Increased my food intake yesterday

[livenraw]

and I woke up starving this morning. What's the deal with that? I am NEVER hungry in the mornings, but I woke up this morning feeling like I hadn't eaten at all yesterday! And I had quite a bit to eat - bananas, grapefruit, cashews, almonds, lettuce, spinach, celery, cucumbers, green peppers, onions, avocados, strawberries, etc...I don't understand why I'm feeling so hungry this morning. I stopped eating around 6:30 last night and woke up at 5 am feeling this way.

[zeeraw]

THis probably doesn't help but here's what I have found out. Throughout my whole life I always woke up starving in the morning (my skinny brother does the same along with my father). Before I even knew about raw I got my blood sugar tested with regards to this (as I get to the point where I shake/feel dizzy etc. some days if I don't eat straight away). According to my doctor nothing wrong with my blood sugar but apparently I must have a fast metabolism (which would explain the extra padding I have not). Since going raw I find that when I eat a raw meal at night I'm fine in the morning, sometimes I may feel a bit hungry but I can easily go out for an hours run with no problems (before I had to eat something before I went otherwise I'd get dizzy). If I've eaten a cooked meal and go to bed feeling absolutely stuffed I wake up ravenous and dehydrated. That's my solution, however as you are already eating all raw I don't know. What are you eating as your last meal? :)

[livenraw]

Last night, it was just a huge, huge, huge salad consisting of lettuce, spinach, onions, celery, cucumbers, green peppers, 1 avocado, a few cashews and a little bit of olive oil thrown on top of it. And that was it. Nothing else at all.

[angelandarose]

Why are you stopping eating at 6:30pm?

I'd go crazy if I didn't get to eat up till bed time. I eat 6-8 small meals a day, it keeps my metabolism running high. If I was to stop eating at 6:30pm and didn't get up and eat till 7am that is over 12hrs with no food. A body tends to not loose weight when you have extended fasting times like this AND If you are not drinking any fluids during this time your body will also hang onto all the fluid it can too, also slowing weight loss. I know weight loss is not what you were talking about but I just wanted to stress how important it is to feed your body throughout the day and night.

Now if you are trying to 'fast' that is a different story. ;)

I'd say FEED your body, feed it right up till bed time and it will help the waking up starving feelings along with helping keep your metabolism running high.

Love,
Angie

[livenraw]

I stop eating at 6:30 because I am in bed by around 8:30 in the evenings, and I just do not like going to bed on a full stomach...oh yeah...I don't stop drinking liquids - usually just my pure water - until right up to bedtime.

[Doe]

Are you sure it's hunger and not thirst? I sometimes feel famished and realize I haven't had anything to drink in hours. The reason I ask is many years ago I would wake up like this and would feel very dizzy. It literally felt like my stomach was attached to my backbone. Started putting a bottle of water by the bed at night and drinking it before getting up in the morning and that's all it took.

Just a thought,
Teri

[RawTruth]

Livenraw,

I don't understand why you're concerned. What's happening is just absolutely normal. If I'm not mistaken, you've just begun eating raw. As Alissa explains and many of us have experienced, when you go raw, your body is very busy adapting to the new and delightful way it can now function. It is on its own time schedule, but it doesn't bother to inform you what it's doing. So, some days you'll be famished; other days you won't have much of an appetite. This is entirely normal and may go on for weeks or months, so be prepared for continuing fluctuations.

If you're hungry, eat. If you're thirsty, drink. It is that simple. Don't worry. Be happy. :D

You're absolutely right in not eating for 2 hours before you go to bed. And ... your body is designed to fast during that period. Again, it is normal. So, you were starving when you woke up -- I hope you ate. That's obviously what you needed today. Maybe tomorrow you'll be hungry again first thing in the morning, or ... perhaps you won't be hungry till mid-morning.

By the way, here are some excerpts from Victoria Boutenko regarding sleep and eating (some parts may not by pertinent ... you can skip those if you want):

"4. Don’t go to sleep on a full stomach: Our digestive organs have two
main functions in the body- to digest food and eliminate toxins. They cannot do both simultaneously. Wouldn’t you like to eliminate as many toxins as you can during the night? Try to eat your last meal at least 2-3 hours before you go to bed and try to eat light food so that it is digested by the time you fall asleep.
. . . .

