Hungry And Proud Of It!

Happy Friday friendly friends!!

Who's excited for the long-awaited weekend! (even though I'm on holidays and weekends haven't existed for the past two weeks! ;P)

Anywho, let's put that excitement into good use with the writing of this post in which I talk about my hunger. Again. Can you believe it!?!

Ha Ha, yes I know, I do seem to go on about feeling ravenous and then not so hungry and then a little bit hungry and then hangry and then rungry and ya-da-ya-da-ya! But today I want to talk about how I've come to the conclusion that I'm not and never will be ashamed of my hunger, because you know what it means? It means I'm burning the nutritious fuel I'm feeding my body efficiently and properly and my body is a healthy, functioning, energy-burning machine!

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Now, I've written a bunch of posts about honouring your hunger, listening to your body, the consequences of ignoring your hunger signals etc. etc. And yet day after day I'm faced with real-life circumstances of people who restrict and restrict their food intake because they believe a magical number some computer-generated calculator has come up with, or a weight loss magazine has told them or their own misinterpreted calculations have revealed is the amount of energy they have to be eating.

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The diet and fitness industry has truly taken it in their strides to develop this restrictive, low-kilojoule, low-energy approach to eating which, yes, does yield results desired but at what cost? At the cost of fatigue? At the cost of increase in injuries, a decrease in muscle development a reduction in fitness and training goals? At the cost of a loss of a menstrual cycle? A disruption to efficient metabolism? I could go on and on but I feel we all get the idea.

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Everyone requires enough fuel to function and prosper on a day-to-day basis. Heck your body's resting metabolic rate ( the minimum number of calories your body needs at rest to fuel its metabolic activity, for example to maintain functions such as heart beat, breathing and temperature) is already in the first thousands of kilojoules- and that's basically doing nothing!

Add in housework, walking around, studying (yep, thinking uses a lot of energy!!), lifting shopping bags, flicking through magazines, climbing stairs, talking... and we haven't even got to daily exercise yet! So if you are in fact a person with a resting metabolic rate, doing normal everyday things and then you add on top of that high intensity or tough workouts (or any workouts for that matter) you're body is requiring quite a bit of fuel to function at it's optimal.

And yet a typical 'healthy' lunch in the health and fitness industry might look something like this:

I'm not going to hide around the plain truth of this; that is not enough food for your body. Do you know why you are having cravings and dizzy spells and disrupted focus and a fatigue in your muscles when you try to work out? Do you know why if you eat a little more than normal, or have a 'cheat' meal (as many people on diets like to call indulging in something you truly desire- which is not cheating!!) you feel big and bloated and like you've gained a couple kilograms? Do you know why you're unhappy with the way you're eating? It's because you're body's unhappy- it's calling out to you, giving you obvious signs that it's suffering on the limited energy it's being given and crying out for help.

I know it's fine and dandy for me to go along and say all this because that's the easy part. The hard part is actually having the courage to properly fuel one's body and so I thought it might be beneficial to give you a little insight into the types and sizes of my meals to present an insight into how much fuel I believe my body needs to succeed!

A typical sized lunch for me consisting of a big batch of boiled brown rice (hellooo alliteration! Say that 10 times fast! :)), steamed peas and corn, raw chopped tomatoes, a grilled veggie patty toen up and all topped off with a little Mexican salsa:

 Huge bowl filled with so much goodness and tastiness:

 And I specifically wanted to include this lunch because on this day I was more hungry than usual and after eating this grand-sized lunch I was a little peckish a short time after this!

 The fuel was going straight in and being used up immediately!!

 Now, I include this breakfast from a couple days ago because it was probably one of the biggest breakfasts I've had... ever and it did strike me halfway through eating if I could really eat all this:

 A big green smoothie made with frozen banana, frozen kiwi fruit, frozen zucchini, kale, sp;spinach and greek yoghurt with a side of choc protein oat truffles:

 Recipe for the truffles here. 

(I used oats, oat bran, cheerios and nut butter as well as the protein powder and cacao powder)

Post-blended smoothie:

Breakfast!

 I definitely did manage to finish the whole thing and was quite full but then, again, my tummy was grumbling again a few hours later for a big nutritious lunch to follow!!

 Energy in- burning it up!!

 And these truffles were just so, so good!!

 I'm using the Sunwarrior choc protein blend at the minute! So tasty!)

Finally I want to talk about this breakfast:

 You've all seen it before, numerous times, with different spreads inside and different fro-yo flavours to go with it but here's something you didn't know:

 When I first started making my beloved nut butter and banana toastie I could never for the life of me finish the whole thing and would end up leaving the majority of crusts. However, today when I made this toastie? I was still a little hungry after finishing it all. No I don't look too much different to when I first started making these, in fact I've probably leaned out and toned up a bit more with all the strength training I've been doing (not just straight cardio running!) and it's probably that extra work on building up my muscles that's been making my body scream for the fuel it so requires!

And I'm just so grateful that I am hungry. That I can eat a HUUGGEE breakfast and be just as ravenous as ever for a beautifully nutritious lunch. And that's the key here. Sure you can fill up on fried, fatty, cholesterol raising junk but I promise you that is not the food the body thrives on and if you want to restore the trust between you and your body and return to a beautifully functioning metabolism that burns through the fuel you give it- then eat the stuff it desires- wholefoods, good foods, nutritious foods.

This be me trying to hold up my camera after gaining those guns (doing some weightlifting :P)- the shakes were real people!!)

So I hope you all gained a little insight form this post and realise just how much fuel your body really needs and when you reach that happy equilibrium with your body, you too will be extremely happy to feel that rumble of your tummy telling you it's time for a feed!

Your turn:

Have you struggled with restrictive eating? I know I have!

Do you think your metabolism works efficiently? 

Do you ever look back and think of how your past self would lose embarrassingly to you in a food eating contest? I definitely do!!

I hope you all have a lovely, lovely day filled with happy times. Be aware of the good stuff that happens and smile, because those people who you accidnetally catch eyes with and they smile are the best people to keep around! Bye for now friendly friends!!

P.S. Eat something delicious!! :)