I was a robot, and I was obsessed! If you know anything about OCD, you know that the more you learn the more obsessed you become. I became a walking encyclopedia in the sense that I could tell you exactly how many sugar, fat, and carb grams, along with the calories that were in a particular food. I had read enough magazines by this time that I believed without a doubt that my weight had everything to do with my calorie intake, so I bought a scale and measured EVERYTHING. I decided to try the sprouted grains instead of whole grain to help with digestion, and I added lean meats to my diet… here is where my obsession became even worse. I am gaining weight even though I train for hours and my stomach hurts about 18-24 hours a day. I finally realized that something was not going right. I went from about 120 lbs and being rail thin, to about 150 lbs and carrying a little extra junk in the truck. I thought I needed to eat so much more to stay energized for my workouts, so I would eat sugary granola bars and sports drinks, and of course “reward” myself after a bike ride with a binge on five slices of pizza. I also started getting into cycling and triathlons.
I started reading tons of literature through books, magazines, and the internet. Now I needed to find a way to be healthy, thin, flatulence free, and once again THIN. So the flatulence just got worse and worse which is why I continued my quest for health. Sometimes they would complement the scent not knowing that they were inhaling my waste and I would feel bad, but be kind of giggling inside. Or when technicians who worked for us would check in at the end of the day I would see them drive up and I would quickly spritz my “fart spray” (cheap perfume) around the office to cover up the smell. I worked in an office for my brothers who had a start-up company and my flatulence was so bad that when the mail-man came I would run to the back of the office so he couldn’t see me when he would pick up the terrible odor in the office. Not to mention stinky! Every day within 30 minutes of eating my first meal my stomach would start to rumble, then that rumble would turn into flatulence. (Here comes some TMI.) As soon as I started my new diet of whole grains and sugar-free yogurt, my stomach got painfully out of control. On the weekends I was so deprived that I just couldn’t control myself and would binge on a ½ gallon of Moose Tracks ice cream, feel really bad about it, and possibly make myself throw up afterward, or not eat the next day.Īnother issue I developed was major flatulence. Dinner – two slices of whole wheat bread with spaghetti sauce on itĭoesn’t that sound so appetizing?! Ya right!.Lunch – 1 cup sugar-free yogurt with ½ cup raw oats stirred in.Breakfast – 1 cup sugar-free yogurt with ½ cup raw oats stirred in.Here is what I ate daily for my first year or so of being “healthy”: My main goals were to take in as little calories as possible, eat zero sugar, eat whole grains, and eat very little meat (because I thought meat would make me fat). So instead of eating healthy JUST to be healthy, I became obsessed with being thin. My quest for health had good intentions, but was always overshadowed by my doctor diagnosed Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder which happens to show its ugly face through food and my own body image issues. Usually pasta, bagels, and lasagna, which we thought were pretty good for us. I didn’t grow up on fast food and my parents never bought the sugary cereals, but I basically grew up on a high carb diet. I was never super unhealthy compared to the average person. When I was about 21 years (I am 29 now) I started on a quest for health. I want to share my story because it has to do with beating my eating disorder through Primal living.
I’ll continue to publish these each Friday as long as they keep coming in. If you have your own success story and would like to share it with me and the Mark’s Daily Apple community please contact me here. It’s Friday, everyone! And that means another Primal Blueprint Real Life Story from a Mark’s Daily Apple reader.