Hungry or Just Thirsty?

When I told my G.P. that I was on a diet, one of her instructions was for me to drink at least 2 liters of water per day. I quite did not understand the reason why I had to pay so much attention on the amount of water I had to drink but after some research the recommendation became clear. Apparently, many of us confuse thirst and hunger. 37% of people mistake hunger for thirst because the thirst mechanism is very weak. When that happens, the body is led to think that it needs food when what it is really asking for is water. To make things worse, the symptoms of dehydration such as feeling weak, dizzy and cranky are very similar to the signals of hunger.

The good news is that you don’t necessarily have to wait until you are really thirsty to grab a drink. Generally, the thirst mechanism kicks in when you are around 1 to 2 % dehydrated. If you stock up on water all day long, you can avoid this, and as a consequence, it will help you to avoid overeating. A good tip I heard was to drink a glass of water when you feel hungry, and then wait for 10 minutes. If you are still hungry after these 10 minutes, go ahead and eat. If not, then that glass of water was all that your body needed.

I am getting bored of my breakfasts lately. I need to dig deep and try to find some alternative solutions to my egg/fruit/cereal staples. Today I had half of an apple, a scrambled egg, a tiny Persian sausage, a Brazil nut, and coffee with milk.


I am about to finish my first box of all bran buds. It went pretty quick and I am pretty happy with it. I will see if I can find a fiber substitute so I don’t get sick of it.






I had a DanActive, a blood orange, and a coffee as snacks.


I had for lunch some chicken and some pork leftovers from Sunday, and some yucca.













Dinner today was composed of lentil soup, a tiny bite of chocolate cake and some hot chocolate.


I have noticed that I behave very well during the day but when it comes to dinner time, I usually don’t do a very good job at. I have plenty of excuses but the most frequent one is “I went out for dinner”. It is not as bad as it used to be, I have to admit, but I still have a long way to go. Lately I have been practicing the following two arts:

The art of sharing (I don’t really need to eat an entire main course or appetizer, nor dessert)

The art of controlling (I don’t need the second glass of wine even though is second nature for me)

Another issue that I have noticed on my diet is the amount of time I spend sleeping. I need to force myself to go to bed earlier so I can have enough time to sleep and rest. I am feeling very tired when I wake up in the morning, which is preventing me to go to the gym. During the weekend I face the same issue. I should force myself to stay in bed or not do much until I am fully rested. I will try to work on that.

The aftermath for today:

1083 calories
5 cups of water
6 hours of sleep
0 minutes of exercise