Curious and Hard to Believe

2010 is in full swing now, and it's time to get back to normal. For the most part, things have righted themselves. However, since my birthday is January 7, it seems it is always the second week of January before I'm totally back to my routine.

It's been five months now since I made big changes in my diet by eliminating (for the most part) grains, sugar, and other refined carbohydrates. I haven't blogged much recently about this, but now with the holidays behind us, I think it's a perfect time to give an update. Let me start by saying that for the first time in my life, I weighed less after my birthday (this morning) than I did before Thanksgiving. That's right. I lost weight during the holidays! And I wasn't dieting. Like most people, I indulged --a few cookies here, some fudge there, sweet potato pie, a glass of wine now and then, and birthday cake of course. There were times when I definitely over did it. When I allow myself to have sweets and other refined carbs, it's so easy to get into trouble. They are addictive for me. A little something sweet has always left me wanting MORE SUGAR. The same thing happened this holiday season.

The difference this year was that over-indulging made me sick. I can't handle the sugar anymore. When I over do it, I feel terrible. I become tired and depressed. I don't sleep well. I have a persistent headache, and my vertigo returns. I've had a problem with vertigo off and on for years. Since going low-carb, I've discovered that my bouts with vertigo are associated (possibly always) with over-indulgence of refined carbohydrates. I found this curious and hard to believe. At first I thought it was just a coincidence, but I proved it on three separate occasions over the last six weeks. (Hopefully, I'm done testing that scenario for a while). I did more reading on the subject and found a recommendation in some of the literature that eliminating sugar from the diet can help with vertigo. Of course my doctor never mentioned this to me. She knew of my struggle with sugar; we had discussed it many times. She said there was really nothing that could be done for my chronic vertigo; "just treat the symptoms by taking meclazine for the dizziness until it passes." That's right. Keep eating the standard American diet so that you can keep taking the standard American drugs for the rest of your life. . . so sad and so true. I'm grateful to have found a better way.

So that's my update: The excess weight is slowly coming off. I feel better than ever, my performance in the gym continues to improve, and I'm not dieting. Curious and hard to believe.