A Hospital Visit Couldn’t Explain My Symptoms. But I Can.
oliverwnc
Posts: 69 Member
February 2020
Rewind 8 months. I was going to have to go to A&E.
I was dizzy. My head was buzzing. I was on the verge of passing out. I felt exhausted, for no good reason. My heartbeat was irregular, incredibly slow (hovering around 40bpm) and I was experiencing some of the worst palpitations I ever have. Even more worryingly, my whole right side was cold & numb. I couldn’t really feel or control my left arm or leg. It was terrifying. The whole thing was causing me intense waves of panic, fear and nausea.
And when I did drag myself down to the ER (or A&E), it was treated fairly seriously by the doctors & nurses I spoke to. But, all the same, I was (rightly) discharged a few hours later with a clean bill of health.
I must’ve been in denial at the time because, looking back, I know exactly what was wrong. This was just an extreme manifestation of symptoms I had been feeling every single day. The intense feeling of cold. The dizziness. The headrushes. The nausea. Aches, pains, exhaustion & this constant discomfort in my own skin. In fact, I had fainted at a business lunch a few days earlier — even if I didn’t want to acknowledge then that these things were connected.
June 2020
A few months later, another low point. I was in bed, exhausted, but too restless & uncomfortable to sleep. Palpitations, again. Even lying down, the room was spinning. There were purple flashes when I closed my eyes, and even on a warm night under two duvets and a blanket I was still shivering.
This time, the cause was much more apparent. Because, throughout all of this, I couldn’t stop thinking about one thing and one thing only: food.
I had only eaten about 1300 calories that day and I had knowingly gone to bed hungry, hoping that I could sleep my way out of eating any more until the next day. There were some rice cakes in the kitchen that had been the last thing I’d eaten that night (about the lowest-calorie snack you can find), and in my mind there was a battle raging between one voice screaming at me to go and eat some more, and another telling me that I’d be somehow better off without those few calories.
My Story
Both of these episodes & many others in the last few years have been caused by an eating disorder that was hard to admit to myself and even harder to admit to others. Happily, things are starting to improve — thanks to some professional help, the incredible support of my friends & family, and an uphill struggle that I think still has years to run.
As a twenty-something-year-old, fit & healthy, sporty, gym-going man, I’m in a high-risk group for eating disorders, but a group that struggles to open up about them. For men of my age, it’s probably the most embarrassing medical ‘ED’ — in a competitive field!
Being in relative good shape, fairly lean, fairly muscular, it seems as though people assume you’re doing things right. In my case, that’s a long way from the truth. What started as a keen interest in fitness & nutrition has transformed over the years into an extremely unhealthy relationship with food, underpinned by body dysmorphia and a set of obsessive habits that have — at times — driven me into the ground.
Behaviours
I mean, where do I start? OK — so I didn’t make myself sick, but I pretty much ticked every other box for symptoms of an eating disorder.
I’d track calories obsessively, demonising certain foods (usually calorie dense), while glorifying others (usually high volume & low calorie). I’d often feel guilt for eating anything that wasn’t on the ‘good’ list, or satisfaction for unhealthy behaviours (like under-eating).
I’d go as far as to project this on to others — even experiencing quite a severe reaction when I’d see friends, family or strangers eating & drinking things that didn’t fit into my ever-more-restrictive view of what was OK. Ultimately, one of the main reasons why I opened up to my girlfriend was because I had something close to a panic attack after spending some time around people eating some particularly unhealthy foods.
Oh, and then there was the glorious occasion when I burst into tears while trying to eat some pizza.
I’d monitor my weight too closely, constantly manipulating things so I would achieve a lower weigh-in. I didn’t particularly need to lose weight. I just became obsessed with the idea, and always felt this urge to just see how things were if I dropped another pound. (As an aside, it became harder and harder to drop weight as my energy levels dropped, my metabolism slowed and my workout intensity collapsed). I’d go through highs and lows with body image, even when very little had changed.
