Why am I still not getting used to this? page 4

[Damiana]

That looks like a very bland diet to me. Add in some flavor, some vegetables, please, and yes, eat some fruits.

[Daydreamer]

You're getting around 1100-1300 kcal a day, no wonder you're hungry.

[Kookie]

Maybe try and prepare your meals on a Sunday for the week ahead, like making a huge batch of vegetable curry or vege soup for lunch every day (made with coconut milk - yum), that you can just take out of the freezer the night before and have along side your sausage etc, then do the same for evening meals, do a huge batch of cheaper stewing steak meat or mince with onion veg spices stock etc that you can have for dinner with any other fresh or frozen veg you have. I think preparing in advance will make it easier if you're on a budget as then the vegetables that you've paid for won't sit going bad in the bottom of the fridge. It's easy for people to say, have a steak or have a big salad everyday, but it can be expensive and doesn't keep very well beyond 3-4 days. Good luck x

[magnolia1973]

Try and add in fruit.... it doesn't necessarily make you crave other types of sugars. For me, wheat and a lack of fat is what was behind me being a sugar fiend.

Also, go buy a cook book like Well Fed. Long term, if you don't learn to cook (or make time for it), you probably won't last.

But to give you options here are some thoughts:
Breakfast- omelet with avocado and salsa. Veggie omelet with mixed veggies. Fried eggs over a hash of sweet potato, chicken sausage, onion and spinach

Lunch on the run- applegate lunch meat, cut veggies, piece of fruit. Two eggs and an apple with almond butter

Dinner- make stew in a crock pot. Burger bowl- grill a burger, serve in a bowl with sweet potatoes, spinach, kimchee and home mayo.

I dunno, just change it up, add in more fruit as needed/desired.

[sbhikes]

Hi everyone. All of your responses are great.

Yes, I'm a student, so I think the reason my diet has been so limited is that I'm restrained by time and money... it's difficult for me to get my hands on an inexpensive grass fed steak, and then cook it, when eggs seem so cheap and easy.

I'm 20 years old, 5'9, female, roughly average weight (130 lbs). I'm also a slowly-recovering sugar addict, so I'm concerned by the fact that I'm still struggling to overcome the urge to eat huge amounts of carbs. I hope hyperinsulinemia isn't my problem...

I will try adding in more meat per all of your suggestions (and will stop being so crazy about the grass-fed/organic thing until a future time when I can really afford these things) and perhaps more veggies. Hopefully I feel better -- I'll write back with my results!

Don't bother with the grass-fed beef. I buy my beef from a real local butcher shop inside a small ethnic (Latino) market. It's not grass-fed, but it's really cheap and good. 69 cents a pound for chicken leg quarters. $8 a pound for rib-eye steaks as big as a dinner plate. $5 a pound for other cuts of steak. I can eat like a queen this way. If I want Omega 3 fat, I can eat salmon or purchase grass-fed tallow at the farmer's market.

I doubt hyperinsulemia (or metabolic syndrome) is your problem. If it was, you'd be gaining weight and fat even while doing all the running you do. I was gaining weight while hiking the Pacific Crest Trail, a 2600 mile backpacking trail. That's right, hiking 30 miles a day carrying my food and gear, hungry all the damn time, every man around me wasting away to emaciation, every woman around me a normal weight and me getting fat and having to restrain myself a little bit because the weight I lost at the beginning of the trail was starting to return already. And then afterwards, I couldn't exercise without triggering massive starvation hunger which I couldn't fight.

I don't think that's your problem since running is keeping your weight off. It might not last into your 40s, though, so better to nip it in the bud now and build a base of health you can maintain into old age.