Some of you know that I’ve been working on trying to loose weight for almost a year now. I’m about 13 lb down from my start weight, and while it is a slow process I’ve decided slow is the best way to go. I’m not trying to break any records here, and the more I get used to changing my eating habits the more I’m likely to make them a permanent thing. (I want large amounts of french fries and chocolate chip cookies. Large Amounts).
Over the past week or so I’ve been thinking about food and weight issues and how they related to other parts of my health, like mood and attitude. I’m going to throw some things out there and you can feel free to comment if you’d like.
Sugar. We all know that we eat way WAY too much sugar and that it has an poor effect on our energy levels, etc. I find when I eat a lot of sugar and/or simple carbohydrates I get very sluggish and sleepy, and I crave more sugar. I’ve also been noticing it increasingly affects my mood, namely I get cranky, irritable, moody and more depressed and angry I eat more sugar. I’ve been trying to cut down, but it is difficult because it is like an addiction and it is EVERYWHERE. I’m not saying I’m going on an Atkin’s diet-type thing, but I’m going to start to cut my sugars and go more towards whole-grain and complex carbs to see how it affects my mood. Stay tuned.
Fat Storage. This is not what you might think. I’m not talking about how my body stores fat, I’m talking about what my fat may be storing. Let me explain.
When I was in college, one of my best friends was a returning adult student in her mid-30s. She was also a recovering drug addict and alcoholic who had turned her life around. She had been doing drugs since she was a teenager and her drug of choice was anything psychedelic: mushrooms, LSD, acid, etc. She had been clean for 10 years and sober for 5 when I met her.
A few years into our relationship, she began to loose weight. Something very interesting happened: she started to have acid trips again. She wasn’t taking any, but apparently the chemicals had stored in her fat and stayed there for years, and when she started to burn the fat away the chemicals came out and she started tripping. She was terrified and contacted a doctor and yes, this is not uncommon.
I started wondering lately if that was possible with everything. Do we store asprin, ibuprofen, whatever in our fat layers? What about chemicals our bodies produce? If I was putting out bad depression-related chemicals and hormones as a teen, in college, and in the years since (when I was gaining weight) is it possible they’ve been stored all these years? Could they be coming out now and messing with my mood? I wonder.
I have not done any research on this yet, but if I do I’ll let you all know what I find.
4 comments:
If you want to replace your sugars, eat more fruit.
I crave fruit now. I eat it everyday.
I replace fries with baked potato, but I still have fries on occasion but I order smaller portions, or try not to eat them all at once or one sitting or share.
Pop should go as it is chock full of sugars. I have a pop maybe once or twice a month. Water, tea, low sugar juices.
As I mentioned before, every few months or so I crave sweets for a week or so. I binge and then it's over, back to regular eating.
I saw a CSI once where a man developed an intestinal bolus and it randomly released stored drugs into his system. Creepy. Fat loss can make you trip!
French fries are my downfall. If there are some around I literally cannot stop myself from eating them (unless they are floppy and mushy, and even then I sometimes do). I drink soda about as much as you do.
I do the sweets craving thing, too! Right now I'm craving chocolate, so I've been eating chocolate. This, too, shall pass.
Fascinating. You have to wonder what environmental and food-bourne toxins we're storing in our fat reserved, such as pesticides, antibiotics, etc.
If you're looking for an healthier alternative to french fries, have you thought about slicing up fresh potatoes into fries and baking them?
Good luck with your efforts. Let me know if you feel better eating less sugar and carbs.
Yeah, Angie, it's kind of creepy if you think about it, what are we carrying around with us?
I love baked sweet potatoe fries seasoned with taco seasoning. Really good!
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