The Return of GAINZZZ: What Side-Benefits Have You Enjoyed Since You Started Yo GAINZZZ?

Also, a Random Commenter suggested that people use this thread for low-carb food/recipe recommendations, as well as low-carb alcohol recommendations. So noted!

Okay, update on my own GAINZZZ: I went off the diet (mostly) a few weeks ago. I made excuses to myself that with my nagging back spasms and then my bout of dizziness, I shouldn't be trying any kind of GAINZZZ and should just eat what I wanted to help me heal up.

(By the way: My dizziness seemed to have been caused by my taking too many Aleve to help with the back spasms. I assumed Aleve was just like Advil as far as dosage, and that I should do two capsules every six hours or so, or six pills (maybe even more) in a day. A hard nope on that assumption -- you're only supposed to take one Aleve every 8 hours. You can have two for your first dose of the day, but you're not supposed to have more than three in a 24 hour period. And a side effect is, get this, dizziness.

Note to self: Read the label, you f***ing lazy moron goof.)

Anyway, in light of those back-to-back (ahem) problems, I went off-diet, to "give my metabolism a break" or whatever bullshit I sold myself.

This is just a textbook example of My Brain making up lies to give me permission to do things which are easy and soft but ultimately against my own interests. And My Brain, having made up these lies, justifications, and excuses, is all-to-willing to believe the lies it just told itself.

You're the easiest person in the world for you to fool, they say.

I didn't go Whole Hog (so to speak) so I haven't lost any previous GAINZZZ. (Well, I did gain back three pounds I abruptly and for no good reason "lost," but honestly, I never really believed I'd lost them in the first place -- a combination of low hydration and scale error, I think.)

My main deviation from diet was going off Intermittent Fasting almost entirely. Because I've been having some trouble sleeping, I went back to my old habit of eating cheese just before sleep -- cheese seems to make me sleepy.

I'm back riding the GAINZZZ TRAINZZZ now, though, and I promise, damnit, I will have positive results for you next week, even if I have to make them up entirely.

I mean, even if I have to do a 24 or 30 hour fast.

So here's a question: First, what are yo GAINZZZ?

Second, and this is important: What are the GAINZZZ you weren't anticipating or trying to GAINZZZ and yet you've GAINZZZed them anyway?

Here's what I mean: I quit smoking a long while ago for the usual reasons. Including the reason that I was convinced I was having pre-heart-attacks or something. I wasn't, but I'm glad I was a bit hypochondriacal on the point anyway, because it did stiffen my resolve to finally quit once and forever more. I'd quit before, sometimes for as long as two years, but I always wound up backsliding.

Just one cigarette. Just one. Then I'll stop. One cigarette isn't going to re-addict me now, is it?

Answer: No, not in itself, but the second and third and fourth cigarette -- which will follow, inevitably, the Just One Cigarette -- will readdict you, and within three days you're back up a pack a day.

F***ing Moron I am.

So anyway, I quit smoking. Here is a GAINZZZ I had that creeped up on me so subtly that I didn't notice it until a month into it:

I had stopped coughing all the time.

As a smoker, I just wasn't aware of how much I was coughing. A full hack of a cough, a simple throat-clearing cough because your throat tickles cough, etc. Smokers cough so much they don't even notice it -- it just happens in background, all the time. Just as no one notices their breathing (unless they're meditating or doing focus-breathing), smokers don't notice their coughing.

By the way: Have any smokers out there ever googled "Is it possible to cough up a piece of lung?" I have -- multiple times. Because I didn't believe the answer ("No") and was pretty convinced I was looking at a piece of lung tissue.

And if you've done this, you know why, and how horrible it is to see that little glob of greenish thing with the thin red line of blood running through it stuck to the side of your sink or toilet.

But back to coughing: I didn't notice it at first, because when you stop coughing gradually, it also comes naturally and with no mental registry of it. But two months after quitting, it did occur to me:

Man, I'm not coughing any more, am I?

Shit, I used to do that all the time, didn't I? And I didn't even notice!

Apart from things you notice because you're keeping an eye on them -- your weight by the scale, your waist measurement, the gross approximation of bodyfat percentage your crap (and they're all crap) impedance device gives you -- there are a bunch of side-benefits you GAINZZZ from positive life changes that you don't notice.

Unless you think about it, and look for them. If you don't look for them, you may not notice them, and may not know to be grateful to your Past Self for making some good decisions. (For once!)

Example: Much decreased resistance to simple things like getting up. When I was heavy, the idea of just getting up was a bit weighing (sorry, I honestly don't know what word to use and only that awful pun occurs to me). I also didn't really want to go out or do anything -- almost anything -- because I was low-energy. I had to conserve the little energy I had, not waste it on doing things.

Now, not a problem at all. I don't even think about this, but I no longer start going into a List of Excuses why I can't do this or that. I just generally say "Sure" now.

Quitting smoking is a part of that, too: Because it's hard to smoke while doing anything -- can't smoke in a theater, can't smoke in a bar, can't smoke in a restaurant, can't smoke at the gym, can't smoke at the supermarket, etc. -- smoking itself gives you a powerful disincentive to do anything than the absolute minimum of things you must do.

There's an unexpected and sometimes unnoticed enormous gift of freedom of movement and freedom of action that comes from shedding an overabundance of fat and quitting smoking.

Another benefit to both: I'm just not as sick as frequently as I used to get. A bunch of nagging little problems I used to have just went away when I quit smoking and lost weight -- stuff like chronic foot pain (now it comes and goes, occasionally), bouts of anxiety (less frequent, much less severe), etc.

Morning headaches? Gone. I actually forgot until just this moment I used to have those. Every single morning.

So, that's the question: Apart from the GAINZZZ you were trying to GAINZZZ, have you GAINZZZed any GAINZZZ you didn't even think about, and maybe haven't really thought about it until now?

posted by Ace at 04:24 PM

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