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Hi everyone. I’ve been eating for heat for a couple of weeks now, but I started to take my temperature only a few days ago. However the first (unexpected) sign of improvement was for me that my gums stopped bleeding. I’m so happy about that!
What were your first improvements?
Getting over food obsession was a big one for me. Being able to feel neutral toward food, after long bouts of obsession about it was huge.
How long did it take?
I just now realized that my obsession with food is probably a lot greater than I thought, but I’m getting there :)
A year plus, over time. I guess that wasn’t the first sign, then. Just a notable one.
Maybe the first was reduced hunger pangs. Who knew that eating a lot would help that! Hah.
I too, am enjoying the beginnings of not being so obsessed with what to eat. I’m just eating! That is amazing!!!! Also, my teeth and gums feel stronger. They feel like they are staying cleaner longer. Crazy! I feel more weatherproof. As if, the weather changes don’t affect me so greatly. I hope I continue to feel that way once fall and winter arrive. ;)
Those are some of the things that keep me going.My first sign was probably my digestion speeding up, was sooo slow and uncomfortable.
I’m no longer hungry right after I eat and I don’t have to pee right after I pee. In fact I worked yesterday trimming horses and then ran errands. I left home at about 11 am and got home close to 5pm. Didn’t go until I got back home! I used to have to go at just about every client’s house, occasionally both before I started and after I was done.
And I have a lot of energy now. :)
My response is pretty much the same as Ashley’s. better digestion, lower acid reflux, not having to pee a million times a day. The not being hungry right after you eat thing is interesting as well. I can remember being able to go most of the day without being hungry but I would always get ravenously hungry like fifteen minutes after dinner and not be able to stop until bed time. I still have a bigger evening appetite but at least I don’t get that immediate post dinner binge thing anymore.
Increased digestion, decreased urge to urinate and being able to sleep through the night. And I never took my temps. Just was aware that my hands and feet started to feel warmer and my urine was slowly becoming less clear. I didn’t want to become obsessed with taking my temps. I don’t have a scale to weigh myself either. So I’m totally unscientific in even a marginal way, but I don’t care. I just care about what my body improvement/response is. Finally, a move towards reality instead of theory. And yes, slowly(!) forgetting to fear the food. All of these things are so good.
Oh! And my eyesight improved. This was a big surprise! Improvement was especially noticeable after increasing sugar intake. And I can’t tell you how reluctant I was, and how long it took me, to get over the fear of sugar. I still can’t get over my astonishment: sugar, especially fruit = increased energy, increased digestion and better eyesight for me. It’s just so weird.
Before I “officially” abandoned restriction circa June 1, there was a pre-quel.
Was on a camping trip in May, hoping that complete darkness would finally reset my system and end the 4am insomnia that had begun in March. It did NOT. I was waking up hungry at 4am even in the pitch-black woods. Furthermore, it was a total PIA to go camping but not eat grains, dairy, sugar, processed food, ran that piddly Coleman stove non-stop cooking eggs, etc. On 3rd day, got fed up and bought s’mores ingredients from local store! Hershey’s chocolate; crackers and marshmallows of El Cheapo small-town store brands, organic nothing … Ate about EIGHT OR NINE s’mores that night, finished the chocolate and then did several rounds more of extra toasted marshmallows. What some would call a “binge” … I just ate those things til I wasn’t even a tiny bit hungry anymore.
Slept like a log/forest princess/lumberjack for about 13 hours, and didn’t stir once. That was my first clue.
I’ve not even been following this for two weeks and already I am warm (temps up from 35.4(!) to 36.2) and I am like some sort of rampant sex machine. For the first time ever! And quite helpful since I am trying to get pregnant…
Ah! Light bulb moment. mighty m, if I want to sleep thru the night I need to pig out on the junkiest junk food, right?
haha! Well, I haven’t done that since, but at the very least it showed me a) I was deeply hungry … because notice I didn’t say I “stuffed myself” but rather ate until I wasn’t hungry any more; b) desserts might be a health food!
[[What follows is a long response to @Linda about sleep. Sorry to work that scrolling finger for those who don’t want to read it!]]
Based on that experience, I made 100% sure to not go to bed hungry for the next two months. My less-junky snack at home has been sourdough bread & butter with jam, and yogurt & honey, because that’s what sounded best to me. After it worked a few times, it became sort of ritualistic. I went from waking 5+ times a week (with no return to sleep) in March and April, to waking 1-2 times a week (but being able to get back to sleep), which is where I’m at now. Now, I only eat this before bed if I’m truly hungry, but in June and July I would eat at least a mini-version if I could find any room at all, just to be safe.
However, if I went hungry even a little bit during the day, even that late-evening snack wasn’t enough, I would still wake up hungry. Tried the sugar-and-salt thing, and it would actually whet my appetite for a full breakfast … at 4am! Never was like that before a 8-month stretch of paleo, I could eat less one day, sleep fine, and just be hungrier the next, no problem. Before paleo, I could also sleep with the lights on, sleep through a brass band, etc., and did NONE of that sleep hygiene b.s. but slept fine.
Needless to say, when the insomnia began, I diligently tried ALL the sleep-hygeine stuff and supplements, to no avail. I handmade a light-blocking curtain out of a canvas dropcloth. At one time, I was trying 20mg of melatonin … no help. I believe this sudden-onset, predictable and otherwise-intractable insomnia was my body absolutely demanding to be fed; insisting on wakefulness is insisting on the absolute bottom-of-the-pyramid need, food. For the record, if I had awoken thinking about work, or relationships, or not hungry, I would not assume the problem was food — I would assume the problem was emotional stress. But did I mention that, before I woke up at 4am, I would be dreaming about things like cookies? Who dreams about food except hungry people?? Think about it: adrenaline can save your life, it can give people the strength to lift cars. Of course, if it’s needed, it’s going to override melatonin, organic or supplemented.
Eating a lot (to appetite, always, of craved foods but mostly whole foods, never counting calories — but also never “stuffing myself,” I honestly don’t know where people get the idea that they should do that unless they truly have an ED) has allowed me to sleep, period. I’d tried everything else except pot, Rx drugs and hypnosis.
Incidentally, I WAS able to notice metabolic benefits from the food even before my sleep improved much: I noticed more physical and mental energy, and a great deal more strength at the site of an old injury.
Sorry so long — just wanted to respond to @Linda!
Thanks, that is very interesting. I have been trying so many things to see what will work: eating “healthy” foods to appetite, stuffing my face to get the calories in, going more junky, sleep mask, night cap. Before I went down this path it was 5htp, magnesium, etc. Can you tell I’ve been reading the blogs? Nothing worked. I am eating more junk now just because I was afraid to before and who knows? Maybe that will make the difference. When I wake at night I don’t feel hungry, I don’t always have to get up & pee. I just wake. Now I feel like I need to stop thinking about it. Stop worrying. When I wake up I try to think pleasant thoughts till I get back to sleep.
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