Do you ever experience anxiety, irritability, and/or lack of focus usually around the same time each day? You may not need medication—you may just be “hangry.” It happens to the best of us. You go a little too long without eating and before you know it you’re ready to rip someone’s head off for saying, “hello.” When you go too long without eating your blood sugar drops, which can cause irritability, anxiety, irrational frustration, basically HANGER! Don’t let your low blood sugar put you in a position of doing or saying something you may later have to apologize for. Here are 3 tips to avoid getting hangry!
I know, I know, intermittent fasting is all the rage these days, but I personally DO NOT agree with it. Mainly because going more than 8-10 hours without eating WILL ABSOLUTELY slow down your metabolism. If you are sleeping the normal 6-8 hours through the night and you do not wake up hungry that is a huge indicator that your metabolism is not working properly. If your metabolism is slow, when you do finally eat, you are mostly storing your food as opposed to burning it for fuel/energy. And yes, I know there is a lot of research backing this latest diet “fad” (those of you who know my philosophy know how I feel about diet fads [insert thumb down emoji here]), but there is equally if not MORE research proving proper eating is ESSENTIAL to a fast metabolism. However, it’s not as easy to find, because A) you’re not looking or it and B) google ranks highest the most relevant researched keywords, which lately is “intermittent fasting” and so that’s what ranks higher and gets on the first few pages of your “best diets” google search. Anyway, like many of my blogs this blog is about eating, not NOT eating.
So breakfast—ESSENTIAL! For starters it kick starts your metabolic process for the day and sets the tone for the amount of calories you will take in. What many people don’t realize is that not eating doesn’t help you lose weight. All it does is make you eat more later in the day when your body is depleted of the energy it didn’t get from food. And secondly, eating breakfast starts you on the right track for spacing out your meals so that you can avoid getting HANGRY.
My biggest complaint from clients is, “I don’t know what to eat for breakfast, lunch, dinner…”etc. With fitness concerns, I like to simplify things for my clients so that their diet choices are a routine and an easy part of their everyday life. So I ask them to list 4-5 foods they like for breakfast—making sure of course they are healthy options. I then ask them to either eat the same thing every day (if they can) or if they need variety, rotate through their 4-5 designated “healthy” breakfast choices. The key is to make sure these options are available every morning! Then for lunch, I am a big proponent of packing your lunch, because for one, it saves you money; and two, it guarantees you have a healthy lunch readily available. If you chose this route, your lunch could be leftovers from your dinner the night before (assuming you had a healthy one!) Or you could do what I do, and make lunches for the week on Sundays in individual, reusable containers.
If you chose to order in at the office or go to lunch on your break, I suggest, as with your breakfast, scout out the local restaurants, pick 4-5 “healthy” options that you can chose from and if necessary, put a reminder on your phone to eat!!!
Planning this ahead makes a world of difference with avoiding getting HANGRY! I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard my clients say they were so busy at work they forgot to eat. This just makes it so that you go too long without eating, which will make your blood sugar drop and you know what happens from there. It also makes it so that you are starving by dinner and making controlling your dinner portion harder, none of which can be burned off and instead gets stored while you sleep.
For me, this is the absolute most important of my 3 tips! Snacking has developed a bad reputation, but in fact it is THE BEST way to maintain a steady blood sugar level throughout the day. Snacking will not only help you avoid getting hangry, it may also help you maintain a healthy weight. The only reason snacking has become something to cringe at is because there are so many unhealthy snack foods out there. However, snacking the right way with healthful nutritious foods can help you avoid overeating, which in turn can help you either lose weight or maintain a healthy weight. Having something to snack on between your meals will also help your metabolism, as your body will have fuel to burn. What are good snack options? My suggestion is fruits and nuts as they are both packed with fiber, which helps regulate blood sugar and will help you avoid getting hangry.
Hanger is no joke! I cannot tell you how many clients I have saved from considering medication for anxiety by implementing these tips into their daily routines. The blood sugar rollercoaster can be debilitating extreme; but it doesn’t have to be. These simple tips are easy to incorporate into to your lifestyle and will absolutely help you avoid getting hangry.
Disclaimer
Although my blog topics can be very beneficial to your overall health, they are not intended for the purpose of providing medical advice. All content is for informational purposes only and is not intended to serve as a substitute for the consultation, diagnosis, and/or medical treatment of a qualified physician or healthcare provider. Every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of published information on or through my website, blog, e-mails, programs and services. However, the information may inadvertently contain inaccuracies or typographical errors. Every effort has been made to present you with the most accurate, up-to-date information, but because the nature of diet, fitness and health research is constantly evolving, we cannot be held responsible for the accuracy of our content.
