Last Tuesday wing night, I explained what I've been doing with my diet over the past month. It's such a complicated thing that I find hard to explain in one sitting, one paragraph, one breath.
Background:
- For the past couple of years, I've been exercising and trying to eat well, but have not lost weight much, and often have gained for no clear reason to me. In a nutshell, it's been frustrating.
- I have been feeling really crappy physically for a while. Just not healthy feeling, unexplainably tired, even though I didn't feel like I was making terrible choices all the time to warrant how bad I felt.
- Exercise was becoming more and more difficult. Performance in things has been declining. It's been a struggle to do things that were once a given.
- I have palindromic rheumatism and have had more problems with my hands hurting the past year.
- I have super high cholesterol, even though I exercise and "eat right". Doctor has recommended medicine, which may just be what needs to happen...but I want one last try to control it.
Closer to now:
- My uncle came to town hyping a couple books he read about calories, the way we eat, and carbohydrates/sugars.
- Timing was interesting, given how much I had been thinking about everything recently, trying to figure out what to do.
- I decided to read
Why We Get Fat and What We Can Do About It by Gary Taubes.
- I decided that I agreed with nearly everything in this book, that the science was encouraging and that I should change the way I eat to see how my body would react.
Current:
- I became a living science experiment. I cut out carbs and sugar from my diet around the second week of November. I also increased fat.
- I went through 2 weeks of really feeling awful. I felt like I had the flu. No energy. Dizzy. Disconnected. I got my period in the middle of my cycle. I was irritable. My hormones felt all over the place. I could barely muster a shuffle when running. I slept like crap.
- Thanksgiving happened....I ate some sugar and paid for it the next couple of days feeling off and with headaches.
- I now feel pretty adjusted. I am eating less than 30 carbs a day, probably in nutritional ketosis, and am feeling really really good. My workouts are back to what they were.
Things that have changed:
1. Food tastes different and better. It's more satisfying. It tastes more like food than just substance I'm filling up on.
2. I haven't over-eaten at all since I've been eating more fat. (!!!)
3. I have a constant energy throughout the day and don't feel the crashes I used to feel in the afternoon.
4. I've changed shape. I've lost weight, but mostly I notice my belly shrinking.
5. My hands don't hurt anymore. (!!!) Could be a coincidence, but it's interesting and notable nonetheless.
6. Eating is so much more satisfying now, and I'm never ravenous like I used to be. Hunger is completely controlled. It's awesome and I don't feel like a slave to food anymore.
7. Cravings are way less. In fact, the only cravings I'm having now is still for something sweet after some meals. But I can manage those.
Soooooo that's what is happening. I'm still adjusting, and experimenting. I'm trying to figure out what alcohol I can enjoy a bit of. I've been having a beer maybe once a week. I've tried bourbon, which I love, but feel pretty bad after drinking that. Vodka seems to work out ok. But mostly, just drinking one drink is an improvement anyway.
I'm anxious to see how much weight I can lose, if I keep losing weight or not. And I'm anxious to see if my performance gets better or stays the same. I hope it doesn't deteriorate. I think there will need to be some playing around with eating some low GI carbs before long excursions. We'll see.
The Plan:
To track everything here so I can refer to it as needed.
I'm already feeling way better physically and am starting to also see the mental side as well. My uncle kept talking about a clarity. I think I'm beginning to feel that as well.
So...onward. It's a new journey that I'm pretty excited about.
