Hi folks! PHCI Coaching and Curriculum Director, Erin Power is here for another round of Ask a Health Coach. Today, she\u2019ll be answering your questions about managing hunger, conquering cravings, and why you shouldn\u2019t have to force healthy eating habits. We love getting your questions, so keep them coming over in our Mark\u2019s Daily Apple Facebook Group or in the comments below.<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Miriam asked:<\/p>\n \u201cNow that I\u2019m back to the gym I\u2019ve upped my calories to 2000, but I\u2019m always hungry. Carbs are 100g. Protein is 150g. Fat is 111g. Am I doing something wrong?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n I have a lot of opinions about calorie counting, macro tracking, and anything that resembles typical, fussy diet culture. I\u2019m not going to lie: it makes my eyes glaze over a bit! It can certainly offer up a realistic snapshot of how your nutrition is\/isn\u2019t serving you, but in my practice, I find that it can sometimes do more harm than good. People become so fixated on their calorie intake, their macro split, or the number on the scale, that it robs them of the joy in life, takes up way too much mental energy, and disconnects us from our intuition. Which is too bad, because my guess is you\u2019re doing this to feel<\/em> better, healthier, and happier<\/em>.<\/p>\n You might be so consumed with searching for the thing you think you should be doing, that you\u2019ve lost sight of what your body actually needs. And it\u2019s no surprise seeing as everything about our culture teaches us to ignore our body\u2019s signals. Feeling tired? Pour another cup of coffee. Drained emotionally? Push yourself anyway. Always hungry? Rack your brain trying to figure out why.<\/p>\n I can\u2019t help but feel that this is, at best, impolite and, at worst, a quasi-dysfunctional relationship with our amazing bodies, and their elegant signalling systems.<\/p>\n You can make this as complicated as you want, and you can always take a deeper dive into the subject, but in my experience, constant hunger is typically triggered by one of four things. And with a little trial and error it\u2019s quite easy to figure out. Start by asking yourself:<\/p>\n I realized you\u2019ve already increased your calories, but what if you needed to increase them even more? If you\u2019ve been relatively sedentary for the past 18 months and are now back to crushing it at the gym, your metabolic needs have shifted.<\/strong> And there\u2019s no rulebook that says 2000 calories should be your cap.<\/p>\n Also, it\u2019s been proven that certain carbs are responsible for knocking out the neurons responsible for hunger suppression, so that could be a factor \u2014 especially if they\u2019re coming in the form of processed health foods. And protein and fat are well documented when it comes to increasing satiety,<\/strong> so keep that in mind when playing around with your macro split if that\u2019s the road you choose to follow.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Two of the biggest, most unsung needle-movers though (on hunger levels and health in general) are stress and sleep. Short-term stress, like a tough gym session or a hard day at work, can decrease your appetite as your adrenal glands pump out epinephrine, briefly putting hunger on hold. When stress becomes chronic, your adrenal glands switch gears and start releasing cortisol <\/strong>(also called the fat storage hormone), which increases appetite and makes you feel hungrier, often for less-than-healthy foods. And if you\u2019re not getting a good night\u2019s sleep, you\u2019ll also be triggering more ghrelin and less leptin, two more hormones that can add to your hunger pangs.<\/strong><\/p>\n It\u2019s all about paying attention to your internal cues, so, take a sec to slow down and reconnect with what your body is trying to tell you. Adjust your macros if that feels right to you; manage your stress and quality of sleep; and respect and trust your body enough to simply eat more food if you feel hungry.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Dan asked:<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s my first week of following a primal diet and I already caved and had a gluten-free pizza. What\u2019s the best way to handle cravings?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n When the world is loading up on cheesy, doughy dinners it can be hard to resist. It\u2019s also tough if pizza has been your go-to \u201cjoy-bringer\u201d meal for years. Processed convenience foods are woven into nearly every aspect of our culture and deciding that you want to take a different path can have its share of challenges.