugar free syrups (mint, hazelnut, or others/etc)
  • Yogurt
  • String Cheese
Here are a few things that will NEVER be NTTs for me:
  • Anything that is in individual servings like the 100 calorie snack packs (pretzels, mini-cookies, all of 'em).  All 6 packets in the box will be gone in one evening.
  • Skinny Cow Ice Cream Bars/Sandwiches
  • Chips
  • Cookies
  • Cakes
  • Oh...I could go on and on and on...
Anyways, even when I was in the weight loss mode, I always had a few NTTs in the house.

What are your go-to Non Triggering Treats?

11 comments:

  1. Looks like a great blog. Thanks for letting us know.

    ReplyDelete
  2. 100 calorie bags of popcorn with Molly McCheese. It is so much food and I eat and eat. It is very satisfying.

    ReplyDelete
  3. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  4. This is a great post! I definitely have some of the same trigger foods....esp. Skinny Cow and 100 calorie packs, oh geez!! ...however, I may be a dream bander in the aspect that I have gotten stuck so many times of potato chips, goldfish, etc. and even ice cream several times, that I basically don't even try to eat them anymore, but in the past they have always been a trigger food for me!

    Some of my NTTs are:

    ~ Almonds (I'm really good with just eating 1 serving and I feel satisfied)
    ~ 100 calorie popcorn
    ~ Sugar free fudgsicles
    ~ Oikos pure pleasure caramel greek yogurt

    yumm :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. I love this! For now, mine would be frozen green grapes! :) I'm loving the frudgsicles and 100 pack popcorn that I read above too .. mmm, might have to try it!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Great post and great blog - thanks as usual.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I will be checking out this blog immediately. Thanks for sharing. It's already been mentioned but I also like frozen grapes -- red seedless. I like sunflower seeds in the shells because I can eat for a long time and my newest favorite treat is Greek yogurt. The Fage with cherries on the side is best but I'm happy with the plain zero fat and a bit of cinnamon. Very yum.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Great idea. I do have some NTTs. 110 calorie EAS shakes, and pistachios in the shell (takes time to eat, like Caron said).

    Of course, being my rebellious self, I always feel deprived when I HAVE to eat a totally limited selection of treats...which may, in itself, lead to a binge! In other words, if I wanted a piece of dark chocolate, but I knew I "should" eat a SF fudgsicle, chances are I would eat the fudgsicle, feel unsatisfied, and then eat the chocolate anyway! This is the whole problem I had with dieting....

    So there is one school of thought (basically "intuitive eating") that says for people like me, the best thing is to learn to eat what you really want to eat in moderation rather than always forcing yourself to eat your "virtuous" foods -- which can, in themselves, trigger a binge after feeling "deprived."

    I guess this is what I really aspire to, and often it does work. Sometimes I can have just one piece of chocolate (a trigger food), or just one handful of chips. Sometimes not. But I am getting better at the "just one" aspect of eating "trigger" foods. So its progress, even if its not perfect! I am really thrilled to "trust" myself around most foods these days.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Thank you for sharing the article. While I have not yet been banded (less than 2 weeks) this is definitely something to think about DURING my weight loss.

    ReplyDelete
  10. If I want something salty/crunchy, I pop a 100 calorie bag of popcorn, spritz it with Smart Balance buttery spray, and sprinkle it with cheese powder. If I want something sweet, Fiber Plus has a fiber bar that tastes exactly like a Samoa Girl Scout cookie - and I know I can ONLY eat one because of the, um, ill effects if I have more than that. In fact, my co-workers make fun of me because of all of my "fiber snacks" (fiber bars, fiber gummies, fiber crackers) in my desk drawer - but I KNOW I won't overeat them because more than one serving can be painful...and stinky. ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  11. Great blog, thanks for sharing it. Maintenance is sooo hard and scary. I have been at my goal weight on other diets, only to regain it all plus more.

    ReplyDelete