Making Peace with my Metabolism

I used to be one of those people who would skip breakfast because I believed that eating in the morning geared up my salivary glands to crave more food the rest of the day.

I used to be one of those people who could literally go from dinner the previous day to dinner the next day without a bite of food – barely a hunger pain in sight – to save calories for indulging in a special meal.

An incident this week pointed out that this Ironman training may be slowly changing my body’s natural responses for food – or maybe I am just listening to it a bit more carefully.

Tuesday was my husband’s and my anniversary. We went out to one of our favorite restaurants for dinner. I ate the entire tuna sashimi appetizer (yum) and about 2/3 of my steak with asparagus, mushrooms, etc. dinner. Throw in two glasses of wine – and I was quite content and full.

Wednesday morning, I woke up early for a swim lesson and decided a Gatorade would be sufficient nutrition given the big meal from the day before. After the lesson, I rushed home, quickly showered and dressed to squeeze in some work before leaving for a meeting on the other side of town. In the hustle and bustle, I forgot to eat. By the time I arrived at the meeting, a few hunger pangs started to hit. By the end of the three hour meeting, my stomach felt very empty and ravenous. Since another meeting was on my calendar, I decided to head straight back to the office, grabbing lunch from one of the street vendors. It was after 1:45 when I parked my car and found somewhere to eat. I was actually starting to feel a little weak and light-headed while waiting on line to order a fruit smoothie and a sandwich. As soon as they handed me the smoothie, I started to wolf it down.

It had been awhile since I had expected my body to go more than twelve hours overnight without food, but I still thought I wouldn’t have a problem going back to those habits if needed - until this week left me wondering if the past few months of healthier eating patterns may have actually changed my metabolism. Even if I am still not the person who needs to eat every three or four hours in order to not feel grumpy or sick, my body seems to have formed new expectations for being fed.

Probably a good thing.