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Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Phase I Day 3

Today things are good.  I’m feeling clear headed and I’m feeling good.

I woke up shaky today – shaky like I was hungry and hadn’t eaten in a while.  I also felt weak and irritable.  But no headache!  A rough start to the morning: 1) my milk canister opened in my lunch bag on my walk to catch the bus and spilled on my pants and all over my breakfast/lunch – which required walking back home, cleaning up and then driving to work b/c I missed the bus; 2) I prepped turkey meatballs in tomato sauce for the crock pot this morning and left without taking it out of the fridge; and 3) I haven’t lost a single ounce since yesterday.

I had my breakfast this morning (Kefir smoothie) and I tried something different.  I used BOTH of my servings of fruit this morning in my smoothie instead of waiting until later in the day.  I want to see if this has an effect on my energy later in the day, or my hunger in the evening.  I also got my warm water and lemon in today…which I guzzled prior to guzzling my iced coffee.  And I am on green tea number two (1st with breakfast, this with lunch).  So far so good on the food servings front!

I have noticed that I am tired.  At night.  In the morning.  During the day.  My energy level has not improved thus far – granted this is only day 3.  I slept in this morning because I could not seem to motivate myself to get out of bed.  Could also be the combination of sadness over the loss of my relationship with food.  No more happiness from food = feelings of loss and the end of a relationship.  I was telling a co-worker that I feel like a drug addict detoxing.  Hello, my name is Jennifer and I’m a food addict.  It has been three days since my last emotionally satisfying meal.  Drug addicts enjoy their relationship with their drugs, for whatever reasons.  They find joy in their usage (I’m guessing).  I enjoy my relationship with food.  I find joy in eating.  But, like a drug addict, my joy can kill me (ok, not quite the same – but pants not fitting, heart not working properly, and dying of cardiac arrest or complications related to high blood pressure and diabetes are all really bad things). 

My lunch (Day 3) - apologies for the blurriness.
I noticed the shakiness before lunch, as well.  Hands trembled and hunger made my tummy gurgle and grumble.  A headache came on early afternoon – I think it’s b/c my hair is up in a bun (sometimes causes headaches) – so I took Tylenol.  All better now.  I ate my fabulous lunch, and was still pretty hungry after (not just the "I want carbs" hunger, but actual honest to goodness - FEED ME hunger).  I made some more green tea, and drank more water.  It helped with the hunger pangs. 

Read some more about first week of low-carbing it.  They mentioned shakiness comes in around days 3-5, maybe earlier.  Well, that would fall right in line with me – day 3.  The explanation: gluconeogenesis (yay for anatomy and physiology classes!).  Ok – WARNING: I am going to go into sciency stuff right now….ignore if you’re not interested.  Read on if you are.  For those of you who have not had A&P: the creation of glucose from non-carbohydrate sources. 

How can you get glucose from non-carbohydrate sources?  And why is this important?  First of all, glucose is the basic form of a carbohydrate.  It is used by your body to function.  Without it, you will die.  When you eat carbs (breads, fruits, veggies, starches, etc.) your body breaks down the food into the building blocks (glucose being the most simplest form, along with other nutrients, ingredients, etc.).  Your body then uses the glucose to function.  The premise behind low carb diets is that we are consuming TOO much carbs, and as a result our bodies have an influx in glucose – which causes a spike in insulin.  Insulin takes glucose out of our blood streams.  Some glucose gets stored in the liver for future use (glycolysis) and the rest doesn’t have anywhere to go – so we store it as fat.

By eating a low carb diet, we’re providing our body with the glucose it needs to function, and forcing it to undergo gluconeogenesis for any additional glucose it does need.  Glucagon is released when blood glucose is too low, which shuts down the liver’s release of the glucose, and the stimulation of the gluconeogenesis process.  Gluconeogenesis involves breaking down proteins (alanine, glutamine) and fats (glycerol) into pyruvate which can then be converted into glucose by as series of complicated steps that require a lot of energy (11 steps to be exact).  And then we end up with glucose for our bodies that is not above and beyond what we need, and we’ve burned fat (and some muscle) in the process.

Because this process takes a lot more energy, the body is tired.  Because glucose is not readily available from my diet (in as much quantities as my body is used to), and it has to go through a very difficult process to produce glucose, I am going through withdrawals until my body gets used to the process and becomes more efficient at gluconeogenesis (shakiness, headache, irritability).  All symptoms explained.

OK – SCIENCY STUFF IS OVER NOW…

I cheated a bit in the afternoon.  I really really really wanted an iced coffee, but I abhor my coffee black.  And I was all out of my acidophilus milk because I spilled half of it on myself this morning.  So, I threw caution to the wind and went downstairs to my Starbucks and I got myself a grande, unsweetened, iced coffee, with NON-FAT milk.  Technically dairy is not allowed, except for the probiotic goodness, but it was ONLY 1/4 of a C of non-fat milk...I highly doubt it will kill me.  I am justifying its use with the fact that I spilled over 1/4 of a cup of my acidophilus milk on myself this morning, thereby eliminating the potential for me to have that second cup of iced coffee that I was craving.  However, we shall see how my adjustment affects my weight tomorrow.

I have not had a very good day today and my irritation level is at an all time high.  With the happenings of this morning, my frustration with work (that's for an entirely different blog), and my frustrations with the USPS, wasting time, energy, and having to drive to Timbuktu (not literally), plus my incessant hunger gnawing at my soul...I almost caved in today and had pretzels, donuts, and a pizza.  I managed to angrily walk away from all of these items at the grocery store, but I did so very begrudgingly.  

Tuna "patties" over cabbage and carrots.
We all know what happened with dinner - so instead I made tuna patties over grilled cabbage and carrots.  The patties turned out to be more of a scramble because they kept falling apart when I flipped them. 

Dinner was delicious.  I finished it about 15 minutes ago and would like something else to eat.  I have about 77 more calories to go, so I think I'm going to make a hard boiled egg  and snack on some baby carrots.  And drink drink drink my water.  Haven't hit the 3 L mark today.  Only a little of 2 Ls today....I'm slacking.  :)

Tomorrow I'm going to try something different with the fruit servings and breakfast.  Will definitely keep you posted on progress!

Summary:
Breakfast: Kefir smoothie; green tea; iced coffee with milk
Lunch: Turkey taco meat over 2 C salad greens and 1/4 C non-fat plain greek yogurt; green tea;
Dinner: tuna patties over sauteed cabbage and carrots
Snack: 2 hard boiled eggs and baby carrots

Now that I have food in my belly, I'm feeling slightly less irritated, and more calm.  I still want a cupcake. 

One day at a time…

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