Why do I keep over eating fruits and veggies?

[Amie Sue]

I am apart of Pennie's book research and I posted this same question of there but thought I would share here as well to see what you might have to say....

Tonight I am trying to come to an understanding as to why I am consuming so much food. Though my food choices are good....all raw fruits and veggies, I have still been taking in mass quantities. It has become mind consuming as well, I can't stop thinking about food. While I am eating, I am already excited and planning what my next meal will be. I even tend to over eat. I have been eating high raw for about 11 months now and my passion for it is still very high, it hasn't decreased the least bit. While being excited about eating raw is great it can become overwhelming.

No long are my thoughts worried about how am I going to eat raw and avoid cooked foods, my thoughts are now engrossed with how can I eat all these wonderful foods before they go bad. So, here is what is happening...I am stocking my kitchen with fresh fruits and veggies but TO MANY of them. haha I would have never thought such a thing was possible but one would think that I was buying for a family of 5! and there are only 2 of us. haha Why do I do this? Fear of running out? Gosh, I don't think that is it but I can't explain it other than the love for all these fruits and veggies. My body is craving all of these wonderful foods and it wants to eat it all at once. I am sort of rambling, my thoughts are jumping all over so I hope that some of this makes sense.

I have been trying this tactic, one that I do when I fast...When I am fasting and I get invited out for dinner I tell myself that this isn't a good reason to break my fast...the food that I would consume when I go out for dinner will be there next week when my fast is over. It is not as though the "last dinner" is being offered to me. So now I am trying to slow myself down in over eating all these fresh fruits and veggies by basically saying the same thing.

Is my body lacking a vitamin or nutrients and it's trying to get by craving all the foods...or it is possible that I don't take in enough fat? I try to eat mainly simple fruits and veggies as of this past month...I have taken out most fats from nuts. Does that make you crave foods? Do I have an eating disorder? I am just throwing my thoughts out as they randomly misfire through my brain.

Does anyone have any thoughts on this that may help me get a better control over this?

One day I want to be to the point where I don't worry about what my next meal is or if my butt looks big with this apple in my mouth. lol

[Goddess Durga]

Hi Amie Sue,

I was having this problem on farmer's market day for a long time. I'd buy a whole bunch of stuff, come home and wash it all, make a big green juice with local cilantro and cucumbers, have a couple big heirloom tomatoes with fresh basil pesto for lunch, a whole head of lettuce for dinner, more tomatoes, an arugula salad the next day, etc. I'd be down to half the produce I purchased by Monday.

My own strategy for dealing with it was to just create some calmness around the abundance. Instead of washing everything right away, now I leave my big canvas bags right on the kitchen floor and go out for a while, maybe for a long bike ride, maybe to a museum with my son. I come home, take a long shower, put the stuff in the fridge. At this point I've probably had only fruit or green juice and it's late afternoon. I'm in a more centered place to start washing, spinning, and putting stuff away.

I wouldn't beat yourself up over what you are doing - I would think that as we evolved, and especially as we moved away from tropics where food was always plentiful, we would have adapted to eat up whenever we came upon food. I think we have to re-program ourselves in a way to overcome this impulse.

I also believe if we stay on this path, it becomes a spiritual journey. After we heal our bodies, we can do the deeper work. When we begin to learn what nourishes us on other levels (emotional, spiritual), food becomes less important. Really.

[Jonathan]

I sort of obsess about what vegetables to eat before they go bad too. And I agree with this comment about spiritual calm which I often do not have. Heck, I sort-of obsess about everything.

Goddess Durga said:

Hi Amie Sue,

I was having this problem on farmer's market day for a long time. I'd buy a whole bunch of stuff, come home and wash it all, make a big green juice with local cilantro and cucumbers, have a couple big heirloom tomatoes with fresh basil pesto for lunch, a whole head of lettuce for dinner, more tomatoes, an arugula salad the next day, etc. I'd be down to half the produce I purchased by Monday.

