Recently, I have been very hungry. I mean, really very hungry. “Hangry”, actually – you know, when you get so hungry that you get super cranky and want to punch someone in the face simply for being?
No? Just me?
Anyway, this was weird because last time I wasn’t eating enough, I was just getting tired and sleepy. I had no idea why, because I was eating regularly, if not a lot, because the people around me did not deserve to get punched in the face. My BFF suggested I keep a food journal. I am really not a fan of food journals that act as calorie counters. It makes me crazy, which stresses me out, which means I am much more likely to snap and eat mac n cheese after I’ve already had dinner. But I decided to keep a food journal for a week and see what was going on with my diet. This is what I found out:
I do much better with food journals when I am detailed with my description instead of with calories. Amazing how that works. I was totally happy to write down “2 cups of strawberries” or “two pieces of pizza”. It didn’t give me the anxiety that counting calories on other sorts of food journals did, and allowed me to reach some conclusions about my eating.
Breakfast is not my biggest meal. As a result, I was eating bigger meals as the day went on. People who eat a bigger, more filling breakfast tend not to binge as much as the day moves on, and their metabolism tends to be higher than those who skip breakfast (after all, you’ve been fasting overnight).
I make really bad decisions when I’m drinking. A glance back at my food journal for the week shows that whenever I really go off the rails with my eating, it’s because alcohol is involved. Every. Single. Time. Good to know, right?
I seem to overeat less when I have been drinking water. When I felt like I was still really hungry, I drank some water instead, and waited 15 minutes. About half of the time, the cravings abated. Water has all sorts of health benefits, but the most important one for me is that it can act as an appetite suppressant, since your body will look for water in food if you aren’t drinking enough.
I am going to continue food journaling over the next month to see if I can’t get my own observations into action. Of course, I have no idea why my hunger levels were spiking, so perhaps I will be able to get a better idea as I collect more and more food journal-y data. By noticing patterns in my eating, I can put myself in a position to succeed (and not want to punch random strangers in the face).
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