More carbs

Monday

Another 0.7 kg down this week, to 72.9 kg. Still heading in the right direction.

I had a hard week. I got quite depressed, although the only external factor was being at a bit of a loose end on holidays too long with nothing to aim for until TAFE starts again. But the depression was like a brain fog, I sat around all day and didn't want to do anything. No energy, no motivation. Tim took the kids bowling, putt putt (mini golf), played board games with them. I didn't join in anything. I spent a lot of time just sitting, reading or staring at the TV. I was a bit sad but mostly just empty, like I was waiting for my life to start.

The obvious first possibility of culprit was the Duromine (phentermine). It's not a particularly common side effect but it does happen. Forum advice was that tryptophan can help with serotonin production, but tryptophan is not readily available in Australia. I was pretty much decided to stop taking the Duromine but tried one other thing first. I've been eating low carb, it does help me lose weight but it has messed with my mood in the past, notably in the six week hell before my wedding, after which my husband said I was never allowed to go low carb again. I was miserable and grumpy the whole time. Not even sure why I even tried it again - oh yes I do it's because the weight loss forum I'm on pushes it pretty hard. I'd been low-carbing since the New Year, three weeks now.

On the weekend I increased my carbs a bit, while still keeping calories low. And guess what. My mood improved immensely. I feel totally back to normal after two days of the occasional slice of toast, roast potato, or bunch of grapes. And eating that way didn't even seem to hurt the weight loss, most of this week's 0.7 kg loss was dropped over the weekend.

The Blood Sugar Diet that I am doing is Mediterranean and doesn't actually mention carb limits, it talks about using rice, pasta etc in small amounts as a taste rather than the main part of the meal. A lot of the recipes included have carby vegetables and beans etc. But a lot of the people on the forum (some now successfully in maintenance for over a year) are evangelical about the benefits of super-low carb and I guess I got caught up in that a bit. I never went super-low, but even low was too low for me. It probably caused my dizziness last week too.