Well, I fell off the blogging map because I started The Whole Life Challenge and was dedicating my focus to that. The Challenge wasn't strictly Paleo, but had strong Paleo foundations. I was doing it because I really wanted to prove to myself that I could commit to the challenge aspect of it and take my nutrition to the next level in terms of health and clean eating.
I didn't want to lose any weight, but was hoping for more strength and muscle definition. I put my heart, soul and dedication into it and followed the program as prescribed. Basically three weeks in I couldn't ignore the bad things that were happening to my body. Right out of the gate I lost four pounds and then my strength started to nosedive. I was extremely weak and fatigued. My blood sugars fell through the floor. This was not supposed to happen!! I couldn't understand (and still can't) how cutting out breads and sugars could have such an adverse affect on my body. I was eating a ton of veggies, good fats, fruits, meats, eggs and even yogurt and felt more weak and sick with each passing day. The day my blood sugar was the worst I reported to my boss what I had eaten and he said it didn't make any sense why it would be so low. That I had eaten plenty of the right things.
I went off the Challenge about a week ago and have just been eating normally in moderation. I have gained 7 pounds in ONE WEEK as a result. I lost 50 pounds years ago just eating the way I have this past week (in moderation) and now I am gaining weight at about a pound a day?! I am so confused! I went to the doctor on Friday and they ran about 11 different blood tests on me to try and figure out what is going on.
Ever since my teenage years where I tried every diet known to man, I had always been very much against diets. But I made a concession with this because I didn't see it as a diet, I saw it as a lifestyle shift towards clean eating, not dieting. All I know is I am never doing any kind of program ever again. I hope this hasn't permanently messed my body up and I hope the weight gain will taper off and I can get it back to where my starting weight was just by making smart choices.
I am anxious to get the results of my blood tests back to see if the diet triggered an underlying issue or if it was just the diet itself. Either way the whole experience was extremely disappointing.
2 comments:
Sarah, the problem with eating no crabs in the form of grains is that you lose all the sugar from your muscle stores. That is why people lose weight very quickly on no/low carb diets. Once you eat carbs again your muscles want to hang on to the glucose in case you take it away.
Our family has done a lot of research on clean eating and grains vs no grains, diary vs no dairy, meat vs no meat. What we ultimately decided was to follow the word of wisdom. Whole grains and legumes make up about 1/2 our diet while fruits and veggies make up the rest. We eat meat sparingly and in much moderation.
We have no medical issues prohibiting dairy or gluten so we just follow the rule of thumb, all things in moderation.
I hope you get to feeling better soon. Your body will catch up!
Becky, thanks so much for your thoughts! That makes sense and was basically how I have eaten on my own in the past and had success. I have not been much of a carnivore, so doing the protein push was a bit of an adjustment. This whole thing has taught me, if it isn't broken, don't fix it! ;)
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