Is it normal to feel weird? lol

[octaviankid]

So adopted a Peat style diet back in January, and before that I was a high carb vegan. Not raw, but just high carb and pretty low fat. Anyway, I felt absolutely amazing while on it. Got really lean, mood was great, hair was really good (which is the only reason I adopted the diet--in an attempt to lower dht). I didn't know anything about pulse rate and temp as indicators thyroid health. I was on the lifestyle for almost a year.

So I felt really good. This past winter I began having really cold hands and feet. Hair was still good, so I didn't really care how I felt. I came across Danny Roddy's work and figured (hey, if this will make my hair better..then so be it). So I slowly added things back in. Gelatin, then milk, then eggs.(I've always been vegetarian--so didn't add any muscle meats). I thought I was making improvements in the body temperature and pulse category, but my hair seemed to really suffer. I got some lab work down, and my TSH was 1.3. I've been supplementing low dose NDT the past few weeks to see if it helps.

That was a very long way of asking..have any of you felt better eating a diet not wasn't Peat inspired? It seemed like everything was better before, but I know it may have only been a matter of time before things took a turn for the worst. I dunno, I just don't feel as good once I added animal products back into diet, but know they have a lot of nutrition, and supposedly are pro-hair.

 

[north]

What kinda stuff did you eat before, more specifically?
Fruits?
Did you also have low protein?

 

[octaviankid]

I was eating mainly starch so loads of potatoes and rice w/salt
I slowly incorporated more fruits, so I'd have fruits (mainly bananas, dates, orange/pineapple juices) for breakfast/lunch and starch for dinner. Lots of vegetables i.e. cooked broccoli, raw spinach, carrots, lettuce etc.

When eating mainly starch protein was 70-90g/d
When eating mainly fruit protein was 30-50g/d

Low fat-- so probably between 10-50g of fat. Mainly from starch and coconut oil.
PUFA was higher because of the starch but almost always under 10g (looking back at chronometer)

 

[Stilgar]

I have a similar diet history, and I second that it is possible to feel weird and like you had it better before.
You will have to do some work with different ratios, food types, Peaty foods, not-so Peaty foods, and supplements until you find what works for you. Don't be fooled by some Peat template - the diet is about the detail but more so about its approach. Endocrine health first, everything else will follow.

You will likely feel weird whenever you start thyroid supplementation. It made me feel so weird I had to stop. Adrenaline is likely responsible.

I could have succeeded no problem on a fruitarian/high carb vegan approach if I lived in a perpetual summer climate. Real life (i.e. seasonality), however, gets in the way, for most people.

For example, I do a variant of a Peat approach which is basically high carb vegan with occasional eggs and very occasional dairy and I feel I have a better grasp of what my body needs all the time. So, I can't call myself vegan anymore, but you just have to let those things go.

The point is you needn't make it about strict boundaries or about adhering to a particular 'diet', unless you need to.

 

[octaviankid]

I have a similar diet history, and I second that it is possible to feel weird and like you had it better before.
You will have to do some work with different ratios, food types, Peaty foods, not-so Peaty foods, and supplements until you find what works for you. Don't be fooled by some Peat template - the diet is about the detail but more so about its approach. Endocrine health first, everything else will follow.

You will likely feel weird whenever you start thyroid supplementation. It made me feel so weird I had to stop. Adrenaline is likely responsible.

I could have succeeded no problem on a fruitarian/high carb vegan approach if I lived in a perpetual summer climate. Real life (i.e. seasonality), however, gets in the way, for most people.

For example, I do a variant of a Peat approach which is basically high carb vegan with occasional eggs and very occasional dairy and I feel I have a better grasp of what my body needs all the time. So, I can't call myself vegan anymore, but you just have to let those things go.

The point is you needn't make it about strict boundaries or about adhering to a particular 'diet', unless you need to.

Great post! Love it actually.

Since you're doing mainly high carb, how much protein are you getting? j/c

 

[Stilgar]

Haha not enough, probably.

Trying out different types at the moment - rice protein, gelatin, quorn (!?), eggs, the potato protein soup thing, and generally lots of potatoes. Potatoes are the easiest for me, plus Quorn has been rather successful, because I actually like it! Albeit god knows how Peat endorsed it could ever be - mycoprotein must be allergenic to start with and is probably laughable compared to most meat. I also have to tank up on OJ or sugar to cope with what it does to my blood sugar, although I do with most proteinacious things.

Without really making an effort, I get about 60g a day. Falls short. I have no problem with carbs, but reaching the protein level is a constant challenge. I have made good strides without paying attention to it, probably because I just didn't eat enough before. I actually feel mostly alive now, which is a blast. But the protein effort is still in the back of my mind as to why a high carb approach might not work for me long term.

 

[octaviankid]

That's interesting.

I did notice that I was never cold when I was eating mainly starch and salt (plus my hair/skin was good as well). Once I started drinking more banana smoothies, and eating mostly raw..I began to have cold hands and feet. I'm going to take your approach with experimentation. I'm going to take what I've learned from Peat like getting adequate A,D,E,K, Calcium, low PUFA and try to apply that to a vegan diet. If I start getting symptoms of feel something isn't right, I'll "strategically" add back in or try various animal products.

Thanks Stilgar!

 

[max219]

I've never been high carb raw vegan, and I come from a paleo backround. After almost one year of experimenting with Peat, I seem to do well with something similar to what Stilgar said. I do high carb and very low fat (30 grams or less) almost daily, with most carbs coming from fruit, juice, rice, honey and other carb sources (gonna add more potatoes again). I do eat occasional free roaming eggs, grass fed liver, and shrimp/oysters. Otherwise I am mostly high carb low fat. The only thing besides the eggs, shellfish and liver keeping me from being vegan would be the organic 0% greek yogurt I eat. Having that allows me to keep my protein around 100-120 grams easily. (I used to eat cottage cheese, but switched to yogurt because I prefer the organic yogurt to the organic cottage cheese).

I do believe high carb vegan with lots of fruit is very healthy (basically fruitarian), with the addition of a few animal products like eggs and liver.

 

[octaviankid]

I agree Max

 

[arinryan]

I had not heard before how someone would make a transition from vegan to Ray Peat, its interesting to hear about.

I have thought that a different type of moral (and possibly a practical) "ideal diet", would be to only eat things that were "designed to be eaten"--where you aren't killing either a plant or an animal to get nourishment. Wouldn't that be even a step beyond vegan?? (Maybe not to vegans)
There are both plant and animal foods that are in this category: fruits, (designed to nourish seeds and to be eaten by animals so seeds are spread) and milk/dairy, (designed to be eaten by animals' young). And, those are both favorites of Peat...

Is there a name for this kind of thing? Its something I have considered trying.