My own strategy for dealing with it was to just create some calmness around the abundance. Instead of washing everything right away, now I leave my big canvas bags right on the kitchen floor and go out for a while, maybe for a long bike ride, maybe to a museum with my son. I come home, take a long shower, put the stuff in the fridge. At this point I've probably had only fruit or green juice and it's late afternoon. I'm in a more centered place to start washing, spinning, and putting stuff away.

I wouldn't beat yourself up over what you are doing - I would think that as we evolved, and especially as we moved away from tropics where food was always plentiful, we would have adapted to eat up whenever we came upon food. I think we have to re-program ourselves in a way to overcome this impulse.

I also believe if we stay on this path, it becomes a spiritual journey. After we heal our bodies, we can do the deeper work. When we begin to learn what nourishes us on other levels (emotional, spiritual), food becomes less important. Really.

[Angie]

If you're eating only or mostly fresh produce, the bulk can seem like a lot when it's not a lot of calories. A medium apple is only 95 calories. A whole cucumber is about 45 calories - even less if you peel it. You can eat a lot of bulk but still need more calories if you're not eating a lot of calorie-dense food like nuts, oils, avocados, etc.

[Anastazia]

I realized that my tummy was 'strtched out' from eating larger cooked meals, & I was consuming HUGE salads, full blenders fulla smoothie, LOTS of produce when getting used to raw...what I've heard helps is fasting for a few days to allow your tummy to shrink back to it's normal size...

...& then again, this may just be what your body/cells need to get all the nutrition it can, to make up for when it didn't...

[Amie Sue]

Thanks everyone for your thoughts and views. I am going to monitor this and see what takes place. I am going to start a juice fast come this Monday and use the time to understand why I over eat fruits and veggies. Emotional? Bored? Whatever it may be.

Blessings to all!

[rebeccaj]

Amie Sue, how do you know you're "over eating?" do you have any idea how many calories you're taking in? are you still hungry? are you putting on weight? do you feel good? are you active? fruits and veg are HIGH-WATER, LOW CALORIE foods - it takes a lot of food to get to too much - a LOT. if you still feel good and you're happy and not craving cooked food, rock on sister, you're doing everything right!

start logging your food, let's see how much you're eating, and then we can talk about whether it's too much or not. : )

Amie Sue said:

Thanks everyone for your thoughts and views. I am going to monitor this and see what takes place. I am going to start a juice fast come this Monday and use the time to understand why I over eat fruits and veggies. Emotional? Bored? Whatever it may be.

Blessings to all!

[Amie Sue]

MY WELL BEING
Rate 1-10 (10 being the best)
* productivity - 8
* efficiency - 8
* clarity - 10
* sleep – slept a good 8 hours, woke up feeling rested
* energy - 7
* overall happiness and appreciation for Life! - 7
Felt bloated and thick all day / headache started around 11pm

EXERCISE: Day off

DAILY FOOD LOG:

Breakfast
• Smoothie:
• 3 grapefruit
• 3 bananas

Lunch:
LARGE salad / tuna salad on top / ranch dressing (cooked) / sunflower seeds
And raisins. Didn’t do so well today with eating raw but I can’t shake this craving for tuna.

Dinner:
1 cantaloupe

Snacks:
Handful of cherries, a few grapes
*******************************************

MY WELL BEING
Rate 1-10 (10 being the best)
* productivity – 9 (busy day preparing for a birthday party)
* efficiency - 9
* clarity - 9
* sleep – 4 hrs..my fault, stayed up to late
* energy – 7 (little sluggish this am, but I didn’t get much sleep)
* overall happiness and appreciation for Life! 10
* mid afternoon headache / was a big day, spent with my little sister who
just turned 21!

EXERCISE: None…ran out of steam, recovering from being sore from
2 days ago

DAILY FOOD LOG:

Breakfast
1. Smoothie:
4 bananas and water/ice

Lunch:
1. Salad at Red Robins…all veggies, side salad with lemon for dressing. Boring! Haha but I was good.

