Did you know it is "No Sugar November." It is. No, I am not one to follow such things, but I had been easing myself back into the world of sugary goodness. In the month of October I think I consumed more sugar than I had in the last year or so. I have really cut back on my consumption of sugar, especially processed sugars. So I was looking at November more as "Low Sugar November," with the objective of getting myself back on track with training and nutrition. I was doing rather well with it, for the first few days of the month.
Then last week I caught a stomach bug. Now, I don't get sick very often, and it is usually just a mild bout of the cold virus. I think it has been 25 years since I caught an actual intestinal virus (other than my bout with Salmonella 4 years ago). Last Wednesday I woke at 7am with a headache so severe it radiated down to my shoulders. "Well shit," I thought, "some Aleve, and few more hours of sleep should kick it in the ass."
I got up, stumbled around wincing at the daylight that drilled into my pupils and straight to my brain. I let the dogs out, took two Aleve with 8oz of water and half a banana, let the dogs back in, then crawled back into bed. I settled in, trying to get comfortable, when a vaguely familiar feeling hit me. "Damn. I think I am going to throw up. No, I don't throw up. I don't get that sick." Despite my convincing argument, my stomach raised its own voice. "Dumbass, get to the bathroom!"
Sure enough. I vomited. Four times, actually. It sucks. Puking sucks.
I stumbled back to bed, trembling, damp with cold sweat, and cursing whoever had passed this on to me. Back in bed I slept until past noon. My body was aching from being prone for so long. I figured I could deal with getting up, maybe watching a little Netflix, drink a little herbal tea. I was wrong. I manage 25 minutes of Murdoch Mysteries, and a half cup of Tension Tamer tea before I was back in bed. Next thing I knew, it was 5:30. Up again, feeling a tad more human. I finished my tea and had half a banana. It stayed down, and my stomach was quiet. I cooked up some plain white rice. It stayed down. One more cup of herbal tea. Then back in bed by 8:00.
Thursday I felt human. But with zero appetite. I focused on fluids, mostly herbal tea. Bananas, always a staple in my diet, were definitely my friends. No surprise that I had no desire for sweets. No desire for any food, really.
Now, as the days have rolled past, my appetite has returned in full, but I am still not too interested in anything sweet. It is as if my body invited a stomach virus in just to help reset my cravings button. Kind of like the "Turn it off, then turn it back on again" method of rebooting.
Tonight, despite being absolutely fried from having spent half the night battling a structure fire, I am not wanting to sit with a jar of peanut butter and a bag of chocolate chips. Instead I had a banana, and some hummus and corn chips when I got home from work to take the edge off of my appetite. Then a nice bowl of French green lentils, quinoa, and rice, and a cup of Rooibos tea. I do have a loaf of pumpkin bread in the oven, made with quinoa and spelt flours, my homegrown and dried raisins, pumpkin and sunflower seeds. It will be tasty and mildly sweet, but satisfying without the sugar spike. I admit, running on three hours of sleep I am questioning the intelligence of putting a loaf of bread in the oven. I am already wishing I was in bed asleep.
The whole point of this sleep-deprived, rambling narrative is simply this: The silver lining to an unfortunate bout of stomach flu is that it has reset my sugar tolerance. Yes, I know that I could do this simply by going cold turkey long enough for the cravings to pass. But the downside there is that feeling of deprivation that goes with such an effort, and often causes cravings to increase. Instead, my body did me a mercy by making me vomit until dry heaves. Now I can regain m footing, realign my nutrition to go hand in hand with my increasing training intensity. I remind myself that I need rocket fuel for my engine if I expect it to perform.
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