I’d use Intermittent Fasting as a pretext for starving myself for longer than I comfortably could — regularly eating my first meal well after midday.
I’d look at foods but see nothing but numbers. Calories. Macros. Comparisons. I’d find it impossible to choose what to eat because I’m in an endless spiral of ‘is this worth the calories?’ or ‘would I rather have this now, or maybe something else later?’.
Sometimes I’d binge-without-bingeing by filling myself up excessively on those high volume but low calorie foods, sometimes in an uncontrolled fashion. I’d feel excessively full but my body would still crave more because I was still so far under my calorie needs.
What all this meant was that I’d regularly under-eat — really giving my body a fraction of what it needed for my active lifestyle.
Symptoms
The physical symptoms of undereating are utterly debilitating, and I think often underestimated. Some are those familiar feelings we all know from occasions when we’ve had low blood sugar, only multiplied by 100x.
But then there’s this indescribable fatigue. Getting out of a chair feels like a momentous effort. When you’re faced with the prospect of having to climb a staircase, it’ll seem to distort & elongate itself up into the heavens like something from a film. Sometimes, I would just stop while walking because I felt like I could no longer put one foot in front of the other. You feel so heavy, sluggish and slow that it’s almost impossible even to talk. After the working-from-home / living-at-work era started, I fell asleep during at least one meeting.
And physiologically things aren’t great, either. The cold is horrendous — especially in your hands and feet — as the furnaces of your metabolism switch off. It’s a constant internal chill, no matter how warmly you wrap up. I had severe heart palpitations and was repeatedly seen by a cardiologist after various episodes of arrythmias & ‘skipped beats’. My average heart rate over the course of 24 hours would usually hover around 40–45bpm.
The mental side is even more crippling. We’ve all been hangry, but the effect of undereating day after day, month after month is like nothing else. You just feel permanently tragic, irritable, miserable, grumpy, stressed and anxious. It is awful.
What’s especially cruel about eating disorders is that they feed off themselves (notwithstanding the irony in that particular choice of words…). The more stressed you are about food, the more difficult it becomes to eat, to choose what to eat, to eat normally, or to ‘stop overthinking it’. The mental agony is partly caused by your body’s physical response to being messed around in this way. You are a victim of your mind’s tricks and your body’s chemical balance — and you know you are, but that doesn’t make it any easier to stop.
Above all, though, imagine having a profound panic response to something that you cannot avoid in your day-to-day life. We all need to eat. We’re surrounded by food — much of it unhealthy, and much of that heavily marketed. In the doldrums of an eating disorder, you completely forget that food is good. It stops being sustenance, nourishment & fuel. It becomes nothing more than a source of guilt and fear.
Moving forward
I don’t have a neat ending to this piece, or a clear solution to propose. I suppose that makes sense, because I don’t think this story has a neat ending for me. At least, not yet. I’ll still look at food and see calorie counts. I’ll still feel those flashes of anxiety about certain foods. I’ll definitely still put other foods on a pedestal: those superfoods that are the holy trinity of enjoyable, calorie-friendly and satiating.
But I’m in a much better place now, and in a position where I hope I can help others who might be suffering. I am sure many people in my network are, even if in silent & in secret. Maybe this piece will go some way towards helping someone. Maybe you’d like to get in touch. Please feel free. Otherwise, I would absolutely suggest opening up to someone you trust. If that seems a bridge too far, start with an anonymous helpline.
And for the many, many lucky people who might be reading this without ever having experienced these challenges, I’d say two things. Firstly, don’t underestimate how lucky you are. Don’t take for granted how wonderful, liberating & life-affirming it is to enjoy food without guilt, stress & anxiety. And secondly, look out for the signs in people around you. Those obsessive, restrictive behaviours. Those comments that just feel wrong — perhaps indicating an unhealthy view of food. Rapid weight loss or gain, of course. You can help. Just by being sensitive to another’s struggle, you can help.
