What are/were your early sobriety eating patterns?
 

Just curious... this is my longest stretch sober in 2 years and I've forgotten how long my eating was out of whack last time.

So far I couldn't really eat much my first week and a half (withdrawal plus a pretty messed up stomach)... then I ate gigantic meals for about 3 weeks. Then it seemed like things went back to normal, but for the last few days (I'm on day 58) I've been starving again.

Interesting thing is I seem to be alternating between fuzzy brain stretches and hungry stretches. I wish I could just have a neurologist following me around for the next year, I'm so curious about what's going on in there!

Anyone else having hunger swings, or had them when you first quit?

I'm day 16 and eating myself out of house and home! At least it's healthier stuff than my wine and potato chip diet! Hope it levels out.

Hey fantail, day 55 here, i have such an odd appetite lol,

I go from eating healthy and wanting nothing but veggies to getting severely hungry and I swear all I want is fried junk food and THEN ill go one or two days not hungry whatsover what the hec is that about?

I like the comment about the neurologist, id like to see what my brain is doing too, ur hungry, ur sad, ur content, ur happy, ur mad, ur indifferent, ur sad again, wait ur really hungry for junk food again! its a roller coaster

I've always eaten extremely well myself. I guess my mom drilled it into me.

I might be a bachelor, but I eat very healthy, balanced meals with lots of veggies. Salmon steak is my favorite.

Oh, and I don't snack. I hate sweets, and don't care about things like potatoe chips. Some peanuts once in a while are decent, but that's about it.

Hey fantail, I'm at 52 days and I've been paying attention to my eating habits too. I tend to eat and drink for comfort, compulsively. I was going to town on coca cola and iced cream the first few weeks but my desire for that had been tapering off. I still overdo it with coffee.
Overall I eat pretty healthy but I do go through cycles of wanting to nosh on bad stuff too. I try to go easy on myself because (within reason) it's all better than drinking alcohol.

Fantail congrats on 58 days.. :)
Im reaching 4 months & still all over the place with food. Exactly what Holds describes Is still happening for me.

sugar and more sugar! anything to keep me from taking a drink. The first 2-3 months were the worst. Lots of candy. Now that I'm almost at 10 months, I've leveled off. I'm eating healthier but still reward myself with ice cream or chocolate a couple days a week. As long as I'm not drinking, I feel ok with some imbibing!

I agree. ...sugar, sugar, and more sugar. Which is not a good idea. Your body is trying to re balance itself so you need to nourish it with healthy food. You can eat as much as you want if it's fruit and vegetables. I ended up gaining weight and had to cut out the sugar.

A flick is switched and I tend to quit everything and go extremely healthy ( I normally do eat healthily). At present, as well as alcohol, I've quit all processed sugar, coffee and have reduced my fruit intake.

While we should all be eating kale and quinoa (jk), at least stuffing yourself with food is doing your body better than stuffing it with poison. I don't fault anyone's diet if they're eating 3 squares instead of boozing.

Besides, have you ever seen how many calories are in a binge full of alcohol? Thousands.

Well, first, I actually started eating. I didn't eat much while drinking because it would just get in the way of my buzz and eventual drunkeness.

I did eat lots of hard candy early on since my body was withdrawaling from sugar as well as alcohol. I should of bought stock in the jawbreaker manufacturers.

Honestly, I'd probably be easy on yourself for a few months and concentrate on actually eating. And, hey, indulge in sugar if it helps with the cravings.

Oh my gosh, yes! I was taking in almost 1700 calories a day from vodka alone. Jeebus.

I had a craving for fruit snacks, gummy worms/bears, basically anything gummy... by the mouthful.

Jolly Ranchers hard candies. I've had about 8 today.

I never let myself get hungry--cravings went away after that first bite. Also, I had a bowl of ice cream with cookies crumbled into it every single night for the first year. For me, it was something to look forward to (and satisfied my cravings for sugar). I'm just over 2 years, and though I have ice cream often, it's no longer every day!

Congratulations on your sobriety! Keep on keeping on!

I was never into sweets before but since quitting I've been eating ice cream every day and more fruit during lunch. I figure it's better than booze and eventually it'll level off.

Sugar, sugar, and more sugar...and there's me thinking I was alone is this! First two weeks I craved it like crazy and I also ate lots and often to fill a void. Having a full stomach eased booze cravings. As I was an evening drinker I ate dinner earlier, say 5 o'clock, then grazed on sweets in the evening. On week 3 and I've found my appetite has completely gone.

Scoffing my head off!!! But I am trying to eat healthy food, lots of fish, salad, yougurt & oats.... Only really fall down with chocolate!!!!

