The opinions and choices of individuals who post on the forum are not necessarily endorsed by Naturally Thin. Each person must discover for her/him self how to apply the Naturally Thin principles and each recovery experience is unique.

Back after a long time; pb on toast for breakfast

       
 
Jan 20, 2009 06:03am
naturelover
Total Posts: 17

Hi everyone,

I’m back here, reading all of your posts. They’re helpful to read. Thank you.

I have struggled with NT. It is very difficult for me. I am not following it currently, other than trying to carry real foods all of the time, and am doing MUCH better about eating breakfast and lunch - much more consistently, and a lot more food most of the time, than I used to. When I would go back and count, often I would have eaten 0 - 500 kcals total by 4 pm, without realizing how much I was undereating, I was so tuned out.

Occasionally going back and counting kcals or exchanges is an important reality check for me on how much I’m undereating, because I’m so unaware of it.

Being in my body that much, to tell from hunger whether I’m undereating, is just too painful to stay tuned in, all of the time; resulting in famine/bingeing. So I use an occasional calorie estimate - not to diet/undereat - but to help me realize when I *am* undereating, to help prevent it, or to understand why I have an overwhelming urge to visit the candy/chips machine at school.

My difficulty is that, I guess from the 31 years since first being put on what I later learned was a starvation diet, by my pediatrician, and struggling throughout high school to stick to it (1000 kcals/day while doing exercise/sports 4-5 hours/day), followed by daily under/overeating ever since, I am so out of touch with hunger signals, just managing to eat breakfast and lunch daily is a huge feat.

I am not trying to follow *all* the NT principles, nor interested in doing so yet, because it is just too much for me to do all of it still.

If I can just keep eating breakfast and lunch for now, that will be a major accomplishment, so I’m in no hurry to do more. I hope you can understand and support me in this. Hopefully over time, I will be able to move on to being able to do more of the NT principles than this (currently staying better fueled with real foods than previously). I’m having to take this in baby steps.

Because staying aware of hunger signals has been impossible for me, for years, though I’ve tried (I end up not being able to do anything else all day, and still manage to undereat/binge), I’ve been working with a nutritionist, and just focusing on having three good sized meals per day (vs. undereating/bingeing). If I can’t eat all of the food for a meal, I snack on the remainder (for 5-6 meals a day, instead of 3.)

I wrote up an exchange plan, with her help, dividing calories and macronutrients evenly over the course of the day, so it’s simple for me to follow and helps me keep on track. (I finally spoke to a Stanford eating disorders specialist who said, for some people, body controlled eating works for recovery, for others, having a meal plan to more or less follow is imperative for them to stay fueled and not go for hours without eating, to prevent bingeing. That is me. I can easily tune out my hunger w/o realizing it til 4 pm, then, of course, binge at night.)

So no, this is not full-on NT by any means, I realize this, but I think NT is wise, this is the best I can muster right now, and I’m very pleased to the degree I’m now at least eating 3 squares a day for the first time in years!

That is the most steady nutrition I’ve had in 31 years. Makes me very sad, to realize: all the years of hardship on my body, and the hell of trying to stop gaining weight and eating chaotically.

What helped, in the last couple of weeks, was FINALLY figuring out a breakfast I liked that worked for me.

I don’t eat this every day, but it’s my main breakfast: large juice and fruit smoothie, and 4 pieces of 100% whole grain toast made into two peanut butter sandwiches, either eaten all at once, or over several hours. WOW. When I finally figured out I could eat 2 pb on toast sandwiches each morning, to get in plenty of grains, fats, and proteins, things seriously turned around.

For years I have struggled with what to eat for breakfast, that packs in plenty of calories, proteins, fats, and complex carbs, isn’t laden with table sugar or animal/saturated fats, and is fast and portable: important for someone so used to skipping breakfast and not leaving time for it. If I start with eat oat bran or something else low-cal, I often tune out hunger for hours and end up severely undereating, so it helps me to have a high-cal breakfast. (Sorry for going on about the calories.)

Those 2 pb sandwiches were the ticket. I feel SO GOOD having FUEL. Then I usually pack 2 tuna/mayo sandwiches for lunch, plus juice, apple, and carrots or celery. When I first started eating this way, ~2 weeks ago, I didn’t crave sweets, I wanted little or no dinner, and could barely stay awake after 7 pm. I often had to nap when getting home ~5 pm. This was amazing, because I’ve also had extreme insomnia and night eating since high school, which I began to see from Jean’s books was due to undereating most of the day.

