nowiswhen Posted October 14, 2014 Share Posted October 14, 2014 Until my wonderful SIL told me about the Whole30 and I read ISWF, I had no idea what damage I was doing to myself with my terrible food choices and constant attempts to lose weight. Typically, I delayed my first food of the day as long as I could, sometimes until 4 PM. Then I'd start eating off and on until 6 PM. The next wave of eating began after 10 PM and was the worst of all: totally random sweets & salty junk until I was sleepy which was between 1-3 AM! I never heard of Leptin Resistance and never understood insulin resistance but the Night Munchies section in the book told me I am definitely leptin resistant. I started the Whole30 Sept 1 2014 and pretty much had to give my full attention to eating only the compliant foods. I knew fruit, nuts and seeds were to be limited and I knew to eat 3 meals at regular times. However, I was not hungry during the day and would forget to eat either breakfast or lunch most days. I always ate dinner. But the night eating continued with full force. I fought it with the only compliant weapons I had: fruit, nuts & seeds. By Day 30, I hadn't lost any weight but had miracle results with chronic joint pain! So I continued with another Whole30, this time focusing on protein & veggies and staying away from fruits, nuts & seeds. At day 40 I weighed and saw 9 pounds were gone. I was still struggling with the night munchies this time fighting back with soup and proteins. I found that even having a huge amount of protein at dinner didn't stop the night munchies. It still seems odd to me to have to make myself eat REAL food at REAL mealtimes 3 times a day, especially because I am still NOT at all hungry then. But yesterday, I dug in and did it. I set a timer to make sure I ate all 3 meals at the recommended intervals and included the full amount of meat, veg & fat. LAST NIGHT [DAY 43] WAS THE FIRST NIGHT WITH NO AFTER DINNER EATING, A REASONABLE BEDTIME [10:30 pm] AND 8 HOURS OF SLEEP IN MANY MANY YEARS! I am so glad I read the article on Context Matters. It helped me understand why it would probably take me longer to see results and kept me from quitting in disappointment on Day 31. I know I will have to continue to focus and struggle with getting my metabolism and hormones straight for as long as it takes my body to normalize. But I'm not turning back now. I shudder to think where I was heading without the Whole30. It is truly a lifesaver! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AmyS Posted October 14, 2014 Share Posted October 14, 2014 Beautiful. And brilliant. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abs1081 Posted October 14, 2014 Share Posted October 14, 2014 i'm leptin resistant i think too.....what are the recommended intervals and all that?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nowiswhen Posted October 15, 2014 Author Share Posted October 15, 2014 Sorry to hear you might have it too Abs1081. This is one of the pages where having 3 meals a day is written and gives guidance on what should be included. http://whole30.com/downloads/whole30-meal-planning.pdf I can't locate the place where the meal time intervals were given but I interpreted it to mean that the first Meal of the day should be within about an hour of waking in the morning. The 2nd meal should be about 4 to 5 1/2 hrs later. The 3rd meal should be about 4 to 5 1/2 hrs after the 2nd. We should avoid snacking between meals and after dinner. We should be eating enough at our meals to take us to the next one. By eating regular amounts of the allowed foods at regular times, we are helping our bodies restore balance in our blood sugar and the hormones that affect our metabolism. That's about as science-y as I can get. I am counting on everyone to jump in and correct me if I'm off base. All I know is I had NO IDEA how poor my eating and not eating habits were, why it was so hard for me to lose weight and what a challenge it was going to be to set things right. All of the communication is garbled: my brain thinks I'm skinny and starving but my body has plenty of fat (like 40 pounds extra). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Physibeth Posted October 15, 2014 Share Posted October 15, 2014 What a win! Could you re-post this in the Success Stories section of the forum as well? Normally we don't do duplicate posting around here but I think that more people will see and be encouraged by this if it is in both places. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nowiswhen Posted October 15, 2014 Author Share Posted October 15, 2014 I am a bit afraid to consider this a success story since I've only had two nights (consecutively !)without Night Munchies so far and don't want to jinx myself by bragging I might feel more confident with 28 more Nights straight without Munchies. I am still hoping there are other people out there who are battling this monster or who have beaten it and will share their experiences. It is such a secretive and shameful monster to fight. It strikes at night when you are tired and your defenses are down. Then it sends you rooting through the entire kitchen and pantry searching for the most highly refined sugars and starches you can find. If there aren't any, it might even send you out at 11 PM in the cold, dark rain to buy more junk than you could possibly eat. Back home you consume everything you've avoided all day, broken all of your promises to yourself and are compelled by the Master Monster until it is satisfied. You hate yourself in the morning and immediately bury any remains from the night before and vow to try harder and be stronger. You eat very little but very healthy food during the day partly because you are still stuffed from the night before and also as punishment for your guilt. Rinse & Repeat! I gained 7 pounds a year for 10 years on thin small frame built for 125. On the one hand, it's a relief to now understand that there were bio-chemical process at the root of this but it's creepy to think that eating the wrong foods could turn me into a powerless Munching Zombie. I thought I was in charge of my brain, not hormones. