Tired Equals Hunger

It's not physical, stomach hunger, but more of a craving, head hunger that I am experiencing in this moment when I feel extraordinarily sleepy and sleep is not an option.  I crave sweet things (but I don't eat sugar).  Second on my crave list is carbs.  Do carbs give you more energy?  I ran out of certain vitamins this week, and that may be part of why I'm so tired.  I have to wait until my next pay to buy more.  I should really stock up.  Lesson learned. 

JIll, I have discovered the same thing. "Fatigue eating" was one of my patterns for many years - during college, raising kids, long work hours....any time that I wasn't able or willing to admit that I needed sleep. Some how, in my value system for a long time, needing to sleep was a weakness. (Not true any more, by the way).

But even now, I have to be very careful. In my pre op days I could rationalize eating sugar AND carbs (both as energy foods, right?), as well as loading up on caffeine.

Stress eating lurks out there too.

As for the vitamins, I have made a few switches that are easier on the wallet - got the large container of calcium citrate from Costco and also got one-a-day for my multivitamin. I am able to swallow pills without any problem so these made sense for me.

There are researches that suggest strongly that people who do not get the proper amount of rest for their bodies (less than 7/8 hours) are overweight and largely due to the fact that we crave more food to offset being tired (carbs being one of the main things craved), yes, they give us a rush of energy, but then we crash and burn, which becomes cylcle.  I find that some vitamins I can get cheaper buying the store brands, found the calcium comprable to citracal petites at Target for a lot less than the citracal version, though I prefer GNCs zip sublingual b12 and usually load up on that when they have buy one, get one 1/2 off. . .

So, yes, food cravings come as a result of fatigue. . .

Well, as it turns out, not only was I out of vitamins, but I was also premenstrual.  Jeez, will this menopause thing ever end?  I had two periods last month and now here it is again.  I had gone 6 months without a period and thought I was finally done.  If this keeps up, I'm going back on the pill!!!