PMS Cravings

This is specifically for the lady-folk because this is about lady things - namely cravings during PMS. If you're not a menstruating type (past or present), while I do appreciate your input, and you can certainly leave it, it's hard to really understand the situation if you've never been through it.

I try to eat well most of the time. I usually fail, but I'm getting more and more aware of what I eat, and gradually building the power to take control over my own nutrition. I feel it's an important aspect of my path - taking care of my body. I am struggling, though, especially when hormones rear their ugly heads.

During that awful and hormonal week prior to my period, I go completely out of control. I crave all the terrible things: salty, sweet, fatty, convenient... My diet becomes a back hole of junk food. No matter how well I was eating before, the compulsion is just too strong.

So I ask: what do YOU do do beat those cravings? Or at least mitigate the damage...have you ever found something that works for you?

Leah Starspectre wrote: During that awful and hormonal week prior to my period, I go completely out of control. I crave all the terrible things: salty, sweet, fatty, convenient... My diet becomes a back hole of junk food. No matter how well I was eating before, the compulsion is just too strong.

So I ask: what do YOU do do beat those cravings? Or at least mitigate the damage...have you ever found something that works for you?

If you want to stop doing something, stop.

Don't make excuses for why you can't.

No trick or tip is going to save you.

You aren't powerless.

Make a choice and stop.

Not a lady here, but a fast food junkie.

Sometimes you have to trick yourself. Leave your stash of cash at home, make it impossible to buy any junk food.

Don't trust willpower.

Leah what I have found that helps cravings I get while dieting is to find a healthy substitute so let me give a few examples:

1) If I want a soda I use sparkling water and a tea or a touch of fruit juice. Far fewer calories and no processed sugars
2) If I want something crunchy and salty like chips I have a dehydrator that I make things like dehydrated tomatoes that I season with garlic or the like.
3) I want candy I eat dried fruits etc.

Hope that helps.

I totally hear you. I feel like I only have 1 good week out of the month where I feel on top of things, successful and motivated. the three weeks after are horrible. I've tried doubling up on exercising thinking its due to my child birthing weight gain. I've tried dieting. I've tried health improvments (more fibers, protien, zinc, raspberry tea)

Sad fact is.

We as women are doomed to endure this....."Delightful" and "Beautiful" and "Magical" time's.

And the only real way I have been able to push through it is to remain positive and to pamper myself. Instead of sweets...I'll ask the husband to take the kids to a friends house and let me get an hour to soak in a salt bath. Need fatty foods, I'll give myself HEALTHY Fatty foods. (Like Steak and Green Beans without the starchy side)

And most importantly....I ensure I am keeping up on my Iron. I take two pills a day plus what i get from food sources

IronIronIron

Remember that despite the above sarcasm.....This really is a beautiful part of being a women. Positive thoughts. *hugs*

Trisskar wrote:
And the only real way I have been able to push through it is to remain positive and to pamper myself. Instead of sweets...I'll ask the husband to take the kids to a friends house and let me get an hour to soak in a salt bath. Need fatty foods, I'll give myself HEALTHY Fatty foods. (Like Steak and Green Beans without the starchy side)

This is somewhat my issue. I pamper myself with food. I'm very busy and very single. Sweets are the quickest way to get some happy while I'm doing my other stuff, because nobody else is going to pamper me but me (although I'm sure my cats would if they could, lol)

Leah Starspectre wrote:

Trisskar wrote:
And the only real way I have been able to push through it is to remain positive and to pamper myself. Instead of sweets...I'll ask the husband to take the kids to a friends house and let me get an hour to soak in a salt bath. Need fatty foods, I'll give myself HEALTHY Fatty foods. (Like Steak and Green Beans without the starchy side)

This is somewhat my issue. I pamper myself with food. I'm very busy and very single. Sweets are the quickest way to get some happy while I'm doing my other stuff, because nobody else is going to pamper me but me (although I'm sure my cats would if they could, lol)

Well that makes it easier honestly getting my kids and husband out of the house can be a chore at times haha

Just got to replace your habbits. I wrote a lesson on habbits once....haha lets see if I can find it....



Dunno if that helps or not But its just a matter of replacing one habbit with another. If it is sweets you consume try replacing it with fruit Smoothies. If you get a bunch of fruites and yogurts and put them individual baggies then freeze them you can have real quick, easy, yummy, sweet snack that are also healthy

Trisskar wrote:
Well that makes it easier honestly getting my kids and husband out of the house can be a chore at times haha

Just got to replace your habbits. I wrote a lesson on habbits once....haha lets see if I can find it....

Warning: Spoiler!

