WHY ARE YOU DOING THE KETOGENIC DIET AGAIN, EMILY? I THOUGHT YOU WERE AGAINST CRASH DIETS!
I have a bachelor's degree in Exercise and Wellness, I'm a certified personal trainer, and I've spent many hours working as a health coach. I know all the science behind nutrition and health and I can explain it to anyone. However, for some reason my own health continues to evade me. I've been having GI problems since August of 2013 (cramping, nausea, bloating, fatigue) and I've been to doctors and specialists and chiropractors and naturopaths and no one seems to have a solution. I eat healthy (according to everything I've learned in school) and I exercise regularly. I drink lots of water. I get lots of sleep. Why does my digestive system hate me so much?
I had considered the possibility that I had celiac disease but my doctor ran the test and it came back negative so I moved on. On Monday, however my Grandma introduced me to a book called "Grain Brain". It's by a neurologist who claims that many people are sensitive to gluten without having celiac, and how carbohydrates are damaging our brains. Woah. I looked up some of the research studies cited in the book and it seemed to me that all the evidence he gave for his claim was pretty sound. Then I read his proposed diet plan for healing both the brain and the gut and realized it was basically the ketogenic diet.
What?
I've already done that before!
I went back to this blog and read my post from October 20, 2012:
"Ayayayayay!!! LAST DAY OF THE EXPERIMENT! And I must say, this has
been a very successful experiment. I have gained so much from following
this diet over the last thirty days. Motivation, focus, self-control,
confidence, will-power, happiness, energy, peace, excitement, stability,
you name it, I've got it thanks to this project. Yay I am so happy that
I've discovered something so amazing! Seriously this has changed my
life. I finally feel like I have found not just a diet that works but a
lifestyle that I am capable of living. I'm excited to eat some of my
favorite cheat foods tomorrow of course but I am confident that I will
continue to follow the principles I've learned from this diet for the
rest of my life. I never want to go back to the way I lived before :)
Best thing about this diet:
surprisingly,
not the weight loss...I would have to say one thing I have benefited
most from by following this diet over the last thirty days is mood
stabilization. I have never been so peaceful and happy in my entire
life. None of this up and down, good times and bad, get high then crash
junk. I feel like I have been functioning on a consistently exalted
level :) I even think more clearly and about more significant things. My
mind has officially been blown, and i give this diet SIX stars!"
How did I feel so great on such a restrictive "crash" diet?
Well the answer is blood sugar stabilization and a lack of gut-irritating toxins.
So I guess a combination of past experience and new-found science knowledge has motivated me to try the ketogenic diet again. I don't know how long I'm going to do it. A month or two maybe. I really just want to find a solution to my distress, and I think this might be it.