Snack:
1. Grapes!! Bunches

Dinner:
1. Large butterleaf salad with red pepper, tomatoes, cucumbers and lemon for dressing.

************************************************

June 2nd
MY WELL BEING
Rate 1-10 (10 being the best)
* productivity – 10
* efficiency – 10 accomplished a lot today
* clarity – 8 felt a little foggy today at times
* sleep 10 – I got 8 hrs…very restfull
* energy – 10!
* overall happiness and appreciation for Life! 10
* Mid afternoon headache again today

EXERCISE:
Bike Ride from house to Pandemonium and back 14 miles. Took 1 ½ hours. Tons of hills, huge work out.


DAILY FOOD LOG:

Breakfast:
o 8oz of water
o Smoothie ~ banana/grapefruit
o (4 bananas/5 grapefruit, split with hubby)
o Pear

Snack:
o Smoothie: 4 bananas and water
a. (this was a refuel smoothie from my huge work out)

Lunch:
o 1 lb of romaine lettuce
o 1 lb of celery
o (dipped all this in my raw ranch dressing)

Dinner:
1 lb of romaine lettuce
¾ cup of broccoli
½ cup of cauliflower
(dipped all this in my raw ranch dressing)

Snack:
Small papaya (it was on the verge of spoiling, had to eat it ☺

Water
32+ oz – I need to really work on increasing this!

Nutritional Facts by Fitday
Approx. Calories: 1,750
Fat: 44 g
Carbs: 341.9
Protein: 44.4

Calories burned:
Bike riding – approx. 450

************************************

June 3rd
MY WELL BEING
Rate 1-10 (10 being the best)
* productivity - 10
* efficiency - 10
* clarity – 7 felt foggy a bit today
* sleep – 7 hrs
* energy - 8
* overall happiness and appreciation for Life!
* mid afternoon headache again :/

EXERCISE:
I didn’t exercise today. We were out of town from 9am till 10pm and then had company till midnight, My goal is to exercise 1st thing in the morning so I don’t have EXCUSERCISES through out the day!!!

DAILY FOOD LOG:

Breakfast:
1 cantaloupe
2 small mangos
16oz water

Lunch:
Salad and dressing
(dressing wasn’t raw…best I could do in the place I was in. )

Snack:
Mango

Dinner:
Grapes…till my tummy hurt. Haha I snuck them into the movies with us!

Nutritional Facts:
I wasn’t home all day and ate fresh fruit from the store and salad at a restaurant. I wasn’t able to measure my intake so I wasn’t able to log my food in Fitday.

Water:
32oz – doh! I tried to increase it today but I find when I eat a lot of fruit that I don’t get thirsty.

***********************************

June 4th
MY WELL BEING
Rate 1-10 (10 being the best)
* productivity - 10
* efficiency - 10
* clarity –7 head felt a little foggy
* sleep – 8 hrs sleep (woke up foggy, touch of a headache)
* energy – 9 did feel a bit laggy today but stayed very busy doing
physical work.
* overall happiness and appreciation for Life!

EXERCISE:
20 minutes Rebounding - approx. 300 calories burned
**Wow! What a work out. I really enjoy it and it gets me sweating!
**I just wanted to testify about the role that bananas play in speeding up
your recovery from workouts. Two days ago I did a 14 miles strenuous
bike ride and taxed my muscles to the core. Immediately returning home
from the ride, I made a smoothie with 4 bananas. I never go sore from
the bike ride!!

DAILY FOOD LOG:

Breakfast:
2 cups of grapes
32 oz Smoothie – 3 small bananas/2cups spinach/6 strawberries

Lunch:
1 head of romaine lettuce / dipped in Raw Ranch Dressing

Dinner:
1 head of romaine lettuce / ¾ red pepper / 2 baby cucumbers / raisins and dressing…oh ½ each of cauliflower and broccoli.

