Well I will skip straight to the title. I was starving all day!!!! I started off with a normal menu of one whole egg, one egg white, some sliced pinapple and the bowl of cereal. I have been starving a lot since Saturday afternoon, so today I built in a mid morning snack of more pineapple to try to combat it. It didn't work and so after lunch and class, I had an extra pita and turkey sandwich for an extra 130 calories in the hope it would even out whatever was throwing me off. It did not and even after my tuna snack, which usually does the job of satisfying me till dinner, I could tell I was gonna be hungry in a short while. So on the way to my evening class, I stopped at Wendy's and got a 5 piece spicy chicken nugget to eat before class. It seemed like it was almost about to do the job until around 6, when I was hungry again! At this point, I was only up to 900 calories. So on the trip home, I decided that I was going to invest the calories in a Totinos pizza and see if that would plug the huge hole I was experiencing. It did thank goodness and at first it seemed offend my sensibilities. After all it was "junk food". But then it came to me, no it wasn't. It was a little different than what I have been normally eating lately. It was not conventional health food. But, and it is a big but, there is no real "junk food" if you think about it. There is just food. Food is food. The only thing that matters is your relationship with food. I had the calories to spend, I spent them on a food that I like and I never broke the balance of the calorie bank and trust. I think that is the hurdle many of us have in losing weight without some elaborate system, there is no "rules" on what to eat, what not to eat. Nobody has told you the "correct way" to eat to lose weight. In fact, it is all up to you, apart from the setting up parameters, such as the calorie bank and trust. The real challenge is training yourself to not overdo portions, to not bargain with yourself regarding the calorie bank and trust, to create new habits and attitudes towards food. No "rules" so that it becomes a sustainable way of life. Something you can put in your pocket and carry with you till you are old and gray, thinner and healthier. And if in all that, pizza is eaten, then so be it. If the occasional mini chocolate bar is eaten, then so be it. In moderation is the key folks, in moderation.
That being said, I am hoping for a clue to my recent "holy crap I am starving AGAIN?" problem. I am hoping someone, maybe my good friend Dr. F, can help me get this phenomena. I think I have a possible explanation. I just worry that maybe I am making excuses and I don't want to do that. I wonder if I was getting too much activity on too little calories the whole weekend. I mean I did a hard 5k on saturday morning, then golf and car washing too. Then on Sunday, I did another 5k but at a reasonable pace, then hiking for an hour and a half. In both those days combined I think I was like 1100 net calories after taking off for my activities, so an average of 550 unburned off calories for each day. Will that somehow make your body begin to ask for more food? Should I just ignore it and move on? I considered that it may be that on days like those, I need to raise my calories, but I don't want to use the activity as an excuse to eat more. I really worry about the consequences of allowing myself some slack. Oh I hate being inside my own head! Any thoughts or experience dealing with this guys?
I think it is normal and good to be hungry under your circumstances. If you can eat a small portion of "junk" food occasionally and not binge, I really think it is better not to dwell on it. Getting your head around portions is the issue. I have found that even when I feel "starving" it only takes one or two bites of something to get past it. If I am hungry after dinner, I try to stick to hot tea (no calories).
ReplyDeleteCathy, I wasn't "hungry", I was seriously and not kidding STARVING. I deal with hungry all the time and it isn't a big deal. I was distractingly hungry, stomach or body or whatever demanding food kind of stuff. I typically get satisfaction from the tuna I eat every afternoon to get me through till dinner, but the last two days, it wasn't even making a dent.
ReplyDeleteYou have greatly increased your activity over the last few weeks. It's normal that you'd be hungry. Increase your protein in the am as your breakfast is carb heavy. Also add more protein to your snacks. Maybe a few almonds? Protein is "extended release" sugar. It will keep your sugar from dropping between meals and help you nit get so hungry. Also, beware of caffeine which can cause blood sugars to fluctuate and increase cravings. Hope that helps. You are doing so well! Keep it up! Knowing you are watching me helps me stay accountable.
ReplyDeleteWhat did you eat the day before? You started to go into detail about that on Sunday's post, but you never really finished explaining what you ate. Like Dr. F said, add more protein to your meals to satiate yourself more thoroughly throughout the day. Beware of sugary foods and carbs because of how they mess with your glucose levels. If you were hungry, I'm willing to bet that you had carbs or sugar on Sunday evening, and/or didn't have a healthy snack before you went to bed, hence why you woke up starving.