For me, I had to hit a low (or a couple of lows) to really trigger a change. After that night in June, I just decided I never wanted to be in that state again. I stopped tracking my calories and forced myself to listen to my body and eat to satisfaction for a fortnight.
That was a reset button for me. From there, everything started to improve. It can feel like a huge battle when you’re crying over pizza or panicking over your next meal. It can feel like your relationship with food is so broken that you’d be better off going your separate ways, if only that were an option.
It can feel like a long way back to anything like normality.
I remember telling my girlfriend that I felt like I was standing at the bottom of a deep, deep well wondering how on earth I’d fallen so far, and how on earth I’d ever be able to climb all the way out.
It turns out that the analogy has legs. You have to find a foothold. And then a handhold. And then another foothold. And another handhold.
A few months later, I can see the summit. I'm up 6lbs. Mostly muscle. I look better. I feel great.
Don't forget: things can improve.
Rewind 8 months. I was going to have to go to A&E.
I was dizzy. My head was buzzing. I was on the verge of passing out. I felt exhausted, for no good reason. My heartbeat was irregular, incredibly slow (hovering around 40bpm) and I was experiencing some of the worst palpitations I ever have. Even more worryingly, my whole right side was cold & numb. I couldn’t really feel or control my left arm or leg. It was terrifying. The whole thing was causing me intense waves of panic, fear and nausea.
And when I did drag myself down to the ER (or A&E), it was treated fairly seriously by the doctors & nurses I spoke to. But, all the same, I was (rightly) discharged a few hours later with a clean bill of health.
I must’ve been in denial at the time because, looking back, I know exactly what was wrong. This was just an extreme manifestation of symptoms I had been feeling every single day. The intense feeling of cold. The dizziness. The headrushes. The nausea. Aches, pains, exhaustion & this constant discomfort in my own skin. In fact, I had fainted at a business lunch a few days earlier — even if I didn’t want to acknowledge then that these things were connected.
June 2020
A few months later, another low point. I was in bed, exhausted, but too restless & uncomfortable to sleep. Palpitations, again. Even lying down, the room was spinning. There were purple flashes when I closed my eyes, and even on a warm night under two duvets and a blanket I was still shivering.
This time, the cause was much more apparent. Because, throughout all of this, I couldn’t stop thinking about one thing and one thing only: food.
I had only eaten about 1300 calories that day and I had knowingly gone to bed hungry, hoping that I could sleep my way out of eating any more until the next day. There were some rice cakes in the kitchen that had been the last thing I’d eaten that night (about the lowest-calorie snack you can find), and in my mind there was a battle raging between one voice screaming at me to go and eat some more, and another telling me that I’d be somehow better off without those few calories.
My Story
Both of these episodes & many others in the last few years have been caused by an eating disorder that was hard to admit to myself and even harder to admit to others. Happily, things are starting to improve — thanks to some professional help, the incredible support of my friends & family, and an uphill struggle that I think still has years to run.
As a twenty-something-year-old, fit & healthy, sporty, gym-going man, I’m in a high-risk group for eating disorders, but a group that struggles to open up about them. For men of my age, it’s probably the most embarrassing medical ‘ED’ — in a competitive field!
Being in relative good shape, fairly lean, fairly muscular, it seems as though people assume you’re doing things right. In my case, that’s a long way from the truth. What started as a keen interest in fitness & nutrition has transformed over the years into an extremely unhealthy relationship with food, underpinned by body dysmorphia and a set of obsessive habits that have — at times — driven me into the ground.
Behaviours
I mean, where do I start? OK — so I didn’t make myself sick, but I pretty much ticked every other box for symptoms of an eating disorder.
I’d track calories obsessively, demonising certain foods (usually calorie dense), while glorifying others (usually high volume & low calorie). I’d often feel guilt for eating anything that wasn’t on the ‘good’ list, or satisfaction for unhealthy behaviours (like under-eating).
