Help!! I'm Hangry!!

paulahope2

mmonaghan99 wrote: »

paulahope2 wrote: »

mmonaghan99 wrote: »

paulahope2 wrote: »

mmonaghan99 wrote: »

I'm having the same issue. Even though I'm eating reasonable amounts, I'm getting really hungry all the time! This is my first week and I think part of the issue is that I'm thinking about food all the time, so I'm trying not to obsess. Doing something with my hands is helpful. And if I really just need to munch, popcorn is my best friend. My bf and I are doing this together, which is really helpful, and we do meal planning for dinners every night and keep healthy lunch stuff around.
Basically, I don't think you are doing anything wrong, I think it's pretty normal. If you need to snack, find some things you like that are filling and low cal. I like popcorn, salads with low cal dressing, fruit, and cucumber slices with a teeny bit of cream cheese on them (it's like a cucumber sandwich without the bread!). I also eat double or triple servings of steamed veggies, it helps me feel fuller without loading up on too many extra carbs. I log in daily if you want to friend me, support buddies are always nice!

Phew so it's not just me! Mmmm popcorn! Do you eat organic or regular popcorn? The cucumber and cream cheese sandwich sound nice too!! I think the problem is I don't have a buddy.. I either have real fit athletic friends or those friends who don't really want to listen to your problems but they talk about their own all day if you get what I mean? I'm the listener haha!!
Plus I don't want to burden my boyfriend with all this as he is doing his masters this year and he's under a lot of stress!! I may do what you've been doing and plan my meals out!! How long does it take you to do a meal plan normally?

I'm getting my master's right now so I get the stress! I do regular popcorn, the light butter kind. And we don't spend a ton of time meal planning. He and I are both pretty good cooks (not to sound stuck up) and we have several meals we tend to rotate frequently, and then some we do less often. Last night he made turkey sausage sauteed with peppers and we had it over rice with some green beans. We usually plan about 5 days worth of dinners, and then take turns cooking. We do a lot of chicken & rice, stroganoff (with light sour cream & light cream of mushroom), whole grain spaghetti, baked fish, things like that. We normally ate healthy dinners, we have just had to make some swaps, like lower fat condiments, and we've had to do more portion control. My suggestion is to pick things that you can fix easily, and do as much prep ahead of time as possible (e.g. chop veggies ahead of time). But making a schedule has helped us immensely. We don't end up waiting till 8pm and ordering pizza because we didn't get stuff for dinner ahead of time.
And on gym nights we use the crockpot. I love my crockpot, it's so great!

The stress of study is horrible!! Goodluck with your masters by the way
I see what you mean!! When I used to eat pasta if go back for 2nds sometimes 3rds.. And man do I love my sauce on EVERYTHING!!!! Crockpots are great aren't they!! Best invention ever!! What does whole grain pasta taste like?

I like whole grain pasta! It's a bit less tender than regular pasta, so I tend to overcook it a little (same with brown rice). It tastes fine though, not exactly the same as typical pasta but it is really good and it has lots more fiber. Try it sometime! We almost always do whole grain, although the bf can't completely give up his white rice so we alternate. Think of the switch as being kind of like going from eating white bread to wheat. It's a similar experience.

Thanks for all the pointers your a foodie genius!!

kyta32

paulahope2 wrote: »

kyta32 wrote: »

Do be sure to get enough protein. The amount MFP recommended for me was about 1/2 of what I actually needed. Higher protein intake does help retain muscle mass when eating in a deficit. 1 g/lb lean body mass is recommended.

Do you get all your protein sources through food or those horrid shakes?? I really can't get past the taste of the shakes what proteins do you normally consume a day of you don't mind me asking?

I'm terrible at eating enough protein through diet, although that is partly due to being cheap/lazy. I had to get rid of some of the carbs in my diet to make room for the protein (I'm not willing to go lower than 30 g/day fat). I've done things like adding red lentils to my pasta sauce for a protein (and fiber) boost. I pretty much always have meat for dinner, and if I were willing to eat meat for lunch I'd probably be OK - for example, if I buy a roasted chicken for dinner, I could have some of the leftover meat on my salad the next day. Beans have protein, but I find I have to reduce my carbs when I add them, as they also have a lot of calories from carbohydrate. Ham has a lot of it's calories from protein (as opposed to pepperoni), but I try to limit my processed meats. If I liked fish, that would be a great place to get protein. The omega 3s in fish are a good thing to have in the diet as well. You can find protein snack packs in the grocery stores if you can afford them. Some people like quest bars as well.

So I'm also taking a whey protein drink to get enough protein. I'm using Kaizen, but I couldn't find any user reviews for it, so I don't know what the general response to it is. It uses stevia as sweetener instead of sucralose. I really like sweet things, and the Kaizen isolate is really sweet. I chose it because I could smell the chocolate through the container. Kaizen is a little more expensive, though. I had GNC chocolate before, and I thought it was OK, although user reviews generally find it to be too expensive for what you get (cheaper than Kaizen, though).

If you want a better tasting powder, google it. Taste varies, though.. You can get unflavored, add it to pancakes or greek yogurt, and dress it up with berries. There's online recipes for protein powder marshmallow fluff, protein powder brownies, cookies, etc, if you don't like to mix it with water. I use my protein powder with greek yogurt, and I think it tastes like cheesecake. It would probably be too sweet for other people, though....

Protein, fiber, and intense exercise has helped me get through the last 9 months of dieting without too many hangries. If I'm low on any of those, however, the sugar crazies start raging... Best of luck.