ReplyDeleteBTW, Hungry is not bad. Hungry is good! It's how we deal with hunger that differentiates us from "everyone else."
Thanks Dr. F and Christine. On Sunday for lunch we had tuna salad with lettuce on pita bread, then for supper we had grilled tilapia and turkey sausage and a little brown rice. I believe my evening snack was a stalk of celery and a tablespoon of peanut butter.
ReplyDeleteI am not sure I am communicating this properly either. I wasn't hungry you guys, it was like i hadn't eaten in days starving! It was really severe which is why I even worried about it. It was to the level I feared a binge coming on and i haven't had that feeling in quite sometime!
I will definitely start working on more protein in the diet. I am a meat eater, so I don't see that as being a problem!
I can't critique your food choices on Sunday because you did wonderfully. Tilapia and turkey sausage and brown rice, tuna salad, celery, etc. All terrific choices, and please keep eating just like that! Brilliant, all of it.
ReplyDeleteSo there are two reasons why you might have been so ravenously hungry. (1) You're not eating enough calories. If you are really and truly hungry, it's important to listen to your body's needs and eat when you're hungry, which I think you did a good job doing! You very well could be in this category because your body's size and exercise levels. The last few days you've been well under your set calorie limit; perhaps you need to spend a few days eating the full amount of calories to ensure that you don't have a "setback" like that in the future? I'm just wondering out loud.
But (2) perhaps the problem was psychosomatic? Were you stressed out about anything -- the new job? money issues? school and your grades? Stress can trigger a response in your body that is LIKE hunger but isn't, not really. Your description of that kind of starving hunger that just wasn't getting satiated no matter what you ate...THAT makes me think that the problem is psychosomatic. (I have the *SAME* problem, by the way. This is not a problem unique to you!) If this is the case with you, it's important to first recognize that the problem is in your head and not your stomach, then secondly to address your stress.
How do you deal with stress? Well, that might be a blog post for another day and is a topic that everyone on this journey needs to confront at some point. The answer is NOT to go out and get a pizza, either, by the way, regardless of how well it fits into your calorie bank and trust budget. I'm not poo-pooing your decision to get a pizza -- if you wanted it and it fit in your budget, that's fine. But just make sure that you don't address your stress levels by giving into the Food Monster every time. You (er, and I) need to learn that food is not the answer to your problems; you will get better emotional growth from this journey if you learn to deal with your problems/stressors directly. Don't rely on food as a crutch to feed into your psychological issues, even when your tricky brain makes you THINK that it's hunger! Darn our tricky brains!
Hope that helps a bit!
For me personally, too many carbs and not enough fats and protein will definitely make me have a hungry day.
ReplyDeleteIncreased activity = hungry, but that's not necessarily bad. Sometimes the increase in activity is purposeful to get weight off so you don't want to re-eat those calories.
It's bad when the hunger begins to interfere with exercise or being able to concentrate at work though.
In any case, I am definitely NOT a fan of the hungry day!!
Shane, when I have a day like this, and have eaten what I usually eat to get satisfied and I'm still hungry, I do just what you did. I will get a pizza and eat only 2 slices. I think maybe for me it's the fat that satisfies me. I also agree with the others who asked what you had the day/night before. I can usually pin down some carbs or sugar that sneaked their way into my mouth, perhaps through a restaurant meal or food cooked by someone other than me.
ReplyDeleteOverall I think you did very well. You had the calories and you chose what to spend them on. In the big picture, it's nothing. But you're right to try to figure out why.
I still think you're doing great, by the way.
I may have also have not communicated well the pizza thing. It was a little tiny frozen pizza that has a total of 700 calories in it. I didn't go out and order a Domino's Pizza or anything. It was a baby one.
ReplyDeleteShane, it sounds like your wife must be doing really well too after reading what you guys are eating for dinners and lunches. I would love to read more about her (a guest post?) or see a blog by her.
ReplyDeleteGlad the doc weighed in on this. Thanks Shane and Dr. F.
ReplyDelete