Wow, two whole weeks without posting. Weigh-in this morning has me at 167lbs. Post-ride was 166lbs. I cheated over the weekend. I spent a week & a half being sick, somehow convinced myself the only way to survive was with chocolate cake & ice cream. What I found interesting is the illness was brought on after consuming sugar.
I know this sounds crazy, but it happens every single time I go back to sugary foods. Almost as if it weakens my immune system. I eat the sugary food and get a full-blown sinus infection. It starts in my head & does not go away until it works it’s way into my chest. So strange.
I want to talk about food addictions. But before I do, I want to say out loud again what I did on Monday morning. I rode 27 miles on the bike, then I ran (yes, me, running, not walking) 3 complete miles. It was amazing and I am so happy. Now, we had a hill-climbing clinic scheduled for last night. About 2pm yesterday afternoon, I went to stand up from my desk and discovered I could barely walk. It was hilarious!! And none of you know it but, man, I was in so much pain teaching how to climb hills last night. Ha!!
So, food addictions. I’ve been talking with a lot of people and I don’t think they understand it. Many of them think it is just that they eat way too much, like they lack the ‘willpower’ to control their eating. Almost like they are compulsive overeaters. What I’ve learned from all my all protein, high quality carb eating is that when you consume certain foods, it increases you appetite tremendously.
So when I speak about food addictions, I’m talking about our bodies natural response to the types of food we eat, not our inability to control our eating. This is not to be confused with true eating disorders, which I know nothing about. But I know a lot of people that, with a diet that includes pasta, bread or potatoes, (or god forbid potatoes chips, fried or fast food) see a large increase in their appetite – and they don’t have an eating disorder.
I know for Guy & myself, after eating food like that, it is as if someone flipped a switch & we are ravenously hungry no matter how much we ingest. Going back to the protein- quality carb diet makes this go away. After a few days, I can eat a 200 or 300 calorie meal & be satiated for several hours. Now, if it was an eating disorder, it wouldn’t stop because I changed the type of food I eat. Right?
What can be done? First you have to see the problem, it is not your inability to control your appetite. Certain foods trigger hunger in our system. Removing them removes the intense hunger. Puts us back in a place where we can consume a reasonable amount of food and feel satisfied.
Some foods are addictive & our bodies go through a period of intense cravings. Removing them from our diet will cause our bodies to go through withdrawal symptoms. But you have to understand this only lasts 4 or 5 days. The benefit to working through the withdrawal from these foods is you feel better physically. This happens to me every time. After the withdrawal, I felt so much better.
It takes anywhere from 5 to 10 days to completely clean your system of these ‘trigger’ foods. Now that I am eating mostly protein with quality carbs, if I have a day where I eat poor quality carbs, I am only affected for a few hours, instead of days. And suddenly I am in control. I am still affected by stress, but it is a hundred times more manageable.
Once you are able to see that certain foods cause you to overeat, you can work at modifying your diet so it is fueling your body to be healthy. Do you remember that? Food is fuel for our bodies. So if what we are eating isn’t making us strong & healthy, we need to eat something else. What you will find is it is much easier to control what you eat once you remove the trigger foods.
So many of these addictive foods cause depression. And there are so many people running around depressed. There must be some correlation. Seems as though the Dr’s find it easier to throw dangerous medications at us instead of looking at possible causes such as diet, or disease.
Sugar has been linked to cancer, although I had difficulty disseminating the real info from the hype. There is enough info out there to cause me to make some changes. Sugar is highly addictive. Something I’ve seen so many times with my diet modifications. I’m going to continue to look into this. I get crazy-hungry after eating sugary foods.
What is fueling your hunger? What are you eating? Are you willing to step out of your comfort zone and remove certain foods for 10 days to see how you feel? Ready to get responsible with your health?
