No Rice? That's a Low Blow.

Robin Williams had argued with Matt Damon in the brilliant and thought-provoking film “Good Will Hunting” and declared, “You don't know about real loss, 'cause it only occurs when you've loved something more than you love yourself.” Now, while this might seem like a preposterous or perhaps even asinine attempt to correlate such a solemn moment in movie history with a low-carb diet, it is not that far of a stretch. I was born in Hawaii, and therefore I was born with a bowl of rice in my hand. Without that savory and steaming mound of white gold to brighten up my day, I was left to struggle against the elements battered and broken – but mostly hungry.

With the transition from a high-carb diet to a low-carb diet, my emotional state had also changed like that of autumn to winter. I had become slightly depressed that my favorite side dish – rice – would become an unavailable option for a week and that I would have to adapt to a new meal plan without my partner in crime. In Hawai’i, rice is eaten with almost every meal imaginable; can you see my predicament now? What will I eat with my meat? I had always known the answer, yet I tried to push the thought of it with almost every meal further from reality: a dreadfully dull “salad”. I have now developed the utmost respect and admiration for vegetarians, as having a salad just as a side dish was painful for me to adapt to. There were some benefits to this diet, though. For instance, protein and eggs were a must, entitling me to daily omelets and gratuitous amounts of meat. I was also allowed to eat high-fat dairy, so I became a real-world Willy Wonka and made myself chocolate milk every day of the week to celebrate this meal plan. Oddly enough, this influx of food did not hamper my real-world health. In fact, I felt a bit more energetic when performing simple, routine activities. I assumed that this feeling would carry over to my exercise routines – I was wrong.

There was some good news and bad news when speaking on the benefits of this diet. As stated in my previous blog post, high-carb diets are meant to help develop muscle while low-carb diets are meant to help shed fat. The good news is that I lost 1½ pounds this week; the bad news is that this specific data is unusable. I had developed flu-like symptoms during the first 3 days of this diet plan, and therefore drank soups and lots of water. It was not until the last 4 days that I could work out normally and eat normally, and so I am unsure whether the weight loss was due to the food choices or health problems. No matter which one it was, I am happy that I could lose the weight I had gained from the high-carb diet that made me so physically ill.

The nightly jogs were slightly odd this week in terms of outcome, as it actually confused and surprised me. I had assumed that without a source of energy (carbohydrates), I would drastically increase my time when running my average 1.8 miles. This just so happened to be somewhat correct. Surprisingly, I only increased my time by 2 minutes in comparison to the high-carb week, resulting in an average time of 22 minutes. However, I felt so defeated after about 3 minutes of my cardio workout that I actually began to have existential debates with myself over the purpose of exercise and life. My legs began to morph into iron rods, where dragging them across the sidewalk for more than a few minutes felt absolutely miserable. Even though I finished it fairly quickly, the journey was the worst I’ve felt in a long time. In addition, my strength workouts fared no better.

I might not have mentioned this in previous blog posts, but venturing to the gym is a bit intimidating for me. Seeing other students carrying with one arm what I can barely carry with all of my physical strength is pretty demoralizing, and in turn makes me feel inadequate to almost everyone there (sympathy card is being pulled). However, I felt good going into my lone workout (as you can recall, I was sick for most of the week), and I actually did believe that I could do better than the previous weeks. I lifted the first pair of weights above my head, and I suddenly realized that it would be a very long night. I immediately felt a lack of energy and muscle explosiveness, which inhibited me from surpassing or even coming close to my previous results. Midway through the first set, I could feel my arms were giving out and all I could think of was how difficult it must be to lose fat and gain muscle at the same time. Here are the results of my workout to compare with previous training sessions: one set of shoulder press (16 reps at 15Ib), one set of shoulder press (12 reps at 15Ib), one set of deltoid raises (6 reps at 12.5Ib), one set of lateral shoulder raises (12 reps at 12.5Ib), two sets of tricep pulldowns (8 reps at 50Ib), one set of overhead tricep extensions (20 reps at 7.5Ib), one set of tricep kickbacks (12 reps at 7.5Ib), and one set of reverse flys (6 reps at 7.5Ib). Even as I am sorely writing this blog entry, my muscles are crying out in agony and shame for a sub-par workout session.

Although the results could not be conclusive due to health complications, one thing can be known for certain: every workout becomes unbearable without carbohydrates. To go along with the physical strain, my temptations to devour rice and potatoes have grown to exponential proportions. Next week, I will attempt my final diet experiment: intermittent fasting.

Works Cited

·      Mayo Clinic Staff. Weight Loss. “Low-carb diet: Could it help you lose weight? – MayoClinic.com” 2010. Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research. May 29, 2013 http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/low-carb-diet/NU00279