The last few days I do feel like I'm using a different energy source. And I have to keep being aware that I'm not falling into a sleep coma right after breakfast. This was so part of my life for several years, and only getting worse, that I forget that's not the norm. I am happy that I don't have that sudden dip. But I do wish my overall energy was higher. Pre this experiment, I would have low energy dips and as a result would take naps. I was so happy to hear my neighbors often took naps on the weekends, I didn't feel so abnormal. Now, I have lowish energy, but not the type that makes me want to take a nap. It's like I just don't have enough fuel, versus battling my way through a dense fog to stay awake. Hence why I do feel my body is adjusting from quick sugars to using the fats. It's nice not being on and xtreme roller coaster of ups and downs. My peaks and valleys are leveling out, I just need to move the entire line up.
I did some reading and, obviously, not everyone is on the same exact schedule. But also that maybe I should still be experimenting with my meals. I haven't had the food boredom that some have, I think in part because I am eating the foods I normally I eat, just in larger quanties since I don't have the cheap baked goods or grains to fill me up. After the first few days, I did scale back a bit on my meat portion size. What really is a palm size? I really wish it would be in a weight measurement because I'm crap at estimating. I started thinking that two chicken breasts were three portions if looking at my palm. And eating two eggs were my norm, so I fell back to that.
I found this useful article, geared for paleo diets, but a lot of overlap, http://paleoleap.com/energy-paleo/
And it's giving me a few things to test out. Yesterday and today I've tried increasing my portion size of meat. Not too much of an effect. One thing I've been reading is increasing fats. I think I include the right amount of fats but maybe not. I've learned that the fat benefits of olive oil diminishes when cooking. So I think I'll try adding a tablespoon of coconut oil. I bought a jar of it a few months back for a recipe and thought I would be stuck with a speciality ingredient I'd be stuck with but I'm really using it a bunch. I'm trying trial and error of each suggestion in isolation so I can better understand the effects of food on me. Nothing like being systematic.
In the meantime, I am happy that I am not as lethargic. I want to be doing more stuff, and just find that I need to pace myself and take breaks. I've also noticed that my appetite is back. That's the main contributor to wanting to eat non-whole30 foods. It will be getting close to dinner and I just don't want to be chopping and fixing dinner. I think this speaks to my nice lifestyle where I've never had to be the homemaker and make sure there is dinner on the table every. single. night. I love cooking but some days I don't want to and I realize that's when I would hit some dairy. Last night I just wanted to fix a quick bowl of yogurt and jam. Because it was quick and easy. It was a strange observation, since my dinner was leftovers that just needed to be microwaved. But maybe I was tired with the left overs?
I've been noticing my stomach is hungry sometimes between meals. And this is after trying to figure out if it is just a craving cloaked in the hunger signal. But I get it sometimes after finishing a meal. So that's another thing to work on still - portion sizes. Reading, it seems like most people are experiment the rhythms of three meals and feeling satiated in between. I have that some days but not always.
The last change is my sleep, specifically my dreams. The last several days, people often dream about off foods like sweets. For me food doesn't seem to feature in the dreams and the dreams are quite strong and not always neutral. I wonder if this is effecting my sleep. Some nights, I crawl into bed befor 9 PM, other times I'm up until 11 PM. I'm all over the place with my sleep and usually I'm pretty regular with when I go to sleep and when I wake up. Now I wake up at different times each morning. I can't remember when this happened to last. I was so consistent in the past, that I knew when daylight savings was coming up because my wake time would slowly adjust an hour, in alignment with dawn and the birds.
And finally my drinking has adjusted. I only drink water. I've not drunk tea or juice or smoothies. And I used to always have odwalla or OJ in my fridge along with a cranberry juice. But reading about the sugars and processed fruit smoothies, I decided to go with just water. I still get bored with it sometimes, but am so surprised still how drinking one glass shifts my quiet cravings. I'm still about six 16 ounce glasses per day. I keep track of them on my fridge - I have six magnets in a vertical line and I move one over each time I down a glass. I rarely have a drink after dinner. And that seems to help with the night sleeping. Half the time I sleep through the night without having to get up. Oh, and I almost forgot, I've brought my salt shaker back into rotation. I was almost exclusively using ground sea salt with ground pepper, but read that the iodine in table salt can be beneficial.
And that's about all to report for now. I'm happy I'm about half way through since I'm curious about what foods effect me which way and want to xperiment with reintroduction. The one thing I can't find much on is sugar. As I mentioned I'm looking forward to be free of sugars hold but I also do want to enjoy a nice quality sweet every now and then. What is the tips for eating sugars? I'd hate to have one slice of cake for a birthday celebration and this leads to falling off the wagon. Is there a ratio of non-sugar days for every teaspoon of sugar consumed? Like it takes a day for every hour of jet lag. Still researching the sugar quandary. Luckily I still have a couple weeks left.
No comments:
Post a Comment