Sunday Coffee – In the last two weeks…

Posted on April 21, 2019 by Thistle

…Jason and I attended a Clue movie party at Alamo Drafthouse! Clue was one of my childhood favorites and I’ve literally seen it hundreds of times. (Funny story: When I was nine/ten years old, I spent over a year writing the dialogue for Clue down in a “script” from memory in my spare time. This is how much I loved that movie. I also forced my poor sister to do this with me, ha!) We were so excited when we discovered the movie party and snatched up tickets right away. At the movie, we got a random character card (I got Miss Scarlet, Jason got Mrs White), a party popper, a mini flashlight, and a foam weapon – all for use during parts of the movie. There was singing and dancing and movie-quoting (“Flames…flames…on the side of my face…”), and I bought a special Miss Scarlet mixed drink just to get the commemorative glass. It was one of the best movie experiences I’ve had in quite some time. Next month, they’re having a Three Amigos movie party, and we might just have to attend! (And by “might,” I mean that I’ve already purchased tickets.)

…Morrigan had his senior trip, during which he lost his glasses. The bus department for the school district found them (or so they thought) and tried to give him this pair with polka dots and a tiny frame. Ha! So he spent a week without them, poor guy, until the next available appointment at his optometrist. He also had to do his DOD physical and visual evaluations without glasses, sigh. The good news is that our optometrist is awesome and he was able to get us the new frames same-day, so at least there wasn’t a several-week wait for shipping!

…Morrigan attended prom with his girlfriend Eliya (who is affectionately nicknamed Henry in our house ever since our Super Bowl party back in February). (And look! He has glasses! He didn’t have to do pictures without them!) He made her a Texas wildflower corsage and the two of them went to a nearby local restaurant called Pesto’s. I guess they don’t get a lot of prom guests there, and I’m not sure exactly what moved their waitress, but the waitress decided to pay for their meal for them. (As it turned out, a lot of the prom couples had their meals paid for them at different restaurants, I’ve heard, which is so nice of people!) Morrigan in turn left her a $20 tip. Then the two came by the house so they could take photos in the garden, and then it was off to prom, where they had a lovely time.

…we got a massive amount of work done on the garden. Some miscommunications in plans meant that one of the projects grew a lot larger than expected, so we couldn’t finish by today’s brunch, but we now have an unexpected side deck and new front fence, plus planters to finish off the side of the yard. Pictures to come after we finish connecting the porch and deck, and have the entire yard finished.

…I took more blood tests and got more results. More on that soon. Also: I’m really tired of blood draws. I’d like to not do that again for awhile.

…I began sanding down the banisters in our stairwell. I have no idea why the previous homeowners used the wrong kind of paint and put it on so thickly that it peels off, but it’s an easy project that costs just about nothing to fix. We have a whole list of house projects that are low-cost and will make the house much nicer, and I’m trying to work my way through the few that I’m capable of doing (or helping with, at least).

…we prepped the house and food for an Easter brunch that we’re hosting later this morning for extended family. This involved making scones and cake and brisket and bread and multiple kinds of breakfast taco filling and asparagus quiche and of course Easter eggs, in addition to extensive cleaning, yard stuff, and generally prepping the house for up to 15 guests. And on that note, I’m posting this in the wee early morning hours because guests will start arriving in four hours and there’s still some prep work to do! Y’all have a happy Easter!!

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The True Queen, by Zen Cho (audio)

Posted on April 19, 2019 by Thistle

From Goodreads: When sisters Muna and Sakti wake up on the peaceful beach of the island of Janda Baik, they can’t remember anything, except that they are bound as only sisters can be. They have been cursed by an unknown enchanter, and slowly Sakti starts to fade away. The only hope of saving her is to go to distant Britain, where the Sorceress Royal has established an academy to train women in magic. If Muna is to save her sister, she must learn to navigate high society, and trick the English magicians into believing she is a magical prodigy. As she’s drawn into their intrigues, she must uncover the secrets of her past, and journey into a world with more magic than she had ever dreamed.

Honestly, I wasn’t sure if I was going to read this book. It had been years since Sorcerer to the Crown came out, and while I liked it a lot, I didn’t remember much about it. I certainly didn’t remember a story that needed to be continued into this sequel. This is very possibly because the sequel isn’t really a sequel. It’s a related story that takes place in the same world several years later. It’s completely standalone. I considered going back to reread Sorcerer first, and in the end, decided not to because of my recently reading slump. I didn’t need to. Nothing was difficult to follow, and the primary characters were new to this book. I was hooked right away, and I think I actually enjoyed this one more than Sorcerer, particularly because there was so much more exploration of non-British magic/culture.

