Caloric Restriction: Love The Pros, Didn't Expect The Con...

Actually, I can't be completely sure whether this effect was triggered by caloric restriction, but this is the second time it has ever happened to me, and the situations are very similar...

But first things first.

I woke up after enjoying my lovely sleep-in (though I initially awoke at 7:11am, approximately my usual alarm time), and hopped on the scale.

78.1kg

Holy cow burgers! So somehow, since last Saturday, I have managed to shave over one kilogram off my previous lowest weight. I say 'somehow', but it's clearly the caloric restriction in the comfort of my carnivore lifestyle. And this is despite the high-stress of the final week of term and all the high-pressure assessment I was having to complete after work every night. So hooray!

I kicked off the day-of-lowest-weight-ever with the roast chicken leg left over from my plate last night. Pretty teeny really at 100g, but it silenced my ravenous morning hunger. And kept it silent all day. Impressive for such a little gam.

However, I did snack on a rasher of bacon while I was making Primal Quiche for the beau and for Mum, who will be house-sitting whilst we're away. I also made her a batch of her favourite Primal Pumpkin Soup since I had a wedge of pumpkin waiting to be used as well. Hopefully it will be a lovely surprise when she finds my notes and treats waiting for her!


The beau received a slice of quiche as his dinner entree, before we both sat down to half a scotch fillet steak each (mine served with butter, of course), and a large salmon fillet.


I lapped up the scotch fillet and butter, leaving the salmon til last, but could only manage a couple of bites since it was quite bland. Good thing I stopped too, since within a couple of minutes I was feeling quite sated. I checked the remaining weight of the meat to see how much I had in fact consumed, and lookit - 100g of steak and 50g salmon - the magic 150g again! That was 4.5 hours ago, and I'm not in the least bit hungry.

Spark reckons I only consumed 850kcal today, which is ridiculously low and my psyche is screaming that it might impact on my metabolism etc, but my body is quite adamant that it's all good. Hm. I did have quite a low-key day today though, activity-wise, since all I did was try on almost every article of clothing I own in order to pick the wardrobe for Thailand and find items to cast off to charity. I had only picked through perhaps 1/4 of my amassed collection when the car was full of items to cast-off, so the boy did a charity run whilst I cooked Mum's treats. So not my usual day of walking to and from work, pacing around classrooms, etc. I might do a bit of a re-feed tomorrow though, just to be sure. Shame I'm now out of eggs and bacon!

So, fat loss, physical comfort, and an absolute lack of hyperphagia - all wonderful things thanks to caloric restriction and carnivorism. But as I foreshadowed, there was a con today.

My period arrived.

I am taking the BCP, this is my second month since the PCO revelation, so the pill should be controlling my cycle. However, tonight is the start of my non-pill week, so my period isn't due until Tuesday. So something else has caused my progesterone levels to drop, signaling my body to shed the uterine lining. And the bastard of this incident is that we leave for Thailand on Monday, and I'll be spending the following 11 days in my swimsuit, so now I'll have to deal with tucking strings and all that bollocks that I usually avoid in summer. Perfect timing!

The other bastard is that now I don't know whether I should just have my non-pill week, or push through to the next month's pills like I had planned to. I'm thinking I'll just go for the former, given what happened the first time this occurred:

In January this year, I began my low-carb diet. I was taking my BCP, as I had been for a good few years prior, and my period would arrive in the final week of each month. However, in the second week of January, I began to menstruate. I kept taking my pill, since I wasn't sure what was going on and I didn't want to mess with my hormones (little did I know that I already was thanks to rapid weight loss, cutting carbs, and - as it would seem by today's incident - restricting calories). That menstrual episode continued for a solid two weeks, leaving just a couple of days of BCP left before the off-week. Surely I wouldn't get my normal period after what I had gone through already. Wrong. Man, January was not cool. But at least my usual PMT symptoms were minimal, and in most cases, non-existent. So I decided to stay off the BCP for a while to let my body sort itself out. And after 5 months without menstruation, I was diagnosed with PCO (but not PCOS). Without the pill, I wouldn't have regular periods, and could put myself at risk of ovarian issues since I was not ovulating correctly, although my body was trying to. Hence, I'm back on the pill.

So this time around, given the time of my cycle, I'll just give my body its week off the pill, to let estrogen and progesterone levels drop further before building them up again from next Saturday. But please cross your fingers that I won't get a double-whammy like last time - I really don't want to have that annoyance during the entirety of my trip. And I swear to Gawd, if I bloat even once centimetre, I'll be booking a complete hysterectomy for the day we return!

Nonetheless, I will not be overeating while we're overseas - I will be sticking to carnivore if it's possible to do so, and only eating as much as my system asks me to eat. I'll try to load up in the mornings of our touristy stuff in case the provided lunches are rice and veg, etc. We're provided with a breakfast buffet every morning - here's hoping I can snaffle a few extra pieces of bacon in my tankini top for the particularly draining trips! :)