Fat

[madrun]

As I said in the last post, I've gained 20 pounds since I quit smoking. I have a very good diet. We eat tons of vegetables, healthy meat, and almost all of our treats are homemade and loaded with good fats, fruit, and whole grains. I just eat too much. My "full" sensation seems to be broken. I overeat to the point of discomfort at almost every meal

Comments

[baronessv]

I'm wicked touchy about anyone evangelizing about diet or weight loss or anything, so I'm going to write this very firmly from the camp of "I have noticed my body does this, and this thing is working for me. If any of this sounds familiar, please feel free to explore these options/ask me more questions." And if not, just take it as my own musings on my relationship with food :)

I did Atkins for YEARS, and lost around 100 lbs, and also discovered my issues with wheat in the process. When I moved back to Boston, weird social pressures got me eating carbs (rice and corn) again, and over the course of 6 years I gained all my weight back. I KNOW that I, personally, have a hard time cutting myself off from starchy carbs. I don't have a sweet tooth, but put me in front of a bowl of rice and I'll eat it all and ask for another. I'll eat a giant plate of nachos on my own. And I'll feel overfull and shitty afterwards, but there's a satisfied "high" that comes with eating those empty carbs. They're a drug to me, masquerading as food, and I can justify my drug habit because I need food to live, right?
So...I am not really invested (personally) in losing weight at this point, but I AM interested in breaking my carb addiction and having more energy. I've poked around at some things and discovered Whole30 (I won't link, but it's an easy Google find) which some friends of mine have tried and found useful. I decided to give it a go to try & break the carb addiction and also to hopefully narrow down some lingering intolerances. Despite cutting out wheat, I continue to have digestive issues. I'm hoping I can figure it out.
Anyway, I started Sep 1, and so far it's been pretty okay. I already didn't eat bread/wheat products, which people seem to report as being the hardest to give up. For me it's been alcohol :/ Mostly because its such a huge part of my social life. But whatever, I can be a hermit for a month.
I do feel different already. Less bloated, more energy, rarely hungry*. And yesterday I "cheated," went to P.F. Chang's w/coworkers and ordered from the GF menu. But man, just the little bits of corn starch, potato starch, corn syrup, and soy I know I ingested threw me for a huge loop. I had a massive headache within an hour and where I've been not-physically-hungry until 5-6 hours after my other meals this week, I was *starving* within 2 hours of that one. It was a crazy noticeable difference.
So that's what I'm up to. I get a little depressed about the idea that I really do need to go cold turkey on certain things to keep myself healthy. Never eating a potato chip again? That makes me want to cry. But fuck, I guess it's better than being a heroin addict who can't ever use heroin again. I *can* still eat really amazingly tasty foods, I just know I need to not have that special serotonin high that's triggered by a big batch of nachos be a part of my life anymore.

* As a side note, the "rarely hungry" thing has actually been slightly problematic, in that I've noticed that I get the low-blood-sugar crankies about 5 hours after eating, even though I'm not getting the usual my-stomach-is-empty-put-it-in-my-belly physical warning.