Eating for hunger and what that has meant the last 11 days

When I started back up with this, my main goal was to get my health back in line. I need to get that blood pressure down, my thyroid functioning normally, and to get my fitness back up. I knew my eating had to shift dramatically. I was way out of control. I needed to get back to eating low carb and to eating within normal limits.

I started immediately with the low carb, high fat, moderate protein diet that I have found works best for me. I wasn't tracking what I was eating. I was just trying to adjust the type of eating I was doing. I figured tracking my caloric intake would only be important once I was eating normally again.

But, I have found that I transitioned easily (still trying to figure out then why it took me so long to start!) And with the new eating pattern, I have found I'm not hungry in the morning, so I am not eating in the morning. I have a cup of decaf coffee with 2 percent milk or whole milk (depending on what we have in the house) and that's it. I get hungry for lunch around 11 am. I make scrambled eggs with butter, either sausage or bacon and have that. I'm then satisfied until dinner time at 6:30 pm. At dinner I've been eating a huge green salad or tons of green and red veggies with proteins and avocado. Every night I feel so full for hours -almost too full. If I want something a bit sweet, I eat a small square of dark chocolate.

I finally got curious a couple of days ago at how many calories I was consuming to see how much tweaking I would need to do to my caloric intake. Since I ate the same thing for the last several days for lunch, it was easy to reconstruct my meals. I was SHOCKED that I was only eating between 1000-1100 calories. I seriously have not felt hungry. How is that even possible?

Before I started this, I never counted, but I'm sure most days I was eating over 3000 calories and I 'thought' I was eating when I was hungry. I was just hungry all the time because I was eating a ton of carbs.

Overnight I switch my eating to food that ALSO tastes really good to me. I'm not trying to restrict and I find I'm eating less than I should be. But it also doesn't make sense to me to eat more food just to eat more food when I'm not hungry for more food!

Now, it could be several things. It could be I'm so stoked about starting again and getting back on track again that I'm just too ramped up to be hungry.

It could be that eating so low carb (lower than before, probably as the first time around I was having to learn all the tricks that work for me and this time I just jumped right in). I am eating more truly satiating foods.

Or it could be that one of the medications I'm on is suppressing my appetite. I've been on this dosage of synthroid and lisinopril before and it didn't have this effect on me. But I haven't taken amlodipine before. (and hope to be off of it soon once things regulate). But, a quick look at side effects says that is a big no. If anything it's a rare side effect to see weight gain and there is no incidence of appetite loss. Huh... so probably not the medications either.

So, I don't know what's causing it. I know it can't continue forever, but it's odd. I've never been able to eat at even 1200 a day without feeling I was super hungry and that was usually followed by a day of eating higher calorie so that it balances each other out. (As it does make sense to have days you feel hungrier and days you aren't as hungry).

Maybe it's because my thyroid is low? Though it was lower the first time around and it took me awhile to be able to drop down from 1800 to 1500. My aim is usually around 1450-1550 depending on my activity level of the day.

It is also true that I'm not being overly physically active yet. I'm baby stepping into it to prevent injury (tend to have problems with shins), but I did walk 2 miles yesterday and cleaned the deck, so it's not like I was sitting still either.

Or maybe it's having to do with spring and spring appetite? I have no idea... It's really odd!

And with that said, it's nearing 11 am and I'm getting hungry, so I'll go make a hearty lunch in a few!