Journal entry: listening ears

Last night, I heard myself say, "Hmm, a cup of herbal tea would be really relaxing." Instead, I had two desserts and some candy and felt more anxious than ever.

IE Fail!

So, I think it's time for a journal entry to pay a little better attention.

It is important to note that we are in the process of doing a very mild version of sleep training with my dear 16 month old. She is fighting us all the way and waking up a lot at night so I am pretty exhausted. I know this can have a great effect on my eating habits so I am going to try my best!

Breakfast 9:30am
Hungry and tired. I succumb and have a cup of coffee at work. On mornings like this, even if coffee makes me a little wiry, I need to be perky at work. I do think I need to experiment with tea and see if it does perk me up enough with the edginess. But, coffee with cream and sugar it is.
To eat, I have a granola bar and a banana. I have recently noticed that my actual meals are fairly small (usually I'd just have a yogurt for breakfast) and then am hungry within two hours. Let's see how a larger breakfast does.
I also have my giant water cup filled to the brim! Ice cold water is one of my favorite things and I know I feel much better when I am well-hydrated.
Update: definitely had some heart palpitations from the coffee. Too much caffeine! In an attempt to listen to my poor, over-caffeinated body, eliminating coffee from the diet, especially when there isn't much food in my system.

Lunch 11:50am
Tried to wait as long as possible but now definitely hungry! Guess that breakfast didn't cut it. I need to go back to more protein in the mornings for sure. Also, the extra caffeine has me a little shaky. For lunch, I have carrots with ranch for dipping, a chicken sandwich with bbq sauce, and sour cream & onion chips. Definitely excited about this lunch and bigger than I normally would have (originally, I only planned for the sandwich).
I ate all of the sandwich and chips and a few carrots but the carrots seemed to hurt my stomach. I have had this problem with raw carrots before. I feel like I eat them because they're "healthy" but they don't typically agree with me. Pass. I feel fairly satisfied although totally craving something sweet to end my meal.
This is a tough thing for me. Sweets don't necessarily sate my physical hunger but feed a habit and emotional need. Without them, I feel a tad of restricting but with them I feel a bit of guilt. I think there is a happy medium in there with enjoying sweets but not using them as a comfort measure.
I decide on a piece of brownie that a coworker brought in. I really savored the first two bites and then, interestingly, felt satisfied. I am kind of eyeing the other chunk but will wrap it up for later!

1:25pm
Feeling a little hungry, so I decide to finish my brownie for a little energy boost before I hit the gym! Yum!

3:30pm
Back from the gym and cooled off after doing some work (no, I wasn't at the gym for 2 hours!). Hungry and debating on a snack, decide on an apple since that sounded good for the last little while. I'm not sure whether it will keep me full but I'll start here! About 30 minutes later, still hungry so decide on a greek berry yogurt with granola and a cup of tea. Hopefully this will hold me until dinner!

Dinner 7pm
Hungry! Spaghetti with meat sauce and garlic bread. I ate my serving and 2 pieces of bread. It was delicious and I felt satisfied but not stuffed. I had a Pepsi with dinner in hopes my headache would go away but to no avail.

Later in the evening, my mother-in-law made a cake. My husband gave me a bite of his and I found myself totally satisfied with that one bite. It helped that I was busy with the baby but I was a little surprised I didn't feel the need to have a big dessert tonight.