MrsHughes14 Posted December 3, 2015 Share Posted December 3, 2015 Hi everyone! I'm on day 2 of my Whole30 journey. I've always (in general) been a healthy eater, focussing mainly on whole foods and as little sugar as possible. I also eat every 2-3 hours, so my main meals and usually small snacks in between if I get hungry. Going into this I knew that I would need to try to retrain my body to eat three larger meals a day and no snacks, and I've been doing my best to follow the template. I've done pretty good so far (yeah I know, it's only day 2), and when I get hungry between meals I've been trying to listen to my body and see if it's truly hunger or boredom. Well, most of the time it's hunger, and if I don't eat when I'm hungry my blood sugar crashes and I get very hangry. So, my question is....what should I do about this? Is it okay to snack if I absolutely need something to eat? I eat lunch at 12 and generally don't eat dinner until 6. 6 hours is a long time to go without food (for me anyways). I'm following the template and feel super full after my main meals, so I don't want to force myself to eat more. Any help or advice is much appreciated! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thegoldengrahamgirl Posted December 3, 2015 Share Posted December 3, 2015 The short answer is no. The longer answer is yes and no. Check out: http://forum.whole9life.com/topic/29152-snacks-when-hungry/ Your blood sugar crashes because your hormones (namely insulin, and others) are not balanced yet and because your body is not "fat-adapted" (able to use fat as a fuel). If you continue to snack, especially on carbs, you will perpetuate this cycle. Any way to eat your lunch a little bit later and/or your supper a little bit later? Also try to get more food into your lunch - your meals really should keep you going for ~5 hours. Try increasing the serving of protein at the meal, and also getting the recommended amount of fat. Are you getting the full 1-3 cups (aim for 3!) of veggies? I find cruciferous vegetables like broccoli to be more filling than salad greens. For myself, I also find coconut butter to be one of the most satiating fats (vs. oil). If you post your meals, including rough portion sizes, I'm sure the moderators would be happy to have a look at help you out! Also, are drinking enough water? Thirst can also be mistaken for hunger. Aim for half an ounce per pound of bodyweight. Cheers, -Lauren (GGG) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Tom Denham Posted December 3, 2015 Moderators Share Posted December 3, 2015 How about this... Eat 4 meals per day. Maybe with 4 meals, you can space them to get you through. I took more than a year to get to where I was comfortable eating 3 meals per day. Note: I started in 2010, there was no meal template, and there were no experienced people around to coach me through meal composition. And I can be a slow learner. When you tell me that you are eating to the meal template faithfully, but are getting hungry between meals, I am suspicious that my concept of a meal template meal and yours is probably different. This is nothing about you because I don't know you, but I have been coaching people through the meal template for years and many, many people under-eat, but think they are following the guidelines perfectly. Part of it is that we see what we are conditioned to see when reading guidelines. Bottom line, please tell us about your meals or even better, share a few pictures. I've known people to describe a good plate of food, but the picture tells me they needed more veggies and could have used more protein. And most people go too low on fat because they think cooking fat is adequate when really cooking fat hardly counts at all. Last thing: Don't eat fruit or nuts as snacks. Eat a mini-meal with protein, fat, and veggies. Leftovers work well for this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrsHughes14 Posted December 3, 2015 Author Share Posted December 3, 2015 Thanks for the advice Tom. Eating 4 meals a day seems more reasonable for me (on most days), because my days are long. I'm also not used to eating such large meals. I also don't usually add in so much fat, so I get full really quickly. I don't want to eat until I'm uncomfortable, so that's a bit of a struggle for me as well. Please don't see this as me complaining, becuase I'm not. I'm really enjoying my meals, and I'm on day 4 and definitely feel good! No sugar cravings, and I don't miss my grains. If I can't eat fruit and nuts for snacks, should I only be adding it to 1 or 2 meals a day? Again, that's a lot of food for me so I guess I just need to re-train my body. For breakfast I scrambled 3 eggs with about 2, maybe 3, cups of mixed veggies (kale, spinach, and a frozen blend that I have). That's a lot of food for me, as I usually eat one egg at a time, max. I was looking at some Whole30 recipes online and I found one for chia seed pudding that's made with coconut milk, chia seeds, and I added some pomegranite seeds. When can I eat this? With breakfast? Thanks in advance!