16 Year Old Girl, Hoping To Finally Change Her Life page

[golangrok]

Hi everyone,
I'm a 16 year old girl living in Los Angeles. I've been obese for most of my life - I'm currently 5'4" and hovering around 170 pounds. Earlier this year on a calorie- and carb-restrictive diet I dropped to 149.8, however, after rounds of hormone treatments, I've come back up here. I've also been struggling with bulimia for about two years and have brought myself down from the purging part of the cycle all by myself. However, I do occasionally have issues with binging, and only with carbs. With this I need a bit of help.

I really like the Primal ideals and want to change my life to suit them. But I'm having LOTS of issues with carbs and satiation. Even eating adequate fat and protein, I start to "jones" for carbs. I get sick, headachey, and exhausted. Any advice for this?

Typically right now, I'm having one good primal day, and breaking down the next.

I'm currently including dairy and a serving of fruit daily with my primal meals. I drink some tea but no coffee.

I want to lose weight and become healthier, and that's why I'm here :)

Looking forward to getting to know everybody and hopefully progressing. :)

[ATTAACK]

I've done the PB for almost 3 weeks now, so I am by no means any sort of expert. However, when I started I felt much as you describe, the headaches and exhaustion. The advice I got here was to eat fat. It went against my conventional wisdom, but I did it. I nice juicy burger with no bun helped me. I also added some full fat yogurt with a little honey. Now I feel fine all the time and rarely eat the yogurt.

One newb to another, my advice is to see the big picture and do not allow yourself to get in a hurry. Focus on eating better and allow yourself to grow into this; the weight will come off.

[Hedonist2]

Welcome. It does get better if you hang in there. Having 1 good day out of 2 is twice as good as before. How many carbs are you eating on a good day? What does your eating look like.

This is not standard primal advice, but maybe try the healthier carbs on days you want lots of carbs, e.g. sweet potatoes, carrots, squash, even regular potatoes. Have lots of butter or other fat with them.

Maybe you can 1 carby day out of 3 instead of 2.

Good luck!

[dtrammel]

Can't offer any information, I'm just starting myself, but at the other end of Life (I'm 55).

I've found that having a supportive group, like this forum, is invaluable. Don't hesitate to post even if its just to vent. Best of luck with everything.

[Lewis]

I've also been struggling with bulimia for about two years and have brought myself down from the purging part of the cycle all by myself. However, I do occasionally have issues with binging, and only with carbs. With this I need a bit of help.

Both problems are likely driven by the same thing -- deficiencies in neurotransmitters (the chemical messengers in the brain). The vomiting gets you an endorphin rush; the carbs help to temporarily push serotonin a bit (because the insulin spike it causes gets other competing chemicals out of the bloodstream). If you can get the levels of those neurotransmitters up naturally you don't need to try to push them in other, unhelpful, ways.


The person on this issue is Julia Ross. You might find this podcast where she's speaking worth listening to:

The Diet Cure 2012 with Julia Ross 06/22 by Underground Wellness | Blog Talk Radio

Here's her book:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Diet-Cure-...dp/0143120859/

I really like the Primal ideals and want to change my life to suit them. But I'm having LOTS of issues with carbs and satiation. Even eating adequate fat and protein, I start to "jones" for carbs. I get sick, headachey, and exhausted. Any advice for this?

I think you may need temporarily to supply the precursors to one or more neurotransmitter. Listen to the Julia Ross interview if you want to get more of an idea what that's about. But in the long run Primal will probably fix the problem anyway: because these neurotransmitters are made from amino acids (which are what protein is made from), if you have enough sources of high-quality protein in your diet, you're feeding yourself what you need to make them.

Typically right now, I'm having one good primal day, and breaking down the next.

I wouldn't worry about it too much. Just try to make as many meals as possible as Primal as you can.

I'm currently including dairy and a serving of fruit daily with my primal meals. I drink some tea but no coffee.

If you've no sensitivity to dairy, then there's probably no need to avoid it. Fermented forms like cheese and yoghurt are better choices -- specially if they're full-fat. Fruit's OK in moderation except for people who are special cases like diabetics, so you can certainly have some of that on Primal.

I wouldn't worry so much about cutting things out as making sure you eat enough of the good foods -- meat, fish, eggs, non-starchy vegetables like leafy greens, good fats like butter and coconut oil, some fruit and nuts. If you want some more carbs, then try to stick to more Primal ones like sweet potatoes and squashes rather than succumbing to wheat-based stuff.

Well done on all the good progress you've made already, and good luck for the future. You're on the right track, if you're here, and there's no doubt you can succeed in your aims.

