Weight Loss

I'm a college student and so usually I don't get a lot of sleep, yesterday at around 4pm I got pretty drowsy and decided to take a nap before my 6pm class. After I woke up I had this insane craving for sweet junk. So I stuffed my face with some old oreo cookies that had been sitting in the pantry for a couple of weeks. Does that happen to anyone else? Taking a nap and then being irrationally craving something?

Low blood sugars..   They'll contribute to your feelings of fatigue and drowsiness.  Then when you wake up you've had another 2 hours of no food so they're even lower and your body will send you on a sugar hunt to get them back up again.  Not 'irrational craving' but predictable physical response...

Try to get more sleep as a first safeguard.  If you're tired, try to eat/snack regularly and keep your fluids up.  Choose wholesome, nutritious foods as they will help keep the blood-sugars more stable than starchy, sugary or processed foods.  Watch your iron intake since low iron stores cause fatigue too.  Fluids help prevent drowsiness.  Try not to nap mid-day if you can help it but go to bed earlier that night...

That makes a lot of sense. I usually try not to take naps. The thing is, yesterday I ate pretty well: I had Whole wheat toast and an apple for breakfast, home made cabbage soup with rice for lunch, cottage cheese and fruit for a snack (a while before I fell asleep). But I still woke up, like you said, with low blood sugar. I'm a vegetarian, so maybe my iron intake is too low? Or is there something that is really wrong with my diet?

Like a lot of vegetarians you're not getting a lot of protein.  Plus your whole day was rather 'calorie-light' so you basically ran out of gas/energy.  The rice at lunch is a very simple starch which turns to sugar quite quickly and fruit, of course, is sugary as well.   Low energy intake plus high sugar/starch meals and you're heading for the sofa!!

Try having a couple of whole eggs with your breakfast toast, spread on some peanut butter and maybe follow up with some yoghurt as well as the fruit  If there were some beans and oil in the cabbage soup at lunchtime & if the rice was brown rice that would help too.   Bananas are a good slow-release snack.   And if you get yourself a generous bag of nuts and raisins to nibble as snacks between meals, that would considerably help your protein intake and also improve your energy levels.

Thanks Jane for your advice! I am certainly going to try and apply it.  I already had eggs with whole wheat toast for breakfast.

Yea, I take naps after class constantly, sleep is good! ha ha! The thing is though, my classes end at around 4 or 5 daily so I come back, take a nap, then wake up and make dinner - so I tend to just eat dinner food and I typically tell myself what I am going to have for dinner that morning so I don't get side tracked by anything else... Since you do have a 6 o'clock class though I would try and prepare snacks that you can bring to class just in case you do get hungry - hard boiled eggs, slices turkey breast, cherry tomatoes, bell pepper slices - things like that will hold you over until you can get a real meal in your system! No more stale Oreo Cookies for you - did you finish the bag? If so, DON'T buy anymore so you won't be tempted! 

Yes, I did finish the bag actually haha! But, like you said, I decided not to buy any more cookies, gonna stick to having healthy snacks like fruits, peanut butter, etc. I also work at a starbucks, so I really get my fill of temptation there, and so there is no need to have extra temptation at home!