The tradeoff to looking fit

There are so many benefits to gain from having a fit lifestyle. Better health, stronger physique, improved endurance, a happier mood and the most coveted of all -- better-looking body. Sculpted abs and toned limbs - probably 95% of the people who are into fitness aim for this and you all know I am one of them. Working out and eating clean gave me all these benefits but unfortunately it's still a raging battle between me and the sculpted body. One slip through a buffet meal can erase all the marks of hard work from your body. It's no secret that I want a body as toned as an athlete or the abs of a victoria's secret model so I try to workout and eat clean consistently, but when life gets busy or once cravings start I can no longer exercise as frequently as before. And then I get frustrated and feel fat immediately. I get pressured whenever there is a gathering which involves good food. Sometimes it's difficult for me to decide if I should just stay home and exercise or go to dinner with my friends. It's affecting my social health. 

Don't get me wrong. I don't blame fitness or all of it. It's my high expectations. I aim for the body of someone who makes a living from maintaining a toned and fit body while I am just a humble student who tries to juggle the lab and other parts of life. Clearly, my goal doesn't align with my lifestyle. I have to sort this out. Definitely, I won't give up this healthy lifestyle but I need to take it easy. I have to enjoy food, fat, and cravings from time to time or else I will feel deprived. I need to accept the fact that I don't need a sculpted set of abs in order to be successful in my profession. I need to lower my standards.

Am I on a growth spurt or what?

Okay. I have a situation. My digestion is on a roll nowadays. I AM ALWAYS HUNGRY.

Any food that I eat -- rice, oatmeal, fruits, fruit juice, milk -- makes my stomach full for only 1 hour. After that grace period, I start looking for food. 

HIIT and BURN - Okay this is my first hypothesis. There are several articles and studies claiming that High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) can burn calories for up to 38 hours after a workout which means the metabolism also spikes up during that time frame. I didn't believe it at first, but I think I do now because I really get hungry the next day after my workout. And it's not even psychological because I really hear my stomach growl for food. 

EXPERIMENTS I am preparing for an upcoming conference in December which means my lab work is on its high nowadays. I don't want to call it cramming but I want to present the best set of results and a really good progress to the conference so I've been doing a lot of experiments on weekdays and even on weekends. My work really requires physical labor so I suspect that the hunger pangs mean that my body needs more fuel to function. 

COLD WEATHER This is not a valid hypothesis since I workout at home with a good heating system and it's not even winter yet. Haha. But I want hot coffee and baked sweet potato all the time. (Just saying) 

And just to clear it up: I never starve myself. I eat every time I feel hungry and that is the problem. I try my best to pack sweet potatoes and buy the friggin $2 banana from the convenience store but I cannot make sure that I'm eating healthy all the time. But if I don't monitor my snacks I'm gonna lose all the progress - NO! The best that I can do is learn to curb my hunger because I cannot remember the last time I felt full from a proper amount of meal and that banana is so expensive.