The path to weight loss is one of continuous self discovery and learning about your body. I can honestly say that I love how my body speaks to me, but sometimes I do NOT like what it has to say. And right now we are not seeing eye to eye.
Everyone knows that I am Anti-Carb when it comes to weight loss, but even more so that I absolutely love carbs more than anything else. Lets visit some of my favorites... French Fries, biscuits, oatmeal, potato chips, baked potatoes, macaroni and cheese, pizza- and I could go on. While I know that they negatively affect my weight loss simply because of the age old mantra "CARB BAD" (in my cave man voice) and because of house old names like Atkins and diets like South Beach, I had no idea why. All I knew was that when I cut carbs I lost weight, and that was all that mattered.
Ive spent the past 3 weeks at home visiting my lovely family and in this time I have realized where a lot of my dietary mistakes come from. We ate a lot of Starches in our house because they were filling and while we usually had balanced meals, they were not always the healthiest. We had fried foods, and a number of starches, but I can definitely say that my mom tried to make sure we had vegetables with every meals. My mom and I were just tlaking about how there wasnt very much variety because she really only wanted to cooked what we were used to and what wouldn't go to waste. Not to mention that she always tried to have food left over for the next day. This is the way of thinking in a number of African American households and this is why so many of us are over weight- and there is a blog coming about that as well. After changing my diet so drastically, it has been really hard to stay on the path while at home, but I can also say that I have given my family a few new ideas about how and what they can cook.
That being said, yesterday was the first day that I really put carbs back into my diet by having a lovely bowl of steel cut oats and fruit. Later on, I had fajitas with whole wheat tortillas. At the end of the night I felt quite lethargic and just uncomfortable. Now when I cheat I end up feeling kind of unhappy anyway, but this was different. I felt tired, drained, and sad and it really made me think about what was happening in my body.
I heard once that when you have an intolerance or an allergy to certain foods you crave them more than anything so I started doing a little research which leads me to the point of this entry.
The Skinny 
According to the Honeypie, I can be an over-diagnoser when it comes to my own issues ("Are you diagnosing yourself again!!??") so before I started researching I sat and really thought about what my symptoms were;
- Tired
- Drained
- Constipated
- Full of gas and extremely bloated
- Lethargic
- Weight sky rockets the day after I have carbs
And wouldnt you know that those symptoms go along hand and hand with Carbohydrate Intolerance (which could also be Hypoglycemia but we will see when I go to the doctor and get a real diagnosis). I found several articles all saying the same thing, but I felt that this one really explained it well. Full Article
here.
Insulin resistance is a process in which the body is inefficient at managing sugars and starches you have eaten in your diet. When you eat a carbohydrate, such as a piece of bread or something sweet like ice cream, your body releases insulin from your pancreas to process that sugar. Without insulin, you would not be able to assimilate this sugar, called glucose, from your blood stream into your liver and muscles. In insulin resistance, your body makes too much insulin for the amount of carbohydrate consumed. This extra insulin is what causes so many of the listed problems, both functional problems (those which precede pathological), as well as pathological problems (those with tissue alterations.) Initially, the extra insulin often ends up processing sugar too rapidly and blood glucose levels are driven too low. This is called hypoglycemia or low blood sugar. This adds stress to the body and causes the production of other hormones (especially adrenal gland hormones like cortisol), which increase blood sugar levels. As CI gets worse, more and more insulin is needed to process a small amount of sugar. The insulin eventually becomes ineffective at driving the sugar into the cells where the nourishment is needed. The cells have become resistant to the insulin. As CI is developing, the extra stress on the hormonal system, particularly to the adrenal glands, overworks these organs. This results in a complex pattern of symptoms that differ from person to person.
Without boring you with any more block quotes, I also found that the symptoms included sleepiness after a meal, needless worrying, depression or lethargy, anti social behavior, cravings for starch or sugar rich food, irritability, carrying weight in the abdominal area and having "chipmunk cheeks", constipation, gas, gurgly sound in the stomach after eating, and bloating. Many of which I can relate to. The increase in blood sugar and higher levels of cortisol are sure to be what is causing my weight to fluctuate so violently. This is def TMI but I have always had trouble with regularity and I believe that it had a lot to do with the fact that my body can not break down the carbs and protein together. The only time I've been regular in my life was when I was doing the Slow Carb Diet (see fit>fat page for details) which I plan to go back on (with the necessary modifications to maintain as a life style and not a diet) starting tomorrow. My mom, being lactose intolerant, believes that she might have the carbohydrate intolerance as well and plans to get on board with me. I love when the people I love make healthy choices. Let's go mom!
Before I started dropping the weight, I was honestly miserable. I thought it was just because I was unhappy with my size, but I think that the food I was eating was keeping me in a negative state and because I had gotten so used to it, I didn't even know it. I am always telling The Honeypie that I hate the idea that I will never be able to eat the way I want to, and little did I know how right I was. How sucky is it that I am quite possibly not supposed to even have the foods that I crave the most? Talk about food addiction being a real thing huh?
So now I start the process of figuring out what the hell my diet is going to look like from here on out. No matter if I am medically intolerant or not, I now have realized just how truly uncomfortable my body feels after I have carbs and I don't want to feel that way. Not to mention the fact that this Gas is out of control. After my dinner last night my little brother said "Ewww Shaina I didn't even think you farted" (13 yr olds and their damn comments!). I was so taken aback but then I realized that I really hadn't had gas until that day; after being home for 3 weeks!
I truly feel like I am in mourning. Once again I am saying goodbye to my favorite foods, but this time its a little more permanent. Once again I am rethinking my meal choices and what foods are going to be available to me. Once again I am evaluating, planning, and most importantly, having to learn how to not feel deprived. But enough with the self pity shit. Now that I have a better understanding of what is going on inside my body I can once again toss up a big F*** You to the Fat monster and continue to kick its ass. BRING IT ON!
I hate really long blog posts but I had a lot to say. I am cutting it short even now because its 10pm and I want to finish reading Dracula tonight so I can move on to my next book. Not sure if I want to read in here because I just had a slice of corn bread for my farewell to carbs once again and the room is a little rank HAHAHA!
So tell me, what have you heard/what do you think about Food Intolerance?
