Forums >Health and Nutrition>Cereal frenzy. Just me?
First off, let me say that my relationship with food isn't the best. Years of being forced to finish my meals and being guilt-tripped with talk of starving kids in poor countries has laid some foundations but I'm working on it.
Now to the main event: I've just eaten three large of bowls of cereal covered in sugar, a bunch of chocolate biscuits, half a dozen mini muffins and two burgers in white bread rolls covered in sugary condiments. This wouldn't be so bad if I hadn't eaten them despite knowing that I wasn't hungry and thinking to myself that I don't know why I'm eating these things. Prior to this binge, I'd had a perfectly well balanced meal of beef chilli with wholemeal toast and lots of vegetables. This scenario seems to happen all too often and I'm starting to see a pattern emerge where I can have perfectly normal days of eating whenever I get my carbs from non-wheat sources but as soon as I have something that contains a lot of wheat flour it seems to trigger this binge behaviour. This scares me for a couple of reasons: 1) at times I feel manic and although my conscious mind is saying that I should just stop eating I can't seem to end it 2) it makes me put on weight which is bad for running. The reason I'm highlighting wheat is that other sweet junk foods such as chocolate, cheesecake and ice cream don't seem to have the same triggering effect nor do very sugary soft drinks which would cause similar hikes in blood sugar loads.
I don't have a restricted diet and eat a wide range of proteins, vegetables and fruits in addition to taking a multivitamin (hedging my bets) so my diet isn't lacking in terms of energy input nor micronutrients. The only reason I can see for this binge behaviour is this sugar/wheat combination doing something funny to my brain (I am aware of the carbohydrate 'high' but I don't see the same effects if I eat stuff like white rice or white potatoes). And although I hate to lay the blame on one particular food group, I'd be interested to hear from others if the scenario above sounds familiar to anyone and also if anyone has any respectable scientific literature which has looked at the effect of specific carbohydrates on the brain.
an amazing likeness
You're like a Doctor...or scientist or something of that nature. You can run approx 100mph.
I'm fairly confident you can eat what you want without any of us internet know-it-alls having any opinion on it.
Acceptable at a dance, invaluable in a shipwreck.
Feeling the growl again
Just you.
"If you want to be a bad a$s, then do what a bad a$s does. There's your pep talk for today. Go Run." -- Slo_Hand
I am spaniel - Crusher of Treadmills
You're like a Doctor...or scientist or something of that nature. You can run approx 100mph. I'm fairly confident you can eat what you want without any of us internet know-it-alls having any opinion on it.
I'm asking for the opinions. Particularly well informed ones.
I was worried that might be the case. Fucking scumbag brain.
I'm going to invest in a blood glucose monitor to see if I can identify an actual physical pattern to the behaviour.
Ok...I'll vote for sugar-wheat being a fairly well known combo for tricking the brain to say "bacon!" over and over...that's why you're crazy for cocoa puffs.
I will admit to eating crap on a regular basis. What tricks my brain into eating way too much is running. I am not running right now and after the first 24 hours I find myself able to go for hours on next to nothing. When I am running any amount....any at all...I find it triggers an appetite that requires 60-70 mow just to break even.
rectumdamnnearkilledem
My brain always says bacon...but eating a lot of high glycemic carby stuff makes me want to eat ALL THE BAD FOOD!!! No moderation when I start down that path. If I cut WAY back on the carby stuff, then I crave salads and whole foods and not sugar and white flour and potatoes. The evil bit is how doing a lot of cardio requires more carbs, which f's with my appetite and leads to overindulgence and weight gain.
I lost 60#s with relative ease when I was eating minimal carbs and doing weight training. Sometimes I think I should just take a year off from running and biking and get to my goal weight and then reintroduce the fun endurance stuff. But I have a feeling I'll end up right back where I am and the thought of not lacing up or clipping in makes me seriously sad (especially since I find weight-training to be mind-numbing and too solitary). So I have sort of come to accept that I will have to remain 20-30#s overweight. When I do cut carbs and/or calories it makes my workouts suck badly. Lose-lose!
Getting the wind knocked out of you is the only way to
remind your lungs how much they like the taste of air.
~ Sarah Kay
Sometimes I think I should just take a year off from drinking and get to my goal weight and then reintroduce the fun binging stuff. But I have a feeling I'll end up right back where I am and the thought of not shotgunning or bonging makes me seriously sad (especially since I find drinking alone at home too solitary). So I have sort of come to accept that I will have to remain 20-30#s overweight. When I do cut beer and/or hooch it makes my workouts suck badly. Lose-lose!
FTFY. It's Friday night after all.
I never could shotgun or bong without beer down my front...alcohol abuse!
Sounds like you need to try a Beer Mile.
I dunno, Dr. Bradford. I get cravings for sugary cereal a lot, but I suspect it's as much for the fluid as the sugary goodness. (Losing a LOT of fluids lately by running in high heat and humidity.) I also have to invoke the will power when confronted by a dozen Entenmann's crumb doughnuts, but that's obviously because they are So Damn Good.
Have you looked at what you're ingesting in the few hours before the crazy cravings hit? Maybe your overall caloric intake is low, or it's relatively carb-deficient, or ... ?
If I had to hazard a guess, I'd say you have an addictive personality and require psychiatric treatment. Hope that helps!
"I want you to pray as if everything depends on it, but I want you to prepare yourself as if everything depends on you."
-- Dick LeBeau
If I had to hazard a guess, I'd say you have an addictive personality and require psychiatric treatment.
If I had to hazard a guess, I'd say this describes a lot of us dorks on this here running ahead dot com message board.
And good doctor, being as fast as you are, you can eat as much damn cereal as you want. Just make sure it's good for you.
barefootin'
For years I had a similar cereal problem, usually in the evening or I would go to bed and wake up and "need" cereal so I could sleep. I used to think if I dropped the cereal I might lose weight but I still had the craving and it seemed proportional to the miles I was biking or running.
This spring I started going raw for breakfast (smoothie) and lunch (leafy greens with a peach) at work after watching some Tim Van Orden videos.
In the past few months I have lost the cereal craving. I still have it occasionally, but I think only once did I have more than one bowl. Maybe I just aged out but the timing coincided with increasing my raw intake.
Bill Wagnon / stl
I've had a Bran Flake misuse issue for some time now. It has to be part of my post-jog breakfast and then pre-bedtime routine.
An opportunity for someone to form a Cerealoholics Anonymous movement (literally sometimes with all those Bran Flakes) perhaps?
So i eat cereal twice a day, i can can handle it...wibble...
My leg won't stop mooing.
i think i've got a calf injury.