How to eat so I don't feel weak?

herringboxes

I can live with feeling hungry. But when I feel weak, I have to choose between eating something and going over my calorie limit, or not eating and being unable to function (work, be productive, interact with my family, just feel half decent).

Perhaps my problem is blood-sugar related. I do not have diabetes. I am sensitive to many things, though, including sugar. I already try to eat with an eye toward that but I may be doing something wrong.

Sample diet - not including calories here, just content. Goal is first to avoid feeling weak, then I can fix the calories via portions.

Breakfast
- Steel cut oats (1/3 cup measured uncooked)
- 1 egg (cooked right into the oats)
- 1 tsp flax seeds
- Pinch of salt
- 1/4 cup mixed berries (blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, strawberries, from a bag of frozen, unsweetened fruit)
- Sometimes 1 tsp coconut oil

I feel like this should be a good breakfast. Yes, the berries have sugar, and oats are carbs, but I have a good amount of fiber and fat to slow digestion and keep blood sugar from spiking. The egg should hopefully increase the protein content, and of course the oats have a bit too.

Lunch
- Bag of salad, often Caesar

This might be a bad idea. I got into using bagged convenience salads a few months ago. The bags were easy enough that I was able to switch from much poorer quality lunches involving pasta or something similar. However, instead of feeling good until dinner, I feel fine for about an hour and then I feel bad - even though I've had pleeeeenty of calories and should be all set.

Afternoon
I start crashing and may reach for something clearly not good, like a bowl of cereal (original Special K or similar), or even a bit of ice cream mixed with milk to make a sort of milkshake (about 1/4 cup ice cream and 1/4 cup whole milk). I know this isn't great, but I guess I want to figure out what is making me reach for this, how I can avoid this.

Dinner
Doesn't really matter, my real problem happens somewhere between lunch and the afternoon. If I can get that under control, I can have a good dinner.

I've tried eating pistachios and almonds near my afternoon crash, and I like them, but they do not "fix" my problem - I feel full but still just as weak. The ice cream or cereal temporarily fix my problem but of course cause a new problem a little while later.

concordancia

Are you adding any protein in with your lunch? That could make a huge difference.

If you add in protein and still feel the afternoon crash, try eating the nuts two to three hours after lunch BEFORE you crash.

RobinAlex666

you need protein in your lunch. Try adding chopped up chicken. It doesn't take a long time to cook, so that can't be an excuse.

cwolfman13

Yeah, I'd be hungry too if my lunch was a salad. I often have a big garden salad with my lunch...but I also have chicken or steak or something too.

A big salad is what...like 40 calories or something...yeah, that's not going to go too far.

herringboxes

OK, so I will get some chicken into that salad, sounds unanimous.

To be clear, I'm eating about 500 calories of salad. Too few calories is not the problem, lol. But I'll try putting substantial chicken in there and reducing the salad - like saving half for the next day - and see if it helps me to keep chugging along.

herringboxes

And I know it's the dressing that makes up most of those calories.

Nadspee

If you don't want to do the prep work making meat in advance you could add cheese. String cheese is easy to toss in your work bag and has a lot of protein.

deannalfisher

have you evaluated your calorie goal? maybe it is too agressive for your current activity level and overall weight loss goal

herringboxes

deannalfisher wrote: »

have you evaluated your calorie goal? maybe it is too agressive for your current activity level and overall weight loss goal

I don't think the problem is too few calories - and I haven't even started to restrict yet (and I'm not even tracking either - will track when I solve this first problem). My calorie goal would be around 1200 but I'm definitely eating more than that. I think my breakfast is probably 400-450 and my lunch around 500 alone, and I'm guessing I eat around 600 for dinner, and there's the afternoon snack too. But I run into problems before dinner. I think if I get a good balance I can figure out the calories from there, but I will always choose to eat than to collapse from weakness!

I do have health problems complicating things.