I'm crabby and irritable when I'm too hungry

[MrsPartridge]

I don't mind waiting till mealtimes to eat - it sure makes things taste great. However I noticed I was crabby and irritable. Jumping at my kids for little things. It's due to low blood sugar, of course. Is there some way to keep my blood sugar from going too low about an hour before I eat dinner? Maybe I should have a snack?

I went back to my old way of eating because the irritabilty isn't worth it. I don't need to lose any weight, just want to maintain. But I really like the NO-S diet. It's sensible and convenient. I'm not happy needing to snack between meals.

So how do you keep your blood sugar from dipping too low?

[marygrace]

How long have you stuck with NoS for? Perhaps your body just needs some time to adjust to the lack of snacks? Also, a glass of milk or 100% fruit juice is perfectly legitimate if you feel you can't make it to your next meal. There's also been some talk on this forum about "H2Orange," which is mostly water but with a little bit of orange juice added in for flavor as well as a blood sugar boost.

[reinhard]

Hi MrsPartridge,

Three bits of advice:

1. Bad habits die hard. Give your new good habits time and the crankiness will fade. Your bad habits still think they can win this. Keep up the good behavior and they'll soon throw in the towel. The stricter you are, the faster this will happen and the easier things will get.

2. Reach for a drink at the first sign of trouble -- maybe even before. Caloric drinks are fine, too. If there's some blood sugar thing going on, milk or OJ will do the trick. And drinks are powerful on a "ritual" level, too -- something to do with your hands and mouth, a physically demarcated break, a nod to appetite without actually conceding to it.

3. Be suspicious of excuses. You will be quite ingenious at inventing them at the beginning. I'm not saying this is one, but it might be. "Low blood sugar" is sometimes just a more impressive, medicalized formulation of "I wanna stuff my face." Again, I'm not saying it was for you, but I think in general, for some people, this happens a lot, and it's worth being on one's guard.

And if all else fails, you can institute a an official fourth mini meal -- just don't call it "snack!"

Best of luck figuring this out,

Reinhard

[MrsPartridge]

Although I'm hungry, I don't want to eat - just couldn't be bothered, really. However I'm edgy and crabby. So like you said, perhaps a quick drink of milk or even a small hard candy might do the trick.

I'll have to play around with it till I figure out how to make it work for me.

It's nice to know that Anthony Boudroux (sp?) is into this too. It might be called a diet but it sounds like common sense (the least common of the senses).

[loop]

I used to get shaky and irritable regularly between meals, and would have to plan snacks if I was going to be between meals for longer than usual. Doing NoS has really helped with that, and now I can go 6 or 8 hours between meals no problem, and while I get hungry, I usually don't get shaky and irritable.

Even before NoS, I had found that a glass of milk was the best solution for me for getting hungry. If I wasn't going to have a meal, a glass of milk had a better and quicker impact on my shakiness and irritability than any other snacks.

Unfortunately I can't remember now how long it took for this change to take place, but hopefully you will see similar changes if you stick with three meals for a while.

[kccc]

One thing you might look at is the composition of your meals. I found when I started that I really needed a little more fat/protein than I'd been allowing myself to make it to the next meal.

If that sounds alarming, I'm not talking huge amounts - just attending to having a reasonable portion of both, along with some complex carbs and veg, at every meal. Cutting snacks MORE than compensated for the calories.

And yeah, a glass of milk or juice may help as well.

[Kathleen]

Mrs. Partridge,
Same thing happened to me. It still happens some times, but it's less often and less severe. I stuck with no snacks. Thursday nights were the worst, and I actually warned the kids to take it easy on me.

I had in mind that I want my kids to learn healthy eating, and my grumpiness was part of the process of my learning to eat in a healthy way.

Kathleen

[MrsPartridge]

Milk and juice both sound like a snack to me. I'll try milk for sure and see how that goes.

I work with kids so I don't want to be grouchy just for the sake of having a slender body. But all of you say that it might pass with time if I ride it out. I sure hope so.

[Nichole]

I really think this probably comes from not eating the right stuff. I know it sucks, but having your plate be more veggies than carbs really keeps you fuller. That and a protein. And make sure your carbs are "good carbs" like whole wheat/grain bread that doesn't contain enriched bread. I'm sure this is all stuff you've heard before, but since you asked ...

[davestarbuck]

I beat hunger pains by cutting out all processed carbs and grains and tubers. on N days. I eat only non starchy veggies,fruits,meats, and nuts. No bread,taters,dairy etc. On S days I'll indulge in a little homebaked bread or pizza etc... It works... But if you try you may have to cut out the carbs slowly. All my carb cravings dissapeared in 3 days. You could take longer.

-dave