Funk-y Town

I've been in a total funk.

It's perfectly normal to share personal stuff on the interwebz, right? Well, since I only have three readers, I suppose it's not really sharing with the world.

Everyone has times in their lives when things just feel crappy. Major life changes. Losing someone you care for. A pet dying. Stress at work. Sometimes things just suck. Things have felt sucky for too long now. I've been way too sad, too tired and too unmotivated. And today? Suddenly, things felt completely unsucky today.

What? Your coffee doesn't smile at you?

Yeah, I can be a whack-a-doo. But let me explain:

Run on the Sun and I tend to make science projects out of food. Currently, T is obsessed with glycation. I would attempt to explain it, but it's beyond my mental capabilities. All I know is food has a huge impact on everything. I know, duh. But for some reason, it never really sunk in that food can affect things other than the number on the scale - which is creeping up.

Oh yeah? Well, no one likes you, scale!

Around Labor Day last year, after getting sick smack dab in the middle of the Disneyland Half Marathon, I made the decision to be gluten free. I had been fighting the gluten thing for a long time and was in denial that gluten was making me sick. Try throwing up in front of hundreds of your closest friends at a Run Disney event. It's so miserable that you finally have to figure out what is wrong. Not to mention, I had such severe acid reflux for almost an entire year that I was living on Prilosec and had to take a handful of Tums just to go running for 10 minutes.

I won't bore you with all of the ins and outs of finally narrowing my ailments down to gluten, but at least I don't have to give up my very best friend:

I love you...we can be together forever!

So anyhoo, back to the science of food and being in a funk. I have a horse show coming up which requires that I wear breeches. White spandexy, stretchy riding pants look good on approximately .00000002% of the population. Hence, crash diet time!

Yeah, that's not me. (source)

I don't really condone crash dieting, folks. But I do believe in limiting carb intake. And no, I don't believe that works for everyone and I still eat lots of veggies and fruits. I decided I need to get back on track and take control of my funk (never under estimate the fear of wearing white breeches in public!) So I ate protein, veggies and fruit and no grains of any kind today.

The result? Emotionally, I felt better than I have felt in a long time. I was even motivated enough to get my ass out and go running at the park near my house. Which strangely, has bathrooms with no doors on the stalls...

Weird, right? And gross. Someone call housekeeping.

I've always thought that my body has a hard time dealing with too much carb intake. I'm like a crack addict when it comes to carbs. Even without gluten, there is carby goodness to be found everywhere!

Also, not me...but close enough. (source)

It's something to think about. Can sugar and starch really be affecting me this much? I'm going to do a little research and see what comes of it. I know each person is different, but I always feel better physically when I limit my carb intake and to be honest, my mood always improves, too. I thought it was just because the scale was going down, but maybe something chemically is happening in my body makes things seem better when I go low carb. Stay tuned!