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:

1. The “I’m so hungry I could eat a skunk” stage means your blood sugar is low. Who needs dizziness, headache, disorientation or worse?
2. 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:

1. 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. 
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.