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carlaccini Posted December 3, 2015 Share Posted December 3, 2015 I was looking at some Whole30 recipes online and I found one for chia seed pudding that's made with coconut milk, chia seeds, and I added some pomegranite seeds. When can I eat this? With breakfast? Thanks in advance!! Hi Mrs Hughes - Technically that recipe above is for a dessert. Desserts are really not recommended if you want to experience the best results. However if you choose to eat this make sure you eat your eggs, veggies FIRST. Then *maybe* have a small portion of this. Personally this concoction is considered a SWYPO type of thing and should be avoided until after your whole 30 is finished. But that's me - my brain likes sweet things - so it likes to figure out how I can get sweet things in, while following the template. Keep in mind that not all recipes on the internet that are labelled as whole 30 - are not necessarily recommended as they clearly are not following the template. This "pudding" is one of them. Technically compliant but misses the mark as it only contains fat and fruit. These alone will not fill you up or satiate you for long. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrsHughes14 Posted December 3, 2015 Author Share Posted December 3, 2015 Thanks, Carlaccini! I was thinking the same thing after I made it. I thought I would eat it this morning, but knowing what i know about Whole30, and what I've been doing so far, it didn't make sense to me and I have no idea where I'd fit it it. It kind of seems like empty calories, in the sense that it's not really helping me meet the overall goal of proteins, veggies, and fats with every meal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators ladyshanny Posted December 3, 2015 Administrators Share Posted December 3, 2015 It kind of seems like empty calories, in the sense that it's not really helping me meet the overall goal of proteins, veggies, and fats with every meal. EXACTLY THIS!!!!!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
littlebluehouse Posted December 4, 2015 Share Posted December 4, 2015 I'd like to piggyback on this thread and get some feedback from the moderators because I've had trouble with this (I'm on day 32 by the way!). I wake up at 6:30. I try to eat breakfast around 7:30, since I'm supposed to eat within an hour of waking. Then I'm not supposed to eat again for 4-5 hours right? So let's say 4.5 hours later I have lunch. That's noon. So I eat lunch at noon. Then another 4.5 hours later I'm supposed to have dinner. But having dinner at 4:30 is so weird! And it means on the days I'm working I have to pack two meals, and can't eat with my family. And then I don't go to bed til 10/10:30 and I'm starving before bed. If I stretch it 5 hours, lunch is 12:30 and dinner is 5:30 which is still very early for me and my family to have dinner. If I stretch it later, I'm hungry between meals. Please help! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GFChris Posted December 4, 2015 Share Posted December 4, 2015 I'd like to piggyback on this thread and get some feedback from the moderators because I've had trouble with this (I'm on day 32 by the way!). I wake up at 6:30. I try to eat breakfast around 7:30, since I'm supposed to eat within an hour of waking. Then I'm not supposed to eat again for 4-5 hours right? So let's say 4.5 hours later I have lunch. That's noon. So I eat lunch at noon. Then another 4.5 hours later I'm supposed to have dinner. But having dinner at 4:30 is so weird! And it means on the days I'm working I have to pack two meals, and can't eat with my family. And then I don't go to bed til 10/10:30 and I'm starving before bed. If I stretch it 5 hours, lunch is 12:30 and dinner is 5:30 which is still very early for me and my family to have dinner. If I stretch it later, I'm hungry between meals. Please help! You don't need to have dinner at 4:30 pm. If you're hungry at that time, a mini-meal of protein, veg and fat would work and then you could have dinner later with your family (it doesn't need to be 4-5 hours after the mini-meal.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators ladyshanny Posted December 4, 2015 Administrators Share Posted December 4, 2015 What Chris said above is what I used to do as well. Lunch at noon, snack at 4, dinner at 6-ish. However, as you go along and you are composing your meals to the template and your body is getting used to switching between fuel sources more and more efficiently (ie, probably doing this fairly consistently for a few months) you may find that although you may be a bit peckish at 4 or 5pm, it is no big deal to wait for dinnertime to eat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
littlebluehouse Posted December 4, 2015 Share Posted December 4, 2015 Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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