Let's talk hunger, snacking, and foods one is "allowed" to eat page

[superseiyan]

I’m 30yo male. I’m active blueprint style i.e. no chronic cardio, and I’m not a gym rat, although I do occasional sprints and I do short weight sessions twice a week. I'm not trying to lose wait, but I want to keep the "in shape toned look" that I have. I’ve been tailoring my diet to primal for about 14-16 months or so as a rough guess.

My problem is there are times I lapse into eating a biscuit, or some flatbread, or other none-primal stuff. I know we’re not allowed nuts, dairy, artificial sweeteners, grains, etc etc. I generally can avoid that stuff when I’m sane. It’s when I get the hunger pang or when I wake up at night and go to the fridge, and there isn’t anything appealing to snack on. I'm seeking help from you on adding variety,

Cheese (dairy) and Fruit are also “not allowed” I think or if they are they’re supposed to be “in moderation”. For me “in moderation” is code for “there should be some guilt attached in eating it”, reason is I figure if something’s whole food and/or good to eat you might as well eat it and enjoy it without regret. I’m NOT talking about gorging yourself until you’re sick, but I mean you should be able to eat the food with a clear conscience no? That’s why I consider “eat in moderation” foods to be essentially “not allowed”.

Anyway, I’ve tried to tailor my meal plan according to what’s allowed, and I’m finding compliance tough.

A typical meal plan:

Day 1:

Breakfast – omelete, 2 sausage links or patties, and some fruit salad.
Lunch – protein snack bar or nuts
Dinner – Large salad
Dessert - Apple

Day 2:

Breakfast – none
Lunch – various meats from the buffet at work
Dinner – 3 beef patties
Dessert – Greek yogurt with berries.

Often I don’t really have lunch and breakfast on the same day. This is to avoid wasting money in cafeterias, and also to keep calories in check...plus if I have a large breakfast I'm not hungry at 1 or 2 pm (though I may be hungry at about 5 pm, at which stage I'll eat some no-nos like nut bars if I see them).

I have a glass or two of wine every evening, and I will drink socially on a Friday and/or Saturday.


::CHALLENGES::

I still get times when I’m really hungry. Like today morning, hit the weights, no time for breakfast. On way to work, CVS—protein bar (not organic) and zero calorie drink. Ugh. But I NEEDED to eat something!

I often wake up hungry at night. Not always but 3-4 times a week. I know this sounds funny given that I can IF fine on some days.

I get ‘leaf fatigue’. I can tolerate a salad 3/5 meals but more than that it drives me crazy. I think the trick here is perhaps I need to discover new dressings?

Related to the above, I need to expand my variety. I'll look for paleo lists. Did you all have challenges with variety at some point?

I will sometimes eat a slice of bread not because I was seeking it, but because it's the only thing available. But then even cheese and fruit or nuts wouldnt' be much better, would it?

::SUCCESSES::

I can fast (IF) occasionally for 24 hours with no problem. I do it about every 10 days and I’m fine.

Get lots of comments on "looking fit and healthy" which is good. Especially from people that

I’m getting off of ‘sweet’. I’d stopped with the sugar drinks, but was drinking coke zeros and other stuff with artificial sweeteners*. I’ve actually reduced that a lot.

I dont' feel groggy or sleepy in the afternoons. Ever.

I wake up naturally with no alarm (this is odd--has this happened to anyone else too?)

I don't get sick. No more sniffles, sneezing, etc.

This has been a great success, and really changed my life for the better. I'm excited about a long energetic healthy life!



*As an aside I don’t believe that “artificial sweeteners cause weight gains”, honestly I think that’s something that’s repeated by people that it has taken a life of its own. I lost weight back in the day the minute I switched from sugar to zero-calorie drinks. How can sugar bombs with their link to diabetes be better for you than zero calorie sweeteners? The reason IMO to avoid sweeteners is to get off of the artifical chemicals, and even more important, the "unnatural, concentrated sweetness". I now enjoy fruits and sparkling water a lot more!

[Leida]

Uhm if you are doing primal, you are allowed nuts, limited grains, dairy if you can tolerate it... what's the problem again?

[Darz]

Well I don't know the size of those meals nor your stats, besides your age and gender, but it seems you are undereating, especially if you are active - that's why you might be hungry. You can eat nuts, fruit, dairy and grains if you have no problems whatsoever with them.

[superseiyan]

Uhm if you are doing primal, you are allowed nuts, limited grains, dairy if you can tolerate it... what's the problem again?

Thought dairy was supposed to be avoided.....perhaps i keep confusing Paleo/Primal. If nuts and dairy are fine, I'll just ramp up my snacking on nuts and cheese.

[Leida]

Raw organic full-fat cheese and fermented dairy is allowable on Primal, disallowed on Paleo
Nuts are allowed on both diets, but they do not allow peanuts (they are legumes). Nuts traditionally purchased fresh and raw, soaked in salted water and then dried out at low temperature if you want to adhere strictly. What is to be avoided are nuts that are commercially prepared, roasted, salted and sweetened, or went rancid....
Seeds are prohibited by certain variations of paleo because they are considered toxic

The only diet that I know of that frowns on nuts is Lean Gains.

[superseiyan]

Well I don't know the size of those meals nor your stats, besides your age and gender, but it seems you are undereating, especially if you are active - that's why you might be hungry. You can eat nuts, fruit, dairy and grains if you have no problems whatsoever with them.

Grains? You mean non-wheat grains?

[Darz]

Well, yes something like rice or even buckwheat - However, and this will depend on a variety of things, I do eat durum semolina pasta. If you want to stay truly primal (whatever that really is), rice and buckwheat are as far as you can go in the grain spectrum, I think.

[sbhikes]

A typical meal plan:

Day 1:

Breakfast – omelete, 2 sausage links or patties, and some fruit salad.
Lunch – protein snack bar or nuts
Dinner – Large salad
Dessert - Apple

Day 2:

Breakfast – none
Lunch – various meats from the buffet at work
Dinner – 3 beef patties
Dessert – Greek yogurt with berries.

You are hungry because you are hardly eating anything. Many of your meals are little more than snacks. I'd guess there's not much fat in your choices, either.

[labmonkey]

You are hungry because you are hardly eating anything. Many of your meals are little more than snacks. I'd guess there's not much fat in your choices, either.

I agree.

Also, you don't have to eat BAS (big ass salads), I don't. I've had no desire for any salad since going primal. My lunches usually consist of left over suppers. I cook an extra pork chop, steak, chicken thigh etc and then make sure i have veggies too. Today's lunch is a lg pork chop with almost 2 cups of steamed broccoli (with some butter). That is my typical lunch if I've eaten breakfast. If I skip breakfast, I'd add 3 boiled eggs and a banana to that lunch. Yummy and filling

[cavebabymama]

I think you could eat quite a bit more too. A good emergency "OMG so hungry must eat now" snack for when you're out and about is sardines. I often see tins of them in CVS and they are surprisingly not gross, lol. Most CVS's have decent fruit too... which is always better than a powerbar or the like.