6. Sleep at night: No wonder the night-shifts in the US are called the “graveyard shifts.” It is very important to sleep at night (app. 10 pm – 6 or 7 am). Human body is attuned to the movement of the stars and the universe and different organs rest at different hours of the day, e.g. the adrenal glands rest best between 11 pm – 1 am. That is when we begin to feel so sleepy, that in order to stay awake we use coffee, loud music and bright light. If we try to stay up after 11 pm as a habit, our adrenals eventually wear down and as a result, we could feel sleepy and tired during the daytime. Over the years of habitual staying awake late, one might even develop insomnia and depression." (My emphasis)

Angie, I love ya -- sorry to disagree with you, but if we were supposed to "feed our body ... throughout the night," I doubt that we'd sleep 8 hours straight. Our bodies need to rest and renew, including resting from digestion. Our metabolism naturally slows down then,and we shouldn't try to artificially rev it up -- we just don't digest food well that's eaten close to bedtime. We were designed that way.

[Doe]

The foods you are eating are wonderful. You are doing great with what you are eating. You will learn how much to eat.

The volume of raw food and the volume of cooked food are worlds apart. Especially fruits and vegetables are high in water, some very much so. A whole entire large cucumber only has 25 calories. A whole large green pepper is 44 calories. 1 pound of spinach leaves are 100 calories. Sweet fruits, nuts and avocados have more. A person eating raw fruits and veggies needs to eat large amounts compared to cooked. It helps to not drink anything with your meal because then you have more room for the food, and it has all the water you need to digest it anyway.

If you drink water on an empty stomach it absorbs into the body within 15 to 20 min.

BTW - I eat mostly fruits and greens too. It's GOOD!!!!

Teri

[VeganVixen]

doe , but I LOVE drinking water with my raw meal :confused: , :p -> :D

[Doe]

VV, water thins the digestive juices, that's all. Probably the least 'bad' thing one could do in life is to drink water with a meal.

Rereading my post, the point was that the water would take up room in the stomach, where that space could have been filled with more food. The water will stay in the stomach until the food is digested. It's better to drink the water before preparing the food since it will absorb before you eat. This is only a concern for anyone who is undereating fruits and veggies. Then as hunger sets in, so do cravings for something heavier such as nuts, oils, or (horrors) cooked food.

If you're not having any problems, then you're not having any problems. Right?

Teri

[VeganVixen]

VV, water thins the digestive juices, that's all. Probably the least 'bad' thing one could do in life is to drink water with a meal.

Rereading my post, the point was that the water would take up room in the stomach, where that space could have been filled with more food. The water will stay in the stomach until the food is digested. It's better to drink the water before preparing the food since it will absorb before you eat. This is only a concern for anyone who is undereating fruits and veggies. Then as hunger sets in, so do cravings for something heavier such as nuts, oils, or (horrors) cooked food.

If you're not having any problems, then you're not having any problems. Right?

Teri

nope ,as long as I don't overeat -then Im fine ;) Thats sorta the reason I drink the water!

[zeeraw]

[QUOTE=Doe]
If you drink water on an empty stomach it absorbs into the body within 15 to 20 min. QUOTE]

Hi,

Just wondering does water really absorb itself within 15-20 minutes. Reason I ask this is I've just spent 4 days at a music teachers conference and one of the sessions I went to was on vocal health. Now as a voice professional we do need to keep hydrated but the clinician taking the session said that apparently if you have a vocal performance at night you have to watch what you eat during the day (no fat/dairy) and you have to drink water continually, because it takes 2 hours for your body to absorb water and the water you drink while on stage/during the performance isn't as effective as what you've drunk previously during the day. :confused:

[RawTruth]

It's my understanding that it's best to neither drink water immediately before nor during a meal. I was told that the reasoning is that it "washes" a lot of the digestive acids out of the stomach and then our food doesn't digest properly. Then, as it moves through our digestive system, the nutrients aren't being fully absorbed and the food isn't properly digested. So, to me, it seems counter-productive to drink water when I'm making sure to eat fresh, raw and live foods.