I’ve been unofficially conducting an experiment since yesterday morning. As mentioned in the last post, I had started coming down with laryngitis or something since Saturday night. So from Sat night until yesterday evening, I fasted for 21 hours. By the end of those 21 hours, my symptoms were gone.
However, I ate dairy last night, plus broke my low carb regime (purposely). I broke the fast with some whole wheat pasta and cheese. And sat back to wait to see what would happen next.
Within an hour, my laryngitis symptoms had returned. Not quite to the extent that they were earlier in the day, however… so a few hours later, I had some organic cottage cheese and chicken. Within an hour the symptoms got worse.
I was very curious and had already blown my low carb diet, so I decided to continue my experiment into today. I woke up with a hoarse voice (not too bad but noticeable). Through the course of the morning, I had only fruit, but very little of it at a time (so as to not mess up my blood sugar levels). At 8:30am I had 6 ounces of blackberries. A couple hours later I had an apple. A couple hours after that I had a few slices of star fruit. The most interesting thing is that through the course of the morning, I felt better and better.
And then… I had lunch: grilled chicken breast and boiled spinach, rainbow chard and bok choy. (A nice combo, by the way). Here it is an hour and a half later, and I have developed a tiny bit of a sore throat. But other than that I am OK. My voice is OK and I have lots of energy. My lower stomach however did puff out a bit, most likely to digest the meat and veggies.
I wonder what would happen if I had some dairy? Or carbs? Actually, I know what would happen… I’d start feeling like crap again!
Since eliminating certain things from my diet over the past couple of months and going from low carb to mostly raw to fruit to “clean organic” and currently hovering in a “who knows what the hell I’m doing” phase, I’ve actually learned a LOT about myself! In a way I’ve been conducting an experiment to see how my body responds to different types of foods. Here is what I’ve discovered:
1. My digestive system prefers – hands down – fruit more than anything else. I’m talking from top to bottom – esophagus, stomach, intestines, colon. (Sorry if TMI).
2. My blood sugar, on the other hand, prefers low carb foods and protein. It seems OK with small servings of fruit at a time though. I also had surprisingly stable blood sugar during my fast.
3. My conscience prefers me to be a vegetarian.
4. The emotional, spiritual and mental parts of me prefer me to be a fruitarian and raw foodist.
5. My metabolism seems to prefer me to be a low carbist.
Very interesting conclusions… but what on earth kind of bottom line could I draw from this? I wish all parts of me pointed to the same type of eating habits/lifestyle. But they don’t. I truly believe that this is one major reason that has kept me bouncing from one plan to another for so long. (Another reason is listed below).
I’m not sure what to do at this point but going back to excessive amounts of meat and dairy just doesn’t sound very appealing to me! So I really don’t know what do do.
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I would think the most important thing should be your health…i.e.; digestion, blood-sugar, metabolism. You can lay off the dairy if you’d like, just do nuts, seeds, fruit (in moderation) chicken & fish..if you dont like eggs, cant you stomach just boiled egg whites? I am not a big egg fan either but I do have 2-4 boiled whites a day for energy/protein. I dont get a whole lot of dairy, just mozzarella string cheese because I love it. I still recommend a protein drink thats low in carbs-you MUST try a shake called “Oh Yea” and they make it in vanilla and chocolate. Like 32 grams of protein & 4-6 carbs & they actually taste good!!
hey good to hear you’re feeling better!
anyway i learned pretty much the same. as soon as i feel the first symptoms like sore throat, headache and stuff i start to drink a lot of organic tea, water with vitamineC tablets and orange juice and eat pretty much nothing, apart from some raw/steamed veggies and a bit of fruit. and guess what? i feel better in only one day. if you felt sick after eating cheese and dairy you should go check yourself for lactose intolerance! i used to have stomach and other health problems for many years and when i found out about my intolerance i stopped to eat any food containing lactose. it turned out to be the best choice i’ve ever done i feel so much better now!
It sounds like you are getting Anorexia
Yes this is all a cover for Anorexia Nervosa.
D – how an earth does it sound like she is ‘getting anorexia’?
