Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Real Food; It's What A Body Craves

I've transitioned back and forth from all/mostly raw, juicing, supplemental juicing, little-to-no grains, eating a modicum of this and that, to going back to eating mostly cooked food - still good quality, but not raw and sometimes not even veggies.
I have noticed a number of different things:
  • mood, energy, tolerance, endurance, hydration, sleep, digestion  - all improved while eating raw veggies/fruits at least 50% of my consumption
  • when starting on raw, after seeming constipation, my body flushed itself, then became regular (like it decided everything it'd eaten prior wasn't useful)
  • when stopping raw, feel heavy, no energy, unfocused, dehydrated-like
  • when not eating raw food, I almost always feel like I have to eat again and again, not because I'm hungry, but because my mind seems to think it'll make me feel better (like what I've eaten can't be used)
Other items I've noticed from ingesting coffee and black tea even just once:
  • headaches
  • can't seem to sleep enough
  • ruins my cardio - whatever training level I've accomplished, it's like I'm back at day 1
  • really moody - to the point of almost looking for reasons to be moody, or taking something out of proportion
  • similar to alcohol withdrawal, or sugar, or any kind of substance withdrawal
Usually I prepare myself to disregard my own behavior ahead of time, but sometimes I forget, and I wake up the next day reactive, and I think it's a valid reaction, even though I can't always make logical sense of it - until I remember: oh yeah! had that shit yesterday... carry on.

Now there are substances that are very beneficial: properties of green tea help coping, improve metabolism, and is overall a good way to ween off of drinking black teas and coffee, or your caffeine of choice.
The only way to know is to try: do 3-10 days of testing, like previously mentioned... you can take something bad for you once and it may take 3 days to get it out of you, but you have to take good things at least 3 days in a row to begin to feel the difference... if not longer depending on what other factors are in play.