Last night I got back from a fencing tournament at about 7 pm. I had been gone since 6:30 am. I had eaten breakfast and lunch (although each was a not that healthy piece of cheese pizza, since I figured I should eat enough that my performance wouldn't be compromised by hunger) and not actually been that active- maybe an hour of actual fencing- but I had been on my feet walking around and standing watching bouts all day, and when I got home I was exhausted and ravenous, and I felt like a really needed to eat a huge meal or I would feel deprived for the rest of my life. This got WAY out of control though, and ended up being 2 pieces of sausage pizza, 3 pieces of cheese pizza, three dumplings and two frozen waffles. Clearly not a healthy or in any way necessary meal.

My question is, if you've had that sort of day, what do you do to keep that worn down feeling from becoming a binge?

I usually keep a packet of sunflower seeds or some almonds or something in my handbag for a hit of protein and fat if I find myself in that kind of situation. It's more satisfying than carbs, and doesn't make my blood sugar spike and then crash. And I just don't HAVE foods like that in the house, which helps - yesterday I was munching a lot during the day, which is unusual for me, but it was all stuff like almonds and sea weed and so forth, all on-plan stuff, because I don't give shelf room to stuff that's NOT on-plan. (I realise that not everyone has this luxury - if you've got a spouse or kids who demand stuff that's off limits for you, that's pretty damn wretched.)

On an entirely different note, though - how bloody fabulous that you're fencing! Colour me envious! I should LOVE to learn fencing. Have you been doing it long?

I'm 17, so spouse and children aren't an issue for me, but unfortunately that means that the rest of my family is, given that I live at home. My father and brother are also a little on the hefty side, so generally we didn't keep unhealthy stuff around the house, but my father just got remarried so now I have four incredibly skinny step-siblings and it would be kind of rude to ask them not to have the foods they're used to. A little over a year from now I'll be away at college, but for now it's not going to change.

Yeah, it probably would have helped to have a better eye to the quality of the food I was getting during the day- I'll make a note of it for next time. And I've been fencing nearly a year. It's a pretty fantastic sport. I'd recommend trying it if you have any opportunity- it's fun, it's decent exercise, and the beauty of it is that for the most part it isn't fitness or physical skill that make you good at it- it's mostly an intellectual/experience thing.

I also keep snacks handy, like zone perfect bars.

I also try to prepare things in advance to have on hand in the fridge. Like the other day I grilled some chicken breasts, roasted some veggies and cut up some fruit as soon as I got home from the grocery store. That way if I walk in and I'm really hungry I can have a healthy meal in just a couple of minutes.

It's all about planning.

Portable foods, always.
In my bag - I always have a zone/luna bar just for emergency purposes. I cannot go more than a few hours without eating something, or I totally fall off the cliff into whatever food I can find.

If it is a longer day, I will pack more stuff, like string cheese, fruit, tuna cups.

Hey ImpalaHoarder

I love that you are fencing I was thinking about joining our club at the university this semester

I see you do planks and I was curious if you do side planks also? I haven't mastered that yet..it is a killer..I did a side plank with my trainer and couldn't even last 10 seconds lol.

Hey! I fenced briefly in college--it really is a great sport.

You have to plan ahead, and if necessary, purchase your own foods so you won't find yourself in this situation very often. Two pieces of cheese pizza in a whole day is just not workable, IMO....

I rely on a couple of brands of food bars for emergencies. One brand is Kashi TLC bars--especially the honey almond and the peanut peanut butter. The other is the Raw Foods Whey Bar, chocolate nut raisin. The Kashi bars have fewer calories, but both bars have a good amount of protein and not a huge amount of carbohydrate.

Fruit is also a good thing to take along--apples, oranges, etc. Or, measured amounts of nuts--a serving of almonds or cashews, for example.

Jay

Ditto on the taking something with you to take the edge off of the hunger.

Another thing I do when I haven't planned my day correctly is that when I get home I'll eat an apple and drink a huge glass of water. That usually stops the desperation and then I can eat something healthy without feeling like my stomach is turning inside out.

It's all about planning ahead -- not letting yourself get to the point where you're so hungry that you make bad choices. You can bring things like nuts, protein/meal replacement bars, dried fruit, or whole-wheat crackers along in case there's not much available to eat. People tease me for bringing a huge suitcase when I go to conferences, but a quarter of it is usually snacks to stuff in my purse each day in case I can't get to a healthy lunch.

Also, if I'm going to be away from home for 12 hours or more, I'll make dinner the day before -- put together a salad or sandwich/wrap or something that I can just grab out of the fridge the minute I get home with no effort involved. The real challenge for me is usually making it all the way home without stopping for fast food.

Keep snacks in the car and / or in your purse.

Failing that -STOP and get something to eat. There are always days that are unpredictable, but no day is *so* chock-a-block full that you cannot run into a convenience store and grab a can of v-8 juice, or a healthy protein bar or *something*. I mean unless you're in the middle of the Alaskan wilderness, right!

But I think in the situation you describe, knowing that you'd be at a sporting event/tournament, it would have been the best idea to pack some snacky types of things in your purse and to have something in the car for your drive home. I know even when I go to the gym, I have to have a snack in the car on the way home or I'll go nutso when I hit the house.

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Thanks a ton for all the advice. I think I'll have a much easier time next time, and I guess this time was a valuable lesson learning experience, anyway. It's amazing how I can be at this so long and still make such a basic mistake, but I guess you live and learn.

Everything is a learning experience!

I have made my share of mistakes ... including forgetting to snack and coming home absolutely ravenous. Let's not talk about the day I ate an entire box of Cheezits ... simply because they were there and I knew better than to open the box to begin with. *grin*

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I empathize with you ImpalaHoarder, (do you really hoard impalas?), I don't get enough sleep and I sometimes work very long days, getting home late at night ravenous. This is not necessarily a recipe for disaster, more a [b]potential[b] recipe for disaster, because it is you who decides how much you eat at that crucial late-night moment. What if you were to eat a healthy, low-calorie meal at that time? The "recipe for disaster" would be transformed into a triumph, because not only did you consume a small-ish amount of energy, but you also burned up lots of energy during the day.

The critical point is the moment that you start to eat. You're so ravenous that you ram your meal down and then you're on to the next course before your belly has had a chance to log on to your brain to tell it that you've had enough.

As it happens I have just this moment finished my evening meal after a very long day travelling 600 miles and only eating about 600 calories up to the point where I got home. I was ready to eat my own kids!

But I didn't.

I had a reasonable sized plate of tagliatelli with some bolognese sauce, and ate it slowly. By the time I had finished, my brain had got the 'full' sign and all I had to do then was relax with a splendid cup of tea. Job done.