barefooter
Member
- Joined
- Aug 22, 2013
- Messages
- 218
I hope this isn't too long, but I wanted to provide a summary of how I got here.
I've been experimenting with my diet for the past four years in an attempt to improve my health issues around digestion, anxiety, depression, bad or no dreams, low energy, migraines, low body temperature, etc. Growing up I had sever social anxiety, but not a lot of depression. As I got older, I got more comfortable in social situations, but my general anxiety increased. I'm in my late twenties now, and have mild to moderate social anxiety and often a low grade general anxiety. I've also had off and on depression, loss of interest in things, low energy, etc. I've had issues with digestion since I was a teenager, but was otherwise pretty healthy and able to get by and be successful.
My first foray into big dietary changes was eating a vegan diet for 6 months 4 years ago. In all honesty, I felt better than I have most of my life for a lot of those 6 months. A lot of it was probably psychological, as I felt like I was doing something good, and standing up for what I believed in at the time, which is something I had almost never done before. I now understand the diet was seriously lacking, but I think it still provided a nice detox from my previous SAD diet, and since I had fat reserves to burn through for a while, I wasn't too malnourished.
Eventually, I read enough to realize that I had been fed lies, and meat, dairy, and other animal products were really healthy. I started eating an omnivorous diet, mostly following the advice of the WAPF. Over the next couple of years, my diet fluctuated between WAP and paleo, experimenting with different foods. Through all of it I've been pretty thin, despite often times eating way past being full. In fact, I would often binge heavily on sweets at events like potlucks, to the point of being close to getting sick. The only control I had over this was simply to avoid potlucks or other places with unlimited supplies of cakes, cookies, etc. Looking back on this now, I see that my body was starving for sugar. During this period I also suffered from daily anxiety and off/on depression.
I also experimented with doing the GAPS diet for a few few weeks. The first week I felt amazing, but then started getting extremely bad heartburn anytime I ate. I also started to loose interest in the food, and was not enjoying my meals. I luckily didn't listen to all those who would just say I was having die off and need to stay the course, or even try harder.
I finally had a big insight after I spent a weekend at my parents binge eating on wheat, dairy, and sugar. I felt like crap, mentally and physically and began to worry I was going to completely loose control of my eating. However, I had luckily started monitoring my body temperature a month before this event. When I got home from my parents, I took my body temp and was shocked to see it way up at 98.4. Before this I was running very cold at 95.5 - 97. I finally realized that my body had been starving for sugar for years, and this got me reading Peat, Roddy, and Stone once again.
I first starting reading some of Peat and Roddy's stuff a year ago, experimented with it a bit, but ended up swayed back to the paleo side of things. I don't think I went far enough into it to see any results. Well, now I'm going full in and seeing some very promising changes. I thought I couldn't do milk, but I'm having lots of milk, yogurt, and ice cream, with some increased gas, but no bloating. Combined with lots of fruit and sugar, it's having a huge impact on my temp and energy. I also notice diminished anxiety, and I feel positive and upbeat most of the time. I used to ruminate a ton, but now when bad thoughts come up, it's usually easy to let them pass. Finally, I'm able to eat and feel satiated, without craving more and constantly thinking about food. I was always afraid to eat more sugar, because I thought I would loose control. Now that I'm listening to my body and having regular fruit and sugar intake, I have no problem with binge eating.
I've only just started getting into eating this way, and I'm very optimistic to see what it can do for me. I'm excited to learn more about the details to optimize my diet and also investigate if there are any supplements that could take me to the next step of finally getting rid of my anxiety. I'm looking forward to participating in the discussions here.
I've been experimenting with my diet for the past four years in an attempt to improve my health issues around digestion, anxiety, depression, bad or no dreams, low energy, migraines, low body temperature, etc. Growing up I had sever social anxiety, but not a lot of depression. As I got older, I got more comfortable in social situations, but my general anxiety increased. I'm in my late twenties now, and have mild to moderate social anxiety and often a low grade general anxiety. I've also had off and on depression, loss of interest in things, low energy, etc. I've had issues with digestion since I was a teenager, but was otherwise pretty healthy and able to get by and be successful.
My first foray into big dietary changes was eating a vegan diet for 6 months 4 years ago. In all honesty, I felt better than I have most of my life for a lot of those 6 months. A lot of it was probably psychological, as I felt like I was doing something good, and standing up for what I believed in at the time, which is something I had almost never done before. I now understand the diet was seriously lacking, but I think it still provided a nice detox from my previous SAD diet, and since I had fat reserves to burn through for a while, I wasn't too malnourished.
Eventually, I read enough to realize that I had been fed lies, and meat, dairy, and other animal products were really healthy. I started eating an omnivorous diet, mostly following the advice of the WAPF. Over the next couple of years, my diet fluctuated between WAP and paleo, experimenting with different foods. Through all of it I've been pretty thin, despite often times eating way past being full. In fact, I would often binge heavily on sweets at events like potlucks, to the point of being close to getting sick. The only control I had over this was simply to avoid potlucks or other places with unlimited supplies of cakes, cookies, etc. Looking back on this now, I see that my body was starving for sugar. During this period I also suffered from daily anxiety and off/on depression.
I also experimented with doing the GAPS diet for a few few weeks. The first week I felt amazing, but then started getting extremely bad heartburn anytime I ate. I also started to loose interest in the food, and was not enjoying my meals. I luckily didn't listen to all those who would just say I was having die off and need to stay the course, or even try harder.
I finally had a big insight after I spent a weekend at my parents binge eating on wheat, dairy, and sugar. I felt like crap, mentally and physically and began to worry I was going to completely loose control of my eating. However, I had luckily started monitoring my body temperature a month before this event. When I got home from my parents, I took my body temp and was shocked to see it way up at 98.4. Before this I was running very cold at 95.5 - 97. I finally realized that my body had been starving for sugar for years, and this got me reading Peat, Roddy, and Stone once again.
I first starting reading some of Peat and Roddy's stuff a year ago, experimented with it a bit, but ended up swayed back to the paleo side of things. I don't think I went far enough into it to see any results. Well, now I'm going full in and seeing some very promising changes. I thought I couldn't do milk, but I'm having lots of milk, yogurt, and ice cream, with some increased gas, but no bloating. Combined with lots of fruit and sugar, it's having a huge impact on my temp and energy. I also notice diminished anxiety, and I feel positive and upbeat most of the time. I used to ruminate a ton, but now when bad thoughts come up, it's usually easy to let them pass. Finally, I'm able to eat and feel satiated, without craving more and constantly thinking about food. I was always afraid to eat more sugar, because I thought I would loose control. Now that I'm listening to my body and having regular fruit and sugar intake, I have no problem with binge eating.
I've only just started getting into eating this way, and I'm very optimistic to see what it can do for me. I'm excited to learn more about the details to optimize my diet and also investigate if there are any supplements that could take me to the next step of finally getting rid of my anxiety. I'm looking forward to participating in the discussions here.
to the forum barefooter!