As usual, Jenny Sterlin did a fabulous job reading the audio, which helped me to engage with the story more than I think I would have in my current mind-frame. I don’t know how well the story will stick with me longer term, but it was a fun, quick listen and I’m glad that I gave it a chance.

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Kid Gloves, by Lucy Knisley

Posted on April 15, 2019 by Thistle

In this graphic memoir, Knisley discusses her trials in getting pregnant, including discussion of miscarriage and fertility treatment, and then her trials during her pregnancy, labor, and delivery. It’s both a memoir on a specific topic, and a historical look at the way pregnancy and women’s health in general has been treated over time.

Once again, Knisley doesn’t disappoint. This was a fantastic book that was frank, open, and painfully honest at times. There was so much I related to, even though there was much that she went through that I have no experience with. The best thing I’ve found in Knisley’s books is just how real she is, and how she manages to convey, both with art and writing, a sense of exactly who she is and of her experiences. Honestly, I don’t have much more to say other than I loved every second of this book, as I do many of her books. I look forward to the next one.

(Although I admit, it was a little disconcerting to read through Knisley’s interactions with a dismissive doctor that ignored all her signs of preeclampsia, and how she nearly died because of that, mere minutes before receiving texts from my sister – who’s 30 weeks pregnant – about extremely high blood pressure and her doctor’s concerns. But at least her doctor is listening, and she’s progressing well with very careful monitoring, so that’s good!)

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Sunday Coffee – Garden

Posted on April 14, 2019 by Thistle

Our front yard is almost complete. A little over a year ago, we began to dig up and terrace our front yard. Our property is on a hill and there had been a lot of erosion. One of our trees was on a hill and listing toward the street, and we didn’t want it to eventually collapse as erosion uncovered roots. (This happened to our neighbors a week after we moved into this house.) The project started small, with the simple idea of building up the land around the tree with a retaining wall, but it quickly became apparent that the entire yard was going to need to be tiered to prevent further erosion and also drainage damage to the foundation. From March til May last year, things went smoothly…but of course the explosion of our house last summer and the need to completely renovate and repair half the rooms in the house took precedence for months. And as soon as that was done, our plumbing exploded and half the yard had to be dug up. This basically meant that we were starting almost from scratch in October.

Six months ago, only a quarter of the yard was still finished. Over the last six months, we’ve accomplished a lot in the little time that we had (basically like two weekends a month):

  • re-landscaped the driveway side of the yard (the part that was completely dug up)
  • built a walkway from sidewalk to porch
  • cut down the two invasive chinaberry trees (not to mention the ongoing battle to weed millions of chinaberry seedlings that to this day continue to spring forth)
  • chainsawed out major roots coming from the chinaberry tree stumps
  • built and buried a drainage system from driveway to the backyard, to keep erosion to a minimum
  • relaid the flagstone terrace
  • put in turfstone in two sections of the yard to keep the ground level
  • built brick and stone levels down to the lowest corner of the yard
  • build an extension to the tiny porch so there’s a seating area out there now
  • replanted half the yard
  • built up borders around the rock wall for easier lawn maintenance for our neighbors (rough rock is not great for mowers!)
  • added wind chimes
  • dug up and poured cement for deck posts in the side yard, where we’re currently in the progress of building a small flat deck area for our trash, recycling, and compost bins (in progress)

(Pano pics are weird, but it was the best way to capture it all. Click to enlarge)

The goal is to be done by next Sunday, when my extended family is coming over for Easter brunch. We may not get there, but a lot has been done and our yard is absolutely lovely. We did our homework well, choosing an array of local, native plants that require little water, stand up to our crazy summer heat, and thrive in the most ridiculous “soil” ever (basically sand and bricks and rocks with a little dirt mixed in). Our yard is fully xeriscaped and much better for the environment than a traditional lawn, and better yet, it’s not just a cactus rock garden. When we started talking about xeriscaping the lawn, that was the first thing that came to mind. It’s what people tend to do around here, because succulents are just about the only plants they know that thrive in our weather. But research taught us that this was simply not the case. We have a cool garden full of green and silver and purple plants, creeping vines that are starting to drape down our rock wall, beautiful pale purple flowers that attract butterflies for much of the year, and so much more. We’ve let the clover grow in to fill spaces, and some of the plants we chose have thrived so well that we’re actually having to cut them back to give other plants space!