I’d go as far as to project this on to others — even experiencing quite a severe reaction when I’d see friends, family or strangers eating & drinking things that didn’t fit into my ever-more-restrictive view of what was OK. Ultimately, one of the main reasons why I opened up to my girlfriend was because I had something close to a panic attack after spending some time around people eating some particularly unhealthy foods.
Oh, and then there was the glorious occasion when I burst into tears while trying to eat some pizza.
I’d monitor my weight too closely, constantly manipulating things so I would achieve a lower weigh-in. I didn’t particularly need to lose weight. I just became obsessed with the idea, and always felt this urge to just see how things were if I dropped another pound. (As an aside, it became harder and harder to drop weight as my energy levels dropped, my metabolism slowed and my workout intensity collapsed). I’d go through highs and lows with body image, even when very little had changed.
I’d use Intermittent Fasting as a pretext for starving myself for longer than I comfortably could — regularly eating my first meal well after midday.
I’d look at foods but see nothing but numbers. Calories. Macros. Comparisons. I’d find it impossible to choose what to eat because I’m in an endless spiral of ‘is this worth the calories?’ or ‘would I rather have this now, or maybe something else later?’.
Sometimes I’d binge-without-bingeing by filling myself up excessively on those high volume but low calorie foods, sometimes in an uncontrolled fashion. I’d feel excessively full but my body would still crave more because I was still so far under my calorie needs.
What all this meant was that I’d regularly under-eat — really giving my body a fraction of what it needed for my active lifestyle.
Symptoms
The physical symptoms of undereating are utterly debilitating, and I think often underestimated. Some are those familiar feelings we all know from occasions when we’ve had low blood sugar, only multiplied by 100x.
But then there’s this indescribable fatigue. Getting out of a chair feels like a momentous effort. When you’re faced with the prospect of having to climb a staircase, it’ll seem to distort & elongate itself up into the heavens like something from a film. Sometimes, I would just stop while walking because I felt like I could no longer put one foot in front of the other. You feel so heavy, sluggish and slow that it’s almost impossible even to talk. After the working-from-home / living-at-work era started, I fell asleep during at least one meeting.
And physiologically things aren’t great, either. The cold is horrendous — especially in your hands and feet — as the furnaces of your metabolism switch off. It’s a constant internal chill, no matter how warmly you wrap up. I had severe heart palpitations and was repeatedly seen by a cardiologist after various episodes of arrythmias & ‘skipped beats’. My average heart rate over the course of 24 hours would usually hover around 40–45bpm.
The mental side is even more crippling. We’ve all been hangry, but the effect of undereating day after day, month after month is like nothing else. You just feel permanently tragic, irritable, miserable, grumpy, stressed and anxious. It is awful.
What’s especially cruel about eating disorders is that they feed off themselves (notwithstanding the irony in that particular choice of words…). The more stressed you are about food, the more difficult it becomes to eat, to choose what to eat, to eat normally, or to ‘stop overthinking it’. The mental agony is partly caused by your body’s physical response to being messed around in this way. You are a victim of your mind’s tricks and your body’s chemical balance — and you know you are, but that doesn’t make it any easier to stop.
Above all, though, imagine having a profound panic response to something that you cannot avoid in your day-to-day life. We all need to eat. We’re surrounded by food — much of it unhealthy, and much of that heavily marketed. In the doldrums of an eating disorder, you completely forget that food is good. It stops being sustenance, nourishment & fuel. It becomes nothing more than a source of guilt and fear.
Moving forward
I don’t have a neat ending to this piece, or a clear solution to propose. I suppose that makes sense, because I don’t think this story has a neat ending for me. At least, not yet. I’ll still look at food and see calorie counts. I’ll still feel those flashes of anxiety about certain foods. I’ll definitely still put other foods on a pedestal: those superfoods that are the holy trinity of enjoyable, calorie-friendly and satiating.
