Sunday 23 September 2007

Going against the grain

Wow. My new job has kept me crazy busy and the longer hours have had a huge impact on my free time. Really, a big adjustment but I love it! I'm actually learning again and it's wonderful. This has meant two things for my CR though:

1. I have had *no* time to weigh and measure everything I eat so have been DTBIC for the last week.
2. I've hardly had time to think about food. This means I eat less but have also been eating more quickly and perhaps not getting the best nutrition (steamed frozen veg vs fresh for dinner etc).

I've also been getting way too little sleep and I've found this makes me 'hungrier' during the day. Tiredness is a big stressor for me so I look to food for comfort. Nothing horribly bad mind you, but I've found myself eating grains, namely bread, which is so available when eating on the run.

Every so often I re-read April's post How to Start CR for girls and each time I agree a little bit more. I'm fine with my protein intake and regularly get over 70g per day, with over 30g at breakfast. This mostly comes from whey protein, low fat yogurt and prawns (shrimp). I've had issues with cutting out grains though. It's just so friggin difficult (wah wah wah)... but I know I can do it and I know it will be totally worth it. I just don't like how I feel after eating grains - bloated, sluggish and craving MORE, no matter how low GI or whatever they are. This weekend I ate rye bread on Saturday and whole grain cereal (all bran) today. Both supposedly "healthy" options but both kicked off huge carb cravings which I detest. So, I'm going off them. I find it much easier to go cold turkey than to have a little every now and again, so it's bye bye bread and cereal. I won't be missing how wretched you make me feel!

I'm also going to try to lower my saturated and up my non saturated fat. Balancing omega 3s and 6s however, may take a little more time...

4 comments:

Sara said...

I really sympathise with the grain thing. I know I'd be far better cutting them out completely but part of me rebels about the extremity of that. And I really feel better all round with small amounts in my diet. So I've got my strategies that if I stick to, work. I only buy low GI, organic, wholegrain bread - rye or spelt. I cut it into small slices and the small slices into smaller slices and freeze each one. It sounds totally mad, doesn't it? :-) But then if I want a piece of toast with breakfast, I seriously have to pay attention to what I am doing, and am less likely to have one and then another, or have a slice of bread here and one there because it's easy to do so. I don't eat rice or pasta, and I limit breakfast cereal (oats or GrapeNuts) to 10g on top of yoghurt.

I'm glad to hear your new job is working out so well, and that you are so enthused by it. Wishing you every success!

Anonymous said...
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Tony said...

Different grains have different degrees of satiety. Wheat and rye leave me hungry, whereas oats fill me up. The difference is that oats have a lot of soluble fiber which slows down absorption. Wheat and rye contain mostly starches and insoluble fiber.

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David Haas said...

Hi,
I have a quick question about your blog, do you think you could email me?
David