109: Girl, You Ate the Wrong Food
I recently ate some keto cereal and I was bloated and gassy for the entire day.
My body was saying - girrrl, you ate the wrong food.
When I eat oatmeal for breakfast, I’m hungry two hours later.
My body is saying - girrrlll you ate the wrong food.
When I drink too much coffee in the morning, I have an energy crash a few hours later.
My body is saying - girrrl you drank too much coffee.
Our body is always giving us clues about what works and doesn’t work for us. Using your hunger, energy and cravings as goalposts can give you valuable metabolic insight.
That’s what we’re talking about in this week’s podcast. Listen in to understand how to better discern these metabolic clues!
EPISODE 109: Girl, You Ate the Wrong Food
SHOW NOTES
(0:00) Intro
Hello my friend, welcome back to the club!
Bio-individuality
Feast 2 Fast — working through levels of carbs systematically.
I follow a Naturopathic Doctor named Jade Teta
He came up with the acronym HEC - which stands for Hunger, Energy and Cravings and he says that when it comes to a healthy metabolism, a healthy weight, you’ve got to keep your HEC in check.
(3:58) Biofeedback Clues:
Listening to your body’s feedback, because it will tell you, girl, you ate the wrong food - if you will just listen.
Hunger, Energy and Cravings are big clues into how our food choices are working or are not working for us.
So as you go through your day, you want to evaluate how often you feel hungry - can you go at least 3-4 hours without eating? Are you starving every few hours and feel compelled to eat? Are you even actually hungry or are you eating out of stress or boredom. When you’re thinking about this you can ask yourself am I really hungry or is this a craving?
(6:59) Keto Cereal Story:
Last time I was at Costco I bought this Keto cereal called Catalina Crunch.
I have been having late night cravings, but it was also hunger.
I gave in one night and I got up at 3:00 in the morning and ate keto cereal.
Instead of wallowing in guilt or shame I took on the curious, investigative reporter approach, like wonder why I’m doing this? Is it my hormones? Is it the full moon? I wasn’t looking for an excuse but for information.
I was super bloated and gassy the entire next day after I ate the cereal - clearly, girl, I ate the wrong food.
(11:04) Gauging your energy levels:
You want to check in with yourself at different times of the day like in the morning, around noon, around 3ish, in the evening and at bedtime.
Those times of the day give us clues about how your cortisol pattern is working.
Cortisol should be highest in the morning - it gets us up and gets us going - and should naturally taper off during the day.
It’s interesting when we do cortisol testing - which is a salivary test - we can see how your cortisol is working or not working.
Food will for sure play a role into that. Hunger and energy are tightly correlated because true hunger is a signal that the body needs energy. It needs food.
Oatmeal example:
So say you have oatmeal for breakfast and a few hours later you’re hungry and your energy is kind of dipping. This is what happens to me if I eat oatmeal for breakfast which is why I don’t - plus, it’s not worth the carb load for me, I’d SO much rather eat my carbs in a different way.
Now, it’s better if I add fat and protein to it - like collagen powder or butter or chopped pecans or something. I mean let’s face it, you really kind of have to add SOMeTHiNg to oatmeal. Who eats plain oatmeal? Usually people use oatmeal as a vehicle for other things - like brown sugar: and then you’ve got sugar on sugar because remember that oatmeal is a carb and all carbs turn to sugar in the body.
If you start your day with something that leaves you ravenous a few hours later, that can set the trajectory for poor hunger cues and energy regulation the rest of the day.
(15:40) Fasting:
You may have to play around with your timing to see what works for you.
That’s why in F2F there’s no set number of hours or time ranges you have to fast. Some people like to break their fast later in the day, closer to noon, and some people like to break it at a traditional breakfast time.
(16:55) Back to Breakfast:
When you start your day with protein and fat you are setting yourself up for more steady energy regulation.
Breakfast doesn’t have to look like traditional breakfast. There are no breakfast police that will show up and arrest you if you eat leftover stew as your first meal of the day.
One of the strategies we use in Feast 2 Fast as we are training our bodies to get back to fat burning is to focus on fat and protein for breakfast and bring carbs in later in the day.
We do want to be strategic with our carbs, eating too many in the morning can really throw you off and not eating enough toward the end of the day can interrupt your sleep.
I’m giving you a framework / guidelines to operate within, but there will be variances based on your body’s needs. And part of what we’re doing in the process is being aware, being discerning, not being so limited that your brain wants to rebel because there is restriction.
(21:15) Coffee:
if you drink too much coffee in the morning, it can do the same thing that eating too many carbs in the morning can do. It will give you a quick hit of energy, like jet you up the rollercoaster of energy and then take you dowwnnn the other side fast, your energy can plunge around mid morning from too much coffee as it can from too many carbs.
(23:05) Sleep:
There are studies that show - when you don’t get enough sleep not only does your metabolism suffer, but you are more likely to make poor choices the next day.
(23:43) Cravings beget cravings:
Can you be a moderator or do you need to be an abstainer? Those are terms that come from Gretchin Rubin’s book Better Than Before and it’s worth considering when it comes to your Heck Yeahs.
Are you moderating that well and if not, it may need to come off your Heck Yeah list for a while. That Heck is not in check.
The first step is to generally clean up your food choices, get a good balance of the macronutrients - paying special attention to not overdoing the carbs which will throw off all of your HEC, taking into consideration your sleep and your stress.
You have to take some ownership in that and the more that you pay attention to how your body is acting and reacting and feeling, the more and more dialed in to your optimal health you’re going to get.
Keep your HEC in check - monitor your hunger, energy and cravings. A food journal is a great way to do this. Even if you do it just for one week you can learn a lot about yourself.
Join us for the next round of Feast 2 Fast® which starts May 3rd!
Remember that God has given you so much power and agency over your health - He provides and He gives you free will - it’s all yours for the taking.
(28:29) Outro & Disclaimer
Thanks for listening! Have a healthy and blessed week!