(view from the street)

Honestly, a year ago I could never imagine myself out in the lawn, pulling up weeds with my bare hands and knowing the names of every plant in my yard. I’ve never liked nature! I despise grass. (Seeing photos of bare feet in grass is like a nightmare to me. Really.) But sitting out on my new porch, listening to the wind chimes and watching the butterflies, feeling the breeze even though it’s 95 degrees outside, feeling the temperature drop twenty degrees between the street and our very cool garden – those things have just become priceless. Every time I see new growth, I’m excited and amazed. I keep going out with my camera to take photos of new things! Seriously, I could never have imagined this. And even though I know we can’t tackle it all yet, I can’t wait until we can plan out our back yard and turn it into a wonderful place as well. It has so much potential. My brain is full of garden ideas!

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Death in Provence, by Serena Kent (audio)

Posted on April 12, 2019 by Thistle

Penelope Kite retires to Provence, where she’s just bought her dream home…only when she arrives, she finds a dead body in her pool, a nosy estate agent, a devilishly handsome politician, and a very unhelpful police force. Because no one else is doing things right, Penelope decides to take solving this mystery into her own hands.

This was a cozy mystery set in lush Provence, which is something I thought I’d really enjoy. My experience was mixed, however. Some of it was just my slump/mood as I listened to the audiobook. It was only ten hours long, but it took me almost six weeks to listen to it. I kept getting bored, and that may or may not have been the fault of book. There were times when I really liked all the description and quiet pace, and times when I just wanted the story to get on with it. I loved the ending and how things wrapped up, and I loved that I really got to know so many of the characters over the course of the novel. But at the same time, I’m not sure if I’ll pick up the next book in the series.

(On a completely unrelated note, I was very tickled that the town of Gignac was mentioned several times during this book. I was unable to visit my family namesake town while I was living in France twenty years ago, so I love any time I come across the (very rare) mention of it!)

Performance: This audiobook was read by Antonia Beamish, who did a good job with all the various accents. She also read the French sections perfectly!

Posted in 2019, Adult, Prose | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Wellness Wednesday – Do Calories Mean Something Now?

Posted on April 10, 2019 by Thistle

A month ago, I increased the percentage of carbohydrates in my diet, and the results have been fantastic. And as I mentioned, I gained some glycogen weight because my body could finally replenish its stores. I also gained a pound from some overindulgence over the last month, as I got used to this new way of eating and began to experiment with different things. One of the big things I’ve learned is that I need to question every single thing my body has done for the last seven years. For example, in all these years, any alcohol consumption (even a single small glass of wine) would lead to a 3-4 pound increase on the scale that wouldn’t go away until I had no alcohol for several weeks. I would also become ravenously hungry for carbs. Not for junk food, just for carb-heavy foods like rice or pasta. Now, neither of those symptoms appear. No carb-cravings while I drink alcohol, no bump on the scale unless I also overeat (and those bumps don’t take weeks to disappear). In this situation – and others – it feels like my body is finally responding normally to food and drink. Which leads me to question my body’s non-response to the calories-in-vs-calories-out theory.

Back when I first started counting calories, after discovering Sparkpeople in February 2011, I lost weight evenly and according to my particular calorie deficit, set to lose a pound per week. I discovered quickly that my body won’t lose faster than that, and if I cut my calories further, I’d hold onto weight or even gain. But a pound per week is a very reasonable rate of weight loss, and I was fine with that. When my insomnia appeared nine months later, the rate of loss slowed, but I was still losing at about 75% of what my calorie tracker said I should be losing. Lack of sleep IS a contributing factor in not losing, so it made sense. The loss only dropped to ridiculous levels after the two months where I was lowering my carbs (March and April 2012). I was so close to my goal weight at that point – only 15-20 lbs off – that people said it was because I didn’t have much to lose. However, I was barely out of the obese range, so that definitely wasn’t the case. The scale crawled and crawled and crawled, and I finally hit my goal in Feb 2013, but then I came to a full stop. In May 2013, I spent four weeks religiously counting every single calorie (including weighing all my food to the gram) and tracked it all publicly each day, as an experiment. In those four weeks, I had a calorie deficit of 3000-4000 each week, and my weight stayed the same. As any of my longtime readers will know, that is a trend that has continued to this day.