Snack:
2 cups Grapes

Nutritional Facts
Calories: 1,602
Fat: 50 (This may be on the high side, I guessed on the dressing)
Carbs: 292.9
Protein: 39.8

****I guessed high on my salad dressing so these numbers may be off but close enough. I need to cut my calories and fat intake down. I have been craving fruits and veggies today!!

Water Intake:
32 oz….grrrr, I WILL get more in me!!!

************************************

June 5th
MY WELL BEING
Rate 1-10 (10 being the best)
* productivity - 7
* efficiency - 7
* clarity – head felt foggy
* sleep – about 8 hrs (woke up with a headache)
* energy – 7 unless I was moving then better
* overall happiness and appreciation for Life!
* Afternoon nausea…vitamins may be causing this??

EXERCISE:
Walk/ran 3 miles / 38 min. / burned 340 calories
I have been doing this training program to become a runner. Right now I am walking for 30 secs and then running for 30 secs, then at about 1.5 miles I increase to 60 and 90 second intervals. I love this! I am not even winded at the end of 38 mins of running! No fatigue either.

DAILY FOOD LOG:

Breakfast:
2 banana
2 mangos
16 oz water

Lunch:
Salad: romaine lettuce, red pepper, cucumber, cauliflower, raspberry balsamic vinegar dressing.
Avocado on flax crackers

Snack:
Large papaya

Dinner:
Banana / grapefruit smoothie

Nutritional Facts
Calories: 1,682 (blah! Need to decrease this number)
Fat: 16.1
Carbs: 403.8
Protein: 22

Water Intake:
40 oz – whoohooo increased my water by 8 oz. haha I am getting there! As you can see I consume a lot of fruit which has a lot of water in it, not using that as an excuse just the fact that it curbs me from being thirsty.

***********************

This is all that I have logged. Some days I can get the measurements to the food but others I wasn't able to.

rebeccaj said:

Amie Sue, how do you know you're "over eating?" do you have any idea how many calories you're taking in? are you still hungry? are you putting on weight? do you feel good? are you active? fruits and veg are HIGH-WATER, LOW CALORIE foods - it takes a lot of food to get to too much - a LOT. if you still feel good and you're happy and not craving cooked food, rock on sister, you're doing everything right!

start logging your food, let's see how much you're eating, and then we can talk about whether it's too much or not. : )

Amie Sue said:

Thanks everyone for your thoughts and views. I am going to monitor this and see what takes place. I am going to start a juice fast come this Monday and use the time to understand why I over eat fruits and veggies. Emotional? Bored? Whatever it may be.

Blessings to all!

[Amie Sue]

I feel as though I eat to much food and I can't seem to control it. I am 5'3 and 125 lbs. I would like to get down to 115lbs but struggle to break that platau. Seems obvious to cut calories and increase exercising....but like I said I can't seem to control my food intake. It feels as though maybe I am lacking a nutrient or something? I dunno...perhaps its useless to talk about it here since I can't seem to convey my thoughts on it.
Have a great weekend!
bitt said:

from reading your food log i am not sure what you want to get a better handle on. sounds like a pretty typical raw food diet to me.

[rebeccaj]

sweetheart!!! my darling!!!

"Calories: 1,682 (blah! Need to decrease this number)" on a day when you burned 340 in exercise is taking in 1340 calories!!!!!!!! at 5'3 and 125 you NEED about 1500-1600 to SURVIVE. You're not overeating, you're UNDER-eating!!! that's right! paradigm-shift time!

you're eating tons of water in your fruits and veg, and that translates to apparent volume, but not to apparent calories. you could safely increase your calories by another 400-700 a day (another 4-7 bananas) and suffer no ill effects, and possibly speed up your weight loss. you're eating, and thinking about eating, because you're hungry. go ahead, eat more. it's totally ok. you're making beautiful choices, continue on and eat to satisfaction.

when i got back on the 811 wagon in April, I was 5'3 and 122. 7 weeks later, 7 weeks of eating as much fruit as I wanted, not really counting calories, just eating and eating till I was full, I weigh 112. I've been a little sick this week, and lazy today, and I just calculated my calories - 1512 of watermelon, peaches, figs, cucumbers, tomatoes, and cherries, on a day with no physical activity.

please eat, people!!! please, please, please. eat your calories. eating enough food to fuel yourself isn't a problem, it's a blessing.

