A Taste of My Old Life

BelovedHeather

BelovedHeather

Cathlete
I just learned a powerful lesson the hard way: 10 days of sparkly clean eating + one night of Christmas party fun = a hardcore food hangover. Ugh, ugh, ugh! I was not able to get to sleep until 2:00 a.m. and did not have the energy to face Drill Max this morning. Miss Cathe will be waiting for me when I get home from work. When I consider that I used to eat junk all the time (and binge on it), I do not know how I survived. I wonder if I felt this bad all the time and did not know any better?! In my experience, a treat added to an otherwise nutrient-dense day feels better than a cheat day. I have also noticed that timing is everything. If I eat something sugar-laden early in the morning like the orange scone I enjoyed for breakfast on Halloween, I fight cravings and false hunger all day and usually start sliding down a slippery slope. I can eat a nutrient dense breakfast and lunch then enjoy my favorite dessert in the afternoon, eat a small portion, walk away from it, and not be tempted to overindulge. Eating sugar or processed food late at night is what results in this food hangover. Does anyone have any food hangover cures?

For those of you who schedule a free day every week, do you feel icky the morning after? I kept my portions small last night. I asked what was in things and avoided the enchiladas that had chicken and mushrooms in them. I ate a handful of nuts, a piece of cheese, tortilla chips with salsa, pinto beans, and rice. For dessert, I enjoyed a tiny sliver of mint chocolate chip cheesecake and a tiny sliver of dark cherry cheesecake. I took those to the party and know that they had a simple list of ingredients like eggs, cream cheese, sugar, etc. Not clean by any stretch of the imagination, but no hydrogenated oil or high fructose corn syrup or soy. It must have been the sopapilla that did me in! It was very rich and intoxicating. How did I survive a junk-filled lifestyle for years? I think I have lost my tolerance for junk. In a strange way, I am greatly encouraged by this. It is evidence of how drastically my lifestyle has changed. I have been free from binge drinking for over 13 years, free from binge eating for over 4 years, and eating 80 percent clean all year other than occasional emotional eating. I am not perfect, but I am pressing on and making good progress! Glory!

Blessings,
Heather B.

“So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31 NIV).
 
the first few times I had a free day I'd start at one end of hte kitchen and eat my way across the cabinets to make up for what I denied myself the previous week.

After waking up completely yucky feeling a few times, I then started to plan my Eat-Without-Apology day.

When I go to the grocery store to get my Thursday night salad, I pick up a treat to take with me to school the next day - maybe a candy bar or cookies. Then that night we go out for dinner and I'll have something I usually wouldn't eat, like french fries or mashed potatoes. Sometimes we'll have a frozen pizza, or go out for Starbucks.

It really does make a difference on how I feel the next day.

Susan L.G.
 
Oh Beloved Heather, you poor thing! (not really, you should have fun & splurge every once in a while)

Sometimes I feel icky when I splurge, but only when I splurge A LOT. As far as I'm concerned I work hard & I deserve it. Also, I do low carb so my splurges--which include carbs, LOTS 'O CARBS--kind of re-charge me.

And I, too, look to Drill Max whenever I'm feeling a little guilty. ;-)

Now, it's the holidays woman, enjoy them! :)
 
Hi Heather,
Finding a balance around the holidays can be more tricky, but if you try to plan accordingly, little damage (if any) will be done. I usually have one free day a week and I do eat whatever I feel in the mood for.

I think the difference in me nowadays is that I cannot eat in excess (good & bad foods) without feeling bloated and yucky. So, I eat small/moderate portions of my indulgence and I am usually fine in the morning.

Something else that I have noticed which has been HUGE in my body composition - lifting the weights hard & heavy. I do roughly 3-4 cardio days of 30-45 min tops and 3-4 lifting days of about 45 min - 60. My metabolism has been through the roof and I find that "cheating" does not affect me any where near what it did once before.

So, if you keep your exercise consistent and eat fairly cleanly a majority of the week, you will be just fine...and even if you have a food binge here and there, just hop back on the wagon & dust yourself off - we ALL deal with it :)




Debbie


Google. It is there for a reason.
 
Water. Lots of it. Drink, drink, drink. You were probably awake so late because your system was going hard trying to digest all the food and your brain was greedily feasting on all that sugar. While you may not have eaten food with fake ingredients, you also didn't mention anything with a high water content, like the fruits and vegetables you've gotten used to. Part of your poor feeling today may simply be dehydration. Get lots of water into you today, especially if you're going to do a workout.