But I’m in a much better place now, and in a position where I hope I can help others who might be suffering. I am sure many people in my network are, even if in silent & in secret. Maybe this piece will go some way towards helping someone. Maybe you’d like to get in touch. Please feel free. Otherwise, I would absolutely suggest opening up to someone you trust. If that seems a bridge too far, start with an anonymous helpline.
And for the many, many lucky people who might be reading this without ever having experienced these challenges, I’d say two things. Firstly, don’t underestimate how lucky you are. Don’t take for granted how wonderful, liberating & life-affirming it is to enjoy food without guilt, stress & anxiety. And secondly, look out for the signs in people around you. Those obsessive, restrictive behaviours. Those comments that just feel wrong — perhaps indicating an unhealthy view of food. Rapid weight loss or gain, of course. You can help. Just by being sensitive to another’s struggle, you can help.
For me, I had to hit a low (or a couple of lows) to really trigger a change. After that night in June, I just decided I never wanted to be in that state again. I stopped tracking my calories and forced myself to listen to my body and eat to satisfaction for a fortnight.
That was a reset button for me. From there, everything started to improve. It can feel like a huge battle when you’re crying over pizza or panicking over your next meal. It can feel like your relationship with food is so broken that you’d be better off going your separate ways, if only that were an option.
It can feel like a long way back to anything like normality.
I remember telling my girlfriend that I felt like I was standing at the bottom of a deep, deep well wondering how on earth I’d fallen so far, and how on earth I’d ever be able to climb all the way out.
It turns out that the analogy has legs. You have to find a foothold. And then a handhold. And then another foothold. And another handhold.
A few months later, I can see the summit. I'm up 6lbs. Mostly muscle. I look better. I feel great.
Don't forget: things can improve.
90
Replies
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Thank you for your openess and honesty. This is one of the best things I've ever read on MFP and I'm glad that you chose to share it. I wish you much continued success and happiness in your future.9
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If you'd like to help others there are ED groups on MFP. Your story is moving and I hope you continue to move forward.6
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Thank you so much for sharing your story in such an eloquent and insightful way. I'm sure it's going to help many others.
I wish you nothing but the best. ::Hugs::4 -
Thank you all so much for your kind and supportive comments. I had no idea about the MFP groups but will seek some out. I hope my progress offers some kind of comfort or reassurance to others.6
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Thank you for sharing your story. I know as a man, it is sometimes difficult to open up and admit to these things. You are very brave. I feel fortunate to have caught onto the beginning symptoms of obsessiveness when I first started on here. I had never measured and tracked calories or exercise burn before and while it was immensely helpful as a training tool, it wasn't long before I realized if I kept going it was going to lead me down an unhappy path. I stopped counting calories, stopped tracking my exercise and stopped weighing myself except maybe once a month. It doesn't work for everyone, and not everyone has those obsessive tendencies, but for me as long as I stayed active on here it was enough to motivate me to work out daily and eat healthier.3
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mom23mangos wrote: »Thank you for sharing your story. I know as a man, it is sometimes difficult to open up and admit to these things. You are very brave. I feel fortunate to have caught onto the beginning symptoms of obsessiveness when I first started on here. I had never measured and tracked calories or exercise burn before and while it was immensely helpful as a training tool, it wasn't long before I realized if I kept going it was going to lead me down an unhappy path. I stopped counting calories, stopped tracking my exercise and stopped weighing myself except maybe once a month. It doesn't work for everyone, and not everyone has those obsessive tendencies, but for me as long as I stayed active on here it was enough to motivate me to work out daily and eat healthier.
That's very kind - thank you for your comment. I suppose I always knew I was obsessive but felt it was something I controlled... right up until it controlled me! It sounds like you do well to guard against that and avoid that slippery slope. I'm very pleased to hear!6 -
This is one of the most gripping, insightful and honest things I’ve read in a long long time.