But. What if it’s different now? What if the reason calories weren’t a factor before was that my body was clinging to every ounce of nutrients it could get? My doctor has suggested that the reason other people can do well on low-carb diets is that their bodies adapt to using other sources of energy, and mine doesn’t. (Probably because of the way I was fed growing up, and the way I ate while I was a competitive swimmer doing 12+ hours of exercise each week.) Maybe now that my body has a proper source of nutrition again, I can rely on calorie-counting to help me lose weight and get healthy. I mean, for the last month, I’ve been eating far more than I used to (not just more carbs, but more food generally), and I’ve been maintaining. If I’d eaten this quantity in January or February, I would have gained ten pounds!

Which means it’s experiment time! First, I have to let go of seven years’ worth of preconceptions and decide to trust both my calorie trackers and my body’s hunger cues. I need to start 100% from scratch. Second, I need to finish my current steroid treatment, since the steroid causes me to lose several pounds of water. When I took the same treatment in Feb, I gained the weight right back after it was done, and I don’t know what will happen this time. I’ll be done with the current treatment on Monday, and I’ll need the rest of that week to let my post-steroid weight stabilize. Then on Sunday – yes, Easter Sunday – I’ll start counting again. And we’ll see how my body reacts. Perhaps I can pick up where I left off so many years ago.

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Save the Date, by Morgan Matson

Posted on April 8, 2019 by Thistle

Charlie is the youngest of five siblings, and her life is in chaos. Her parents are selling the house she grew up in, she’s about to go to college, and all her siblings are coming home for her older sister’s wedding. Including one sibling that no one has seen for eighteen months. To cap it all off, Charlie’s mom is a renown comic strip artist, and her 25 years of writing about her family in the daily newspaper comic strip is coming to an end the same weekend as the wedding. And then the wedding planner disappears, leaving everything undone, mixed-up, and in chaos.

As usual, Morgan Matson doesn’t pull any punches. There is a lot packed into this book, which takes place over a single weekend. Most of it is tied up in family relationships and the way those change over time. The rest involves a coming of age story of how we see our world and how it changes (and the people in it change) as we grow, whether or not we want it to. These things would be fairly ordinary, except that they occur over a backdrop of family (and neighbor) feuds, a live TV special coming to interview the family for the end of the comic strip, and the chaos caused by the wedding planner’s disappearance. If it could go wrong, it did. Weddings are already high-stress (ditto selling a house, seeing a family member for the first time in eighteen months, dealing with press, etc), so to put all these things alongside each other makes all the flaws and realities of family bonds come to light. And as I said, Matson didn’t pull punches. There is a lot of gut-wrench in this book.

I personally love books about big messy complicated families, especially when all the extended families get to come along for the ride. This was exactly the book I needed after a long reading slump. It’s my third experience with Matson and I will continue to read her books because she has yet to disappoint.

Posted in 2019, Prose, Young Adult | Leave a comment

Sunday Coffee – Downsizing

Posted on April 7, 2019 by Thistle

One of my current goals is to figure out how to take a firmer hand with our budget. We’re not big spenders and our budget is really, really streamlined, but due to circumstances last year, we find ourselves under massive debt and with our expenses outweighing our income. A year ago we were fine, but once you add two car payments and $20k of house repairs (which had to go on our credit cards, because our savings were drained the year before when Jason lost his job), you go from monthly “wiggle room” to monthly “further into the red.” There is literally nothing more we can cut from our budget, so this comes down to large-ticket items: cars and house. The cars are a no-go: one of them is the family car (the only one that fits us all) and the other one is upside-down on value. Which leaves the house.

I will admit straight out that we shouldn’t have bought this house. It flat-out cost too much, plus it had particular features that we knew would make it more expensive to care for. It was on a hill, meaning potential problems with structural elements, and it was two stories. Neither of these may mean problems in other parts of the world, but San Antonio has very peculiar weather patterns. We sometimes have years without rain, and sometimes years without the rain stopping, and due to this, the land is constantly shifting. Basements don’t work here. Doors have to be adjusted several times a year. Plus, San Antonio is just HOT, and that means the second floor will always take a lot more energy to cool (during the nine months we need a/c).

