So hungry you could kill someone and eat their brains?
Checking in this week, a couple of you mentioned that you were flat out starving. Here’s why you don’t want to go there:
- The “I’m so hungry I could eat a skunk” stage means your blood sugar is low. Who needs dizziness, headache, disorientation or worse?
- You are likely to grab the next available thing and shove it in your mouth. This is a sure fire way to eat too much, too fast — and something that is probably WAY off the Paleo list.
Here are a few hints to AVOID becoming Zombie Hungry:
- EAT. Remember, a Paleo Challenge is NOT A DIET. You are not trying to eat less, skip meals, or count calories. You should be eating 3 or 4 healthy meals a day, avoiding the eliminated foods, eating to satiety, meaning you feel satisfied but not stuffed.
- Are you hungry or thirsty? Dehydration can trigger feelings of extreme hunger. Clinical studies have shown that 37% of people mistake hunger for thirst because the thirst mechanism is so weak. Just before you eat that skunk, have a big glass of water instead.
- Balance you meals. When you look at your plate, is 2/3rds of it covered with heaps of veggies and a healthy drizzle of olive oil? Is the remaining 1/3rd a great piece of grass-fed protein? Awesome. If not, you are going to tend to be hungry. Macro nutrients (protein, fat and carbs) work with Micro nutrients (vitamins, minerals, amino acids, etc) to form a complete picture, including satiety. Grabbing just a salad with no protein, or just a hunk o’ chicken with no veggies is going to leave you starving in an hour or two.
- Fat is filling. Remember, fat doesn’t make you fat. If your meals are fat-free, you are going to be hungry. Add some healthy fat to each meal: some ripe avocado in your salad, a splash of olive oil on your veggies, a dollop of coconut oil to sizzle up your eggs.
- Keep healthy snacks on hand when the Hungry Horrors strike. Don’t make nuts and fruits (which are high in calories, if you are aiming to drop a few el-bees) your only go to. Keep some eggy muffins on hand; have some left over grilled chicken or beef in the fridge; steam up a bunch of broccolli or green beans to have at the ready. You can throw together a healthy mini-meal quickly without eating half a pound of nuts and all the fruit in your fruit bowl.
So Mangia! Mangia! Eat well, often and enough and you should avoid Zombie Hunger, no sweat.