Like others, I worry about tipping the bridge, and sometimes fear I’ve already done so, but with an exercise addiction. I’m sitting here right now with aches and pulls in just about every corner of my body, and beating myself up because I’ve had to cut back the past few weeks. Constantly plotting where I can get “make up” calories without exacerbating pain is exhausting.
Thanks for the insight. It’s helps very much just recognizing the anxiety and other signs of an impending problem.
I sincerely wish you success climbing out of “the well”.
Hugs. Many, many hugs.11 -
Well worth reading. Thanks for sharing.
I have seen things arise in myself from time to time that I have recognized as unhealthy. I have even speculated than anyone who spends enough time in a calorie deficit probably has to deal with some tendencies and I have been at it for 2.5 years.
One of the things that cropped up I would like to share but I do not think it is wise. I determined that it was creating a minor but troublesome secondary behavior some days. I put a stop to it and placed a rule to prevent me from going there again. The reason I should not share it here is that someone else might think it is a good idea and run with it. It might stay minor but I do not want to risk it.
I may be in @springlering62's camp a bit on exercise but my wrinkle is physical labor projects added on top. I have not found a good balance or system of keeping myself in check. I am so enthusiastic after the years of near disability that I just keep going and going. I have amazing stamina but a little too often I am running myself into a wall. I end up sore and fatigued. This is one area of self management that is still new to me. I do have rest days but I am still going too hard sometimes without even realizing it. The troublesome part is what I really want is for my body to be able to handle more without it being a problem not change my habits to accommodate my current limitations. I will keep trying to force myself to do the latter even if it is grudgingly.
5 -
springlering62 wrote: »This is one of the most gripping, insightful and honest things I’ve read in a long long time.
Like others, I worry about tipping the bridge, and sometimes fear I’ve already done so, but with an exercise addiction. I’m sitting here right now with aches and pulls in just about every corner of my body, and beating myself up because I’ve had to cut back the past few weeks. Constantly plotting where I can get “make up” calories without exacerbating pain is exhausting.
Thanks for the insight. It’s helps very much just recognizing the anxiety and other signs of an impending problem.
I sincerely wish you success climbing out of “the well”.
Hugs. Many, many hugs.
Thank you so much, and I'm humbled by your comments. I have experienced just a bit of this, in that I would regularly force myself through 15,000 steps a day even when I was exhausted. I enjoy sport and weightlifting, which may mask an unhealthy obsession (6x workouts per week) but I think it's ok for me mentally.
I totally understand that it can become an extra weight to burden, though. Do you find a correlation between exercise and food? Do you feel the need to work out more if you eat more? I'm sure you are far from alone.1 -
Well worth reading. Thanks for sharing.
I have seen things arise in myself from time to time that I have recognized as unhealthy. I have even speculated than anyone who spends enough time in a calorie deficit probably has to deal with some tendencies and I have been at it for 2.5 years.
One of the things that cropped up I would like to share but I do not think it is wise. I determined that it was creating a minor but troublesome secondary behavior some days. I put a stop to it and placed a rule to prevent me from going there again. The reason I should not share it here is that someone else might think it is a good idea and run with it. It might stay minor but I do not want to risk it.
I may be in @springlering62's camp a bit on exercise but my wrinkle is physical labor projects added on top. I have not found a good balance or system of keeping myself in check. I am so enthusiastic after the years of near disability that I just keep going and going. I have amazing stamina but a little too often I am running myself into a wall. I end up sore and fatigued. This is one area of self management that is still new to me. I do have rest days but I am still going too hard sometimes without even realizing it. The troublesome part is what I really want is for my body to be able to handle more without it being a problem not change my habits to accommodate my current limitations. I will keep trying to force myself to do the latter even if it is grudgingly.
Thank you very much. I'm sure you're right that this is very common for anyone looking to stay in a calorie deficit. I often find it hard to convince myself that rest is good, too - and listening to my body is important. How can we convince ourselves?! I think forcing oneself to rest and then actively noting how much better you feel for it can be beneficial over time. Have you found any strategies that work?2 -
Thank you for writing this; it's important that people see this.
