Catching up...

Well, this weekend I am catching up on some **much needed** rest, sleep, and some relaxing and downtime. It feels SOOOOoooo GOOOOoooD!

I have been under major stress the past couple of months and I have gotten almost completely catatonic with lack of sleep, stress, long hours, and low carb. Maybe it's just me, but I've always been someone who has eaten something when stressed. Everybody makes that sound like an emotional response to stress, but after the past couple months I am wondering if it isn't even a physical response (as in the bod needs the energy or whatever in the nutritional intake during high stress periods). I also tend to get very sleepy after and sometimes during high periods of intense stress. Dunno why that happens, but it does to some degree.

Anyhow, I have stayed on plan thoughout, but it has been hard. One of the the things I have noticed during this prolonged period of long hours, hard work, lack of sleep, and major stress is that I was really having a more difficult time thinking, made verbal miscues more often (said one word meaning another), and got a little catatonic (low levels of emotion and positive emotional response - like joy, happiness, exhuberance, even being expressive in general, etc).

I have suspected that this low carb way of eating does something to increase your testosterone levels, as it seems to have personally effected me in this way, and I have read about this as well reported from others. But I also believe it probably affects your seratonin levels or whatever your happy spots are in the brain. I think I dealt with stress better when eating carbs personally, and I probably thought clearer overall. However I also think that my blood pressure and stomach acid and other problems where much more severe then as well, and I was heading for major physical problems and breakdown on the road I have been on (eating high carb diet in the past and gaining progressively more weight).

Anyhow, I suspect that low carb, coupled together with high stress and with severe lack of sleep are an evil combination that will rob you of joy and pleasure in life, and make life much more difficult. Probably doesn't take a real brainiac to think of that, but if the idea has occurred to you I can confirm by my own personal experience that has been the case for me anyhow.

Also, in the midst of all this I got an infection on one of my fingers and needed to get a doctor to lance it from the fingernail bed area up to about the first knuckle across the entire top of the finger and also the one side also infected. Looked like an ingrown toenail only deeper down inside and down the length of the finger from the nailbed. Doc gave me a couple prescriptions for really strong broad spectrum antibiotics (one said the occasional side effect was that it killed those taking it). I feel that my immune system being down is another indication of the results of extremely high levels of stress, low sleep, and low carb.

I have stayed on-plan throughout and this morning got as low on the scale as 334.2 lbs! Feeling terrific about that, and know that overall I am doing the right thing for me with this way of eating. That makes it over 75 lbs down now as of today (measuring by my lowest weights in a cycle that bounces around a bit). It will probably be a week or more till I am solidly into this weight at my midpoint/average. But it is fun and nice and rewarding to see even little new points of progress along my journey to better health!

I am not trying to dog low carb eating. It has been wonderful for me and has helped me achieve better health overall. I have hung in there cause it is all I know how to do. There is no way I am going to quit and go back up to the weight I was at (or heavier). I want to be here for my wife and to help raise and enjoy my kids, and to serve the Lord.

Thanks to all my friends and online supporters who are a terrific encouragement to me! I am finally getting to the point where more folks are noticing the weight loss, and that is very rewarding in itself. I have started slowly increasing my physical activity (parking further away and taking stairs more often). I want to gradually ease into it, but get to a point where more physical activity is also a part of my life.