Eating Poorly: A Nutritional Experiment
So a week ago, I set out on a journey. An experiment, if you will.
There’s been a lot of talk lately amongst the good people of Twitopia about the validity and the benefit of clean eating. People began to ask questions like, “Is it really that important?” and “What if I just work out extra hard? Won’t that take care of things?”
The truth of the matter is a resounding, “NO!” I’m a firm believer in the idea that your/,y body, once given the right tools (read: proper nutrients), will work to get itself to its correct form. Part of providing that proper nutrition is, of course, giving it to the body in correct doses. I.E. portion control, calorie deficits and proper carb/protein/fat balance.
But I digress….
As I was saying, a week ago I began an experiment. I wanted to see what would happen if I stopped paying attention to what I was eating so much. I made a specific point to give myself whatever slack I wanted, nutritionally. I ate what felt good at the time, and I ate even when I knew I shouldn’t. And I didn’t plan as heavily as I normally do. Basically, I turned off my internal radar for a week, just to see what would happen.
I was really surprised, first off, at how my instincts really did cling to what I’ve been doing for the past year. For breakfast, I wanted to get up and fix some eggs, some oatmeal, a smoothie, etc. I was still craving good things when I got hungry. The interesting events transpired when I go those hunger pangs in the afternoons at work, and I didn’t have any of my usual stuff with me….
To compound the matter, there were three, count em, three different group work birthday/celebration events all at the hub by our dept. So there was a constant stream of food on that table all week.
In the mornings, instead of my apple and peanut butter, I’d grab a handful of tortilla chips. Maybe eat 1/2 a bagel with some cream cheese. In the afternoons, I’d do some chex mix instead of my veggies and string cheese. One day, I did some coffee cake, some M&Ms, some cheese and crackers and some hummus as a snack. You can easily see how this might affect someone. It’s both a huge boost of calories, both good and bad, and all in one meal/snack.
There were a few nights during that week where cooking dinner just wasn’t an option. Pandia and I were both so busy, it just didn’t happen. So one night, I had a bag of beef jerky for dinner. Another night, I just ate chips and salsa and a Clif Builder bar for dinner, then had some cereal before bed.
Now, through all this, I managed to maintain my workout regimen to a “T”. I didn’t falter a bit in that, but that’s because I’m a dork and get real cranky when I don’t workout. Anyway, the results from this week were staggering:
- Every single afternoon at work, I crashed. HARD. Between 3pm and 4pm, I was ravenous and would go to the table by my cube for a quick fix. I’d doze at my computer. I’d go get big cups of coffee just to stay awake until 5.
- Every single morning, I’d wake up feeling like I had a boulder in my stomach. As though my body was saying to me, “Why did you do this to me? I told you if you take care of me, I’ll take care of you!”
- I had to pee all the time. I normally drink 4-5 liters of water in a day, and my body works great with it. But this past week, my body went into “Evacuation Mode”, trying to rid itself of all the waste I was putting in it.
- I’d end up going to bed with a growling stomach. I’d feel gross and hungry at the same time.
- And here’s the kicker. The coup de grace. I suffer from migraines, and since my weight loss and getting in shape their frequency has dropped significantly. I’ve removed (almost) all dietary triggers and have been working to manage stress to help alleviate that trigger as well. With all that, I’d get a migraine every few months, and they wouldn’t be too bad. But this past week…..I had one on Sunday, Wednesday and Sunday. And they were pretty tough. 3 migraines in 1 week! The one I had on Wednesday was triggered *immediately* after I ate that bag of beef jerky. The preservatives and massive dose of sodium was too much for my body.
It just couldn’t handle it. Nor should it have been asked to do so.
This past week was rough, but it was exactly what I expected. I didn’t anticipate migraines, but I wasn’t surprised when I was blind-sided by one. To say nothing of the fact that I had three! And the entire experiment goes to show that what you put in your body directly affects its performance, in all areas of life. My work suffered, my ability to be of service to my wife, my family, my friends and my church suffered. I got poor sleep. My energy level was a complete wreck of a roller coaster.
It is exactly like the analogy Thomas and I use. Our bodies are very much like car engines. You put in the right stuff, the right fuel, the right oil and take care of it, you get the best performance out of the engine. Whereas, if you take your engine for granted, don’t keep it up, don’t put the right fuel in (or any at all), you soon find that the car will perform poorly and eventually won’t even run at all.
So, to close, I ask this rhetorical question: Why is it important to put the right fuel in our bodies? The answer is multifaceted, and I’m sure we all can think of many reasons. Go ahead and put em in a comment and send it on this way! I’d love to hear some feedback from you guys.
Thanks for listening.
Cheers,
Nathan