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kirkor Posted October 15, 2014 Share Posted October 15, 2014 Thanks for sharing, I've struggled with MunchiesTM in the past, it's very inspiring to read about your persistence. Well done! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrsStick Posted October 15, 2014 Share Posted October 15, 2014 That sounds a lot like me my junior/senior year of high school. I ate as little as possible all day, although I did eat some food at each of the three meals, with dinner by far being the biggest. I'd then stay up until 1 or 2 in the morning doing homework and, when it came time to make my lunch for the next day, I would end up downing huge spoonfuls of peanut butter and/or jelly. I even ate white sugar by the spoon! I'd have bread and margarine stacks - 4-5 slices of whatever bread we had, each "buttered" with lots of margarine, with the next piece on top of that, etc. As high as I could still get my mouth around. My lunches consisted of a PB&J and applesauce, maybe a piece of fruit. Not nearly enough for a teenaged girl to eat. College actually forced me out of that because I went to a military one - we had six weeks of basic that allowed us no food outside of the three meals in the mess hall, waking up early and going to PT, and going to bed at taps because you were so stressed/exhausted from everything you'd done that day. Obviously it wouldn't work for everyone, but that was how I broke out of my old habits. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abs1081 Posted October 17, 2014 Share Posted October 17, 2014 i think my horrendous eating habits started in grad school.....and when i gave up gluten and wheat due to some non-celiac intolerances....if i ever fell off the wagon i would have a horrible hangover the next day! weirdest thing! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nowiswhen Posted October 27, 2014 Author Share Posted October 27, 2014 Good thing I didn't post this as a success story because my score so far is 2 consecutive wins, 11 straight Munchies, and finally 1 food free night last night. I figured that falling asleep in a chair watching TV was the trigger. I'd wake up, full of crazy carb cravings, eat and then go to bed. I think that is part of the Suma Wrestler Weight Gaining Program, right? Horrible habit. Although I thought I knew what the trigger was, it took me days and days to even try changing the behavior. Meanwhile, I was still Night Munching....less quantity but more than nothing! The silliest thing is all I watch on TV is Netflix & Hulu. Yesterday it finally dawned on my that I could watch those on my ipad in my bedroom (duh). Last night I started watching TV in the chair and went up to my bedroom at 10 PM before I got sleepy. Got Netflix on my ipad, low volume and pointed the screen away from me. Turned it off. Then proceeded to toss & turn past 2:30 AM while visions of sugarplums and savory supercarb snacks danced in my head! WOW! Real, full blown addiction kind of behavior! I stayed in my bedroom until 5 AM. Got up and made breakfast. Today I feel hungover, tired, stupid and have zero energy. Who knew all of these whacked systems caused by food could have this kind of grip on a person?! I feel like a werewolf that needs to be locked up at night during full moons. Hoping tonight won't be as bad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Physibeth Posted October 27, 2014 Share Posted October 27, 2014 Perhaps it is time to break the before bed Netflix and Hulu habit all together. I've read quite a few articles that indicate watching tv (screens in general) within an hour of sleep can be super disruptive to your natural sleep patterns. Perhaps put together a new bedtime routine this week. Have a cup of tea and read a book (not on your ipad), have a hot bath, do some stretching. You can do this! Just keep pushing forward. Habits are hard to break but when you do you will feel so powerful for it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
praxisproject Posted November 3, 2014 Share Posted November 3, 2014 There's a lot of research around how back-lit devices are messing with our body clocks. You can even get blue-blocker goggles to wear to cut down the light. If you want something passive without the screen, podcasts or other audio have no back-light Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nowiswhen Posted January 6, 2015 Author Share Posted January 6, 2015 Praxisproject, Thanks for the suggestion about blue blocker goggles! I bought them and started wearing them at 8 PM until I went to bed. I don't use them anymore because [drum roll] I haven't done ANY night eating for more than a month straight!!! I learned a few things along the way that I hope will help someone else beat the Night Munchies. The final solution evolved by accident. A friend sent me a DVD tape of the new Outlander Series that was aired this past fall. I love Scotland, England, Ireland and anything associated with those lands. Watching the series left me hungry for more details so I bought the book. The first night, I got into bed with the book and a cuppa and read from 8 to 10 & fell asleep. At 11:30 I was pulled out of a sound sleep by intense cravings! But I was so sleepy and cozy warm in my bed I didn't want to get up and go downstairs to munch. Went back to sleep and this cycle continued hourly for the next 2 hours!!! This went on for what seemed like a few weeks before it tapered off