SHOW ME THE FOOOOOD COZ I'M A HUNGRY HUNGRY HIPPO

When I began my current plan to eat better in order to get leaner, as usual it followed a period of some indulgence or “relaxed holiday eating” as I like to call it.

In the first few weeks the bloat disappeared quite quickly as did a few kilos without a huge amount of effort. As my body balanced itself out I found that I wasn’t overly hungry and therefore ate accordingly as it felt “right.”

However more recently I’ve been getting really hungry and I put this down to few things:

1. Now that my body is pretty much balanced there is no recent excess on which to draw for those hungry periods. For instance, previously I’d always have an afternoon snack but over the last few weeks I’ve been skipping it as I haven’t been hungry for it. Well not any more. Despite a pretty good lunch the growling tiger is looking for a feed around 3 to 3 ½ hours later.
2. I’m training really consistently and burning some serious calories. After a light training week and 2 easy runs over the weekend, I still burned close to 1000 calories on those 2 runs. Couple this with no stupid binges or dietary blowouts and you can see that maybe finally my body and metabolism are working like nature intended.
3. I really hope that my metabolism has hit that “firing well” state. I eat pretty consistently with a little diversion on weekends. My diet is mainly clean but not obsessively so. I eat good quality bread because I love it and it has no negative effect on me. I enjoy skim cappuccinos and a few wines and with them a SMALL serve of some snacky nibbles. Peanuts in their shells are a favourite or Peter and I share a small packet of Grain Waves. Dinners are usually lean and healthy to compensate for the pre dinner snacks. Sugary foods are few and far between and I rarely crave them – although I have invented a superb post long run treat-breakfast which I’ll share in another post.

On Saturday my hunger really kicked in and the hunt was on for healthy snack options. Then it was a case of get busy, busy, busy until 5pm. Less time in the kitchen means less chance of mindless snacking. Also today at work the 3pm hungries hit and I had no planned snacks with me. So out I trotted to the nearest mini supermarket and invested in a banana (still reasonably priced) and a small tub of Greek yogurt. I ate half of each and felt fantastic maintaining that nice sense of calm that I love. As I was waiting to pay for them I remembered many a time when I’d go into that supermarket already feeling quite full and buy up a few rubbishy snacks like potato chips, nut bars or something sweet.

I think back to how much I have struggled on previous “diets” or attempts to lose weight in whatever form I was trying at the time and I feel momentarily sad for all those hard times. But on the bright and positive side, all those times showed me what didn’t work and led me to where I am now. And I’m loving the place I’m in. I’m a runner and I’m 12 weeks from my second Half Marathon. My training affords me the enjoyment of foods I love like bread and other high carb options. I can and do enjoy my treats without any guilt but I know what’s enough and when to stop.

My total loss last week was .9 kg and yet again I’m happy with that. I have 1.2 kgs to lose to achieve my February goal.

M