I went through this same thing almost verbatim a few years ago. The only difference was I didn't care about what other people ate and was extremely secretive about my own eating habits. I even have posts I made here asking about what's happening to me from a few years ago but I was in denial about having an eating disorder. I thought since I wasn't throwing up food or eating less than 1000 calories, I couldn't possibly have an ED. I eventually went to the ER just like you and they couldn't find anything. I started to see a therapist and went on anti-depressants thinking that was the cause of everything; wrong again.
I know MFP is a great tool for sure but, like you, I gave up the food logging/calorie counting as well. I went from 105 pounds up to 120, then settled back down to 115. I relapsed and started obsessively tracking again and went down to 107. The brain fog. lethargy, and the feelings of hopelessness hit and my body quickly turned that 107 into 119 within two months.
Again, I relapsed a few months back with the meticulous food logging after a bad spot in my personal life. I hit around 113 before the mood shifts, lethargy, and extreme hunger started to rear its head. I was holding onto water weight from stress and have no doubt that I was about to experience a woosh bringing me under 110 once again. I was honest about it with my partner and now I'm three months out of the hole and thriving at around 117. However, I know it's not over; I still get food guilt and still have days where the number on the scale makes me feel anxious.
Again, thank you for this. It's so helpful for people to read about your experience and know that it can happen to anyone and that eating disorders can manifest themselves in different ways. I'm glad you're at your happy place right now and I hope that continues for you.5 -
Well worth reading. Thanks for sharing.
I have seen things arise in myself from time to time that I have recognized as unhealthy. I have even speculated than anyone who spends enough time in a calorie deficit probably has to deal with some tendencies and I have been at it for 2.5 years.
One of the things that cropped up I would like to share but I do not think it is wise. I determined that it was creating a minor but troublesome secondary behavior some days. I put a stop to it and placed a rule to prevent me from going there again. The reason I should not share it here is that someone else might think it is a good idea and run with it. It might stay minor but I do not want to risk it.
I may be in @springlering62's camp a bit on exercise but my wrinkle is physical labor projects added on top. I have not found a good balance or system of keeping myself in check. I am so enthusiastic after the years of near disability that I just keep going and going. I have amazing stamina but a little too often I am running myself into a wall. I end up sore and fatigued. This is one area of self management that is still new to me. I do have rest days but I am still going too hard sometimes without even realizing it. The troublesome part is what I really want is for my body to be able to handle more without it being a problem not change my habits to accommodate my current limitations. I will keep trying to force myself to do the latter even if it is grudgingly.
Thank you very much. I'm sure you're right that this is very common for anyone looking to stay in a calorie deficit. I often find it hard to convince myself that rest is good, too - and listening to my body is important. How can we convince ourselves?! I think forcing oneself to rest and then actively noting how much better you feel for it can be beneficial over time. Have you found any strategies that work?
I dislike overusing the word spectrum but I think that is likely apt. I think when you have as much weight to lose as I have lost it is going to get in your head at least a little. Since the beginning I have been concerned so I have been pretty vigilant watching for any unhealthy behavior on my part which I believe helps.
On my latest issues one of the problems is that my body doesn't start to really complain until I stop my physical activity. I have been limiting a little better but got caught again Thursday of last week when I helped the crew taking down my tree too much. I was sore for 3 days. It probably sounds nuts but I am so excited to be able to do hard physical labor it is like Christmas to me. I loved being out there with those guys doing as much as they were.
On the fueling issues I have had in the past I had to start eating 3 meals again and keep an eye on the move calories on my apple watch. If I am doing things I am not sure the watch will capture I eat maintenance calories. So far that strategy is keeping me out of what I call the energy pit. Not a pleasant place to visit.2 -
Well worth reading. Thanks for sharing.
I have seen things arise in myself from time to time that I have recognized as unhealthy. I have even speculated than anyone who spends enough time in a calorie deficit probably has to deal with some tendencies and I have been at it for 2.5 years.
