BEARDGANG

and what dress size I could squeeze into. If there’s a good photo taken of my at Christmas, I’ll upolad it :) I haven’t felt depressed at any stage this year – during TOM I sometimes find myself behaving irritably and having little patience for others, usually because I’m dealing with cramps, so I turn to 100% cacao which gives me the hormonally-stabilising goodness of chocolate without the sugar (or dairy). One of the benefits of learning so much about how food affects me is that I’ve found replacements for those moments where emotional eating is tempting – I get out in the sun (which I seem especially sensitive too now, in a positive way), read a book, play a computer game… Something mindless, distracting and relaxing. The fact that there’s no guilt afterward helps consolidate the change in behaviour.Lately I have become more respectful of ‘the gut instinct’ and listening when your body (not your brain) calls out for particular foods. For instance, if I find myself hankering for a big pile of crunchy cos (romaine) lettuce leaves, I know I’m probably dehydrated and/or have been consuming too much sodium, so I bump up the water and fat intake. I also recognise the reason behind other psychological cravings – if I’ve had less than 7 hours sleep, I’m going to want to keep eating all the time, so I have a really big meat meal with lots of fat so that the idea of eating turns my stomach even though my brain still wants me to nibble. If you can’t find a workable solution to help you get out of your funk, then turning to primal foods isn’t really a bad thing. Maybe portion control will help ensure you don’t feel bad about eating nuts/fruit/cream etc. Your mood could be caused by an external factor rather than diet, I don’t know, but I do know that for some people low-carb can negatively affect their digestive bacteria balance, which then has further ramifications on other system balances. How long have you been LC?Let me know how you go!