If you know me, you know that I have struggled with weight, blood sugar, and thyroid problems for most of my life, and it's left me in a constant battle with my body, my mind, and food. I've gotten so tired of hearing the same "diet" or "lifestyle change" advice over and over again when I've tried them and sometimes seen results, but never been at peace. You know the advice I'm talking about: "Just eat less and exercise more!", "Drink water if you're hungry!", "Everything in moderation!".....blah blah blah. Well, while those may be good suggestions for some, it's easy to see that everyone responds differently to different types of diet and exercises. For example, if you know Matt, my husband, you probably know that he has trouble gaining weight, you can pretty much always see his abs, and even before he did the required PT for the military, he was able to eat ANYTHING and not gain an ounce. He also rarely gets sick. It's just how his body works. I, on the other hand, have done intense exercise and eaten the "magic" number of calories or restricted certain food groups, and I've been lucky if I've lost any weight (or fat)....even luckier if I kept it off for any amount of time. So, I am thinking of taking a new (and admittedly different) approach.
I was concerned about some health problems I had noticed that seemed that they could be related to my underactive thyroid, so I went to my awesome doctor, and told her the symptoms I had been having. She talked to me about my family's medical history, and she ordered a TON of blood work. I don't like needles one bit, but it should be totally worth it to be able to see what's going on with all my hormones, blood sugar, lipids, and stuff. In the meantime, I decided that it was time to lose some weight and get rid of the excess sugar in my diet. So, I stumbled across a blog with recipes for the ever popular Paleo diet, and they seemed doable, so I jumped right in (or on the bandwagon). While I know it isn't uncommon to feel like crap because of sugar withdrawals, I'd already had a cold for two weeks, and I now was feeling even more like crap. I also noticed that because I could have no dairy or beans and don't eat eggs or many meats, I was eating way more nuts than can be healthy for a person. I only lasted about 3.5 days before I decided that I wanted to look into the causes of thyroid, blood sugar, and hormone problems and try to eat in a way that would help to get them all on the right path rather than just trying to deprive them of things that are thought to make a negative impact on them. That's when I stumbled upon RRARF.
RRARF stands for Rehabilitative Rest and Agressive Re-Feeding. It is based on the idea that eating nutritious, whole, unprocessed foods from all food groups can help your body to come out of a constant "fight or flight" state that it's probably in if you suffer from thyroid, diabetes, or adrenal diseases or disorders. This program recommends eating these foods to appetite or even past and eating when you're hungry. Another important part is to get plenty of rest and reduce stress, which can help to lower cortisol levels. There should be no arguing that, since just about everyone everywhere advocates getting more sleep and reducing stress, but this plan of rehabilitation goes beyond just getting 8 hours of sleep. It advocates taking naps if you're tired, avoiding intense exercise, and spending time doing stress reducing activities like participating in a hobby or meditation. This phase goes on for about 30 days, at which time the body should have picked up on the idea that you are not going to starve or have to fight for your life, and these hormones should be better regulated.
While it's scary to think about eating as much as I went when I want and even scarier to think about weight gain that probably will result from this, I have to keep in mind that I'll be giving my body much more nutritious food, so once it is able to start using these nutrients efficiently, it likely won't ask me for as much food. And while I realllllly want to (and need to) lose a few pounds, what's the point if I haven't improved the way my body responds to eating and exercise? Why add more stress and disappointment to my life by trying to fight my body if I can take one month to practice being at peace with it and giving it what it really is asking for? So, whether society thinks that they know the "right" way or that being overweight is for stupid/lazy/helpless people with no willpower or motivation, I'm going to do my best to give my mind and body a chance to recover from all the mean things I've done to it over the years. I'm going to take some relaxing walks, sit in my massage chair, sleep until I'm not tired (or until Stig starts barking..ugh), and eat some unprocessed, healthy stuff when I'm hungry until I am satisfied. If I get nothing else from this, I hope I can at least achieve a feeling of calm rather than control when it comes to food and exercise.
I like this entry and I miss you. I hope this makes you feel better. I wish we could just like our bodies and not want to change them. P.S I have some choice words about the Paleo diet. I like when people try to do it and drink a lot of alcohol, but still say they are on said diet. We need to reunite sooner than later because I need to just sit and gossip with you for hours and do nothing.
ReplyDelete