My Food Yesterday - incredible hunger!

Well, happy Friday to everyone! I'm pretty excited for my weekend - we have NO plans whatsoever, so I think my days are going to look basically like this: wake up whenever I want, go on a local hike/walk with Chris and Koda, make some fun meals, read my book in bed and catch up on Girls on TV. I'm going to work on my dissertation one of the days, but going to give myself the other day off.

I'm feeling fatigued pretty much constantly right now. Sometimes, at my desk, my vision starts to go because I am so tired. So I have to get up, shake it off, walk around, get the blood flowing just to get back in working order! It's been especially hard dealing with tiredness because I've cut out pretty much all coffee - am down to one 6 ounce cup a day or less.

I took an extra walk after work yesterday, the sun was shining and it was really lovely out - got my steps up to 14k for the day. Exercise really does help stave off the tiredness, because the tiredness is NOT a result of lack of sleep or hard work, it's just hormonal.

Thought I would give you a look at my food for the day yesterday, since it's been a while since I've done this in bullet form:

Breakfast:

• oh yes, you know it - my lactose free cottage cheese with frozen blueberries and sunflower seed butter. I don't know if I will ever tire of this breakfast, I still look forward to it every morning! I do about a serving and a half of the CC, less than half a cup of blueberries, and a tablespoon of the SF seed butter.

Snack:

• about 80 calories of lactose free, organic yogurt with cut up pineapple

Lunch:

• about a cup of turkey/beef chili leftovers - heavy on the tomato, onion and mushrooms!
• about a cup of roasted sweet potatoes
• about a cup of homemade coleslaw topped with roasted beets

Snack:

• banana

Dinner:

• BURGER SALAD - this is probably my favorite dinner right now. We cook burgers (usually turkey or chicken burgers, rarely beef), chop them up and throw them in a salad with romaine, onions, tomatoes, mushrooms and pickles. Chris uses salad dressing but I use a mixture of mustard, mayo and ketchup, which he thinks is really gross... and it does look really, really gross, but I love the taste, haha.

 Snack:

• I was freaking ravenous within an hour of dinner... my body feels crazy right now, like I can't get my hunger under control. I ate some mashed sweet potatoes that we had made for lunch the next day and then Chris decided to make the paleo pumpkin bread we've made a couple times this year so I had a slice of that with butter.

So, yeah, if you notice there, I'm eating pretty heartily. Checked in on my weigh this morning just to make sure I'm not going totally crazy with food - still at 127, everything is copacetic there!

I've just never felt hunger like this before. I'm glad I've been putting in the work to recognize true hunger from emotional hunger... and let me tell you, I have been truly hungry! I'm not going to deprive myself if I feel truly hungry, so I am focusing on vegetables and fruits as well as getting my protein in (the cottage cheese and yogurt are excellent sources for me so that I am not scarfing down a pound of meat a day, yikes). I eat a good amount of fat - nuts, olive oil, coconut oil, avocados and, for an off paleo treat, mayo.

I really like the paleo pumpkin bread because it is mostly made up of almond flour, eggs, and pumpkin. Spices and just a touch of honey give it extra flavor, but it definitely is not a sweet bread. Nuts and eggs and pumpkin are super densely nutritious.

I'm still trying not to eat "sweets" too often - chocolate bars, especially. Those are just kind of wasted calories. I want to inundate my body with lots of nutrients with all this food I am eating :D Sugar isn't really ideal - I am getting plenty of sugar from my fruit, no need to add to it.

So that's where I am. Recognizing that I could eat us out of house and home right now if I let myself. And making sure I am treating this old body of mine well - it needs to be in prime working order! A focus on fruits and veggies will help me not pile on needless weight right now, but will stave off the hunger, keep me energetic and healthy.

It's a tough balance. Especially when I feel like I do (so hungry even as I type this, haha).

Alright, back to work - looking forward to getting home to start a super relaxing weekend!

Namaste <3