So it struck me the other day that really I do seem to feel permanently hungry when I am on my star week as we lovingly refer to it at SW ( personally to me its the visitor from hell!) I always felt that i noticed this but that i was really making excuses in my head as a cause to eat junk or simply just to eat more!
Everyone knows about the bloating, personally i have been known to put on up to 1/2 a stone because of it! But did you know that its medically proven, oh yes, its accepted that we do actually burn more calories on and around the time of our period hence the hunger. Apparently the cravings we get are hormonal ( imagine that!) Anyway don't get excited its only between 100 and 300 calories. We know how easy it is to blow 300 calories without even thinking about it!
So I spoke to my friend who is a doctor, he confirmed that this is true, but you know what he also said was that whilst he has not researched if yet but he believes that women are more susceptible to alcohol when they are on their period, as in it takes half the amount of alcohol to get drunk. So I don't know if any of you have experienced that, but it kind of makes sense, as i know for me when i am really tired any amount of alcohol will make me drunk tired, compared to when I'm full of energy where it just gives me more energy! So as Im usually dirt tired whenever the dreaded visitor is here, it stands to reason that i would be more susceptible to alcohol at this time!
it would be very easy to go off piste when one has one's period, after all it cant be helped if you conjure up these hunger pangs and cravings every month. They do tend to take you by surprise!
what we need is a strategy, one that deals with this obstacle I can imagine that it will be quite emotional too and then add to it the normal joys of life and phew its enough to knock you off your perch!
One of my long term strategies is always to have cooked food in the freezer, so when you come in from your day's travaille you don't have to start worrying about cooking. One thing that can be hard is to recognise the symptoms, because as lots of women have testified, its only when they come on that they say to themselves ah, thats why I wanted this and wanted that or felt particularly cranky! So I feel there is a need to look at it a bit more holistically and consider dealing with the issue of craving in the minute. If you want something you ordinarily would be happy doing without, then what can you substitute it with, what would you ordinarily be eating at that moment? I think those questions can only be answered by individuals, as what works for one does not necessarily work for the other. If you are going to have that bar of chocolate or bag of crisps or whatever it is that has taken your fancy I try to stick it within the plan although as I've said that can be hard.
Slimming world did some research into what they refer to as your tipping point, (http://www.slimmingworld.com/tippingpoint/#/ ) what this means is how much alcohol you can have before it impacts on your ability to stay on track, on other words, how much alcohol do you consume before you say oh sod it and go off and just eat and drink what you like! I would say they may well like to do one regarding our food intake because I for one certainly give in quite easily after I have eaten stuff I generally should not be eating and have not bothered to account for the syns.
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