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve found that cravings are half physiological, and half psychological. Try to connect the dots between what you\u2019re feeling when your cravings come on. Does your willpower start to wane after a stressful day? When you don\u2019t eat enough protein? When you feel anxious or deprived? When you\u2019re dealing with self-doubt?<\/p>\n As a health coach, I\u2019ve helped hundreds of clients conquer their cravings. And you can do it too, on three conditions\u2026<\/p>\n Anything worth doing, is worth doing well, so ditch the self-judgement, have patience, and commit to treating yourself with more kindness and compassion. You deserve it.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Julie asked:<\/p>\n \u201cMy 80\/20 plan has become more of a 50\/50 plan because I have a lot of stressful stuff going on at work and at home. I\u2019m trying to control my diet, but end up eating out more than I should. Any tips for reeling my eating habits back in?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Maybe you\u2019ve noticed that the more you try, the harder it feels. The more you force a situation, the more it pushes back. I\u2019m not saying everything should come easy, but there\u2019s something that doesn\u2019t sit right with me about our society\u2019s tendency to micromanage every aspect of life.<\/p>\n Strictly controlling your eating habits seem to backfire for most people more than it \u201cworks.\u201d At the very least, it makes you miserable in the process.<\/strong> After all, how much fun is it to go out to eat when you\u2019re criticizing yourself for not cooking at home? My personal goal \u2014 and the goal I have for all the folks I work with \u2014 is to achieve an effortless relationship with food<\/strong>.<\/p>\n The Primal Blueprint\u2019s 80\/20 guidelines work for a lot of people. But for some, the nutrition portion becomes the holy grail of rules that causes more struggle than it\u2019s worth. If being hard on yourself worked, it would have worked by now.<\/strong> If beating yourself up every time you took a spin through the drive through versus firing up the grill was an awesome motivator, we wouldn\u2019t be here right now discussing this.<\/p>\n Instead of forcing the situation, tune into why you want to reel in your diet in the first place. Does following an 80\/20 plan make you feel energetic and alive? Or does it provide the external validation that you\u2019re doing something \u201cright?\u201d<\/p>\n I feel like I beat this drum too much sometimes, but tapping into your why (your deep-down reason for wanting something) is going to give you the biggest bang for your buck<\/strong>, metabolically speaking.<\/p>\n This is a tool I use with my health coaching clients to help them get clear on their true motivating factors for change. It\u2019s an exercise called Whyx5<\/strong> and all you have to do is ask yourself WHY five times. Ask:<\/p>\n I say this after 25+ years in the hardcore fitness industry, not to mention 10 years in the military: Control won\u2019t get most of us mere mortals very far, but figuring out the real reason you want to reel back in your diet? That\u2019s where the serious magic happens.<\/p>\n What about you? Got anything to add?<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n
Why Am I Always Hungry?<\/h3>\n
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What Do Stress and Sleep Have to Do with Hunger?<\/h3>\n
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If you\u2019ve never followed a primal diet before, what makes you think you\u2019ll knock it out of the park in the first week? Be open to letting go of any all-or-nothing, perfectionist tendencies (which haven\u2019t worked thus far), and try a little self-compassion on for size. So what if you had pizza? Make sure your next meal is primally-aligned and leave the past in the past.<\/li>\n
Shame and guilt aren\u2019t the best motivators. In my private practice and with my health coaching students and graduates in the Primal Health Coach Institute, I talk a lot about Toward Motivation<\/em> and Away from Motivation<\/em>. While the former is designed to spark positive, uplifting feelings that pull you closer to the things you want, the latter tends to be fueled by negative emotions, leaving you stewing over the things you did wrong and wondering why you can\u2019t get it right.<\/li>\n
Any kind of habit change takes time, whether it\u2019s flossing your teeth more, scrolling your social media feed less, or grilling a ribeye and veggies instead of ordering takeout the second you feel hungry. You\u2019re in the process of reprogramming your neural pathways, and the more times you repeat a desired action, the more it will become an automatic behaviour.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n
Food Rules are Too Fussy<\/h3>\n
How To Find Your Why<\/h3>\n
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