So, I haven't posted lately. I haven't been feeling well, mostly tired and headachy, and I didn't want to whine, and I was too tired to write about anything else. In the middle of the week I started feeling lightheaded, and having some difficulty remembering things, a sort of "brain fog." And on Thursday when I tried to work in the garden I almost fainted.
I thought I had some kind of weird flu at first, and then it occurred to me that it might be my diet. I've had to go on a very low fat diet because of the gallstones. (Which, I don't think I even mentioned that my surgery has been scheduled for March 23.) I've never tried to eat low-fat before so I thought it would be easier if I followed a specific diet plan. Instead of going for a low-fat diet like Weight Watchers or (heaven forfend) Ornish, I had the brilliant idea to follow the South Beach diet and just cut back even more on fat. Because I'm already quite familiar with eating low carb, it's comfortable to me. And South Beach is much lower fat than other low carb plans I've read about.
As it turns out, it's really hard to cut way back on fat and starch at the same time. I did it for a couple of weeks. But my eating choices were so limited, the monotony started to get to me. Yesterday, out of concern over the "flu" symptoms, I ran the past couple of days before through fitday.com just to see what I had been eating. Not nearly enough, I discovered. Without realizing it I had started eating less and less, until my food intake dropped to about half what I want it to be. Not nearly enough calories to function. I had no idea until I saw the numbers in fitday.
I spent a day thinking it over and trying to continue a modified South Beach, and then decided that it's just not going to work. I have to eat as little fat as possible until my stupid gallbladder gets the hell out, and it's too difficult to do that without eating starch either. I'm a little alarmed by how easy it was to drop my calories to an unhealthy low without realizing it. I never even felt hungry, just exhausted and depressed. I will never again make such a drastic change in my eating habits without keeping track.
We celebrated my decision by going out for sushi. Which was fantastic. Wonderful food and almost no fat. Just what I needed. Tomorrow I'm going to buy bread and make a sandwich for lunch. And then maybe have a Locopop!
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