It's Alright to Feed My Body!

On Friday, I had an interesting visit at the doctor’s office. My doctor and his wife share office space. She’s a nurse practitioner who specializes in nutrition, and they both happen to be avid low-carb eaters. It’s like having the Eades’ for my own personal physicians. :-) She attached electrodes to my left foot and hand, had me lie down, and used a gadget to get some readings. Then I weighed myself, she put the findings into a computer, and it was time to talk.

She found it very refreshing that I already knew about low carb eating and was happy that I’m already on board with it. I’m sure she spends a lot of time talking to people who have been brainwashed by the low fat crowd, trying to convince them that carbs, not fats, are the macronutrients to avoid. I didn’t need to be convinced to avoid bread, sugar, flour, grains, or low fat products, but I needed to be convinced that it’s alright to feed my body.

After evaluating a typical day of my eating pattern, she concluded that I’m not eating nearly enough. My metabolism is in the tank because of the famine my body thinks is going on. It’s my own personal little famine. For as long as I can remember, I’ve believed that to lose weight, you must eat less. I’ve always been able to lose weight by starving myself. As my profile information states, I’ve had anorexic tendencies since I was a teenager. My parents were willing to let me starve weight off, only to put it back on. I’ve imposed a famine on myself in order to lose the weight. The nurse practitioner thinks my body is in starvation mode. In other words, my body is storing everything I eat because I’m not feeding it enough. The next step would be for it to cannibalize itself, using my lean body mass to get the protein it needs. It’s amazing how our bodies work.

Starvation mode is a very interesting topic. At one point in time, if you wanted to start a thread destined to the recycle bin for getting too heated, all you had to do was go to the Main Lobby at Low Carb Friends and ask if starvation mode exists. It was a guaranteed dust up, and it got nasty. One of the most vocal against the existence of starvation mode was none other than Kimmer, a.k.a. Heidi Diaz. She posted about weight loss surgery, stomach flu, and medically supervised liquid diet “fasts”, all of it designed to "prove" her deduction there was no such thing as starvation mode. Her opinion was the basis for the starvation diet known as Kimkins. If starvation mode does not exist, Kimkins is a sound way to lose weight, albeit not an easy one. If it does exist, Kimkins is dangerous.

It's no wonder I fell prey to the failed conclusions of Heidi Diaz. It simply reinforced what I believed and practiced for many years; to lose weight, you eat less and you go hungry. She confirmed what had always worked for me. The problem with it was, I trained my body for famine. Whether I’m in weight-loss or weight-gain mode, I am storing what I eat, the effect on my weight has been disastrous, and it's been going on for decades. My nutritionist could not believe she was hearing me apologize in advance for eating too many tomatoes this summer. It's the first time I've ever had my own garden, and I do plan to indulge in the tomatoes. She told to me eat as many tomatoes as I want. How refreshing!

A phrase was once coined that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and expecting a different result. What made me think I could lose weight starving and keep it off? I never have been able to before. I am in for a quantum leap in my understanding of nutrition and what makes my body tick. Although I’m not one given to mantras, my nurse practitioner nutritionist wants me to daily tell myself “it’s alright to feed my body”. While I may not recite it out loud, I will tell myself this every day. If my broken metabolism is ever going to be repaired, this is the way to do it. I’ve been told to eat as much as I want from a list of fats, proteins and vegetables, using caution with nuts. Who would think you don’t really have to dole out broccoli to yourself measured loosely in a jello cup? Certainly not Heidi Diaz, but she is no longer the person I’ll take nutrition advice from. I pray for every person still under her influence, that they may also take the same quantum leap I am taking. Join me. It’s alright to feed my body.