So why did we buy it, knowing the potential issues and the excess cost? Well, we were desperate, and we lived in a different state and couldn’t go look at houses in person, and we needed something immediately so we didn’t have the luxury of waiting until the right house came along. That summer of nightmares, anything and everything that could go wrong did go wrong. Additionally, the housing market had exploded in San Antonio. When we moved to Boston in 2014, our 1500-square-foot house had been worth $120k (only $25k more than when we bought it in 2006). The following summer, the same house was worth $140k, and the summer after that, $160k. By the time we were looking at this house, that old house of ours was worth $180k, and these days, it’s over $200k. Five years, and it’s almost doubled in value since we sold it. And the house we’re in today? It’s gone up at least $50k in selling value just in the last 18 months, especially after our improvements. Unfortunately, the increased sales value does nothing to help us with our insane mortgage payment, or our out-of-control electrical bill due to cooling two floors of this beast-house. We can’t afford this place, no matter how much we love it.

Downsizing is going to be our best option. Unfortunately, this will be tricky. Space-wise, we can certainly downsize. This house is about 2200 square feet, and we’re perfectly comfortable with something smaller, especially if it’s laid out well. (Actually, ironically, we preferred our 1500-square-foot house from pre-Boston, because while it had less overall square footage, it was laid out so much better than this current house!) But even the smaller houses are currently selling for the same price (or higher) than what we spent on our current house. You can’t get anything for an affordable price unless you go to high-crime areas (no!) or you buy a major fixer upper (NO!). If we sell and buy simultaneously, the proceeds from the sale should make a major down payment into a smaller, one-story house, but we’d have to be very sure those transactions, and the right house would have to be available. Plus there are a few things we’d have to fix up in this house first. Sucks, but it’s got to be done. Even if I did finish school and get a decent-paying job, we’d have years of major credit card debt and constant worry before we were comfortable again, and this house would always be too big and too expensive for us.

We’re not looking to do this immediately, of course. It’s likely we’re not looking to do this until our boys are all off to school in a few years, or at least not until one or two of them are. We’re not going to spend a lot more money and get further into debt fixing up the things that need to be fixed. We just can’t. Right now, we’re just going to focus on the things we can do cheaply (finish up the last bit of the front yard, wall repairs, paint touchups, door adjustments, etc), work on getting me into school (or other solution), and continue to economize. But probably, in the next three to four years, we’ll be looking to move somewhere smaller, single-story, with a smaller house payment. It’s long in the future, but I’ll ask anyway: wish us luck!!

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A Summing Up of March Titles

Posted on April 5, 2019 by Thistle

I did a lot of skim-reading in March. I don’t usually write reviews of skim-read books, and I don’t include them as part of my year’s reading list. However, because I haven’t finished a non-skim-read book since February, I decided to do a list of mini-reviews for some titles that I looked through in March. This may not be comprehensive. I don’t remember everything I skim-read, and my library just changed their catalog system, so my years of check-outs (dating back to 2012!) no longer exists. This is what I can remember, however. Links go out to Goodreads for book descriptions.

The Liar’s Room by Simon Lelic: Psychological thriller with flashbacks to build in the reasons the narrator left her old life and identity behind. The good: It dealt candidly with a parent’s difficulty in coping when their child does something reprehensible. The bad: Predictable, characters not very fleshed out. TW: Rape.

The Suspect by Fiona Barton: Having not particularly liked The Widow, I was hesitant to try this one. However, it was well-written, and the characters have to deal with real consequences of poor choices that they had no control over, and the ending is only slightly ambiguous (no major thriller-twists). I was more engaged with this book than most from March.

Better Homes and Hauntings by Molly Harper (audio): This was a free paranormal romance download from Audible. It was silly and predictable but also very fun. A few too many cliches and stereotypes, but I still enjoyed it (haunted houses make for awesome settings!). Audio was read by Amanda Ronconi.

The Woman in the Window by AJ Finn: The premise of this one is so similar to a thriller I’ve skimmed through in the past that I wondered if it was the same, but it wasn’t – plus it was better written, and I was surprised many times by where the story went, even when I guessed some of the twists. It was also a very good exploration of agoraphobia, with a narrator who was both pitiable and creepy (making it difficult to fully like or dislike her!). This is the other book I was more engaged with in March.