to no waking episodes. At one point I felt like I knew what it must be like to be addicted to drugs. To be woken from a sound sleep and commanded to eat sweets & junk was almost scary. I have not had Night Munchies my whole life so I tried to figure out when it started: 7 YEARS AGO! I began to take Ambien to help me fall asleep. It seemed to work well. My son came home from college for Christmas. One morning he greeted me and asked how I felt and if I remembered waking up the night before. I didn't. He said it was creepy and scary-I was staggering around, looked drunk, had slurred speech was eating sweets and junk food and then staggered back to bed. After he went back to college, I was working on a gingerbread house order. All of the pieces were baked & decorated. The next morning when I came in to assemble the house, there was a big bite taken out of the roof! I was so pissed and confused about how that happened. It dawned on me it had to have been ME! I had to re-bake a new roof section & decorate it since the order needed to go out that day! Still I continued taking Ambien. Sometimes I would wake up with candy wrappers all over my bed....often it wasn't even candy I liked but needed to gingerbread houses & cookies. The thing that made me stop taking Ambien was when I woke up with a 3" diameter bruise on my chest. where I must have bumped into something really hard. Who knew Ambien could set such an unhealthy cycle into motion that would last many years after I stopped taking it (I only took it for a few months). It wasn't until my 1st Whole30 that I even noticed how hard it was to eat 3 meals at regular times beginning within an hour of waking. Or wondered why I HAD to eat at night even though I knew I wasn't hungry. I'd never heard of Leptin Resistance. I use the SleepCycle app on my phone every night and I could see without a doubt multiple attempts by my brain to wake me up to eat. They usually appear on the graph an hour or so after I go to sleep. Each spike of "awake" lasts only a few minutes and deep sleep returns. Then about an hour later there's another spike and a third one after that. The good news is after the first few nights, I slept through all of it and now I don't have them any more!!! I started my 2nd Whole30 on Jan 1 and I know I'll be able actually lose some weight this time Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators ladyshanny Posted January 6, 2015 Administrators Share Posted January 6, 2015 Wow, this is an absolutely amazing story to watch unfold! You should be commended on your perseverance!! I had a co-worker once who was a sleep eater, it was so interesting and yet so sad to listen to her describe it, much like reading your story here. Congratulations on such a huge milestone! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nowiswhen Posted January 7, 2015 Author Share Posted January 7, 2015 Thank you! Were it not for the Whole30, forums included, I would have never noticed something was radically wrong. It is also more than a little scary to think a prescription medicine could set such a unhealthy habit in place so quickly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
praxisproject Posted January 7, 2015 Share Posted January 7, 2015 Congratulations!!! :D Body clocks are very delicate things. A lot of people are having similar problems, but from backlist devices now. I ruined my body clock from years of shift and on call work (waking to a ringing phone all hours of the day and night). As you get closer to normal sleep cycles, have a chat with your doctor about "sleep hygiene". A lot of it sounds really silly, but it really works. Anyone trying to reset their sleep cycles, avoid backlit devices 1 hour (2 is better) before going to bed. Watch the e-readers which are backlit, they're not good in bed - (backlit shines a light out of the device, not like a Kindle with e-ink, even if it has a small light). Eating within an hour of waking is also very important for resetting those clocks (we now know the body has hundreds of body clocks) as it tells your body to wake up, just as much as the lack of light tells the body to get ready for sleep. Wake up time is a good time for backlit devices I've got a sleep tracker wristband and it gives me loads of insight on things which ruin my sleep quality. I've also found Vitamin C, Magnesium, Vitamin K2, Zinc and Potassium to all have big impacts on my sleep quality (if I'm deficient, it suffers). CoQ10 seems to have an overall benefit, but it's very subtle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nowiswhen Posted January 8, 2015 Author Share Posted January 8, 2015 Great information praxisproject! I'm still struggling with eating within a hour of waking. I need to put greater effort and attention to it. A good start probably sets everything in motion for the whole day. I probably should get my goofy goggles (blue blockers) back out again. I wear my glasses at night and these fit over them nicely. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00JAILFZ2/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 I also need to get into the magnesium habit along with some other good supplements. Geez, taking good care of me is a lot of work! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
praxisproject Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 Breakfast is a big adjustment for many. If it's hard to do close to waking up, try pre-cooking something, so you can either eat it cold or just heat it up. If your stomach rebels (which can happen to long time breakfast skippers! ) try some protein and fat and have a proper breakfast meal a little later. If you can get a workout in early, it's even a Pre-Work Out meal Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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