Oh, hello Rumbling Stomach

24 August, 2010 Off By Renée

I have the hunger again.

Whenever I run it’s normally at least 6KM and anywhere up to 12KM. This number is going to increase. That’s a given. Especially since I have a 16K in just 4+ week’s time.

I can not eat enough. I’m hungry. I’m hungry before I run. I’m hungry after. And the next day? Oh my god, I can’t eat enough.

Thing is I don’t know what to eat.

I’ve done different combinations – like smoothies with fruit and almonds, peanut butter sandwiches, banana and cottage cheese, or even just having some chicken lunch meat. Before and after runs. This in addition to my normal everyday food.

I don’t know what to eat.

The next day – because often runs are at night – I am ravenous. Yesterday I really wanted to be within my points, so I started off with a small breakfast like I normally have (some Swedish crackers, light Philadelphia cream cheese, and some roast beef) – and I was working from home, so breakfast was at 9am – by 11:30 my stomach was rumbling so loud I thought the neighbours might come over and ask if there was construction going on in my apartment. I then decided to have a pretty bulky lunch – 2 eggs, 2 egg whites, spinach, tomato, mushrooms and feta cheese scrambled. I ate slowly, even though I was hungry enough to have scarfed it down. Within 30 minutes my stomach was rumbling again! Later I had a sandwich with low-fat cheese and chicken lunch meat and some cucumber to bulk it up and before dinner another cracker with some peanut butter. I felt like I could have eaten the whole day and never really been satisfied.

I got very little sleep the night before – in fact the reason I worked from home was because I literally slept a half an hour before my alarm went off. Sometimes I wonder if lack of sleep leads to being hungry.

I drank lots of water. I remembered what so many people have said “Maybe you are not hungry, maybe you are just thirsty”. This really didn’t help. Well, at least I got my water in, right?

I know I’m not a seasoned runner and I don’t run bazillions of miles/kilometers a week, but I’m doing at least 20KM a week, trying to run minimum 2 if not 3 times a week.

I want to eat to fuel myself for running, but I want to lose weight as well! It seems I can not have both.

My regular argument with myself over the scale numbers not being the be all and end all is in full swing over here, people. I DON’T WANT TO WEIGH 80 KILOGRAMS!!! I want to be LESS. I don’t need to be skinny, I’m not asking for that. No matter what anyone says I AM STILL IN THE OVERWEIGHT CATEGORY. I don’t want that.

Yes I know I need to be patient. I have to keep trying to find what works, but throw me a bone here universe, will you? I need help. I don’t know what to eat anymore. I don’t eat junk, I eat all my fruits and vegetables, I drink all my water, I get my dairy and good fats in. What else am I supposed to do?

I don’t vary eating much during the week. Here’s a typical workday:
Breakfast: 2 Swedish Crackers with something on them: filet americain, Philadelphia light, chicken or roast beef, coffee
Snack: large non-fat latte at work (with 1 pump sugar free vanilla), some fruit if I’m hungry before lunch
Lunch: two slices of brown bread, some sort of lunch meat, filler veggies (tomato or cucumber), “greek” salad – 2 tomatoes, cucumber, red onion, feta cheese, olive oil, balsamic vinegar
Snacks: cottage cheese, banana, yoghurt with berries and almonds
Dinner: usually something chicken or fish, always veggies and sometimes rice or couscous

How do you fuel yourself as a runner? Have you also lost weight very slowly because of running?