Now that I am changing my fitness routine, I need to change my eating routine. In order to be a boxer, I need to eat like one. I’ve been taking boxing for a few weeks now and mixing it with my normal routine. I was expecting for my body to feel the adjustment and it definitely has. However, I wasn’t expecting it to effect my eating habits and it did.
So let’s look at the difference. Is being hungry ok? What is hangry? How will I know if I’m starving myself and not just dieting?
Hungry
It took me a long time at the beginning of my weight loss to understand hunger. I don’t think I’d been hungry for YEARS. I was overeating so often that one meal just ran into the next before I could begin to feel hungry. Now when I think about, I feel like I was stuffed for years. I didn’t even remember what feeling hungry really was. One of my first rules when I started dieting, is that I’d always wait to get hungry before the next meal or snack. This took a while to be routine, but now I just always do it. I try to listen to my body and let it tell me when it’s time. Now, I don’t like to eat if I’m not hungry.
If you are at the beginning of your weight loss, I encourage you to really listen to you body. How does it feel to be hungry? How much food makes you not hungry? What is the balance? If you’re not hungry before the next meal/snack, you’ve eaten too much at the last meal. Train your body to eat at the right times based on how much you’ve eaten.
Hangry
There is such a thing as TOO hungry. When you’re hunger is effecting your mental state, you’re too hungry . Try to eat within a half hour of getting hungry at least. When I have gone too long without eating, I get HANGRY. At this point, I’m so hungry, I’m willing to do almost anything to get food. Included: push old ladies out of the way, punch a puppy, throw myself down and cry, eat the 6 month old circus peanut floating around the bottom of my bag….etc. I usually get hangry when something else is out of control. Sometimes you have to wait longer than expected at a meeting, get caught socializing with someone…..so on. I try to not get to the ‘hangry stage’ if at all possible.
Not everyone gets Hangry. I do. Some people start to get sleepy. Others start to lose focus. If you are too hungry, it will start to effect your mental state. Do not do this to yourself. Eat as soon as possible. The people around you will thank you.
Starving
Sorry for the above picture. I want to rip this sign down and punch that girl the the face. The truth is YOU CAN BE TOO SKINNY. Also, you can starve yourself without being skinny. It is NEVER ok to skip a meal, eat way less or see how long you can go without eating. Never. I find the above photo repulsive.
What I really mean here is you could be starving yourself without realizing it. Make sure you have set your calorie goals with doctors advice or at least lots of research. You could be starving yourself without even knowing it.
What your stomach says when you’re not eating enough
“Hey. I need some food down here. Hey! Ok. Well if you’re not going to give me what I want, I’m going to hold on to every calorie I possibly can because I don’t know when I’m getting any more. I hate you. ”
What your stomach says when you’re eating enough
“Yo. Send me some food. Hey thanks! I only need this, and this, oh and that! I don’t need the rest of this and I know I’m getting more in 3 hours so….out you go!”
I’ve heard the phrase “I eat so well and just can’t lose any weight” over and over. This IS NOT true. Something is wrong. Either you’re eating too much or it’s possible you’re eating too little. A friend of mine got frustrated after not losing much weight after several months. We have the exact same fitness routine and I was melting away while she stayed the same. So we talked about her diet. She is a vegetarian and thought she was eating enough. I told her to start using My Fitness Pal to see what the app thought she should be eating. She found that she was eating way less than she should for her level of activity. After one week, she dropped three pounds. She was starving herself without knowing it.
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