Bring Me Back by BA Paris: This was by far the most predictable thriller I read this month (I knew the twist after reading the back cover). It also had one of those toxic abusive male narrators, as well as a movie-style version of a particular mental health disorder, both of which left a really bad taste in my mouth. I’m not sure why I kept reading, to be honest. TW: physical abuse.

The Stranger Game by Peter Gadol: The premise of this was really interesting, to explore how social media can turn into real-life stalking, and how modern culture would realistically adapt – almost like reading social media reality TV dystopia. However, there were a lot of plot elements that were never explained, side stories that just disappeared, facts that didn’t add up, etc. I wanted to enjoy the book but in the end felt like I’d missed giant swaths of information.

Posted in 2019, Adult, Prose | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Wellness Wednesday – Carb Diaries, part 1

Posted on April 3, 2019 by Thistle

A month ago, I discussed the changes I made to my diet in 2012 that led to eating yogurt for breakfast daily instead of cereal. This was part of an ongoing effort toward eating more whole/real foods, less processed food. In that post, I discussed a lot of the symptoms I’ve had since that time. However, I’m thorough, and I knew that the change from cereal to yogurt (and other food changes made at the same time) didn’t just affect my histamine/microbiome. There was another big result that I’ve thought about a lot in the years since making the change: my carbohydrate consumption.

Prior to 2012, carbs made up on average 60% (or more) of my diet. That was comfortable for my body, and I hadn’t really thought about changing it. But then at my annual exam in March 2012, my doctor (who had only seen me like twice ever) wanted to address my weight. At that time, I’d lost 75 lbs, but for months I’d been grinding out these smaller numbers, and I explained this to her. She told me that because once, years back, I’d been borderline pre-diabetic, I was probably more carb-sensitive, and I should cut my carbs back to around 40% of my diet.

(2011, photo taken with 50 lbs of food to represent weight lost, and a good sampling of my diet before cutting carbs)

Because she was a doctor, I thought she must know what she’s talking about. Never mind that I was doing 5-6 hours of exercise each week, including lots of high intensity exercise. Never mind that I’d lost a lot of weight already. Never mind that my blood work showed no signs of insulin resistance. Never mind that she tried to sell me weight loss shakes and bars while giving me this advice. This doctor didn’t know me, and from later interactions with her, I discovered that she didn’t really listen to me, either. She believed that I was exaggerating my exercise habits and weight loss, and that I was either lying or ignorant about my eating habits. She didn’t give me enough credit, and I didn’t give myself enough credit. I simply followed her advice, blindly, because it dovetailed so nicely with all the food trends that were exploding onto the scene everywhere, and didn’t that mean it must be right?

My doctor didn’t expect my discipline and tenacity. I cut my carbs back ruthlessly to 40% of my diet that March. My body dropped about 3 lbs, and I was ecstatic – it was working! Only then, it just stopped working, and I had my first sign that something was wrong – a menstrual cycle that lasted only 12 days. It was a fluke, I reasoned, and didn’t connect it to the change in my diet. The following month, I did my week-of-whole-foods experiment (when I switched to eating yogurt), and that cut my carbs further, to around 35%. Again, I lost about 3 lbs, only to gain them back immediately the first time I consumed a minuscule amount of “off-plan” food. Once again, evidence was staring me in the face that this kind of eating was not sustainable or healthy for me, but I ignored it and stubbornly stuck to what I believed I was supposed to do. For the next seven years. The only time in the last seven years that I haven’t been eating around 35% carbs was when I did Whole30 in the fall of 2014, when that percentage dropped to around 25%. And hey, that dropped me a whole 12 lbs! Never mind that after I was done, I couldn’t stop regaining weight until I’d regained 80 lbs. What a tradeoff.

(before and after cutting back to 25% carbs)

Again, I’ve thought a lot about this change in diet since making it seven years ago. I’ve often wondered if the choice was a mistake, and if I should increase my carbs. Fear kept me compliant. While my blood work looked excellent seven years ago, I’m now on the higher end of normal in terms of glucose and A1C measurements – seriously, eating fewer carbs made me more insulin resistant – and I worried about insulin resistance getting worse if I ate more carbs. Additionally, I abandoned my few attempts to experiment with higher carbs because each time I’d start gaining weight. Clearly, it wasn’t working, right? Except…here’s a key piece of chemistry that I didn’t know until recently: When you decrease carbs, you’re going to immediately lose a flush of weight, but it’s not fat. It’s a combination of water and glycogen, the latter being key. Your muscles store glycogen for ready energy usage, and it’s the first thing to go when you decrease carbs. And as one might expect, you’ll replenish glycogen stores when you increase carbs, which will cause a bump on the scale even though your size doesn’t change even the tiniest bit! And glycogen? That stuff is important.

