Near the end of my degree, I had reached an all-time low point in my life. It's a miracle they let me out of school with a degree. Years of consistent sleep deprivation and a crappy diet really took it's toll on me. I began to have heart palpitations coming out naps. I would wake out of a nap with my heart racing like a bunny and other times with a weird rhythm. All I ever got was naps, and I was always tired. My whole circadian rhythm was all off. At twenty-four, I still had acne. And had developed more cystic acne. I went into college an athletic 130lbs, but I was leaving a slightly flabby 140lbs. The mentality of architecture school was "sleep is for weak." All of this torment I put on my body was all for what? A degree, but no confidence. All that should have been learned was undermined by the drive to succeed. It's really messed up that pushing yourself harder leaves you worse off, but I had no life outside of my studies and part-time work.
During my health readings, I came across an interesting finding. Apparently low grade sleep deprivation can render a healthy person pre-diabetic in just a couple of nights. It also messes with your hormones in a way that encourages hunger and snacking. I guess I was probably on my way to diabetes, or had it and didn't know.
Just a quick google find on the subject...
http://www.cnn.com/2012/10/15/health/sleep-insulin-resistance/index.html
Another major error I held onto was the thought that my vegetarian diet could excuse eating junk food, especially the ones high in fat like Nutella. I imagine that both the junk food, and the vegetarian diet contributed to some of the issues I was having. My vegetarian diet equated to a low protein, high carb diet with periodically high amounts of junk food fats (needless to say, the worst kind). What I didn't realize until recently is that something in the vegetarian diet, but not related to the junk food was also contributing to menstrual irregularities. After all, I had been vegetarian nearly the entire time I had been menstruating -- irregularity and heavy bleeding were just the norms I had always known. And I can safely say that it was part of the vegetarian diet, void of excessive junk food because before college ears, my junk food intake was relatively low.
I'm not sure I'll never know quite what I did to my body back in school with the diet I had. I've been lucky that nothing so extreme has forced me to get medical help. The ultimate low I reached has motivated me to slow down. I may seem like a deadbeat, doing nothing with my life and my degree, but when you feel like your watching yourself die, you have a choice. I hope to someday be a super centenarian, and I'm not going to reach that kind of old age living like I was. So, I've taken a pause, and I'm rebuilding. Questioning all I ever thought about food, exercise, and sleep.
It's been a year of food experimentation. I've cut out grains, and added meat. I tried the whole cutting grains and meat - it simply does not work. It's hard enough being a vegan, let alone a vegan who doesn't eat grains. I tried it it my beginning stages of marathon training last January. I believe I was subject to what others refer to as "glycation." I ate lots of fruits and vegetables with nuts and olive oil for protein and fat. I was generally hungry and had energy crashes multiple times during a day. My acne decreased, except for the cystic stuff around my jawline. My pms symptoms decreased as well. So there were some benefits, but clearly not an ideal situation. Pair that up with a long approx. 10 mile run a week, and I had created a being that barely had enough energy for anything. So, I had to add something back....
But that's when I did something very unusual for a runner. I added the protein, the meat back....and remained on a low-carb from grains diet. Most runners carb-load, so it was a fundamentally strange decision on my part. I can't say the benefits happened overnight. My reluctance to eat a lot of meat after so many years and still the dominating dogma of low-fat to be heart-healthy left me still with a non-ideal diet.
In early October of last year, I started another dietary adventure, fear not fats and cholesterol. I started eating coconut oil, supplementing with vitamin E, eating more meats (trying odd ones too like liver and oysters), and being more serious about eliminating grains. I'll keep the description of corresponding consequences limited for now. All I'll say is that it became the first time since January that eating on a diet was satisfying -- that I wasn't hungry all the time, and I was seeing a gradual weight loss to weights below 130lbs which was only possible previously when I felt like I was starving.
I came back from the holidays a magical 126 lbs. Last year's New Year's resolution was to trim down to 125lbs (before the holidays, I had reached it while feeling satisfied). I feel like I'm regaining control over my body. 125lbs is something I haven't seen since probably the middle of high school, so weight-wise, I'm seeing some serious improvement --- especially since they usually say those last five pounds are the hardest to lose. I haven't even changed my exercise levels.
So there it is, a semi-long-winded breakdown of the biggest personal health turn-around I've experienced. Not to mention, in the process, I've broken the widespread belief that diet doesn't influence acne, pms, and cramps.
No comments:
Post a Comment