| | I have now been eating a mostly ketogenic diet with no food after 4:00pm for two months or so. I have a bunch of other restrictions, also, which makes my diet highly restrictive. No bread, no legumes, no high-fiber-content vegetables, and some others. I basically two meals, breakfast 30m after waking up and "lunch" around 3-4pm" each consisting of organic meat or fish with a small bowl of cooked vegetables or salad, cooked and/or seasoned with a lot of good fats, such as (organic) lard, coconut oil or extra-virgin olive oil. Recently I added two or three pieces of fruit per day.
The diet has not been strictly enforced, I didn't count calories or weigh my food, and I had the occasional day when I ate two entire bananas (!), or when I had my last meal at 6pm... Nonetheless, the effects of the diet are obvious and quite powerful.
Here is what I have to say:
1. It is nowadays very easy not to eat in the evenings, even when other people are eating delicious dinners around me. It is a bit harder if I have eaten my last meal before 3pm, which sometimes happens for social reasons. I am not hungry until the next morning, and even then I am not ravenous or anything, and could easily delay my first meal for an hour or two (then I get very hungry). I have very little cravings with regards to food in general, which is unusual and fun. For instance I can see a family member eat a delicious-looking desert, recognize that it is delicious, and yet have very little craving to deal with. This happened naturally and spontaneously over the course of several weeks as I got more and more used to the diet. At first I sometimes ate a soup or a piece of fruit in the evenings, but soon that was no longer necessary. I only struggled during the first week, when it became clear as day just how addicted I was to sugary food. Well, no more!
2. My alertness levels are pretty much constant throughout the day, though I get adequately tired at night. That is, except if I overeat on one of the meals, in which case I feel bloated and sleepy just like I used to. There is a general feeling that energy is burned more steadily, without spikes.
3. As long as I don't eat too much, and stay away from the foods I am intolerant to, my belly pain is completely gone, as well as several body pains I used to have. However, I have developed a mild form of tendon pain in the shoulder and arms... this could be explained because I spend a lot of time in the computer, but on the other hand I have always done this, and never had tendon problems, so the diet could have something to do with it. On the other hand, I am approaching my 30s, and my close family reports that they started getting unhealthy in all sorts of ways at around this age.
4. I am now able to become absorbed into activities (you know when you are so into something that time flies by). This is actually the most welcome of all the changes brought about by this diet, and it made me realize that the ability to become absorbed had all but disappeared in the previous three years.
I can now get absorbed working, playing music, talking to people and meditating, in a way I couldn't before, and so all of these activities have improved somewhat. However my concentration abilities are still very far from desired, and I still feel a general lack of duration and power/depth compared to what I was able to do before my depression.
5. My mood is much more stable. Waaay more stable. I am diagnosed bipolar, and used to feel either extreme sadness or exhilarating euphoria in alternating periods. I still see the ups and downs, but they don't last as long and they have smaller amplitude. This is a big relief.
However, I am far from satisfied mood-wise, as the highs and lows have been replaced with fits of tedium which can last for several days and have an intensity of their own. It is as if the body/mind gets less stimulus than it used to, and I get terribly bored. As an analogy I could say: these "fits of boredom" are to "bouts of depression/euphoria" like indifference is to sadness/joy.
Also, since I am much less prone to euphoria, I can't depend on the temporary extra mental boost I used to get from it, which has always been useful for work.
6. I am concerned about whether the diet I follow is good enough in the long term. I want to reintroduce all those healthy vegetables (I miss broccoli!) but my attempts so far have been met with pain and suffering. I am going to the doctor, but IBS (my probably diagnosis) is relatively unknown and I am considered a low-priority case, so it takes ages.
Also, I do not feel like I need less sleep, nor do I feel that my mind is "very clear" (though perhaps clearer than before).
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I am prone to believe that the reason I was unable to become absorbed was because of a gut imbalance that was brought about by my very strong bipolar, anxiety-ridden period in 2009 (the generic term is Irritable Bowel Syndrome). The gut imbalance is still there, but by favoring protein and fat as a source of energy, whichever bad bacteria was ruining my gut ecosystem are no longer thriving as before, and I am given a sort of truce.
Seems like another fascinating science-fiction future research subject. |