I last binged about a week and a half ago. Oddly, my legs had been swollen (especially ankles) ever since. This had worried me, since they usually only swell if I stand too much during the day -- and I had been sitting a lot in an attempt to alleviate the swelling.
Anyway, I had been pretty run down, and felt like it was time to binge again. Had a nice biking workout beforehand:
It's a little hard to tell from this picture, but my calves and angles are smooth and bloated (as you'll see later).
I started by visiting the shop voted to have the "best cookies" in Seattle. Damn, this place smelled good!!! I didn't realize they specialized in ice-cream sandwiches. Anyway, I held back as I had already purchased some sweets beforehand, and only picked up a "habanero orange chocolate chip" and "birthday cake" cookie. I learned my lesson about over-indulging in sweets from my last binge...
I stowed these away and walked to a sandwich shop, where I picked up a fried chicken leg, pork belly, and roasted pepper sandwich:
While waiting for my order, I began... It was 9:30 PM and all had eaten nothing more than a few miscellaneous samples from a grocery store earlier in the day, about 200 cals. After my 30 minutes of intervals on the bike, and having walked 10+ miles already at this point, I was ready to begin! I snarfed the habanero orange chocolate chip cookie.
DELICIOUS!!! Wow. I probably only enjoyed it so much because it was my first food of the night, but it was a unique treat, any way you cut it.
Once the sandwich came out, I stashed it away and walked to a nearby bistro. I ordered the "whole menu", a 12 course meal + a "chocolate comal" for dessert. Basically a chocolate mousse + crumpled up brownie. I'd never been to such a "fancy" restaurant before, and I certainly wouldn't go back. Honestly it was a bit boring. The menu was almost identical to that listed here, so I didn't bother with pictures:
http://blindpigbistro.com/whole-menu/The beer bread, zabutan steak in charred eggplant sauce, and fried egg noodles were the best courses.
At this point, it was already 11 PM, so I had missed the opportunity to visit a famous noodle shop I'd wanted to try. I started looking up "best late night dining" spots, and the most recommended was "biscuit bitch". It was about 2 miles away, so I started my trek.
While travelling, I downed an oatmeal chocolate chip cookie, plain chocolate chip cookie, a tiny lemon cookie, a raspberry rugelach, and a small chocolate-dipped peanut butter fudge wedge, all of which I had picked up at whole foods. At this point, I felt satisfied. This is the point I'll stop, in the future, I think... lol.
When I finally got to biscuit bitch, I knew I had made a mistake. This was going to be a gut bomb. The girl working the counter recommended the "hot mess bitch": a slathering of gravy, grits, eggs cheese and sausage on top of a huge biscuit. I grabbed it and started walking back to the bus stop:
I decided to walk to a further stop as I ate -- at this point I felt like walking more would help, somehow. During my walk, I polished off the hot mess bitch and sandwich, and started working on the four kinds of granola I had picked up earlier at whole foods.
I swear granola is a magical food. It's like a "cure" that's so satisfying, it just lets me keep eating and eating...
By the time I arrived at the bus stop, I realized my mistake: the buses had stopped running about 30 minutes ago, and wouldn't start up for another four hours. Sighing
deeply, I saw my phone only had 3% battery left... I tried calling a friend for pickup, but he was asleep or something. I started the nearly 5 mile hike home...
Luckily, I ran into a cab and flagged him down. Whew.
When I got home, I knew there was no way I'd be able to finish the stuff I had bought the day before. I often pick things up that look good, like the 'almond coconut chocolate chip scone' and chocolate mint tart pictured here:
This is always a mistake, though. By the time I get home, I no longer want any of it. Oh well, at least this time I didn't feel the need to finish anything, or push past the "pain point".
In fact, I realized that planning the binge takes most of the fun out of it. Discovery is a huge part of the fun: just walking around, finding things that look tasty, and being able to indulge.
I finished about half the desserts and a little more of the granola (the amount picture about was about half of what I started out with -- ate the other half while walking home), then went to sleep around 4. When I woke up:
holy shit! legs and ankles were now 100% back to normal, and DAT VASCULARITY... wow.
Interestingly, while I was sitting around at the bistro earlier, I read some articles that seemed to describe a lot of what I had been going through:
http://www.metabolicedge.net/2013/10/the-importance-of-cheat-meals-and-how.htmlAccording to this article, chronic caloric deficit leads to fat loss (of course), but when fat gets too low, the hormone 'leptin' falls to such levels that the whole metabolism "slows". I think this must be what happens to me, why I'm always cold (this never used to be the case when I was younger), how I never have energy, etc.
Interesting passage:
Leptin sensitivity is a critical point for a successful cheat meal. After a cheat meal, you should feel good, with lots of energy, more muscle definition and volume, and more vascularized, instead of being tired, hungry and with a fluid retention that covers any hint of muscle. If you are already with a good body composition, have been in a strict diet for a some days in a row, have been training with intensity and regularly you should certainly be more sensitive to leptin. This is what we seek: a primer for the cheat meal. Depending on the starting point, this level may take a few weeks to achieve. It takes experience to detect the right time, but this is precisely the feature that highlights an excellent athlete or coach and distinguishes from the ordinary. You can always go by trial and error, paying attention to your physical condition and energy in the hours following the meal and the day after.
It also reminded me a lot of Galeniko's advice, to 'cheat' every 3 days or so (something I believe Adonis does as well).
Certainly seems I had the symptoms listed above ("tired, hungry and with a fluid retention that covers any hint of muscle"), anyway.
All very strange and interesting. This one, about the difficulty of diagnosing thyroid problems, also gives me many ideas:
www.metabolicedge.net/2013/09/why-dieting-can-actually-make-you-fat.html
This metabolic slow down can be explained by leptin inhibition on energy deprivation. Leptin has a satiating effect on the brain and it activates the sympathetic nervous system, increasing the metabolism and lipolysis. But it has also influence on TSH production, stimulating its release from the pituitary. If we produce less leptin while on caloric restriction, and we always do, the output of TSH will be lower, and consequently T4 and T3 will drop. If we consider the TSH the marker of hypothyroidism, this will not be diagnosed because it will be normal to lower, a depression caused by energy deprivation that differs from classic hypothyroidism marked by high TSH levels.
But thyroid hormones are not the only ones influenced by this auto-induced survival mode. Sex hormones, specially testosterone, are also affected by a significant reduction, which can be in part explained by the lower leptin levels. Sex hormone inhibition is one of the first changes we experience when dieting hard for too long. Libido loss, loss of muscle mass, a reduction in bone mineral density, fatigue, depression, and irregular menstruation are common symptoms. Other important sign is a hemoglobin reduction, not necessarily below the reference range (levels below 14,5 g/dL are not common in normal men, and 13,6 is the lowest level acceptable). All this contributes to worsen this chronic and subclinical state, not diagnosed in most cases since the levels are still on the reference range. This only means you are on the average, but that’s not where I want to be. The mean of a sick population is still sick, not the optimal. Reference values hardly tell us anything. Your normal is not my normal, and actually I want to be optimal…
I continue to learn...
