Hello everybody!
This is my first post in this forum although I have read many threads here.
To my person: I am a 20 year old woman living in Germany (excuse my school English). I'm pretty healthy except from some issues:
I have some acne (back, chest and a little bit on the forehead as well) which I treat with BPO.
Additionally, I often have problem with bloating, gas and cramps, especially after eating certain foods. I would like to loose some weight to get back to my body shape some years ago, before I took birth control, those extra 10 pounds are really annoying me. But I am at a pretty normal weight right now.
But my by far biggest problem: lack of concentration and something I came across here as "brain fog". I was always really good in school, remembered things quickly and only had to learn a little bit for great results. I finished school with good grades and study now. Nevertheless, over the last two years of study I experienced a great loss of my former mental abilities: I forget things very easily (everything: names, faces, things I learned, ...), I have a hard time concentrating and focusing on my studies. I loose track easily and I even can not follow conversations properly anymore. I felt really dumb all the time and thought it was only in comparison to all the other "brains" studying with me. Since my subject (medicine) is a LOT of learning by heart, I thought I'm just bad at it (although I was a natural talent as a kid in that) and I thought that the brain could change and that I already have "used up" my mental capacities while being clever as a child/youth. I also got very bad at coordination (explained that to myself with a lack of sport) and my thinking got very slow and erratic (especially under stress in oral exams).
Now to my diet:
Because of my acne i started to think about my diet and how both things correlate some years ago. I googled a lot, tried some weeks of no dairy, no chocolate blah-blah without any results. Finally the "no sugar-no carbs-low carb-masterplan" got me interested. It all made sense to me. I always had problems with gas so the solution seemed to be a simple one: intolerant to gluten and dairy.
I then started following a paleo diet, no gluten products, no processes foods, only some dairy as yoghurt, less fruits (bad starches and fructose) and a lot of meat, eggs, veggies, nuts. Skin got better (but never got enough to ditch the BPO). I had expected worse reactions when stopping using birth control.
My weight stayed pretty stable, I guess I would have loosed weight if I had not eaten the higher amount of food i did (since then I have problems with overeating, cravings etc.).
My diet always changed a bit but always stayed a gluten-free/sugar-free one with some exceptions now and then.
Since then (I really think there is a correlation there!) I started gaining those brain issues, lost my interest in many things, had less energy, did not have as much fun in life.
I started eating more starches again because of the lack of energy which made things a little bit better but I had more digestion problems and there weren't great improvements either. So my diet consisted out of rice, potatoes, fruit (but only small amounts of those) and a lot of meat and veggies.
I was always interested in nutrition and continued reading on forums related to topics as acne and healthy eating so I came across Ray peats ideas. Long story short: I love his approach on focusing on hormones and metabolism, he is a genius in my opinion.
I'm starting really getting into his ideas right now because I recently realized that my brain functions get a lot better when eating sugar, which really amazed me.
So I'm completely changing my diet right now.
My current diet:
Fruits (melons, oranges, grapes)
Orange juice
Milk (organic or non-organic grass fed), cheese
Liver once or twice a week
Gelatine
Salt
Shellfish
Some chocolate
Coffee
Sugar/ honey
I like those foods a lot and I have way more energy so I like taking part in conversations and going to my university lessons again!
But I also have a problem:
My acne is getting worse although I eat liver for the vitamin A. It's getting a bit more inflamed (before only blackheads and some little pimple) especially on my jaw and neck. I think it is because of the dairy since I also get troubles with gas when drinking a lot of it.
I also fear gaining weight!
Well, that's it. I don't know what to do now... Ditch the dairy and continue eating cheese? Ditch all dairy products and loose an important source of protein and vitamins? Try supplements? (I'm really not that informed about that, I wanted to try to solve my problems with a nutritious diet since I don't feel overly hypothyroid) and I read that speeding up metabolism leads to a higher amount of nutrients needed.
I would really appreciate everybody's help, sorry for the long text!
This is my first post in this forum although I have read many threads here.
To my person: I am a 20 year old woman living in Germany (excuse my school English). I'm pretty healthy except from some issues:
I have some acne (back, chest and a little bit on the forehead as well) which I treat with BPO.
