Starving befor that time of the month

kmking5

:frown: So, I'm newly committed to being healthy (two weeks) and I've been happy with how I've been doing. Unfortunately, I am approaching that "time of month" and...I'm starving! During my week before, I normally eat tons of carbs - especially hashbrowns, fries, potato anything, but I'm trying to be good. Up until this moment, I've been eating enough to meet my calorie goals and exercising daily. I do not feel like exercising today, I'm tired, and GOSH I want me some fries! I blew my calories last night with two servings of cocoa pebbles (chocolate + carbs) instead of eating fries that I wanted. Sadly, I considered this a victory - cocoa pebbles over fries... But, I woke up today starving - not necessarily for fries, just FOOD! I already ate a good breakfast (eggs, avocado, and tomatoes) and had a snack, but I'm still hungry and it's not even lunch time! I feel like I'm struggling to maintain my control! Any suggestions?

bumblebreezy91

Oh, this just happened to me and it was a pretty new experience (I don't regularly get my period, but as I lose weight, it becomes more regular than it has been in years). I replaced what I wanted (brownies) with something healthier (almond vanilla cereal) and even though I had more than I should have had with the cereal, it was better than eating an entire pan of brownies! For me, that was a big victory! Next month, I'll be more equipped to handle the cravings and eventually, I can find ways to avoid binging on anything and stay within my calorie limit for the day. I'm looking at it more like a lifestyle change and that allows me more victories than failures--viewing this as a "diet" would mean having cereal was a failure, viewing it as a lifestyle change means I can see how far I've come to be able to make a better choice!

Don't be too hard on yourself, do your best, drink a lot of water, and don't get discouraged and fall off the wagon! I'm finding that just picking myself up the next day and keeping at it working wonders. Everyone with a success story had bumps in the road, and this is just a bump! You did a fantastic job by having cocoa pebbles and not fries--you made a change in your normal, go-to TOM foods and that's the first step, I think. Next time, maybe have some fruit before reaching for the cereal box. Just keep going until you can plan your days around TOM and find what helps prevent binges--eating certain foods, eating at a certain time, etc.

Best of luck!

And TOM = time of the month. Just in case someone hasn't seen it used here yet.

Kellllog

I'm exactly the same - massive carb cravings in the week before TOM. I try to limit myself on card the rest of the month but that week I let myself have carbs but they have to stay in my calories. After a couple of days the cravings seem to ease for me and I can go back to reducing carbs again.

Francl27

Every single month I have a couple days like this. It's not cravings, it's pure hunger lol. My advice is to go for filling, low calorie, high protein foods - definitely not the time to eat that 250 calories Snickers bar or fries (I sorta fail at this every month though). I typically go over my goal one of those days by 200 or so, because I'm still starving after dinner, but usually a serving of cheerios with a bit of milk helps... go figure.

I've found that tea with a splash of milk seems to help when I'm hungry though.

Fullsterkur_woman

For me, allowing myself a few hundred extra calories a day during my PMS time (and Aleve, and water and exercise, however gentle it has to be) makes a huge difference to my adherence to new habits.

I do my best to pack in a lot of nutrition, so I get one gram of protein for every pound of body weight, I eat five servings of fruits and vegetables a day, I get about 50 grams of fat and fiber a day. Whatever's left over after that can be used to eat whatever I want. Again, I allow myself 300 calories or so extra during this time too.

It won't hurt in the long run.

kmking5

Thank you everyone! It's nice to know I'm not the only one that struggles with this...good to be normal! Just ate a banana and had a glass of water. It surprises me that it helped! Would have never reached for a banana two weeks ago!! Small victory, but it feels huge! You guys are great!!