I just felt like reflecting a bit on how happy I am with my recent two-week experience with One Meal a Day (OMAD) and a hypoallergenic diet. I'm sorry this is so long - I think in writing.
To start, I recognize that the best diet to strive for is a sustainable one that trains you for good habits you can commit to for the rest of your life. However, I felt I needed something to get me over a hump and jar me out of my daily struggle with diet, exercise, and other health concerns.
MY STRUGGLES
- Ever-present sugar cravings - morning until night (childhood history of sugar = reward)
- Binge eating sugary snacks and greasy carbs
- Hanger, mood swings
- Long delay between eating and feeling of satiety
- Making moderation-type decisions around food
- Intense physical and mental responses to hormonal fluctuations (possibly PMDD)
- Eczema on my hands plus increasingly haggard-looking facial skin
- Time management, work-life balance
- 25 lbs weight gain since last spring
For as long as I can remember, I've been trying to get in shape and longing to know what my body and mind would feel like if I only ate in an 'optimum health' / 'food as fuel and nutrients' kind of way for awhile. I wondered if my eczema was caused by food sensitivity. I wondered if my intense PMS could be helped by diet / lifestyle changes. But I could never seem to get past the cravings, mood swings, and bingeing.
CHANGES I MADE
Started an elimination diet via a health care professional to check for food sensitivities. An elimination diet (cutting all out all foods people often have sensitivities to for a few weeks, then gradually adding them back in and watching for symptoms) was something I always wanted to do, but doing it through a professional finally gave me the accountability I needed to go through with it. The diet is also low-histamine (histamine may have effects on hormone issues) and it cuts out all the typical allergenic culprits - dairy, gluten, alcohol, caffeine, added sugars, artificial additives, etc. Its very restrictive, but only for a few weeks.
Switched to intermittent OMAD (One Meal a Day). I just drink water for the majority of the day, then consume all food for the day in one meal at around the same time each day. I've decided to take breaks from OMAD on the weekends so I can do physically strenuous weekend stuff like long hikes and to make socializing easier (but still sticking to my restricted diet).
Daily exercise. Started doing a daily 30 minute stretching / strengthening / anti-aging home workout program plus walking to work and taking the stairs at work.
RESULTS SO FAR
No more work day food stress: I can't express to you how much more relaxing it is to me to know each day that I've already made the decision to not eat until suppertime. No more daily minute by minute debates in my head about what to pack for a lunch, what to buy from the cafeteria at work, how to dole out my snacks throughout the day to avoid a blood sugar crash or a junk food binge, should I eat a piece of the cake someone brought in, how many times can I go back for more cake before anyone notices, blah blah blah blah. Naturally, I get hungry occasionally through the day, but I was surprised to find out that as long as I drank lots of water, the hunger doesn't get worse, it just sort of comes and goes in cycles. And by a few days in, my body was used to the idea and the occasional hunger was more of a light feeling and a passing thought, which aren't hard to deal with - partly because it wasn't that panicked physical / mental hunger I used to have and partly because the decision not to eat yet was already made.
Better energy, mood, and ability to focus: I used to rely on coffee, vitamin B, and sugar rushes to 'make me into a person'. I had phased out coffee previously, but was still stuck in a low-energy / often depressed state. In the first few days, I admittedly had some rage-out moments, but now my mood and energy level have hugely improved. I feel like I can focus better at work, I feel awake in the mornings, and (best part) I feel awake and able to actually do things when I get home from work. I thought I would feel like I was in a blood sugar crash constantly, but not so at all after a day or two.
So much time: I had been spending an hour every morning making, eating, and cleaning up after breakfast and packing a lunch. Now, I can do my workout and have time for a relaxed start to the day. Plus I can spend my lunch break at work actually relaxing - reading or going for a walk, instead of trying to scarf something down and trying to deal with the sugar cravings afterward. The elimination diet has also made the food I eat extremely simplified, so I spend less time thinking about what to eat, what to buy, etc.
The physical effects: Another great thing about this is getting to eat a huge meal and experience the pleasure of actually being physically hungry and then eating until I feel fully full. My extremely boring hypoallergenic foods taste amazing to me at this point. I eat plenty of protein, veg, brown rice / quinoa / sweet potato, and then some fruit. As much as I want of everything until I'm full. Sometimes I take breaks and eat it over about an hour and a half. Anyway, the end result is still that I'm eating under maintenance and have lost more than 10 lbs in the past two weeks. Probably some of that was water weight - I'm drinking so much water during the day that my body doesn't feel the need to hold onto it in the form of bloating anymore. My skin looks much healthier, my pants are starting to fit again. And because of the stretching / strengthening program and probably the reduction in inflammation from my diet, my whole body just moves more freely and lightly.
Eczema and hormones: The jury is still out on these. My hand eczema still comes and goes (though seems to be healing nicely over the past few days) and I haven't been through a cycle of PMS yet. My healthcare provider told me it would likely be toward the end of the 3 to 4 weeks that I'd see the greatest improvements, so I eagerly anticipate seeing whats going to happen into February.
GOING FORWARD
This diet and style of eating aren't forever for me. I think the rate of weight loss is not healthy (for me) as a long term lifestyle and that my current diet is much more restrictive than it needs to be.
My plan is that in a few weeks, I'll phase out of OMAD eating into a more relaxed form of intermittent fasting that will let me keep loosing at a slower rate then be physically able to eat enough for maintenance once I reach my weight loss goal.
If my eczema and hormonal issues have improved / resolved, I'll start reintroducing food groups while watching for symptoms and will hopefully narrow down anything that might be causing me problems. Perhaps I'll note how different foods affect my mental health - causing blood sugar spikes / crashes, sparking my junk food cravings, making me anxious / depressed, etc. and then maybe adopt a diet that cuts these out largely or entirely.
RECCOMENDATIONS
I think this approach is working so well for me because I do so much better with all-or-nothing approaches than with trying to manage moderation (addictive personality). I also have no gastrointestinal issues and can handle a big amount of food all at once without ill effects. Also because I live a very independent lifestyle, my work is not terribly stressful or strenuous, and the pandemic has basically eliminated what would have been struggles with eating out, socializing at bars, etc.
I just wanted to share this experience because I've heard people talk about OMAD before and thought it was insane and also have heard people talk about elimination diets and thought I'd never have the will power to do it. Hopefully this will inspire others who may be well suited to try these lifestyle choices, but otherwise wouldn't have thought they could be a positive experience.
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