Amie Sue said:

I feel as though I eat to much food and I can't seem to control it. I am 5'3 and 125 lbs. I would like to get down to 115lbs but struggle to break that platau. Seems obvious to cut calories and increase exercising....but like I said I can't seem to control my food intake. It feels as though maybe I am lacking a nutrient or something? I dunno...perhaps its useless to talk about it here since I can't seem to convey my thoughts on it.
Have a great weekend!
bitt said:

from reading your food log i am not sure what you want to get a better handle on. sounds like a pretty typical raw food diet to me.

[Angie]

If you're exercising (didn't you mention you're training for a marathon?), then you probably need AT LEAST as many calories as you're already eating - maybe more? Also, you've probably heard it before, but muscle really DOES weigh more than fat, so if you're exercising, then your current weight may just be a healthier weight for your body. Mainstream diet programs will tell you to "just eat less & exercise more" but that's not always the best solution. If you were eating 5,000 calories per day & not exercising, then that would probably be something to consider. It sounds like you're feeling well, so I don't understand the problem, unless it's that you're just not used to needing to eat as much bulk & it seems strange/unfamiliar - I used to think I was eating a ton of food all the time, but calorie-wise it wasn't nearly as much as I ate before and so I needed to eat more often. From what you've written, it doesn't look like you're eating too much food.

Amie Sue said:

I feel as though I eat to much food and I can't seem to control it. I am 5'3 and 125 lbs. I would like to get down to 115lbs but struggle to break that platau. Seems obvious to cut calories and increase exercising....but like I said I can't seem to control my food intake. It feels as though maybe I am lacking a nutrient or something? I dunno...perhaps its useless to talk about it here since I can't seem to convey my thoughts on it.
Have a great weekend!
bitt said:

from reading your food log i am not sure what you want to get a better handle on. sounds like a pretty typical raw food diet to me.

[Tiffany]

Honestly, I say this in love.....you worry too much...go have fun and eat some more fruits and vegs....you do not have a prob!

[Amie Sue]

Thanks guys, perhaps it boils down to the fact that I am not use to such bulk in food and I feel like I am over eating. I read such mixed reviews on how many calories I ought to take in for my current height and weight that it gets confusing as to who or what to believe. Maybe too, because all of the extra fruit that I have brought into my diet is causing some bloating, that perhaps that makes me feel over stuffed and as if I am eating to much. I eat till I am full, well full but it doesn't feel satisfying enough, even though I am full, I want more of "something"....ever experience that feeling? That is why I thought maybe I was lacking some fat or some other nutrient.

I appreciate all of the advice and thoughts. I will continue to monitor what my body is doing and try to feed / fuel it appropriately. I am training to do a marathon, that is my end goal...I am a goal person and need it to push myself. Ever since I was a child I have always wished I could run a marathon or do a triathlon. So at the young age of 37, I decided it's about time to make those dreams come true. Now, I am not running 10 miles a day but I have introduced walking/running/rebounding and biking in my daily routine. I try to do at least one of them a day.

In the past month I have brought in more fruit than I ever have and in the past 3 1/2 months I have been regular with my exercises....I missed my period this month and last months was very wacky. I am not pregnant, so I am wondering if it's due to the increased and steady exercising. And/or if the decreased fat in my diet has made an effect. Any of you experience this? When I was in my late teens I would up to 6 mths without my period when I exercised heavily.

Then to top it all off, I have been getting nauseous everyday...again not pregnant (tested this morning) I would like to blame my supplements and vitamins but I have been taking them steadily for a year now...sooooo

Don't I sound like a basket case? lol I don't mean to, just trying to sort things out and those of you who chose to read this get an ear full. hehe

Ok, enough about all that. Blessings to all! amie sue