Thursday, February 19, 2009

wo is me

warning:  graphic content ahead (vomiting and diarrhea).  So I woke up at 3:30 am and felt crappy and went into the living room with a blanket wrapped around me, and then I had to go "blow chunks."  I now understand that term applied to the act of vomiting.  I think one of the chunks lodged in my throat and has been burning there ever since.  God!  Then I had diarrhea the rest of the night, still do.  At least it isn't accompanied by cramps.  My bowls seem determined to get rid of everything.  And it's amazing how much stuff is in there.  

So how did this happened?  Well, I definitely overate.  I'm used to eating large volumes of low-calorie food but I ate about 5 medjool dates and probably 2 oz of cashews and 1 oz of walnuts (I put the walnuts in the dates), after I was full from dinner (I'm being totally honest here, which I hate!).  That's probably another 800 calories!  Then I topped it off a few hours later with a largish (not huge but not small) vegan chocolate chip cookie loaded with margarine, white flour, sugar, and chocolate fat.  I eat that stuff so rarely it's like a foreign substance to my body.  Maybe it was the straw that broke the camel's back.   Maybe it would have been okay to have had either the dates or the cookie.  I've heard other "healthy vegans" talk about how when they go off plan, they get really sick.  It's really true that my body can't handle this stuff anymore--at least in large quantities, though that's probably true for everyone.  

Now I missed my exercise class and today is my favorite workout (Brazilian Jutitsu exercises--propelling across a mat in every way except normal).  dammit.   oh well, I'll try to get some work done now.

8 comments:

Howard Veit said...

Barb,

Hope you feel better as the day progresses. My bet is that the vegan cookies did you in. To me vegan baking tastes awful and sometimes upsets my stomach. I avoid it like the plague. Guess one of the downsides of eating the way we do is that our systems get very sensitive to SAD food or even some so-called vegan food.

Overeating makes me feel awful too. Fuhrman says, 'when you are conscious that you have a stomach, you have eaten too much.' That bit of wisdom is quite useful, I think.

I guess, too, that we are vulnerable to "emotional eating", just like everyone else.

My best.....

kneecap said...

Hi Howard,

That quote from Fuhrman is perfect. I definitely over-ate as I felt my stomach after both lunch and dinner. I don't know if I'd call it emotional eating since I felt emotionally fine yesterday. Sweets affect me a lot more than they used to, and I need to recalibrate my reaction to them--I just went crazy after starting on them. And yeah, I think the cookie did me in. It was pretty gross.

-barb

Howard Veit said...

Barb,

Barb, Another thought....could you have picked up something during your Portugal trip? Stomach virus, for example?

When I travel out of the country, and sometimes in the country, I always seem to come home mildly sick with something. The air on airplanes is full of nasty bugs.

kneecap said...

I am pretty certain that this is just from overindulgence. I am hoping I escaped getting a virus on the plane. I've had less energy than normal, but I think that was just jetlag.

Anonymous said...

Barb! Yikes, Woman :( I'm so sorry. There has to be a reason for your doing this, though. It could be, as you posted today, that you are not eating enough of something -- fats perhaps?
The dried fruit seems to be your trigger. You need to just decide -- just do it -- that dried fruit is not food for you. It just isn't. See it as plastic, see each fruit as a tablespoon of white sugar, because that's what it is to you! It's out. Gone. Off your radar. Ya follow me? ;)
I don't know if you're doing ETL, or E4H or neither, but you may like to try getting back to basics,with a humongous salad as "the main dish" -- 3 meals a day, no snacks, Leafy greens, vegetables,1 or 2 C beans, 4 pieces fresh-only fruit, 1-2 ounces of nuts/seeds/avo. I know that sounds like the six week plan from ETL, and it is, but you can work within that to adjust it so you're not consuming trigger foods. There is no such thing as "treating" oneself to toxic food!
....Okay, I just went on a rant then deleted it, LOL. But, anyway, you know the fruit is a trigger so it's off the menu. Stick to fresh fruit.
The Six Weeks resets your body; if you find that too difficult how about doing the 5-day cleanse plan? That's shorter, and a lot of people find it's a quicker way to "get back on track" and reset the taste buds, if adhered to.
I think you have to do this for life and for however long it takes. Some people need to do the 6-Weeks for 6 months! And then tweak. My opinion is that everyone should be doing the 6-weeks forever, modified as they become healthier, of course. That's what I have done.

kneecap said...

Hey Strix,

thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts. I think you are right that the dried fruit is a problem for me, a trigger like sugar. Sugar didn't used to be a trigger because I was addicted to so many things (caffeine & alcohol) that I didn't feel the effects of any of them much. I learned that sugar is a trigger a few months ago and I now realized dried fruits are too. No problem, I prefer fresh fruit anyway! To answer your question about ETL or EFH, I am pretty much ETL. I feel better the more simple the foods. thanks again!

Anonymous said...

Ooh, great point about the caffeine and alcohol sort of covering up the sugar thing, Barb! You dealt with those first. I guess that's how we heal, in steps. First your body dealt with those things, then the sugar thing.
what's interesting, too, is that alcohol is pretty much like sugar to the body,isn't it? And I know Dr. F. has said the same about caffeine in its effect. They are both stimulating carbs.
I was a java head, but, for some reason, found coffee easy to give up, but ONLY after I got off of sugar!! Starch is sugar, so I was really sugar overloaded.
Sugar = Evil. In all its insidious forms! haha. You're right, though, about fresh fruit. I love it too! I can't wait for summer fruit :)

kneecap said...

Interesting about finding it easier to give up coffee after giving up sugar. Maybe I had a similar experience and just didn't realize it. I tried to give up coffee several times in the past and was unsuccessful, even after going cold turkey for a few months once. But after I started eating healthy, I didn't like the effect of caffeine as much and just started decreasing it over time. By the time i was down to one cup of green tea a day, I found an easy excuse to give it up completely (in support of another friend who was doing it for medical reasons). I never put 2+2 together and thought it was related to the healthy eating. Then after giving up coffee, alcohol made me tired too soon after drinking, and then I felt yucky the next day. So that went away too. Then the occasional sugar bout hit me in a big way and now I realize that has to go too.