When hunger comes a calling

Rubi_Siren wrote: »

It's funny how you can plan out your diet so carefully down to which snack you're going to eat, but then when the hunger comes a calling you become a monster. That calm, level headed version of yourself that gave an internal lecture similar to a Ted Talk about how awesome a salad could be, becomes this incoherent, unrecognizable monstrosity that's screaming for ice cream and candy. Hunger turns you into a monster. You're mind gets locked on food and it becomes your new obsession and everything else, the reminders of eating healthy and sticking to your diet, get drowned out by the enraged roar of your stomach that gets louder with every second. It wants food...it needs food...and feels entitled to food.

It's kind of funny how we plan out our diets when we're not hungry, when we've just finished eating something completely unhealthy, and we think, "Okay, that was my last unhealthy meal, from this point on nothing but nutritious meals". We do all this when our stomach is full and content, but later...when the hunger comes a calling, that's when that the monster inside of us who has lied dormant because it was being supplied with fatty, sugary meals, awakens and then all chaos breaks out. It becomes a literal war to keep ourselves away from the foods we had turned our backs on.

I think this is most likely to happen when you are over-restricting your diet and trying to avoid all the foods you really like. I have found that fitting reasonable portions of my fave foods into my calorie goal has helped to limit out of control cravings. I mean, sometimes I still have one of those days, even now that I'm in maintenance. But I find they are far more rare than when I was trying to eat in a way I disliked because I thought I had to.

That's why I like having leftovers or healthy snack options in my fridge, lol. Otherwise I'm more likely to make bad choices.

There's a difference between hunger and cravings though... Wanting to eat a specific food is a craving. Heck, when I'm hungry I'm actually less likely to go for the sweets, because I want something that will actually fill me up.

I spent some time experimenting to find some meals that allowed me to stay within my deficit as well as keep me satisfied. I try to find a new meal or two each month to avoid getting tired of the same meals, as I do get tired of foods quickly. I rotate in older favorites so I don't have to keep it up finding something new every week. I also only eat two meals a day in order to make those meals more satisfying, as I'm rarely hungry in the morning anyway.