Lifetiquing

Ok, I admit it. I've always had a contentious relationship with food. One of the reasons I always worked out as much as I did was because I didn't want to have to think about what I ate. I subscribed to simple calories in vs. calories out wisdom, and by that logic, I just had to make sure I didn't eat beyond my calorie expenditure. Other than that, I was pretty sure that my body composition was pretty much exclusively determined by my genetics and my workouts.

As it turns out, I was wrong. In December 2010, I began a ketogenic diet- yes, along the same veins as the villified Atkins Diet. It actually began by accident, since I was just eating with others around me who were on it. It is very important to emphasize that a ketogenic diet means high fat, moderate protein, and low carbohydrate. I've known many people who started so-called low carb diets and felt awful because they could not get it through their heads that they needed to eat a lot of fat. When I say a lot of fat, I mean TONS of fat. I mean all those things that you've been told your entire life to avoid. I mean entire sticks of butter. I mean cream. I mean sausage fried in cheese. It is a psychological adjustment just as much as it is a physical one.

Anyway, back in December, I felt horrible for a few days, and then suddenly (cue angel choir) I felt fantastic. And starting in January, I started to notice changes in how I look. Here are some of the changes that have occurred over the past few months.

a) Overall, I just feel incredible. I have sustained energy and no more highs and lows. I can work my 16 hour day without naps. In fact, when I try to nap, I can only nap for 20 minutes or so before I'm up and at it again.

b) No more migraines. NONE. I have had not a single headache in four months. I've had headaches once every two weeks or so since I was a teenager.

c) I have no sugar cravings. I eat healthfully 95% of the time. The other 5% is my cheat day, which will be the topic of another post. I used to need desserts with every meal.

d) My mood is stable. I have been back on my feet and feeling happy since January- yes, despite the gray, bitter Indiana winter. I have little, if any, PMS. I stopped having winter blues, which used to keep me low until April.

e) My body composition has changed- a lot. See this entry for before and after shots. My workouts have contributed, since the proportion of strength to cardio in my routine has changed. But I have been spending less time working out than I used to, and I have never been this lean. I have not lost weight (as far as I know), but I have reproportioned. I have gained muscle in my arms and chest. I have also definitely lost inches in my waist and hips because I am now able to wear jeans that I could not wear before. And I look ripped. People have commented on it. 

I will be providing more details about my nutrition in the future (as well as my new beliefs about macronutrients and conventional nutritional wisdom), but I just wanted to say that it took this experiment to convince me that my body composition has a lot more to do with what I'm eating than how much I'm eating. It's not surprising that I was so convinced before, because conventional nutritional guidelines are all about calories in vs. calories out, but I've been reading voraciously on this topic since I've seen these astonishing changes in my body, and the more I read (and see in myself), the more shocking it is to me that the guidelines are what they are.

P.S. You can buy the t-shirt pictured above from Woot. Head over to http://shirt.woot.com/friends.aspx?k=9649 to check it out.