Primal Journal (Lex26) page 51

[Lex26]

In order to get good sleep and have more consistent energy through the day, I think I need to think of myself as having a small pool of cortisol at the beginning of the day. I need to conserve as much of it as I can to heal hormonally/adrenally.

What depletes cortisol?

- not keeping blood sugar even. Going too low with carbohydrates can be just as bad as going too high. Still figuring this out.
- not sleeping enough
- eating stimulants like sugar and chocolate
- merry-go-round type thinking that keeps me uselessly worrying about something instead of just taking actions to get past the obstacle or at least figure out a better way to get through it

I majorly tanked my system in the last week because of all the candy, which made it harder to sleep, harder to do anything active and then harder to resist the candy during afternoon dips. I tapered off the sugar, though, and then went to sleep last night with some deep breathing and finally got enough sleep. And - whadaya know - with enough sleep the erratic energy levels are gone. Yay! Now that I have them back, I want them to stay. I'll update on food/exercise later today. Until then, here's a best your stress article from Chris Kresser, followed by a link to a weight plateau questionnaire I'd love to see you add to if you're stuck on losing weight:

http://chriskresser.com/best-your-st...ng-with-stress

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...73o/edit?pli=1

[lopisheep]

I am thinking that you will sleep well tonight. I sure hope so. Did you ever use one of those white noise machines. My nephew has one. It was on when I went to pick him up this a.m. It's sort of like the ocean. Take "sort of" with a grain of salt. Wondering if it's the same as the binaural tapes you guys were talking about awhile ago.

[theprimalcajun]

I think the importance of good sleep can not be stressed enough. I think its a key ingredient to the whole enchilada!!

Lex...from what the doc told me & I read from my chart...we all start the day with high cortisol. That's normal. I'm wondering if its because of not eating for so many hours? It gradually tapers off during the day. Unless of course something happens that makes it jump...or not go down like its supposed to. Or if you have adrenal fatigue like me it falls below the norm & it stays high during the evening when its supposed to be at its lowest. Your post above was right on.

I especially appreciated your comment about the merry go round of useless worrying. I can certainly identify with that. Its a viscious circle! Since I now know what is wrong with me I can concentrate on the good things that I know I'm supposed to do to heal & be well. That's what is now my focus & of course learning to manage the stress.

boy we are getting so smart!!! ROTFL

[Lex26]

4_14.jpg
Sleep: 8 hours (out at 1 am up at 9)
Exercise: Hour-long walk, helping bro pre for prom *awww* hope he doesn't impregnate anyone
Stress: 5 (FYI, this is as low as it gets while unemployed so that's pretty good)

@ Pam - I don't have one of those white noise machines, but I do put ear plugs in every night. Trying to sleep without them is hopeless.

@PC - I think cortisol is supposed to be high in the morning because of the overnight fast. The longer we sleep, the more cortisol is supposed to come up to help regulate our blood sugar during the fast. People with low cortisol - which I think I have been at some points - often have insomnia because they run out of cortisol during sleep. If there isn't enough cortisol, blood sugar goes dangerously low, so the body instead punches out adrenaline to stay alive. BreakFAST is important for us because eating lowers cortisol as insulin goes up, then we save up that cortisol for later. For years I didn't eat breakfast because I felt more energy not eating until lunch. All along, that was probably because I was running off of high cortisol and adrenaline ... and because I was raised to think coco puffs and pop-tarts were legitimate breakfast food: "IT'S PART OF THIS BALANCED BREAKFAST!" Can you believe those crazy commercials?

Blerrrrg. I think I've got food journal fatigue! Seriously. Not only have I been doing it for QUITE a long time now, but now that I know I really am a hypoglycemic type who does better with smaller meals spread throughout the day, it's a lot harder to remember/record everything I've eaten and how much. With three meals, I can remember pretty clearly what I ate. But with snacks, it's like ... what fruit did I eat today - was that yesterday? I usually don't bake my snacks so they're a lot less memorable.

