The Hypo Foodie

To tell you the truth, my fellow hypofoodie, the reason I didn't write for a really long time is a feeling of guilt. It didn't feel right to write or suggest anything to someone else on the web when in fact, I had to counsel myself first. I am coming clean now: I have been (and still am) struggling with carbohydrate addiction. 

"What on earth is that? Another fad diet? Come on! Everybody's gotta eat, even carbs!"

My egocentric belly.

Hear me now: I am not saying I want to cut on carbs to loose weight; I am saying I have been binge eating refined carbs too long to ignore it anymore. I understand now that it has been a way to cope with emotions and poor diet, hence the guilt on writing a blog on how to deal with hypoglycemia.

"Booo ya! For Ambrosia`s sake! Carbs are good! You love them; pasta, corn chips, salsa, potato chips! Even the boring soda and Ritz crackers! Those are your comfort foods!"
My (surpisingly) greek-mythology-schooled belly.

Comfort food alright. But comfort from what? That is a good question, one that I haven`t completely answered yet on this journey I have undertaken, but it is of a clearly psychological and physiological nature.

"Hey there! You are hypoglycemic! You need to eat in the evening or else you wake up at night in sweats!"
My gut feeling belly.

Wrong. Or rather, half wrong. An evening snack might be required, but not the amount of refined carbohydrates I let myself ingest in front of the tv or a good book. And, get this: if my husband wanted some, I was "hangry" ( you are familiar with the hypo pun, I assume ) because "I need it in order to sleep well"! Plus, I really couldn`t control myself; I had to have the whole huge bowl of popcorn to "binge" myself to sleep. I even sometimes hid in the car to eat potato chips undisturbed. Those are certainly the signs of an addiction.

If you are hypoglycemic and suffering from a food addiction, read on to see the experience and understanding I have gained of how the two of them mesh together.

Quite frankly, when hypoglycemic, it is rather obvious, or at least predictable, that you will fall in a pattern of eating the "wrong" foods to pick yourself up and get am energy high. It is also very probable that the symptoms will put you in a depressive state, either fleeting or permanent. All of this puts you at a very high risk of falling in for the very foods you should avoid.

Being my own subject of a somewhat scientific study, I am amazed to see how unaware I was of my subconscious's grasp on my habits. What made my condition difficult to discern is the fact that I was on track all day: lots of vegetables and no sugar anywhere near me. I only had the occasional fruit, and lots of fibers. But all this went down the drain in the evening, when I let my guard down. What triggered my suspicions is the 2 weeks I took my blood sugar level daily. I was surprised to see how high it went after eating what I thought was a healthy hypoglycemic snack: multi-grain pretzels with a good amount of protein. I grudgingly tried not snacking in the evening for a week to see what would happen. I expected to wake up at night because I felt hungry (which has happened a lot in the passed years), but actually, I slept rather well, and on the occasions that I woke up, I just tried to relax to calm down and went back to sleep.

So, that "digestive coma" I slept in wasn't helping me regulate my blood sugar level, but just numbed me from the things that hindered my sleep in the first place (enters the emotions). I also later perceived that when I needed a nap in the afternoon, if a bit hungry, I would refrain from eating because nothing woke me up better than to snack on some fruit and protein. So instead of adressing the low I was in ( which made me feel tired and in need of a nap ), I postponed the snack and encouraged a bigger blood sugar spike.

So, I sat down and talked to my husband about what I had come to understand. I suppose you will not be surprised if I explained that 4 years ago, that "self medication" took the form of regular alcohol intake. I simply could not stop. I was addicted. Even though it was a struggle, I stopped drinking altogether after a conversation with him. But 3 months ago, I told him that I still had an addiction because my body made me crave those carbs I would eat every evening. We decided I would cut all evening snacks for a month and get through withdrawal symptoms with walks and talks. It has been life changing.  

I will finish this long post by saying that I friend of mine, also hypoglycemic, was a huge help when she inadvertently mentioned her reluctance to join hypoglycemics groups. Her own experience was that a lot of the people she met excused their addiction by blaming the fact that they were hypoglycemic. She simply could not accept this as a reason to have no self-control. This idea stuck with me a couple of weeks and made its way into enlightment; she was absolutely right. This is not to say that it is wrong to meet with people suffering from the same condition (such as hypoglycemic groups) but it is better to associate with an empowering attitude, not helpless defeat.

If you are hypoglycemic and struggle with an addiction, don't blame it on your body's reaction to sugar or blame yourself for that matter. Just aknowledge that it makes perfect sense that this is what your body will make you crave, but don't let it control you anymore. Take command of your own ship. Gradually recognize the patterns you fall into, and grow out of it one day at a time. We can do it because our bodies are smart, but our wills are stronger. Indeed, haven't you noticed my belly isn't talking anymore?