[golangrok]

Thank you guys, the support is invaluable. I'm really excited to start getting to know people around the forum and learn more. Well, today was a really bad day - I only ate on meal because I felt sick, but it was a massive Mexican meal (with the beans and rice). I'm still having trouble really getting into it. I keep telling myself, "Tomorrow for real." but it never happens.
But tomorrow's still another day. There's two rotisserie chickens in the fridge, let's give it another go

[golangrok]

Lewis - do you have any ideas for boosting those (or are you saying they're in the podcast)?
I also believe that I suffer from depression and SHOULD be on anti-depressants, most of this week I have been unable to be interested in food or getting out of bed, which leads to me starving and binging by the end of the night.
What's the "natural" solution you mentioned?

[jkr]

Both problems are likely driven by the same thing -- deficiencies in neurotransmitters (the chemical messengers in the brain). The vomiting gets you an endorphin rush; the carbs help to temporarily push serotonin a bit (because the insulin spike it causes gets other competing chemicals out of the bloodstream). If you can get the levels of those neurotransmitters up naturally you don't need to try to push them in other, unhelpful, ways.


The person on this issue is Julia Ross. You might find this podcast where she's speaking worth listening to:

The Diet Cure 2012 with Julia Ross 06/22 by Underground Wellness | Blog Talk Radio

Here's her book:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Diet-Cure-...dp/0143120859/




I think you may need temporarily to supply the precursors to one or more neurotransmitter. Listen to the Julia Ross interview if you want to get more of an idea what that's about. But in the long run Primal will probably fix the problem anyway: because these neurotransmitters are made from amino acids (which are what protein is made from), if you have enough sources of high-quality protein in your diet, you're feeding yourself what you need to make them.



I wouldn't worry about it too much. Just try to make as many meals as possible as Primal as you can.



If you've no sensitivity to dairy, then there's probably no need to avoid it. Fermented forms like cheese and yoghurt are better choices -- specially if they're full-fat. Fruit's OK in moderation except for people who are special cases like diabetics, so you can certainly have some of that on Primal.

I wouldn't worry so much about cutting things out as making sure you eat enough of the good foods -- meat, fish, eggs, non-starchy vegetables like leafy greens, good fats like butter and coconut oil, some fruit and nuts. If you want some more carbs, then try to stick to more Primal ones like sweet potatoes and squashes rather than succumbing to wheat-based stuff.

Well done on all the good progress you've made already, and good luck for the future. You're on the right track, if you're here, and there's no doubt you can succeed in your aims.

Awesome advice.

[Lewis]

Lewis - do you have any ideas for boosting those (or are you saying they're in the podcast)?
I also believe that I suffer from depression and SHOULD be on anti-depressants, most of this week I have been unable to be interested in food or getting out of bed, which leads to me starving and binging by the end of the night.
What's the "natural" solution you mentioned?

Yes, you can take the amino acid from which a neurotransmitter is made. Then your body can make it directly and quite fast. It's pretty safe because amino acids are just the building blocks of proteins, so at bottom it's just a food component. You can discontinue use at any time, because they're not drugs so there's no withdrawal.

Depression seems to caused by low serotonin. The pharmaceutical solution is SSRIs -- selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors. Those can be fairly ineffective and also potentially problematic. Stopping serotonin being re-uptaken probably isn't the right way to go about it and, as I understand it, doesn't get the serotonin to where it's needed. There is a host of side-effects from these drugs. Here's the list of side-effects at Wikipedia:

Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You want to think hard before getting into taking an SSRI.


Here's more information on antidepressants and natural alternatives to them from another of Julia Ross's sites:

Julia Ross' THE MOOD CURE

If you are low in serotonin, it's going to be better and safer just to take what serotonin is made from -- tryptophan. You can get it from eating things like chicken and codfish. But if you need more temporarily you can get some that's been concentrated: I think they make it from yeast. Really everyone, all clinics and doctors, would be doing this kind of treatment -- except at bottom it's just food and no-one makes much money from that, so they try to design drugs that do the same sort of thing in a roundabout way, because that's what makes money for the drug companies. But sometimes the drugs don't work as intended. (See above.)


You want first of all to find out which neurotransmitter/s you might be low in. There's a quiz on that same site that would help to show you:

Julia Ross' THE MOOD CURE

And I really would go ahead and listen to that podcast to get an idea of what this is about.

If you've got difficult getting out of bed and you're "starving and bingeing", then things aren't quite right with you, and I'd suggest it would be best working with a clinic that understands how to do the sort of thing Julia Ross is doing.

Your only real problem may be imbalances caused by long-term bad dietary practices. You have to remember that everything about you -- your flesh and bones, your hormones, the chemicals needed for your brain, and so on -- are made from food. So if you've not been eating what's best for a number of years, things will have gone awry.

Eat as well as you are able to, but without getting stressed about it. You may need temporary support in the form of direct supply of the precursors of one or more of these neurotransmitters.

[golangrok]

Thanks so, so much. I have been eating somewhat less carby, and today I really want to start. For breakfast I had some cottage cheese, eggs, and bacon, and later today I'll have some salad and rotisserie chicken. I'm feeling good I'll keep checking in and explore the forum some more.