Sundays are my "eat without judgement" day. Typically I find that I prefer to stay on the healthy eating side for most of the day, but might make pancakes for breakfast, and dessert to go along with dinner. To prevent a total sugar binge for the day, I drink lots of water after the pancakes. The desire for something sweet, I've learned, is often thirst in disguise. Sugar makes you thirsty just as much as salt does, and the message for more sugar or more water often feels the same. This is my experience, anyway.

This weekend I did Christmas baking and in between my taste testing of all things high-simple-carb, I made sure I had some protein to keep things level. Due to a stomach full of shortbread cookies, my dinner was a cup of milk and a banana. Then I started drinking lots of water, to prevent the food hangover. Seems to have worked, because this morning I managed to crank out a tough workout, and didn't feel any worse for yesterday.

Cheers,
Sandra
-apparently a water junkie
 
Well, I don't know if what I get after mucho splurging is technicially a "food hangover." But, not to be so graphic here, it definitely has a negative effect on my, ahem, regularity!;-)
 
Hey Heather:

You are making great progress! The very fact that you have gone through this experience means you have already learned so much about how your body functions best and what it needs and what it doesn't!!!!

When I have feelings like this I make sure that I eat very little and very simply the next day: basically I feel so bad I can't eat much and don't desire to either. I make home-made soups, my fave is veg and lentil, and it helps make you feel better. Then I eat fruit, especially oranges, somehow they help cleanse the palate. And yoghurt too. Not the over processed, highly sugared supermarket kind. Go upmarket and pay more for a higher quality one, or try plain yoghurt.

And if I feel better by evening, then I try and get out there and sweat hard, a tough or long cardio session. And if not that night, then definitely the next day.

No-one is perfect Heather. I have days where I sit and consume a whole packet of cookies and call it dinner. Hmmmm. Still, we keep trying, right?

Clare
 
I know the feeling! There is a tea called 'Eater's Digest' by Traditional Medicinals. I bought it in my local King Soopers (tea section) but I know it is also sold at Whole Foods. it has things like peppermint and fennel (I forget what exactly is in it) that are good for digestion and it tastes good, too. I will drink a cup whenever I eat something I know will make me feel like crud and it seriously helps. Even DH, who is most definitely NOT a tea drinker, will drink this when he's feeling overstuffed or yucky from a meal.
 
Heather, I did this to myself this weekend too. My workout yesterday morning seriously suffered. I have learned my lesson!

Remember that clean eating is not about deprivation -- if there is something that you want, you crave, then have some of it (some, not a ton!). But we eat clean because it is what helps to fuel our bodies for these workouts (and feeds the muscles as they repair). If we feed our bodies crap, it is probably going to perform like crap!

Jill, thanks for the recommendation of the tea, I will check it out!
 
Thank You

Thanks for all the encouragement and advice!

Susan, I love the idea of an eat without apology day!

Laura, your post made me laugh out loud!

Debbie, thanks for the encouragement about heavy weight training!

Sandra, you solved the mystery about why late night celebration food causes this food hangover reaction. I usually drink close to a gallon of water every day, but not late at night. Eating processed and salty food that late at night and not drinking water before bedtime is likely the cause of this reaction. Thank you for sharing! I forgot to mention that I drank sweet tea at the party, so that did not help. I need to remember your tip about water, water, and more water! Oh, I suspect that I unknowingly ate something I am allergic to like MSG. My ankles are still swollen and appear to have donuts around them. Eek!

Delfin, that is not the food hangover I was referring to but that is a consequence too! Fiber is your friend. LOL!

Clare, you are such an encourager! We fall down. We get up. We keep pressing on! Thanks for the tip about eating more fruit the next day. That works for me too!

Jill, thanks for the tea suggestion. I need to check that out.

Katie, I am glad to know that I was not suffering alone this week.

Blessings,
Heather B.

“So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31 NIV).
 
RE: Thank You

Heather,
I'm with you on this. We had our holiday party this week and I woke up in the middle of the night and couldn't fall back asleep, felt very hot and not well at all. I didn't eat anything, but I had two glasses of red wine. I used to go out more often, so I guess my tolerance was higher. Now, I rarely drink. I had bought a bottle of wine last week and had one glass one night and it made me feel like crap. Apparently, I've become very sensitive to alcohol, so I'm getting to where I just avoid it. Same thing with salt. Luckily, I don't have a sweet tooth, so I don't overindulge in those items, as they hold no interest for me. I think some of this also comes from aging - the things you can get away with when you're younger, your body just doesn't tolerate as well as you age.
 
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