Day 3

I recalled a college archaeology course, in which the professor described how health had deteriorated with the invention of agriculture. What did we eat before that time? I investigated. I thought I should try to cut back on the breads and oatmeal. Maybe try eating more meat (this from a 30-year vegetarian). Overall, the paleo lifestyle sounded easier than my lifestyle. People kept weight off without constant exercise and starvation. That sounded nice.

I mostly cut out bread, grains, legumes, and dairy. Mostly. I still ate a little sugar every night, but much less than before.

Then, one day, I came across a comment on Mark's Daily Apple from a woman who had cured her PCOS. Normally this wouldn't interest me, as the type of PCOS I have differs from the type associated with overweight. But this woman had always been lean, and she had had cystic acne. She had the same type of PCOS as me! She had done her research, tried a number of different methods to cure the syndrome, and finally found something that worked.

It was a strict lifestyle, to say the least. But she provided the details and explained why it worked. I spent hours researching the topic on PubMed, to be reassured that I wouldn't have the same acne-explosion I had a few years previously, when I tried quitting the Pill (and had to undergo a course of Accutane to curtail it). Once I felt somewhat confident the changes would work, I jumped into the ice-cold water head first.

Well, mostly.

For several months I became much more strict about gluten, dairy, fruit, vegetable, and grain/legume intake. Mostly I ate fatty meat, flavored with some onions, red peppers, and tomatoes. I threw in raw meat, downed probiotics to improve digestion (to heal the skin-gut barrier) and supplements to get my adrenals back in line. As months passed, my acne didn't return. More or less, my skin remained clear. So I started to test my limits. I was pretty sure I had a glucose deficiency, due to teaching aerobic fitness classes and a too-low intake of carbohydrates. Sweet potatoes were a start, and chocolate. And nut butters. I added large quantities of kale (1 bunch/day), then moved on to giant salads as a dinner (rather than meat). Chocolate intake increased. One day this spring, I ate a chocolate croissant.

None of these things resulted in an immediate acne outbreak, but small bumps began to appear on my chin. Then surface pimples appeared, first one, then two, then five. They weren't deep, so I didn't worry. A few showed up on my neck and chest. I was annoyed, but still thought I had it figured out. My doctor, who had been very accommodating on this journey, suggested I was ready to start nudging my hormones into the proper cycle, and she started me on a very light regimen of topical creams. This kicked the breakout into overdrive, as well as my cravings for sugar. I was eating more, putting on weight, and experiencing blood sugar swings again -- I wasn't able to skip meals without extreme hunger. I spent about a week with a near-migraine, something that used to be constant but that I hadn't experienced in months. One day I broke down and ate a large amount of candy, equivalent to what I had eaten before changing my diet. And that, I knew, was my second tipping point.

In comes the Whole30, or some variance of it -- at least, a much stricter diet than I have done previously. I cut out sugar-free drink mixes and gum, which were totaling several quarts (mixes) and three packs (gum) each day. I cut out most of the processed sausages that substituted as desserts -- sodium, sugar, and caloric content were all much higher than my body can tolerate. Most of the flavorings I used heavily -- dressings, sauces, and condiments -- are eliminated. No more spur-of-the-moment bread treats, no more sweetened chocolate (except for the unsweetened cocoa in chocolate chili).

The first two days were rough and involved an abbreviated carb flu, my body sore, stiff and tight, exhausted, cloudy, and sleepy. If given the option, I would have stayed in bed both days. Today, my energy levels are somewhat recovered, and I suspect I would feel better had I gotten more than 6 hours of sleep.

Day 3
B: Two US Wellness garlic beef franks
L: 1 lamb sausage, guacamole
D: Salmon w/o skin, asparagus (~10 spears), guacamole, 4 lamb sausages

Exercise:
Walk to work (4 mi)
Walk at lunch (1.5 mi)