Unfortunately, over the past few days, my new strategy hasn’t been working as well. Several times I got lax about eating lunch by noon, which about coincided with return of hunger, and didn’t have enough time to eat all of it during class breaks. I’ve ended up back at the candy machine.

And this weekend, even after the big breakfast, I’ve wanted cocoa. Or a morning nap right after the big breakfast. Today, even though I ate all of the breakfast and most of lunch, I’m up late (1:20 am), having had a late dinner (the soup wasn’t enough, so now chicken and couscous), and still feeling hungry. I guess I need to be more vigilant about fueling and start to pay attention more, as Jean often writes here. I’m discouraged because, in addition to all the real foods eaten, I made a 9 x 13 pan recipe of chocolate chip shortbread I’d been craving to try. Maybe I need to eat more fruit to keep the sweet tooth away.

Well, thanks for reading all of this. I hope everyone on here is doing well,

naturelover

     
Jan 30, 2009 03:28pm
Helayna
Total Posts: 145

Hi nature lover,
I can really identify with your lack of interest in eating early in the day.  It’s something I’ve struggled with ever since starting NT eating.  I’m just not often hungry in the mornings and sometimes not till afternoon no matter how early I stop eating the day before, so I know the frustration you have been going through. I have recently found out I have a metabolic imbalance of which that is one of the symptoms.  That answered a lot of questions for me, and I’m trying to work that into my mental equation now.

All I can say is that keep trying to do those things that are making you feel good throughout the day. It sounds like you are making good progress in awareness of hunger.  Nobody gets it perfectly to begin with.  There are lots of starts and stops and fumbles along the way.

     
Feb 03, 2009 05:26am
naturelover
Total Posts: 17

Helayna,

Thanks for your understanding and encouragement.  This has been such a long, difficult battle, and now to discover finally a breakfast that “works” for me. I had no idea my hunger would slow down or shut down at the end of the day if I ate enough breakfast and lunch. I wonder how many other chronic dieters don’t realize this. I’m excited to finally know this and to be eating more the way I wish to.

Do you find that eating something in the morning gets your hunger going? Does not eating until later affect what you want to eat, and how much? Or do you find that when you do get hungry, later in the day, you are able to eat nutritiously most of the time? It seems from your other posts here, you eat very healthily.

Thanks again, Helayna,
nature

     
Feb 14, 2009 01:10pm
naturally thin
Total Posts: 392

naturelover,
There is no rule in Naturally Thin that you have to eat a “big breakfast,” or large amounts of food at any time.  There are only two fundamental rules;  Eat good food immediately when you get hungry until you are satisfied, and never eat poor quallity food.  So, breaking the rules means not eating when you get hungry, or overeating (past fullness)or undereating (medicating your hunger with unsubstantial food) and eating poor quality food.
Sincerely,
Jean

     
Feb 15, 2009 09:26pm
Helayna
Total Posts: 145

Thank you for those words, Jean.  My struggle has mostly been mental, because of the talk in the books about eating lightly at night as to encourage morning hunger, for instance.  So I’ve been under the impression that if you aren’t hungry in the morning you are doing something wrong.  I have never forced myself to eat big breakfasts… I just can’t do it.  A few bites and I’m done. So I have been thinking that this “problem” has prevented me from being successful.

naturelover - Feb 03, 2009 05:26am

Do you find that eating something in the morning gets your hunger going? Does not eating until later affect what you want to eat, and how much? Or do you find that when you do get hungry, later in the day, you are able to eat nutritiously most of the time? It seems from your other posts here, you eat very healthily.

Occasionally I’ll drink a glass of juice in the morning. But I don’t find that it stimulates hunger for me. After I’m up for a an hour or two, I’m usually ready to eat a small amount of something. (Although sometimes it’s longer.)  But remember that I’m fighting a metabolic disorder, so don’t take my situation as normal.  And yes, I do find that when I am ready to eat more, I can eat nutritiously without overeating. 

I have tried to eat healthily (unprocessed foods) as much as possible for a number of years now.  I’m now, on my doctor’s advice, choosing from low glycemic foods as my main food choices.  I’m hoping to be able to finally have some weightloss success with the NT eating this way.  I don’t know if it will work or not.  I am not eliminating carbs…just changing which ones I choose, so I hope I can still keep adequately answering my hunger signals this way.