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Hello, looking for advice, especially from Matt if possible. I followed the eat for heat protocol for 2 months with a lot of success after years of eating way too little and drinking way too much. But I realized after a while that I wasnt eating nearly enough salt (I wasnt eating junkfood, first mistake). So to fix this, I thought that I could just drink a hypertonic solution of sugar salt water (with a concentration 3x as salty as blood), and that I would just get thirsty to balance things out. I did this a bunch of times, consuming upward of 4 tsp of salt (with lots of sugar) in about a litre of water total, in one morning before I got thirsty. Unfortunately, things didnt work the way I expected, and I believe that due to such rapid absorbtion of the salt I caused a major cellular dehydration effect. Because very shortly after that I experienced MAJOR stress signals like much worse than Ive ever experienced when i was undereating under drinking (urinating constantly but just little bits, inability to sleep more than 2-3 hrs, constant adrenaline, etc. Ive been screwed ever since (almost 3 months) trying to undo what Ive done and start over. I started with drinking lots of water and potassium. That helped, and any excess salt in my system is certainly gone. But I cant seem to restart the eat for heat process now. My hunger and cravings, unlike before is non-existant (i went from 140pounds to 190 on the eat for heat program). I have no signals to guide me like I did before, because almost nothing seems very appetizing. Eating solid foods like subs or burgers is very unpleasent, so I cant get calories or salt this way. If I eat hypotonic salt solutions like soup, even calorie dense soup, it seems to cause problems. Im now trying to experiment with hypertonic calorie rich slower digesting foods like extremely salty soups along with a sub or pizza or burgers so that its easier to stomach, but its still salt rich enough to be metabolically postive and supposedly salty enough to shut down my stress system. But I honestly dont know if thats working either. Im always peeing clear and have the urge to pee, but the salty foods again are at least making the insomnia better and shutting down my adrenals at least somewhat. I rarely feel thirsty no matter how salty of a food I eat (and I dont even crave salt either which is weird). Even if I have a full sub which has like 5grams of salt, plus 500ml of soup which has almost another gram of salt, I still usually wont feel very thirsty, if I do at all, and doesnt relieve my symptoms very much.
What on earth do i do? Im so upset that I screwed this up and made things worse than they have ever been! Please help.
I’m not Matt… obviously…. but here are some things I’d recommend. Use what sounds good, ignore what doesn’t!
#1 – RELAX. Breathe. Meditate. Do some yoga (I found it great for learning to listen to my body)
#2 – Slow down. Eat 4 Heat is a great book, but it doesn’t have all the answers for everyone (I think Matt would agree with on that). You have to do you own experiments – which it sounds like you are doing – that’s a good thing. But, it also sounds like you’re trying to jump off the cliff instead of walking a slow & steady pathway.
#3 – I’d try a system reset. Eat some good, fresh, nutritious foods. Just bland stuff (since nothing tastes good, this seems like the way to ‘feed’ that ‘craving’). Think plain boiled or baked potato with cheese, steamed veggies with butter, baked fish. Keep hunger between a 3 and 8 on the 0-10 scale (0=”I’m starving” and 10=”I’m stuffed”). I’m of the opinion no one “needs” junk food… real food should have what you need. I also think cheese, butter and all-natural ice cream are “real” foods – and that’s what I used to increase my basal metabolic rate.
#4 – keep listening to your body. Eat when you’re hungry, drink when you’re thirsty. If you think you need some salt, dip a wet finger in salt and lick it off… did that taste good or bad? Do the same with sugar if you think you need sugar.
#5 – go with small portions and try new things in moderation. Give yourself at least 20 minutes (and up to 24 hours) to digest before you gauge a reaction to anything new.
#6 – take your temperature throughout the day and see how your core temperature is doing. You might also want to track blood pressure and pulse rates, if you think you’re having a bad reaction to anything.
That’s just my take on it – hopefully some others will chime in with some other options, too.
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