Monday, March 9, 2009

Lesson Learned, Even on my free day, What I eat counts!

This weekend I experienced a side effect of eating a low fat/low cal diet for so long that no one has really told me about. Oh I've gotten all the other side effects and warnings. Like the fact that my nails break easier, and my hair requires higher maintenance. I've lost weight, and more importantly body fat %. I've noticed my skin clearing up as I drink more water. I'm waiting for the bonus energy and the evenness of moods.

This weekend however, I found a side effect that, while nominally helpful towards keeping me on track, was just about one of the most unpleasant side effects I've experienced in a while.

Saturday was my "free day", the one day a week when I don't count calories. I usually use this day for when I've got plans to go out to eat at a nifty restaurant and don't want to skimp on dessert. This weekend was no exception, I was going out for Dim Sum to celebrate a couple of my friends birthdays. Dim Sum is in no way diet friendly. Everything is fried or involves pork, bacon, or a sugary sauce in some way. So, "free day" suitably noted, I went ahead and ate. Now, I ate sensibly, stopping when I was full, and not gobbling down everything that crossed the table. I'm still positive I ate more fat and more calories in that one meal than I normally have in a full day, maybe two.

After Dim Sum, me and the S.O. took advantage of the wonderful warm weather to walk ourselves up from Times Square, around Central Park and then South again down 5th Ave back to Times Square, hop on the train and wander around the Union Square area. We decided around 8 to see a movie, and got tickets for Coraline (wonderful movie by the way, I highly recommend seeing it in 3D.) Neither of us was really hungry, still being mostly full from Dim Sum, but we were starting to get peckish, and since it was my free day, We got popcorn with oil-like-butter-substitute (I refuse to call that stuff butter.)

After the movie we walked down to St. Marks to grab me some PinkBerry (My poor S.O. is lactose intolerant and therefore cannot share in the PinkBerry goodness.) I ate my deliciousness on the subway ride back to our apartment.

Then everything went bad. A little while after we got home, I started feeling really tired, which I chalked up to all the walking (we did a lot of walking.) Around 1am I decided to call it and just put myself to bed. I started feeling nauseous, and kind of like I had the flu.

Sometime after I started feeling ill, the ill got to me and up came whatever was left of my treats. (Sorry for the TMI.) "Good," I thought, "I should feel better and be able to sleep now." No such luck. I still felt flu-like and icky for the rest of the night, and for a bit the next morning.

I'm not sure what the culprit was, too much fat, too much sugar, or just too much, but apparently I need to be careful on my free days!
-Meg

5 comments:

Cheryl Chamberlain said...

I've been there!! I went to a Chinese buffett the one weekend and pigged OUT! I was doubled over, cramped up, sick sick SICK the next day. My body had gotten used to the healthier foods, and it was like it flat out rejected the crap foods! It's amazing how when we transform our bodies, we are transforming them inside AND out. I kind of found it a good thing, as crappy as I felt, it was a huge red flag that free day wasn't go overboard day! LOL

carla said...

I love the notion in The Zone that free days are supposed to be our all out indulging which, the next day, makes us NEVER WANNA INDULGE because we feel so crappy :)

doesnt work that way for me....YET!

MizFit

Meg said...

Cher - Yeah, it was a total surprise to me, because I've never had it happen before. I've never really gone "all out" like that on a free day. It really is amazing how differently my body reacted to foods that I used to eat regularly!

Mizfit - Heh, I think that may be because all the foods you like *are* good for you! I'm so addicted to that Mix your own granola site now, and it's all your fault!

Anonymous said...

Hmph, I had so many problems with posting a comment here before... the gist of it was, it's a tough lesson to learn but at the same time its nice to see that we must be doing something right the majority of the time if our body reacts that way to junk!

- Sagan

Spring Girl said...

It's a funny thing that once our bodies get used to eating one way they can have such violent reactions to stuff that used to be normal food. I had a sugar reaction like that recently.

Tracking Transformation: Where I stand now