Amanda76’s BodyBlog

My experiment with the Anabolic Diet came to an abrupt halt on Sunday, September 21st.  A bit over a week prior, I started not feeling well and quit looking forward to meals at all.  Was "gumming" my food like a baby.

On the 17th, I made eggs for breakfast and could only eat a couple of bites of the white.  Went to work and had a handful of nuts around meal 2 time…the thought of eating more eggs (like I normally would) filled me with actual dread.  At lunch (when I’d normally eat ground beef), I could only handle a cup of chicken broth and tried to nibble on some swiss chard.  I didn’t eat anything for the rest of the day and went to bed as soon as I came home from work (sometime between 5 and 6).  I woke up in the morning, feeling super-weak and exhausted and had to call in sick.  I slept until 1 in the afternoon, had some more broth and decided I needed to move my carb up up a day.  I went to the store and bought soup, crackers, gatoraide, ginger ale and the usual "sick people" foods.  Started feeling immediately better.  The next day I continued my carb up as usual.

On Saturday, I tried going back to eating the high fat portion of my diet.  "Gummed" the fatty meat down.  But eggs…OH-MY-GOD, EGGS.  Every time I ate eggs, I had to lay down and nap to keep from letting the feeling of nausea send me to the toilet.  I STILL can’t eat egg yolks without getting the same feeling I get when I try to drink liquor I’d gotten way to trashed on in the past (I can’t even smell goldschlager or jager without feeling sick…egg yolks are doing the same thing to me atm).  I dealt with it until Sunday night and finally just decided, "screw it," and have gone back to my 40/40/20 - 50/30/20 ways. 

Since dumping AD, I realize I pretty much felt like crap the whole time I was on it.  I did not realize how tired (to eventually exhausted) it was making me until I quit.  It’s kinda funny because I mention people not knowing how bad they feel eating the wrong things until they start eating the right things and I just put myself through that again, fully knowing that happens!  LOL  The wishful thinking that my body was finally starting to do better on it was just that–"wishful thinking."  I tried to be positive about it (attitude is everything, after all ).  Most of the positive things I got out of it were only positive when compared to how I felt during the first two weeks, though.  The cons of the Anabolic Diet far outweighed the pros, for me:

PROS:  Less water under the skin
………..Abs look better than ever
………..Skin more clear than usual
………..Fatty meat and eggs are cheaper than lean meat and produce
………..No hunger

CONS:  Loss of strength
………..Loss of endurance
………..Loss of muscle volume (limbs look small)
………..Butt looked saggy and awful a lot of the time
………..Loss of body’s sex drive (mind was still excited about the idea but body didn’t know what to do with that info)
………..Loss of appetite to the point that eating what I needed to was miserable. 
………..Not knowing what appearance would be from day to day
………..Bloating for no apparent reason at times
………..Pale skin
………..Tired all the time
………..Tight, uncomfortable lungs/metallic, blood-like taste that seemed to come from lungs
…………I’m not a big fan of fatty meats

*I might have to update this list if I think of anything else as I reflect upon my experience*

So, really, the only thing about my physique that I liked better was that I was drier looking more often…totally not worth it when I could get the same effect from a shorter term carb depletion as though preparing for a competition.  I think I’ll have to play with how to peak for a competition a few times.

I mentioned that my skin was more clear on AD…funny thing about that is I’ve gotten TONS of compliments on my skin since quitting AD.  People say I don’t look so pale lately (odd since I skipped tanning as I started feeling bad) and that I have a glow to my skin.  Other people commented I’m looking more like myself lately.  Healthier.  A guy who I’ve known at the gym for years said I’ve looked a lot more like I’ve wanted to be there the last couple times he’s seen me and that I’d been looking like I was struggling to be alive over the last few months…LOL

Supposedly, Anabolic Diet is a "lifestyle."  Not for me.  I was at a point where I should have started feeling GREAT on it.  I felt the best around weeks 8 or 9 and things started going back downhill from there. 

Over the last 3 months I lost 2 lbs during the first 2 weeks I was on Anabolic Diet…I did that while trying to consume 1,800 cals per day.  I lost inches through my glutes and quads…but I fear a lot of it wasn’t fat.  Most of my size/weight loss happened at the beginning of the diet and then "measureable losses" stalled.  I felt like I looked leaner off and on.  Kinda depended on the day, though…and leading up to the week I started feeling sick, I felt like I was puffy all the time. 

Since I quit, I’ve felt like I’ve been in recovery from a major illness.  The week I got sick, I should have gone to the gym Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.  I took Friday through Monday off and only worked out Tuesday and Thursday.  Starting the 28th of Sepetember, I decided to do low volume Max-OT style workouts as I continue to recover and have been getting sore doing a lot less work than I had been doing…I was pretty shocked because I expected for Max-OT to be a pretty good rest for now.  But I am feeling good in the gym again.  Have a lot of strength to regain, but I feel good to be there. 

I meant to take some official "after" pictures, but once I started to get sick I lost interest in putting effort into a lot of things including something that was going to require a lot of running back and forth and frustration like self-timed picture taking.  LOL  I have progress pics on my bodyspace that show how I was looking on good days of the Anabolic Diet, though.  So I guess that’ll have to suffice. 

I’ll check back in, in a couple of weeks to report how the carbs are treating me.