Initiate: Examine Your Habits

By: The Keeper
Date: 9/26/2015
©A Just Jedi Lecture


"You might of heard the statement “Human beings are creatures of habit.” and this is true. Habit's, are a series of behaviors and actions that gets repeated over and over again and they develop based on our life experiences, the things we are exposed to, those small and big influences that determines how you, as an individual, act in your every day normal lives.

As a child you develop a habit of routine, influenced and set upon you by your parents. These routines are meant to give you a healthy start on life (And to give your parents a bit of sanity along the way )

At first, these behaviors of routine can be difficult to learn and adapt to. Like waking up at 6am in the morning every day to get your kid off to school, or you off to work.But once you develop a habit from repeated practice, your conscious mind hands the duty of remembrance, willpower and training over to your subconscious mind and it slowly becomes a natural reaction, so ingrained that it just becomes a natural behavior. It may even feel as if you have no control over these habits, or is a thing you cannot live without. Smoking...for example.

No matter how automatic these habits have become in your life, they all started with a Conscious Mind. A time when you decided to take part in the action and repeat the process until it was handed off onto the Subconscious Mind.

Habits can be good and wholesome to your lifestyle, like developing a habit to exercise and eat healthy.Meditation Routines, or even that little hobby you enjoy that lifts your spirit such as writing, collections, art, gardening, or hiking the trails. Or they can be bad, bringing stress, pain and poor health into your lifestyle.

Just like any habit learned, however.You can consciously chose to replace the habit with a new one, or let it fade from lack of use. For, just like with anything in life...if left alone and forgotten, it will fade from memory. But you must first make a conscious decision to act upon it, and repeat the process until it nestles safely into your subconscious mind.

As Jedi, we train and learn self discipline In order to create healthy habits that will benefit our minds, bodies and spirit as well as set the foundations that will allow us in helping others do the same.

Dunno if that helps or not But its just a matter of replacing one habbit with another. If it is sweets you consume try replacing it with fruit Smoothies. If you get a bunch of fruites and yogurts and put them individual baggies then freeze them you can have real quick, easy, yummy, sweet snack that are also healthy

Well, it's certainly good advice! The problem is that it's easier said than done. I have all sorts of good intentions and ideas and plans to get myself through the bad weeks in a more health-some way, but they just seem to always fall apart. For example: I have delicious home-made soup in my freezer, but when I'm bloated and sad and craving sweets, I don't want that health-some soup, but the ice cream that's right beside it.

It is just a matter of will power, then? Surely if it was that easy, I wouldn't be having such a terrible time.

The answer is....Toss out the Ice Cream so it is no longer an option haha IT SUCKS!!! Trust me I am not saying it is easy. Its NOT. I fail all the time....I have cookie dough in the fridge right now that sounds absolutely delightful and all that halloween candy in the cupboard? *Drools*

But sadly it really is about training proper habbit (Willpower) that however does not equal out to = [strike]Easy[/strike]

What it does equal out to is consistent practice and elimination.

Also keep in mind. All those sweets you crave? Only makes you more bloated (It sure does for me!!) So its akin to taking poison....taste sooooo good!!! But in actuallity is making your condition worse. So you eat more sweets. And get more bloated....only to eat more.....the cycle stops when you stop buying it in the first place Toss that ice cream in the trash and make some yummy soup!

Trisskar wrote: The answer is....Toss out the Ice Cream so it is no longer an option haha IT SUCKS!!! Trust me I am not saying it is easy. Its NOT. I fail all the time....I have cookie dough in the fridge right now that sounds absolutely delightful and all that halloween candy in the cupboard? *Drools*

But sadly it really is about training proper habbit (Willpower) that however does not equal out to = [strike]Easy[/strike]

What it does equal out to is consistent practice and elimination.

Also keep in mind. All those sweets you crave? Only makes you more bloated (It sure does for me!!) So its akin to taking poison....taste sooooo good!!! But in actuallity is making your condition worse. So you eat more sweets. And get more bloated....only to eat more.....the cycle stops when you stop buying it in the first place Toss that ice cream in the trash and make some yummy soup!

Oh, I know all too well that what I crave just makes things worse, lol. I think booze is the only thing I don't crave siding PMS. Everything else: fatty, salty, carb-loaded, sweet, coffee... It's all wanting to be in my mouth immediately, even if I know it will ultimately make things worse, lol.

Guh, there's nothing that depresses me more than restricting my treats.

Trust me. My problem is Monsters. I developed the habbit back when I was working third shifts at Target. I literally only got 4 hours of sleep a day and had horrible insomina (Because sleeping while the sun was shining was next to impossible no matter how well i boarded up my windows)

Now. Whenever I feel stressed (Which is daily with kids) I grab a monster.

Whenever I get a headache (Mainly when I try to quit drinking Monster) I end up caving and drinking more Monster....even though it is the Monsters that are giving me these terrible headaches in the first place.

