Here's something else that I noticed while on GAPS; a while back I was reading Starlene's blog and saw something about resetting leptin dysregulation. I've known about leptin's role in obesity for a while; it's another hormone, like insulin, which affects appetite and fat storage. It's basically the appetite hormone. Like insulin, in overweight people our bodies become "deaf" to the leptin that's actually circulating in our bodies, making us want to eat more because it think we're starving.
What surprised me was this, one of the symptoms of leptin resistance:
How do I know when I am no longer leptin resistant?
Changes in appearance: Your hair and nails will improve in color and presentation. Your pedicurist will notice you have less dead skin on your feet. Your face will look a lot better, with softer skin and better color, especially if you use olive oil or coconut oil on your skin.
Changes in mood, personality, and thoughts: You will become more thoughtful, more mindful, and less explosive in explosive environments. If you decide to add mindfulness to your reset, (you should) you will notice tremendous changes in your thinking and your ability to learn and comprehend things. Your insight, intuition, and mental acuity will be sharper. Also, your sexual desires will change and your libido will awaken. Your spouse will begin to notice things and treat you differently.
Changes in appetite: Your carbohydrate cravings will go away. You’ll feel full and not really need to eat three meals a day. You’ll notice your taste and smell change.
Changes in energy and sleep: Over 6-12 months, expect your energy to gradually improve. You will feel warmer and exude body heat, but your body temperature will actually be lower. It will continue to trend lower over the next 18-24 months while you thyroid settles into its new biologic groove. Dramatic improvements will be made in your sleep. Both migraines and muscle soreness from exercise will decrease.
Did you see that bit in the first item? The thing about the feet? Well, this is something that's been an embarrassment to me for years. I used to go to the pedicurist religiously until I realized that I had a fungal infection in my toenails that the polish was exacerbating. I'm soooo sad that I can't have cute colors on my toes, and I feel so bad that I exposed my pedicurists to nasty fungus (although they do always wear gloves). But the one thing that stands out is the crazy amounts of dead skin on my feet, particularly my heels. I always had to have the "crudo" thing done, where they basically shave the excess skin off your feet. I know that this isn't normal; most other people don't have it so I don't know why I never thought about why my feet were so crusty but guess what? They aren't any more!
I kind of half noticed it maybe a week prior to reading the article. I'm not sure because I didn't really think about it until I read the above and it hit me, "Hey, my feet aren't gross anymore! I have normal feet!!" I guess this is one more thing to thanks the GAPS diet for (although it may also just be that I've been eating pretty low carb.)
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Lunch was a beef and broccoli soup I tossed together (beef, broccoli, sautéed onion, mushroom mirepoix) and a couple of GAPS pancakes with some of the cooked applesauce with cinnamon. I'd like to keep broth/ soup at lunch to be sure to get my daily dose.
Dinner was "GAPS burrito", which is basically an omelet; steam sautee meat and veggies in fat/broth combo until cooked (or heated if you do what I do and pre-cook everything). Combo's I've done in the past are meat/onion/pepper/avocado and beef/broccoli/onion/avocado. Tonight I did Mexican-ish with beef, onion, avocado (I actually always put avocado in these) with some lime juice and cumin. Delish! Finished dinner off with a grapefruit. I'm really getting into grapefruit; so juicy and delicious!
Today's Article
I find many great articles that I find researching health issues on the interwebs. I'm going to include them in my daily postings when I find something particularly interesting. Today's is from one of my favorite experts on the internet, Chris Kresser, "There is no single cause of (or treatment for) obesity". I didn't start eating GAPS to lose weight but it's been a positive side effect.
Since I have PCOS and find it nearly impossible to do so this has been a really exciting development. In this article, Chris talks about difference the various mechanisms that may cause obesity and the effect, obesity itself. Just because one person may lose weight on low carb, or low fat, or whatever, that doesn't mean carbs or fat causes obesity, anymore than aspirin deficiency causes headaches.
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