Tips for a surprise sugar dragon?

[EmilyK]

So this is my second official Whole30, and last time was surprisingly easy overall on the craving/sugar dragon front.  Today is day 10 for me.

 

But this time I am having some serious problems controlling the snackies, cravings, etc.  I'm not sure why, either...the best guess I have is that last time, the Whole30 was a total overhaul to my lifestyle and this time, prior to beginning, I was eating probably 80% this way anyway only with the addition of alcohol and occasional treats that became a lot more than occasional.

 

My food log is in my blog in my signature.  I think I'm eating enough of the right stuff at the right times, but last night at 10:30 at night I ended up eating 2 Tablespoons of sunflower seed butter just because I had to have something and if it wasn't that, it would have been cookies.  I know that I'm not following the spirit of the plan as well this time by giving into things like that, but this is new territory for me this time around.

 

Anyone have any tips for things I could do differently?  I'm not feeling as good this time around as I did last time and it's really kind of disappointing and frustrating and I really want to eat the damn cookies. 

[jmcbn]

Fat.

 

You need more fat.

 

And the fact you're eating sunflower seed butter from the jar reinforces that.

 

Seriously, I see the occasional half an avocado, and I see that you make mayo (& other sauces), but I don't see any added fat to most of your meals.

Protein & fat will tame that Sugar Dragon for sure.

[EmilyK]

I went through the first jar of mayo in a week.  The buffalo chicken "pasta" I made used the mayo as the sauce, and the burgers I had on Thursday and Friday had mayo on them, too.

 

I don't generally add fat to the fattier cuts of meat that I eat (like the kalua pig) or when I use bacon as a primary seasoning (like my brussles sprouts) but I have 1/2-1 avocado every day with breakfast, or usually add it (or mayo) if I'm just eating white meat chicken.

 

Now that I look at it, though, I was kind of light on fat over the weekend.  I wonder if that just culminated into the gut punching cravings last night?

[ladyshanny]

What about your period, where are you in your cycle? Gut punching cravings can be a result of your body needing more food overall and sometimes it tells you that by making demands that can be misinterpreted as needing snacks/junkier foods.

[EmilyK]

Yeah, that was last week--I was eating 4 meals a day Tuesday-Friday.  Then I was good with just 3 on Saturday and Sunday, and started bleeding on Sunday morning.  Last night's cravings were weird.

 

I can genuinely say I am having a MUCH harder time with the no alcohol this time around--not sure if this is related to a rebound craving because I can't have the booze so my body is all, SUGAR ANYTHING SUGAR...I don't know.  This is new to me.