You’ve started your healthy eating plan and all is going quite well, until you get to mid-late afternoon. You start to feel low in energy and hungry.
If you work somewhere like I do you’re surrounded by chocolate, cakes, biscuits and sweets. No I don’t work in a sweet shop, but a doctor’s surgery!
How can you resist that lot if you’re hungry?
It’s not uncommon to have cravings for sugary and carbohydrate-rich food at this time of the day. It’s thought to be due to your blood sugar getting a bit low. When this happens you’re naturally drawn to quick release food, like the ‘naughty’ stuff. This ‘food’ gets your blood sugar back up quickly. Unfortunately it also makes you fat.
People who are trying to be ‘good’ often end up feeling bad, and that they’ve got no will power. But because the worst of their ‘caving in’ problems happen at a particular time of the day it’s worth looking a bit deeper.
If this is a regular problem for you it’s well worth looking at what you have for lunch. Many people have sandwiches on a regular basis. The bread tends to play havoc with your blood sugar, causing a big dip a few hours after eating it – leaving you feeling hungry and low on energy.
Perhaps the best thing to do is eat something at lunch-time which isn’t going to leave you in a low sugar situation later. A better choice than a sandwich could be a salad with a good source of protein – fish, meat, cheese or eggs. With this type of lunch you won’t get the swings in your blood sugar that will cause to eat all the chocolates later.
Have an Uber Health week
Dr Julie