One of the things that cropped up I would like to share but I do not think it is wise. I determined that it was creating a minor but troublesome secondary behavior some days. I put a stop to it and placed a rule to prevent me from going there again. The reason I should not share it here is that someone else might think it is a good idea and run with it. It might stay minor but I do not want to risk it.
I may be in @springlering62's camp a bit on exercise but my wrinkle is physical labor projects added on top. I have not found a good balance or system of keeping myself in check. I am so enthusiastic after the years of near disability that I just keep going and going. I have amazing stamina but a little too often I am running myself into a wall. I end up sore and fatigued. This is one area of self management that is still new to me. I do have rest days but I am still going too hard sometimes without even realizing it. The troublesome part is what I really want is for my body to be able to handle more without it being a problem not change my habits to accommodate my current limitations. I will keep trying to force myself to do the latter even if it is grudgingly.
Thank you very much. I'm sure you're right that this is very common for anyone looking to stay in a calorie deficit. I often find it hard to convince myself that rest is good, too - and listening to my body is important. How can we convince ourselves?! I think forcing oneself to rest and then actively noting how much better you feel for it can be beneficial over time. Have you found any strategies that work?
I dislike overusing the word spectrum but I think that is likely apt. I think when you have as much weight to lose as I have lost it is going to get in your head at least a little. Since the beginning I have been concerned so I have been pretty vigilant watching for any unhealthy behavior on my part which I believe helps.
On my latest issues one of the problems is that my body doesn't start to really complain until I stop my physical activity. I have been limiting a little better but got caught again Thursday of last week when I helped the crew taking down my tree too much. I was sore for 3 days. It probably sounds nuts but I am so excited to be able to do hard physical labor it is like Christmas to me. I loved being out there with those guys doing as much as they were.
On the fueling issues I have had in the past I had to start eating 3 meals again and keep an eye on the move calories on my apple watch. If I am doing things I am not sure the watch will capture I eat maintenance calories. So far that strategy is keeping me out of what I call the energy pit. Not a pleasant place to visit.
On that latter note, I think my goal is getting to the point of being able to eat intuitively according to what my body genuinely needs. But for activity, that's much harder! If you're enjoying it, fuelling it adequately and avoiding injury then long may it continue. If any of those gives way, perhaps it's time to be a little bit stricter with yourself on taking a break! I know it's much easier said than done...1 -
Happy World Food Day, all - and a chance for us to celebrate the enjoyment of food as nourishment, for our health, for our happiness, for our cultural grounding, and for our social engagement.3
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@oliverwnc How are you doing these days? I am sincerely hoping you’re still out there and doing well.1
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Thank you so much for sharing this! It happened to reach me at just the right time. I'm just at the start of a scheduled maintenance break, and I keep having this surprisingly vicious internal struggle to actually hold myself to it. Reading this helped me. I hope you have gotten closer and closer to the top of the well
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This*** thank you for your post0
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Glad this was revived; I missed it the first time around. Hope OP is doing well!1
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I really respect you for posting this. It must have been so hard for you but I’m sure talking about it , is part of the healing process.
I’ve had an unhealthy relationship with food my entire life. As a teenager binging when stressed. A brief bought of anorexia where I stopped having my period. I looked good- healthy but wasn’t eating. Flash forward and was overweight obese past 30 yrs( like 70 pds over) I have used food to control my fears, emotions, stressors. I have been here for 3 yrs now. I’m only trying to lose 20 pds a year but I see that teenage girl sometimes eating less than 1000 calories. She doesn’t come out often but she could. I eat between 1200-1600 calories a day. It’s a hard balance to eat well and lose weight.
I hope you’re doing well @oliverwnc . I hope you are well and doing better with your balance ❤️❤️👏🏻4 -
This is such a generous thread and so well describes the mental contortions we all have to navigate with weight management.
Just a bump for anyone who needs this today.4
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