Symptoms of Lactose(milk sugar) intolerance are usually stomach ache and gas, Lactase enzymes will help with this. Symptoms of casin or whey(milk proteins) allergies can show up as headaches, eczema, problems w/ concentration. I am not a Dr that is just the way I understand and experience it. I was advised by my allergist to do an elimination diet to really see what bothers me, and you have been doing that. Scratch tests aren’t always clear, I tested allergic to everything I was tested for. As my allergist says “we do not digest food through our skin” made sense to me. It also sounds like there are some people on this site who like to through around psychological diagnosis’s. Unless you are a clinical Psychologist you should probably keep your nonprofessional diagnosis to yourself and not through around terms you don’t completely understand, this is someone’s life. If you are a Physiologist it is incredibly unprofessional to diagnose someone in a comments section of a blog, if you have concerns you would contact her personally.
You are doing great!
first off i think it’s not some stranger’s place to accuse someone of being anorexic. it’s annoying enough when you know the person.
but what i was going to say it sounds to me like you should try vegetarianism. most of the diets you prefer – for health or moral reasons – seem to exclude meat. the last thing you mention – the high protein thing – can be done as a vegetarian. you can easily eat far more protein than you would ever need as a vegetarian from beans, tofu, seeds, nuts, and don’t forget all food has some protein. and if you read about the different types of protein, you know plant protein is the best for you.
i myself am a vegetarian. before i was, i was young, but i was overweight and constantly got sick. now i am debating veganism (i looked through my food journal and in the past few months, mostly out of guilty and the fact that dairy fat is so bad for you vs. the fat from peanuts for example, and i found the most dairy i’ve had in one day is 2 tbs of parmesean cheese), and the raw food movement sounds very interesting. just find something you’re happy with, but IMHO it sounds to me like you should try vegetarianism and see where you want to go from there.
It’s fine to have an opinion about whether or not what Rian is doing is healthy but throwing around the idea that she is becoming or is anorexic is ridiculous. She is not rapidly dropping weight or starving herself. In order to be diagnosed with anorexia in the first place a person has to be severely underweight. At most it might be fair to say that she struggles with disordered eating but that isn’t saying much–a ridiculous amount of people deal with disordered eating.
Rian, I respect you wanting to lose weight and figuring out what you need to do to make that happen. As a person who has dealt with and been treated for an eating disorder I do think it is really important to eat a balanced diet, including all food groups, BUT that is also just my opinion. I have lost weight and maintained weight without falling back into a disorder by eating only particular food groups but I’ve found I’m happiest and healthiest when I don’t restrict any kind of food. Everyone is different and that is just my experience. Maybe you need to relax a little and just be breezy. I don’t know, but I know you’ll get where you want to be eventually. Lots of luck and love!
Hey Emma, thanks for your comment.
One thing you have to remember is that I have tried losing weight by eating all of the food groups and it didn’t work. I only started seriously dropping weight by cutting out grains. I also have a terrible carb addiction that makes it impossible to regulate my intake of them.
Phoebe, I am considering vegetarianism… it’s a HUGE decision to make so I want to make sure I am really up for it.
Kathryn - thanks for that info. I don’t get stomach aches from dairy (except for straight milk), so I doubt I am lactose intolerant. however, my body does have a harder time digesting it, based on the bloating that occurs anytime I eat dairy, not to mention the mucus and phlegm production in the back of my throat.
Nora – that’s awesome! There is a lot of research about juice fasting or raw eating to heal oneself of common illnesses. Very interesting. Usually by now I would have completely lost my voice! But I’m still OK (except for a mild cough).
Jennifer, I actually found an all-natural green protein drink at Whole Foods. I bought a couple of sample packets. For now my protein is OK, but if I go vegetarian I will probably start using them.
C & D, no comment, you are the same person anyway and I doubt you are being serious.
I think this was an incredibly strong and introspective post. Learning to sort out the reams of conflicting healthy eating plan theories can be an incredibly daunting (and frustrating!)task. Even whole food diets that focus on the wrong ingredients suitable to an individual’s makeup can be detrimental.
I was a vegetarian for a long time, until several doctors (Naturopaths) told me it was completely at adds with my constitution and contributing to my illness. I have been struggling to find the happy medium, and the bottom line.
Good on you for having open dialogue regarding your conflicts- I wish you the best.
You’re blog(s) are super-entertaining.
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