Warning: Long Post! Also, I have ADHD and the caffeine has worn off, so its going to be super rambly!
Hey guys and girls of GAF, I could use some help. Accidentally made a massive diet adjustment (leading to "OMG WHAT IS HAPPENING !!!!!" phase but could use some advice on how to proceed next, cause I'm a little bit clueless as to who I should talk to/schedule appointments with/adjustments I should make to my diet/vitamins/ etc.
(Pre-last two weeks piils- Zyrtec, Sudafed 24-hour + Nasonex Spray (keeps apnea away) , 5000 IUs Vitamin D, Generic Multivitamin.)
Over the past ~5 years I've figured out that I can't eat what, and that extrapolated to realizing my body REALLY hates Fructose. I can't tolerate anything more than small doses. Have been strongly cutting back on that (RIP Chipotle and Avacados
which has been helping w/ gas issues.) Over the course of the last two weeks, I also found out I'm totally intolerant to Egg, which I was just completely unaware of given the amount of other things my body was saying "F this" to. That's fixed now too - thank god for "Just Mayo", its a lifesaver.
Now for the big change/fix. Two weeks ago, I decided to go off of soda and switch to just a shot of expresso with dextrose instead of regular sugar, since I just kinda hated Coffee and this was more tolerable. I had previously been using Coke Zero/Diet Coke, and figured this might get rid of some gassiness issues I thought were due to carbonation. I was not prepared.
The day I switch, my body starts reaction... like I'm on cocaine. This is not normal to me. I have a lot more energy. Motivation/Drive is up. I'm much happier, I can carry on a conversation without stuttering. I don't feel like me. And over the course of the next two days, I have a toooon of energy. Suddenly, I have the sex drive of 15yo me. With a massive amount of energy 15yo me never had. Everything is fun and going well and ....
I run into the Egg issue accidentally. Oops. And over the next two days as I eat mayo Friday and regular eggs saturday, I realize what the issue is. I manage to fix this and course-correct back to "normal" over the next few days. I still don't know what exactly was going on w/ the diet cola removal, but on Monday, I run into the answer, completely on accident.
While googling "why does plain white rice give me heartburn", I run into magnesium and how people are low and it can cause issues. I then, what-the-heck it, and type in "magnesium soda", curious if there's some sort of interaction. And there is. Carbonation makes the magnesium in your diet (what little I had) bind to other elements, so its not even being processed. Suddenly, the switch away from it (and the insane energy boost) make sense in that these things weren't being stripped out of my diet. And reading around, the "crazy boost in energy" thing in reaction to Magnesium was also not a me-only thing.
And so this week, I went to the local drugstore and picked up Magnesium in a small mag+Calc+D form and a large Mag-only form. This worked great for about two days, lots of energy, felt a lot better, as I took it twice a day... until the side effects from using Mag Oxide hit me pretty bad and I liquefied my insides. This was not good. And then, compounding the issue, over the next 3-4 days, I accidentally gave myself caffeine withdrawal! Because I'm an idiot who didn't realize what was going wrong and why I suddenly felt like crap, since I was used to the heavily, heavily muted effects of caffeine through diet soda (and I wasn't even taking that much, at most 200mg per day.)
Today, I looked through my diet log, realized the caffeine thing, and felt like an enormous moron. After looking around, I found Magnesium Glycinate, which definitely does not have the same tummy issues. It does, however, make me sleepy as F, so I have been taking 2x at night the last two nights (no calcium, currently.) I'm keeping all the other ones in place from before as well.
What I could really use is advice on where to go now. Things like diet, managing caffeine, supplements, etc- I've found some good resources online, but figure there's probably someone in my health care plan I should be talking to in real life as well to help figure this stuff out. I'm currently just doing cardio to lose weight and get my stamina up, and want to switch over to weights once I'm in a place where I'm not falling over once I'm done running. (I don't know quite where the spot to aim there is either.)
The biggest thing though, is that I
get it. For a couple of glorious days, I didn't feel like normal tired unmotivated me. I felt way better, happier, motivated, etc. I brolieved, after suffering through PE classes and exercise for the entirety of my life. I just don't know how to get back to that on a consistent and safe basis, and could really use some direction on where I should go next.
Thanks in advance for reading through this Wheel of Time-length essay and thanks for any help/advice you can give here. I was not expecting to be asking myself "Who
AM I?" right after turning 30, but I'm very very glad I am.