Additionally, I often have problem with bloating, gas and cramps, especially after eating certain foods. I would like to loose some weight to get back to my body shape some years ago, before I took birth control, those extra 10 pounds are really annoying me. But I am at a pretty normal weight right now.
But my by far biggest problem: lack of concentration and something I came across here as "brain fog". I was always really good in school, remembered things quickly and only had to learn a little bit for great results. I finished school with good grades and study now. Nevertheless, over the last two years of study I experienced a great loss of my former mental abilities: I forget things very easily (everything: names, faces, things I learned, ...), I have a hard time concentrating and focusing on my studies. I loose track easily and I even can not follow conversations properly anymore. I felt really dumb all the time and thought it was only in comparison to all the other "brains" studying with me. Since my subject (medicine) is a LOT of learning by heart, I thought I'm just bad at it (although I was a natural talent as a kid in that) and I thought that the brain could change and that I already have "used up" my mental capacities while being clever as a child/youth. I also got very bad at coordination (explained that to myself with a lack of sport) and my thinking got very slow and erratic (especially under stress in oral exams).
Now to my diet:
Because of my acne i started to think about my diet and how both things correlate some years ago. I googled a lot, tried some weeks of no dairy, no chocolate blah-blah without any results. Finally the "no sugar-no carbs-low carb-masterplan" got me interested. It all made sense to me. I always had problems with gas so the solution seemed to be a simple one: intolerant to gluten and dairy.
I then started following a paleo diet, no gluten products, no processes foods, only some dairy as yoghurt, less fruits (bad starches and fructose) and a lot of meat, eggs, veggies, nuts. Skin got better (but never got enough to ditch the BPO). I had expected worse reactions when stopping using birth control.
My weight stayed pretty stable, I guess I would have loosed weight if I had not eaten the higher amount of food i did (since then I have problems with overeating, cravings etc.).
My diet always changed a bit but always stayed a gluten-free/sugar-free one with some exceptions now and then.
Since then (I really think there is a correlation there!) I started gaining those brain issues, lost my interest in many things, had less energy, did not have as much fun in life.
I started eating more starches again because of the lack of energy which made things a little bit better but I had more digestion problems and there weren't great improvements either. So my diet consisted out of rice, potatoes, fruit (but only small amounts of those) and a lot of meat and veggies.
I was always interested in nutrition and continued reading on forums related to topics as acne and healthy eating so I came across Ray peats ideas. Long story short: I love his approach on focusing on hormones and metabolism, he is a genius in my opinion.
I'm starting really getting into his ideas right now because I recently realized that my brain functions get a lot better when eating sugar, which really amazed me.
So I'm completely changing my diet right now.
My current diet:
Fruits (melons, oranges, grapes)
Orange juice
Milk (organic or non-organic grass fed), cheese
Liver once or twice a week
Gelatine
Salt
Shellfish
Some chocolate
Coffee
Sugar/ honey
I like those foods a lot and I have way more energy so I like taking part in conversations and going to my university lessons again!
But I also have a problem:
My acne is getting worse although I eat liver for the vitamin A. It's getting a bit more inflamed (before only blackheads and some little pimple) especially on my jaw and neck. I think it is because of the dairy since I also get troubles with gas when drinking a lot of it.
I also fear gaining weight!
Well, that's it. I don't know what to do now... Ditch the dairy and continue eating cheese? Ditch all dairy products and loose an important source of protein and vitamins? Try supplements? (I'm really not that informed about that, I wanted to try to solve my problems with a nutritious diet since I don't feel overly hypothyroid) and I read that speeding up metabolism leads to a higher amount of nutrients needed.
I would really appreciate everybody's help, sorry for the long text!
jupoo! I'm happy to hear you are already seeing some improvements! If you decide to ditch dairy in the form of milk I would just make sure you are getting adequate calcium from cheese and possibly supplement with egg shell calcium if needed. I did eat more cheese initially until I was able to repair the ability to digest lactose. Having 1/4 to 1/2 cup milk with meals for a couple weeks often seems to help restore the lactase enzyme for tolerating milk. I'm glad you found the forum!
