What do you do when you realize that your favorite food or snack is messing with your stomach. I really like popcorn. However, if I eat popcorn cooked with oil I end up with indigestion. The worse part is the indigestion usually hits in the middle of the night, which means it is affecting my sleep. I then wake up tired and when I am tired intend to eat as if that compensates for the lack of sleep. I thought of doing air pop popcorn, but I have tried that before and I don’t like it. Plus, I would need to buy a new air popper and I really don’t need another gadget. So I am trying to find a healthy snack to replace popcorn. I have several criteria’s, the first it needs to be healthy and the second it can’t be too expensive and third it needs to be salty. If you have any suggestions, let me know.

popcorn

Is It All in My Head

I noticed something this weekend, especially on Sunday. What I noticed was that when when I ate food which is high in carbs and sugar, I crave more things with carbs and sugars. For example on Sunday I had two donuts for breakfast and for the rest of the day all I wanted was bread, cookies, muffins and other starchy stuff. I am wondering are these cravings in my head or is there something more. I am currently reading Genius Food by Max Lugavere and Paul Grewal M.D and based on it and other books I have read about nutrition tell me there is more. I am just not sure what that more is. Is the craving coming from some of my gut bacteria, or is it at the molecular level, or is it just in my head.

The fact is does it really matter what causes the craving, what is important is now I am aware of it and I can do something about it. The main thing I can do is probably not to have donuts for breakfast, but the truth is there are going to be some Sunday’s when I will have donuts for breakfast so I need a plan B for those days. I think my plan B is to first to have some protein along with the donut. Second to have a healthy lunch and snack already set up for that day. Finally to drink plenty of water. I don’t know if this plan will work, but clearly based on my Sunday food diary what I am doing currently is not working.

Sick Days

I have been sick this week. My nose has been stuffed up, which makes breathing hard. I have concluded I would make a terrible long term mouth breather. I had wanted to start a Syfitness exercise program this week, but have been forced to delay it for a week. The good news is I have also not felt like eating either. I think I have had more tea and broth in the last week than I had had in the previous month. Being sick is seriously not fun. You have no energy to do anything, even the simplest thing seems so difficult.

Sleeping is Hard

This week has not been a good week for sleeping. I have been going to bed around 11:00 PM, which means I don’t get to sleep until 11:30 PM at the earliest. Unfortunately, the last two nights I have woken up at around 3:00 to 4:00 am in the morning and then I could not get back to sleep. When I did get back to sleep it was a light sleep. So when I finally got up at around 8:00 AM even though I had been in bed for around nine hours. I was only getting probably five to six hours of sleep and at least one of those hours was light.

Last night’s early morning wake up was due to some indigestion, which was either cause by a pizza or the popcorn I had made in the afternoon. I think it was due to the popcorn, I think I used too much oil to pop it in and greasy stuff has caused this problem before. The night before was more of a mystery. It is not unusual for me to wake up early in the morning to go to the bathroom, but normally I will go back to sleep right away. That morning though I could not get comfortable again and kept on tossing and turning. I am not sure what that was all about.

Sleep

 This week I have been working out with a ten pound kettlebell. I am actually enjoying it. I am trying to follow a workout that I received in an newsletter I got from Syattfitness. My water consumption has been good. I have been drinking between sixty two and ninety four ounces of water a day. I am still following daily intermittent fasting stopping eating before 19:00 and not having breakfast until after 9:00 AM. I did over due the carbohydrates on Thursday, but other than that it was a good week nutrition wise. The biggest problem i had this week was sleeping not getting to bed till after midnight and then waking up around 3:50 when the mind starts going in a hundred different directions. Not getting back to sleep until after 5:00 AM and waking up between around 7:30 to 8:00 AM. I really have to stop looking at the phone when I wake up in the middle of the night. This week I am going to increase the number of sets I do for each workout. I am also going to try to be more mindful while eating.