I’ve been having this problem lately, and I’m hoping some of you can relate. I’ve been counting calories now for about 7 weeks and everything was going really smoothly. But this week has been really hard. I have noticed that all I think about all day long is food. I’ve been having really intense cravings for fatty foods. I sit at work, staring out the window and fantasize about burgers. I haven’t yet strayed from the diet. I haven’t yet left work in a hurry and gone to the closest burger joint, so I think that’s a win. But I’m still having the problem. I have an insatiable appetite. But the weird thing is, I’m not actually hungry. I just want to eat.
These feelings are probably leftover from past habits where I might actually go home from work and eat 1,000 calories of snacks before dinner. My stomach capacity has decreased to the point where I can’t physically eat as much as I could before. I can’t eat past when I hit the full point anymore. Don’t get me wrong, this is a wonderful thing, and is definitely helping me sustain my lesser calorie diet, but it makes craving food all the time really annoying because I can’t satisfy them because I can’t eat!
Knowing the difference between being hungry and being bored is something I’ve always struggled with. At work, I have a constant stream of tasks to work on, but they rarely require my entire brain capacity, so at least half of my brain is always planning my next snack. How do I flip off this switch? How do I get my body to accept the salad and move on to thinking about other things? My willpower is strong, but I don’t know how much more of these cravings I can take before I go out and eat a whole pizza! Help! Any advice is greatly appreciated.
I totally understand. Been there myself. It may be better to have a burger instead of resisting to the point of over indulgence. I have learned that resistance created persistence, so I say enjoy it the one time and move on. One bad meal in seven weeks will not create a weight gain. In fact it may be just enough to confuse the body into losing at a quicker rate.
Also, meditation is a pretty amazing way to calm the mind of obsessive thinking. 🙂 Good luck to you!
I’ve been known to stare at Pinterest in the food section for a good half an hour scrolling through all the chessy, gluten and fat filled items. I call it “food porn”. haha. You’re not alone! Just remember how you feel after you eat those things… not always the best. As you know moderation is also good. If you want a burger, maybe only eat half the burger with a side salad. Instead of the whole burger and plate of fries. If you deprive yourself all of the “food porn” one day you might just go nutzo! But those are just my thoughts.
I believe there is a term for this,
“Bard-itis”: The affliction of being part of the Bard family and feel the need to plan your next three meals in advance.
I’ve seen that term in the DSM. It’s real.
Eat the burger – I agree with Stuff my mind thinks. You may be only able to eat half the burger. Remember, five bites satisfies a craving. I save the other half for the next day, but by then it looks yucky so I don’t eat it half the time anyway. Maybe your body is craving the fat, because it actually needs a little of it to function. I’m not saying go nuts, but enjoy the burger and move on. Usually I feel so yucky after I overindulge its enough to get me back on track anyway.
What seems to work for me (and I think we are the same genes in different bodies 🙂 are two things. #1 I add protein wherever I can… if I have protein, I don’t get hungry. #2 I graze… 5-6 “meals” a day… so I never really get hungry, never allow my blood sugar to drop that much. my meals are a protein shake in the morning (I make them, I can send you recipes if you like!), a red grapefruit at coffee break, about 11:30 (I eat a late lunch 🙂 I have 1/2 cup Dannon vanilla Greek yogurt (80 calories) with frozen blueberries and about a tsp crushed walnuts, salad for lunch (i have a fav I can share), 3:00 apple w/ 1 oz Cabot 75% fat Cheddar cheese, and for dinner have a variety of easy-schmeezy 15 minute prep meals that I can share as well. And I am with your mom…. once in a while, eat the burger. Not often, but enough that you don’t feel deprived…. but tip #3 … grill it yourself… then you know you have decent beef, it doesn’t have to be a 1/4 pounder, and it can be on a roll that’s not SO processed, or at least has some whole grains in it.