At the end of the day you have to ask....."Do I reeeeeeally want this to continue?" and then just....try.

and try again.

And again....

And again........

Trisskar wrote: At the end of the day you have to ask....."Do I reeeeeeally want this to continue?" and then just....try.

and try again.

And again....

And again........

Well, as a wise Jedi once said "Do, or do not. There is no try"

I can certainly keep doing, even if I have to keep doing it over and over again, ha ha ha!

That's the spirit

Thanks for the encouragement ❤

Don't buy it in the first place so it cannot get in the fridge. I avoid them most nearly entirely. I've been doing it so long now I do not know if that sounds extreme... I guess it does but after awhile all that junk foods just starts to look like garbage (because it might as well be), despite how nice it tastes.

We do not eat for taste, we eat for health. Perhaps people who only want to enjoy taste from food should do what wine folk do and not swallow... no taste buds in the gut AFAIK. Unless of course it all dissolves in the mouth :ohmy: I had a slice of chocolate cheese cake the other day which should have been illegal!!!

But to be a bit more serious..... you'd realize you don't need the increase energy during PMS of course. But you want to trust your body! So, perhaps its not your body making you crave when you get PMS....

So sticking to that eating is only meant for health angle, I think these days I view diet as more about gut flora, and sugary foods is not helpful in the slightest and can be avoided pretty much entirely IMO. Heck, if anything was going to be associated to midichlorians it probably would be gut microbiota! Gut microbes are integral to our health, linked to obesity among other things, but generally ignored until recently.

Maybe its related to the 'sea of qi' of the lower dantian even. But what to do... I'm no Doc, but I started drinking coconut kefir, supplementing inulin and had the occasional probiotic supplement... and avoid sugar of course, its effectively poison in regards to health. So try and be real about how much sugar is in the food your eating. Inulin is actually like a healthy sugar for your gut because it works as a fibre. Inulin can work wonders on stripping away visceral fat IMO. But speaking of fibre I also supplement psyllium husk to help keep things moving. If waste is being over processed because of imbalance in gut flora then its also important to keep it moving as well probably.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byaMExnXpSI

So maybe the hormonal changes during PMS create a change in the gut flora which drives the craving. Blame the midichlorians!! But if a person is already obese then it might mean the reaction is worse when it happens.

For women its not just hormonal. After all the process does tend to make us lose alot of......certian needs....Hormones play a goodly amount but there is a lot of drain in other things. Which is why it is important to have good Iron intake and to drink double the amount more water than usual and to basically replace everything you lose during that week of H-***eavenly empowerment...... :dry:

So when your body misses out on certian things it will make you crave what you need. Trouble is....due to Habbit growing up...we associate the cravings with bad things. AKA Candy instead of Fruit. Mac Donald's instead of Steak from local Butchers house. Salty fries instead of bowl of spinach or broccoli.

This happens in pregnancy too (The conditions are linked) except that some woman get so desperate to replace what they lose by eatting paint chips I remember when I lost ALOT of potassium due to pregnancy.....I hate bananas....except for the last two months when it was all I wanted to eat haha

The Gut Microbes are deffinatly apart of the whole....but womans problems are not just linked to hormones.

Leah Starspectre wrote: Guh, there's nothing that depresses me more than restricting my treats.

Life sucks. In the end it's your call, you can either suffer your treat restriction or suffer the consequences of over indulgence. We don't get to have our cake and eat it too. :laugh:

Adder wrote: So maybe the hormonal changes during PMS create a change in the gut flora which drives the craving. Blame the midichlorians!! But if a person is already obese then it might mean the reaction is worse when it happens.

The hormone rollercoaster that happens during PMS causes drops in energy, blood sugar, and serotonin. Which is why so many women get desperate food cravings hungry and moodiness.

It's not as if I don't know what's healthy and not, its that I'm (so far) not able to channel the food cravings into healthy solutions. This is why I'm asking for advice - to see if an other women have been successful in managing the cravings. I've been able to control the pain, digestive issues, and mood swings related to PMS, but the cravings remain a problem.

Hormones are the only thing I could link to altering gut flora but your right, perhaps the altered dietary requirements also triggers the gut flora to change ones appetite in adverse ways. My post was just saying its likely gut flora meditates most all those things eg serotonin is about 90% produced in the gut for example.

Adder wrote: Hormones are the only thing I could link to altering gut flora but your right, perhaps the altered dietary requirements also triggers the gut flora to change ones appetite in adverse ways. My post was just saying its likely gut flora meditates most all those things eg serotonin is about 90% produced in the gut for example.

Hmmm...I didn't know serotonin was produced in the gut. I assumed it was in the brain. Maybe that's a missing piece of my understanding of the symptoms. Certainly gives me something to think about!