Maddening Hunger
Sep. 20th, 2012 04:17 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stitchwhichI need meat in my life. No, really. This last week has brought that home to me... I've spent the week eating, pretty much, all the time I was awake. My calorie counts were high - not excessive for the average woman, but far higher than my norm, and my carb counts really exceeded what they should (in the 200g-range for a day's ingestion. Not good.) And I was hungry. HUNGRY. I'd go to bed craving food, even when I was full, and wake up in the middle of my sleep cycle thinking about getting a snack. And on top of it, I was constantly tired and unable to think clearly, like a person who is decrepitly ill. Dishes & laundry were piling up and the SCA-stuff I was enjoying last week seemed suddenly uninteresting and (or) too difficult to wade through.
Today, when I woke up exhausted again after (again) chasing sleep for hours, there was nothing easy-to-hand left in the house which wasn't mentally labelled "Bossman's, not yours". And I was, as was becoming usual, hungry and desperate to eat something that could relieve the feeling... but there was nothing that didn't require a great deal of preparation and I couldn't think clearly enough to try, so tired, grumpy, and groggy, I forced myself to the store and picked up fruit (my normal snack, as opposed to the carb-heavy stuff I'd been eating) and swung by a Tex-Mex shop for 'breakfast'. I ordered twice as much as I normally would eat and then came home and almost ate it all.
And the food-craving was gone. Poof! As if I'd imagined it. Most of what I'd eaten was meat, cheese, and beans - high protein items. I've gone 5 hours, now, since then and it just occurred to me that I might want to consider eating a meal again - which is a more normal state of affairs.
That got me to thinking and the follow-up to my cogitation was a quick leafing through my food log. Yup, data supports my theory - I'd not eaten a goodly amount of protein in one setting for more than a week. After a couple of protein-lean days, the hunger craving set in and the days following were a blurred fog of rest&food cravings unfullfilled no matter what I did while my energy level was bottoming out.
So now I know. Start each day with a good serving of protein - not just an 8-oz package of yogurt, and keep an eye on that wobbly food pyramid. This also means that when the stores open tomorrow, I'll be making a bee-line for the deli department to get some more slices of "Healthy Ones" meats, as they had been the highlights of my previous week's meals (we were eating a lot of quick foods) and the meat selections were really tasty. Not to mention low-calorie and satisfying. We haven't tried the pre-packaged offerings but the deli-sliced ones are sure good.
So note to self: Do Not Run Out of Meat & Cheese. Ever Again.
In other news, I'm down 45 pounds since I started changing my dietary habits in February. I'm still wearing the same clothes but they've getting loose enough that I foresee a size switch when the cold season starts. And an emptier closet, as there will be no reason to hold on to the too-large spring/summer wear. I won't be needing it again.
Today, when I woke up exhausted again after (again) chasing sleep for hours, there was nothing easy-to-hand left in the house which wasn't mentally labelled "Bossman's, not yours". And I was, as was becoming usual, hungry and desperate to eat something that could relieve the feeling... but there was nothing that didn't require a great deal of preparation and I couldn't think clearly enough to try, so tired, grumpy, and groggy, I forced myself to the store and picked up fruit (my normal snack, as opposed to the carb-heavy stuff I'd been eating) and swung by a Tex-Mex shop for 'breakfast'. I ordered twice as much as I normally would eat and then came home and almost ate it all.
And the food-craving was gone. Poof! As if I'd imagined it. Most of what I'd eaten was meat, cheese, and beans - high protein items. I've gone 5 hours, now, since then and it just occurred to me that I might want to consider eating a meal again - which is a more normal state of affairs.
That got me to thinking and the follow-up to my cogitation was a quick leafing through my food log. Yup, data supports my theory - I'd not eaten a goodly amount of protein in one setting for more than a week. After a couple of protein-lean days, the hunger craving set in and the days following were a blurred fog of rest&food cravings unfullfilled no matter what I did while my energy level was bottoming out.
So now I know. Start each day with a good serving of protein - not just an 8-oz package of yogurt, and keep an eye on that wobbly food pyramid. This also means that when the stores open tomorrow, I'll be making a bee-line for the deli department to get some more slices of "Healthy Ones" meats, as they had been the highlights of my previous week's meals (we were eating a lot of quick foods) and the meat selections were really tasty. Not to mention low-calorie and satisfying. We haven't tried the pre-packaged offerings but the deli-sliced ones are sure good.
So note to self: Do Not Run Out of Meat & Cheese. Ever Again.
In other news, I'm down 45 pounds since I started changing my dietary habits in February. I'm still wearing the same clothes but they've getting loose enough that I foresee a size switch when the cold season starts. And an emptier closet, as there will be no reason to hold on to the too-large spring/summer wear. I won't be needing it again.
