Great articles!

http://diet.mayoclinic.org/diet/eat/hunger-versus-craving?xid=nl_MayoClinicDiet_20180702

http://diet.mayoclinic.org/diet/eat/beat-your-cravings?xid=nl_MayoClinicDiet_20180702

Edited July 2, 20188 yr by Orchids&Dragons

Good articles and not too wordy!

8 minutes ago, 2shea said:

Good articles and not too wordy!

Yeah, they pretty much got straight to the point! So many people post questions about hunger, I thought I'd share.

Edited July 2, 20188 yr by Orchids&Dragons

Thanks for the article!

I've had a tough few days with head hunger. My work usually keeps me pretty mentally occupied. But the back half of last week, and over the weekend, and all of this week, I have a lot of tedious tasks. I have just wanted to eat and eat and eat, ugh! I work from home, so it is super easy to grab something. I've been making mostly good choices, but my calories are still higher than they normally are for me. But I generally keep myself lower than most at this stage. But I wonder if that is contributing to my current stall.

Just now, sillykitty said:

Thanks for the article!

I've had a tough few days with head hunger. My work usually keeps me pretty mentally occupied. But the back half of last week, and over the weekend, and all of this week, I have a lot of tedious tasks. I have just wanted to eat and eat and eat, ugh! I work from home, so it is super easy to grab something. I've been making mostly good choices, but my calories are still higher than they normally are for me. But I generally keep myself lower than most at this stage. But I wonder if that is contributing to my current stall.

I also find it much harder to be "good" at home. There's just not much available at work unless I go down 3 floors to the snack room which has vending machines. It is totally off limits for me. But at home, omgosh. . . smorgasbord!

Tedious tasks set me off, too. They just seem so much more manageable when I've got a party going on in my mouth! That's when I make my chai lattes. They satisfy the sweet need and delish taste without going off plan.

7 minutes ago, Orchids&Dragons said:

I also find it much harder to be "good" at home. There's just not much available at work unless I go down 3 floors to the snack room which has vending machines. It is totally off limits for me. But at home, omgosh. . . smorgasbord!

Tedious tasks set me off, too. They just seem so much more manageable when I've got a party going on in my mouth! That's when I make my chai lattes. They satisfy the sweet need and delish taste without going off plan.

For me home and "work" have different pitfalls. Work, I'm traveling, so I don't eat as often, but restaurant food is so much less healthy, and hard to know exactly what you're consuming.

Home lately has become a smorgasbord as well. Even if it is jerky, cheese, yogurt, etc., I hate that I'm eating or thinking about food constantly. I know it is mostly head hunger, so it makes me hate that I give into it!

The hunger part is legit.

The craving part is fairly wrong. Cravings come from the intestinal bacteria, the bad ones who want us to eat sugar. They are extremely powerful. The only way to shut them up is to kill them off by not eating anything that tastes sweet. In fact, they are so powerful that most people won’t stop eating things that taste sweet. Me included, up until surgery. Since I knew I would be stopping eating for a while, I made sure I reset my intestinal biome.

The only sweetness in my diet after surgery was raw milk, which isn’t very sweet, and inulin powder, a prebiotic to feed the good gut bugs. The good ones like fiber from veggiesand potatoes, and since we couldn’t eat anything like that on our water plus liquid protein post surgery diet, I just added a tbsp of inulin to my protein drinks.

I used unflavored natural whey protein, drank water, mixed the whey with either raw milk or water, and eventually when I started eating ate only proteins, and a bite or two of veg. No fruit for 6 months. No grains. Some seeds, some beans, nothing sweet. Now I eat 1/2 c fruit a day, a year out and pretty much near goal. No breads or sweets. 92% dark chocolate is my jam.

So I don’t crave sweets at all. When I am hungry it’s because I need my protein. Or the guts bugs needs some seeds, or some cooked and cooled potato (can be reheated before eating). No cravings. And it is effortless because I took away all sweets. If I Taste something sweet (I tried a few times) it makes me feel sick, makes my vision blurry. So I don’t even try.

If you haven’t had surgery yet, I wholeheartedly advise you to stay away from frankenfoods with fake sugars and anything that tastes sweet. It will help you in the maintaining phase to no longer have those same gut bugs begging you for sugar. Mine beg me for roasted root veg or toasted pumpkin seeds.