A month ago, I took a deep breath and increased my carbs to over 50% again. I expected weight gain and problems with hypoglycemia due to insulin spikes/drops. Weight gain: three pounds, no change in inches. Hypoglycemia: None whatsoever – in fact, my blood sugar has been more stable. Beyond that, I had a lot of positive results from the increase, as well as a couple mixed results. Notably, I’ve had absolutely no negative changes from the new diet.

Mixed Results:

  • My hormone profile completely changed, most notably affecting my facial skin. On the good side, I lost all the rash and redness related to inflammation and my skin began to look healthy again. On the negative side, the healthy skin came as a result of increased oil production, so I’ve dealt with a lot more acne. This seems to be leveling out after a few weeks, however.
  • My depression was both positively and negatively affected. Carbs are needed for serotonin production in your body. Makes sense, then, that I would develop depression mere months after I cut back on carbs in 2012! On increasing them, I immediately had a mental health boost. Yay! However, the depression returned quickly, for three reasons: hive-related inflammation (inflammation also causes depression), antihistamine side effects (Xyzal is the worst!), and an increase in my sugar consumption (another cause of depression). This balance – increasing carbs without increasing sugar – is one I’m learning, and I’m working on the inflammation/histamine issues. My hope is that this will eventually be a 100% positive change.

Positive Results:

  • I no longer get bone/organ/joint pain after high intensity exercise or strength training. Just a little muscle soreness as you’d expect. Clearly my body requires glycogen for these things!!
  • I also no longer experience ravenous hunger after moderate to heavy exercise. Before, if I did any exercise more taxing than a walk on hills, or any kind of strength training besides yoga, I’d experience this gnawing, insatiable hunger for about 24 hours (or longer if I didn’t give in and eat more than normal). This no longer happens. I can exercise at any intensity and my hunger levels correspond appropriately.
  • I had increased energy and less fatigue. This was later countered by hive attacks, but I’m sure the energy will return once I can figure out the underlying medical issues and get rid of the massive inflammation my body is currently dealing with.
  • My body temperature stabilized, no longer swinging wildly from being very hot to freezing cold. I didn’t even know that was related.
  • I stopped peeing 30+ times a day (that’s not an exaggeration). I thought I just had an overactive bladder, but it turns out that my body wasn’t getting properly hydrated when I wasn’t eating enough carbs. Considering that my post-Whole30 attempts to eat paleo always fell apart within days due to extreme thirst that could only be satisfied by eating rice or beans, this shouldn’t have surprised me as much as it did!
  • Better sleep! The insomnia hasn’t gone away completely, but most days I sleep deeper and more restfully, even on days when I don’t get enough sleep.
  • I had none of my normal menstrual-cycle related symptoms during my last cycle: no bloating, increased hunger, weird cravings, drops in blood pressure, weight gain, or digestive system problems. It was the first normal cycle I’ve had since that “fluke” in 2012.
  • My body reacts differently to alcohol. I still get a bump on the scale after drinking it, but it drops after a day or two rather than my body holding onto the weight for weeks. I also don’t get insane carb cravings when I drink alcohol.
  • While I’m not 100% there yet, I’m starting to realize that I can trust my intuitive eating cues and physical hunger symptoms again. This was something I’d lost and thought the loss was related to emotional/stress eating, but even once I got back onto a relatively level emotional field, I couldn’t rely on hunger cues. I’m starting to be able to tune into them again.

Here’s the thing: long-term effects for low-ish carb diets haven’t been studied, especially in women. No one expects you to stick to this way of eating for seven years straight, and of course every body is different and reacts differently. Clearly low-carb (even low-ish carb) doesn’t work for me, despite what I’ve thought and said and done for seven years. So I’m making these adjustments, relearning how to eat, and figuring out where to go and what to do next. I really do hope that after my doctor can address the root cause of hives/inflammation, I’ll be in a good place to address the rest of my health, since I seem to have removed a major factor in the troubles I’ve had for years now!

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