rvaldrich
Level 5 Valued Member
Howdy y’all!
So I’ve had a rough few weeks and one of the casualties was the diet. As it always is.
I’ve developed an oddity (eating disorder? Oreo addiction?) where when I’m indulging, I get this strange paranoia. I get this impulse to keep eating, almost like the food is going to disappear. It’s odd because I’ve never really experienced true food scarcity in my life. And this is a recent phenomena. I followed the Slow-Carb Diet for years (decades?) without this issue. Then, in the last year or so, this started cropping up.
In the past, when my diet has gone haywire, I’ve usually done a reset that involved fasting, or very restricted calorie intake (think eating JUST your daily protein needs), or a combination, and then adding things in until I found a comfortable place.
That hasn’t worked the last couple of times. I also used to fall back on the Hit the Target Diet, but consulting my training journals, I’ve recognized the Hit the Target Diet really hasn’t worked well for me. I’ve followed it six times. Once it worked, once it worked okay, thrice it didn’t work (or worked so slowly I couldn’t tell), and once it backfired catastrophically.
This most recent event, I decided to take Tim Ferriss’ advice (which is always a dubious prospect) and do the reverse. Rather than restrict my diet, I heaped onto it. I ate twice my daily calories, though in (almost) entirely “clean food”. Legumes, nuts, eggs, fish, and chicken (I know, I can feel Pavel scowling in disapproval). Lot of veggies. Some fruit here and there. But you get the idea. Clean, but a lot. A LOT.
My weight jumped…but not a whole lot. Far more than my vanity will tolerate, but a manageable amount. It’s a weird feeling to feel not just full but kind of stuffed throughout the day. It’s been a very pleasant variation from my usual ‘clean burning’ feeling.
My plan is to begin titrating down my calories. Cut 200-500 a week (I haven’t decided) and see what my weight does. More than that, see what my brain does. We talk about training like it is solely the body. The muscles, maybe the nervous system, but the hypothalamus and his buddies have a lot of say in the matter. Maybe more than the muscles.
I don’t like that uncontrollable binging, but I also don’t like living in a world without Oreos. So I’ve still got to figure out how to enjoy treats. But right now, I feel like I’m thinking clearly for the first time in a minute now. And I know a lot of us struggle with food, fat, weight, and all that stuff. I know StrongFirst is a little outside the usual vanity of the exercise world but we’re all still human. Well, most of us (squints suspiciously at Fabio).
Just thought I’d share. Hopefully it helps, either as an option or just to know we’re in this together.
Be good to yourself, y’all.
So I’ve had a rough few weeks and one of the casualties was the diet. As it always is.
I’ve developed an oddity (eating disorder? Oreo addiction?) where when I’m indulging, I get this strange paranoia. I get this impulse to keep eating, almost like the food is going to disappear. It’s odd because I’ve never really experienced true food scarcity in my life. And this is a recent phenomena. I followed the Slow-Carb Diet for years (decades?) without this issue. Then, in the last year or so, this started cropping up.
In the past, when my diet has gone haywire, I’ve usually done a reset that involved fasting, or very restricted calorie intake (think eating JUST your daily protein needs), or a combination, and then adding things in until I found a comfortable place.
That hasn’t worked the last couple of times. I also used to fall back on the Hit the Target Diet, but consulting my training journals, I’ve recognized the Hit the Target Diet really hasn’t worked well for me. I’ve followed it six times. Once it worked, once it worked okay, thrice it didn’t work (or worked so slowly I couldn’t tell), and once it backfired catastrophically.
This most recent event, I decided to take Tim Ferriss’ advice (which is always a dubious prospect) and do the reverse. Rather than restrict my diet, I heaped onto it. I ate twice my daily calories, though in (almost) entirely “clean food”. Legumes, nuts, eggs, fish, and chicken (I know, I can feel Pavel scowling in disapproval). Lot of veggies. Some fruit here and there. But you get the idea. Clean, but a lot. A LOT.
My weight jumped…but not a whole lot. Far more than my vanity will tolerate, but a manageable amount. It’s a weird feeling to feel not just full but kind of stuffed throughout the day. It’s been a very pleasant variation from my usual ‘clean burning’ feeling.
My plan is to begin titrating down my calories. Cut 200-500 a week (I haven’t decided) and see what my weight does. More than that, see what my brain does. We talk about training like it is solely the body. The muscles, maybe the nervous system, but the hypothalamus and his buddies have a lot of say in the matter. Maybe more than the muscles.
I don’t like that uncontrollable binging, but I also don’t like living in a world without Oreos. So I’ve still got to figure out how to enjoy treats. But right now, I feel like I’m thinking clearly for the first time in a minute now. And I know a lot of us struggle with food, fat, weight, and all that stuff. I know StrongFirst is a little outside the usual vanity of the exercise world but we’re all still human. Well, most of us (squints suspiciously at Fabio).
Just thought I’d share. Hopefully it helps, either as an option or just to know we’re in this together.
Be good to yourself, y’all.