Me too with the sugar. I never really ate a lot of sweets, was always a very healthy eater, even while drinking. I never snack but eat a balanced lunch and dinner. However, since quitting I am wanting more sweets. I satisfy it with pineapple juice and nectarines. The only thing I can't seem to control is that I wake up in the middle of the night, every night and practically sleepwalk to the kitchen for something sweet. I have bars of chocolate in the cupboard that I use for baking and I will break of one square of those and let it melt in my mouth, or this week I have been polishing off a cake I made for a dinner last weekend. I don't touch it during the day but in the middle of the night I sleepwalk into the kitchen and cut off a tiny bite or two and eat it. I then immediately return to bed and fall right back asleep.
I need to get rid of the sweets in the house, I don't like this habit. I am a big cook and baker so I don't' want to throw out all my supplies though. Hmmm….

Don't sweat it too much Mera, it will level out on it's own. I decided not to be too strict on myself with this sugar thing for a while since it helps me not crave alcohol.

Chocolate covered peanuts & raisins took them everywhere with me . Hostest little apples pies w/ that spray whipping cream . Peppermint chip ice cream . Cream soda ... Anything sweet Oh Boy - did I put some weight on Holy smoked !! Oh I can't forget those Little Debby cakes were my friends :)
Whewww finally roughly nine months ago I put myself on a low carb diet . Feel sooo much better !!!!

This is exactly like my ex boyfriend, I lived with him for 2 years; he was a personal trainer.
I learned so much from living with him, but it was rough haha

I was a chubby kid and teased relentlessly (pictures of me, and there are only a few, I don't look chubby...but the US has gotten pretty fat now so its relative I guess) mostly by my family. Put on diets at 7 on etc. So I'm paranoid about being fat. When drinking I either eat garbage or I don't eat. Usually, even after a short binge, I've gained bloat so I work to get that off through exercise and lots of water. But mostly I eat really healthy. Usually anxiety in the first week keeps me from eating too much, but then its big, healthy meals after that. I do eat some sweets but try to limit. I don't let myself get too hungry because the cravings will start if I have gone too long without food.

I've been mostly lower carb and off sugar, grains and processed food for the past five years, with some occasional exceptions like ice cream, potato chips and dark chocolate. It didn't make sense to me to be so concerned with eating healthy and then pouring all that booze into my body.

When I stopped drinking, I allowed myself lots of ice cream almost every evening and more potato chips than usual for a little over 2 months. It was enough and got me though any feelings of deprivation or cravings I was having in the beginning, but then I was starting to feel kind of crappy from all that and my weight started creeping back up. I stopped it early this week and I've already lost 5 pounds of bloat. Now I feel like I can go back to just having it every once in a while. If I want a treat, savouring a couple of pieces of quality dark chocolate satisfies me. I tend to crave salty foods more than sweets anyway.

My diet for the first 100 days was awful, but I had the ready excuse that whatever junk I was eating was still better than pouring booze down my throat by the liter. I'm working on improving my diet now. It's a process.

Thanks everyone. Sounds a lot like me. It's such a suddenly big part of my life, eating or not, hungry or not!

I guess one of the weird things is that with alcohol, I was kind of an expert on my physical reactions, because I've been so sick for so long. I knew exactly what certain physical things meant, and I had my systems. And it was all very, very messed up what becomes normal. I have had more days than I can count where I thought something along the lines of "oh good, I only threw up once this morning and the bile was pretty pale, I'll be fine on this hike".

So now my body's doing all kind of weird and different things, and it's so much better. But it's out of my ken so it's fascinating me. I'm googling everything. And asking here too of course. :) Thanks for sharing your thoughts with me!

Chocolate, anything with chocolate the first two weeks. I actually ate enough for a family of 4 the first couple of weeks! I figured I was already denying myself the wine and that was all I could mentally handle at the moment and didn't want to make it any more difficult.

It seemed to just level out on its own after that. I enjoy eating healthy with an occasional "bad" food day here or there. So, I'm eating pretty good now usually, but had a steak and cheese with a side of fries the other night......but I declined the Klondike Bar after, so I got that going for me!

And I have to say, food tastes much better now....I actually enjoy it instead just shoving it in to soak up some alcohol, and I remember eating it! WINNING!

I am on day 6 and wanting to eat everything in sight. At the moment I am enjoying it until my waistband tells me otherwise :a043:

I was anorexic when I was drinking my normal. When I quit alcohol, i started eating very small amounts of food. Then my health came back to normal, and yeah, i was starving. And ate too much. I deprived my body drinking. My body and mind was a mess from all of it. Ive noticed U have to have a length of sobriety and then normal eating will come with that. The alcohol messed me up so bad. One time I kept track drinking heavily, Id eat only one time in 7 days. Another time I was on a binge, I know nobody will believe this is possible...but I didnt eat for an entire month. Id eat one cracker in a weeks time and just pound beer for food along with whiskey. Today I am always hungry! Alcohol really messes with my stomach and appetite. I also now suffer today, from hurting my stomach with the long binges and no food.

The first few days I didn't have much of an appetite. However, once it came back, it came back full force. I was hungry all the time and craved sweets. I actually ordered a case of bags of Chewy Spree from Amazon to keep around to satisfy the cravings. I also ate a lot of spicy food. I attribute that to being able to eat it again once my stomach stopped being destroyed from the drinking.