Ugh. Tired and craving carbs...

The only time I crave carbs is when I'm tired. I've not been getting to bed early enough this week but I'm still setting my alarm as if I'm going to get up and swim at the crack of dawn. 5 hours of sleep = not good for me.

I finished my work day food with a Valencia orange and a 5oz V8.

To bed at 9pm tonight! Must. Swim. Tomorrow!

I think I'm about to break the Onderland barrier. I'm forcing myself to weigh in once a week so I won't know until next Monday, but regardless, I feel so much better when I'm sleeping a good 7 hours a night and swimming in the a.m.

You (and I) not only feel better but studies show that lack of sleep slows weight loss or even enables gain.

Good luck

 Go get some sleep and then get your booty in the pool! ;)

And I did that! I feel so much better this morning!

The sugar in the orange, along with the lack of sleep, may be contributing to your cravings.  Even though an orange is healthy, it does have sugar.  Ingesting sugar and / or simple carbs can cause you to crave more of the same.  Try some protein in your snack instead.  Best wishes!

--Dorothy 

Yeah - it's a little bit of a trade off. I get plenty of protein, but almost no fresh fruit or vegetables. I don't have an orange a day, but it's a good injection of C and folic acid as well as a little fiber. 

Hi Dorothy I read a while ago that you gained weight , but you were able to lose the weight. any advise on how you achieved this.
Thanks

Well, Double 096, I wouldn't try it my way if I were you, heh heh.  For a number of years I have had severe spinal problems and had already had a four-level spinal fusion and two revisions.   All this left me partially disabled but mostly functional -- I could still work and take care of myself.  Then in March of this year, it all went to pieces.  I began to have SEVERE nerve pain in my hips and legs and got to the point that I was on snoot-loads of narcotics just to get through the horrible days and nights.  It got to the point that I could only barely walk with a walker and could not lie down at all.  My orthopedic surgeon could do no more for me, so I sought out other surgeons.  Dr. Dheera Ananthakrishnan, God bless her, at Emory Orthopedic and Spine Hospital took me on and scheduled me for a TWELVE-level fusion to keep my upper spine from flopping around, as she put it.  But she wasn't able to have me until July, so it was four months of absolute hell on earth before surgery, and then it was still pretty hellacious for a couple of months post-op.  

All that said, from March until about August, I could barely eat at all.  I was taking so many pills, so many times a day (scheduled and prescribed by a pain clinic, not me self-medicating!), and I was so desperately sick and in so much pain, that it was all I could do to eat a spoonful of peanut butter here, a couple of bites of yogurt there, etc.  Also, because I couldn't do my own grocery shopping any more, a neighbor had to do it for me.  Do you think I was about to ask her to bring me bags full of crap food??  Not on your life.  And I couldn't drive, so I couldn't do the fast food route, either.  All the horrible habits I had reacquired two and a half years ago, during another spinal surgery nightmare, consequent emaciation, and attempt to gain back the weight I lost back then, were cut off to me.  Needless to say, the weight fell off.

After I got home from the hospital and a several-week stay in a nursing home, I was able to begin to control the food a little better, but I still was really sick -- infection, which I always get when I have surgery, so I had a picc line and IV antibiotics for a couple of months; incision popped back open; and still bushels of pills to pop -- and I lost down to 142, too scrawny for my upper body.  I have been gradually eating more, so the weight has come back up to my goal of 150.  In the process, though, and beginning to drive again and be able to do my own, limited, shopping, I have gotten into some bad habits again.  Sugar and junk carbs are the devil, and for the past two and a half years, ever since I let them back into my body, I have fought them with all my might.  The peace I had for the first year and a half post-VSG is gone, and the battle is back.  The difference is that now I can at least eat so little of the garbage food that I have a chance of maintaining my weight.

What I would give to have never let that first bite of sugar past my lips in 2010.  For anyone reading this, take it as a warning.  Stay as far away from sugar, junk carbs, and other garbage food as you can.  They are not worth it!

Best wishes to everyone reading this!!!!

--Dorothy

Thank You Dorothy for your advise. Thank God you are better again.I can see that you have gone through a lot. I need to get back on track.Godbless