Greetings From the Central Coast!

Joined
Nov 3, 2013
Messages
16
What's your age?

18 year old male.

How did you find the forum?

Googling, "Ray Peat _____."

How did you find Ray Peat's work?

Browsing Paleohacks topics about hypothyroidism (surprise, surprise, there's quite a lot of those hypothyroid topics popping up). Also through Matt Stone and 180degreehealth.com.

How long have you been Peating?

For about a month.

What is your favorite part about Peating?

Being able to eat sugar, especially in front of other people. Cuz who doesn't like sugar? Am I right?

What is the worst part?

Not a large community. *holds up hands in fear* Don't take me wrong way, I've been browsing these forums for a while, and the community seems very helpful.

What are your health issues?

It seems like it would be easier to answer this question with a story of my health issues, as opposed to a direct answer. I went Paleo last year during the beginning of the summer. At first, I felt great, full of energy, wanted to go outdoors all the time to "fulfill my primal needs" or some bs like that, lost A LOT of weight (over the whole course of going Paleo I actually lost too much weight), and my depression and anxiety disappeared--hell, I'm sure a kid who was obese their childhood would lose their depression too if they lost weight. Over the course of 8 months, I progressively lost more and more weight; however, my mental cognition started to deteriorate, and so did my happiness and general well-being. I started having symptoms such as cold hands and feet, even when the weather was about 60-65 degrees Fahrenheit--eventually I developed Raynaud's, you can bet that was scary the first time I saw my fingers turning purple! I also started to have intense sugar and carbohydrate cravings, but I didn't feed into them because I thought carbs would cause, "insidious weight gain," to steal a term from Mark Sisson. And then things just got worse, I started having extreme panic attacks in the middle of the night. I would wake up gasping for air, my heart beating, feelings of death hanging over me, complete anxiety and hysteria. I thought that it might've been central sleep apnea (luckily I didn't waste money on a sleep study). And then the worst of it all, DUN, DUN, DUN!.... Severe constipation. I would literally have to take enemas every day so I could eliminate on a daily basis--talk about embarrassing, and well, very, um, un-manly. Eventually, after I was sick and tired of all this crap I had been dealing with, I thought, hey maybe I should go vegan (my brain must've really not been thinking!). So I did that for a week, until I decided that my food needed flavor and that salads and bland vegetables wasn't gonna cut it. So I went back to low-carb Paleo, and did that for another month and half or so, until I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism (oh really, never woulda guessed with all the symptoms), that I had pretty much self-diagnosed. The really sad part about this, is that the doctor didn't think I had it, even when the bloodwork came back and showed low t4 and high TSH :/.... Anyways, after searching the topics about hypothyroidism on Paleohacks, I found out about Peat and Matt Stone. So, after reading Diet Recovery 2 in an evening, I decided I would fall into my extreme sugar cravings. I ate cupcake after cupcake, and ice cream, and buttered toast with sugar and cinnamon on top (oh my lord, cinnamon toast, as I call it, was amazing for recovering from extreme carbophobia), and just about everything that contained sugar that was in the house. I cried. I had been going against what my body had said for so long, thinking I had to overcome my cravings, thinking I was doing the right thing, thinking I was the healthiest one in my family, thinking I had such will power and self discipline, thinking I was superior. I was wrong, dead ******* wrong! So after a few months of eating Matt Stone style, I gained some weight at first, but started to lose it naturally, gained muscle, libido increased, became happy, could think clearly (holy crap this really helped for my chem class), I never felt nervous or jittery, I felt, normal... Well, this amazingness, was cut short. I had to get a job, because living out here in California is very expensive, and when your family lives on welfare and social security, a child working to help pay family expenses is nothing abnormal. The only job I could find (I live in a college town, mind you, so job pickins is far and few) was one where I worked a night shift. Uh-oh, I had been going to sleep at 10 PM to 10:30 PM, and now I'll be working until 12:15 AM, and I probably won't be able to go to sleep until 1:15 AM or possibly later. This was a disaster for me, the first month I was OK, just OK. I expected things might get worse, but I just ignored and tried to have a good time, and I did for the most part. About 2 months in, though, I started having really bad sleeping problems, and I gained weight again, and I could tell I was heading in the direction of obesity if I kept up this 6 hours of sleep a night routine--remember, my body still hadn't fully healed from going low carb, and the hypothyroidism didn't help. I really pushed myself some days, and eventually I started having adrenaline cycles, where my I would feel really good, then CRASH, horrible feeling, then up, and then down, up, down, all throughout the day. This really affected me mentally and physically, I lost strength, libido, energy, etc. Luckily, this only carried on for another few weeks before I quit. I knew school was coming up, and I could use my financial aid as means to help pay for family expenses. Well, I thought my problems would improve since I wasn't working anymore, and I thought I could get back to a regular sleep schedule. Wrong. My sleep schedule actually got worse, and this is really where I am now. I try to go to bed around 9:30-10:30 PM, if my adrenaline doesn't kick in and keep me up till 11:30. However, I only sleep for about 3 hours, then, BAM, wake up feeling tense, hot flashes, pounding heart, not really hungry at all. And I can't really go back to sleep then after that. This has basically interfered with everything in my life. I can't play basketball anymore, which I love to play; I don't have the energy to play guitar at all, which I love even doing more; and going to school feels like a death wish.

Oh, by the way, I'm Ian, nice to meet everybody!
 

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