So how bout I try something different - because it does stress me out! How about I detail what I'm eating every other week fro m now on, but I'll report anytime I kinda go off-course on a particular day. At this point, that's probably all that matters - the off-course parts. Ooo I feel better already. I like having things on record because that means I can study it later, but it is driving me a bit batty. I'll probably still record when I can in MyFitnessPal, but recording both there and here is what makes me think "I don't even wanna eat anymore!" I thought it might get easier if I did a screen capture of the food chart, but I still have to convert the file type and then upload it, so it still takes up more time than I want.

[Lex26]

Oh, and can I just add what's interesting about eating smaller meals and snacks and carbs is that I'm naturally ending up at about the same calorie counts I did while eating more low-carb. I'm not even trying for that. It's just been surprising to me that I end up at about the same calorie count most days.

[longing2bfit]

Yep there's no way I could do all of that counting, measuring, weighing, etc... It absolutely makes me go ape sh**!!The funny thing is when I run the numbers OCCASIONALLY I am always low on calories, So that makes me think, "Then I can eat more right? Right?" WRONG!!!!! everytime I eat anything extra it attaches itself to my a$$ like a fricken spider monkey!

I was trying to explain to my DH tonight that even when I get up from eating a great meal with plenty of fats and protein, I can still eat, and eat and eat. There does not seem to be a bottom, I usually stop just because!!!!!! Why isn't there a bottom???

So should we eat breaky even if we do not want it? for cortisol reasons?

[Lex26]

So should we eat breaky even if we do not want it? for cortisol reasons?

Re: calorie counting - that's why I only record what I eat at the end of the day - no eating after food journal recording! I'm not actually counting them during the day, so I only know what the counts are at the end of the day when I remember what I ate and how much. It's all an estimation.

I usually only have to make sure I eat breakfast - all the other meals I feel hunger or an energy dip. If you think you might have the same problems I do, you should definitely eat all three meals and most likely a snack or two. I'm not timing anything right now. I'm just making sure I eat three meals, a balanced afternoon snack and sometimes a mid-morning snack. Some experts have said people with adrenal fatigue need lunch as soon as 11 and I definitely have felt like that for a long time, even when eating low-carb. At about 11 or 11:30, I feel like I could eat a whole other meal, but then I'm like, I just had a full breakfast like two maybe three hours ago - that's insane. I tried that today actually and found that if I do eat an early lunch, two small afternoon snacks at about 2 and 4 hold me over fine until dinner.

[longing2bfit]

I found the malden sea salt flakes local~!! Going to get some tomorrow!!!!!

[lopisheep]

Malden sea salts. Going to look for them today.

I so agree with you guys about writing everything down every time I eat. Talking about adding food obsession to food obsession!

Hey, Lex, maybe you could make a list like l2bf and I did and then, only record if it's something seriously off that list -- not simple things like having a tangerine instead of an orange and tangerine isn't on the list -- but really different. Seems like that would be simplier. Just a thought. That's what ecks does sometimes too. Funny, how when I made the basics' list and saw l2bf's list, I just felt like a load was off my mind. Aren't we silly? And wonderful too.

[Lex26]

You ladies will not regret getting some Maldon!

@ Pam - Yeah, adding food obsession to food obsession is a problem. The DOING of eating right takes up enough time: all the shopping ahead, cooking, anticipating what to eat instead around everybody else food you're trying not to eat. Sometimes recording it all just takes me over the edge. But I love coming on here and talking generally about efforts to become healthier.

Hm, the food list thing seems kind of hard for me to sum up too. It's easier to say what I won't eat:

-unsprouted/unfermented grains
-refined sugars
-need to not eat fruits high in potassium like bananas (often imbalances electrolytes of ppl with adrenal problems. Can try eating more salt and magnesium to balance it out if necessary)
- minimal dairy (won't freak out about a little bit when it's unavoidable)
- large meals

If you guys are familiar with the Weston A. Price stuff, that seems to be more the direction I'm going now that I'm eating more carbohydrates. Eventually I want to eat more dairy but not until I feel like my body stops oversecreting insulin.