Worst Hangover of my life...

[BjornFeuer]

So I hit my first milestone, 40 pounds. I was excited, it was the weekend, and I was ready to have a good day. I decided ahead of time that on this day I would let myself cheat. Little did I know, I was setting myself up for a terrible experience.

For breakfast I enjoyed a bagel and some pineapple juice. It was delicious!
It wasn't long before I already felt the first of the effects...
Usually for breakfast I eat two fried eggs and two pieces of bacon - washed down with about 16 ounces of water. The sudden change was like throwing peanut butter on my metabolism.

By noon I was feeling sluggish, and hadn't gotten anything done. I decided I should go get a nice meal and then I could tackle my chores!
Went to Burgerking, got a large soda... decided to make it diet to cut back on sugar. Ate a large french fry and a burger with bacon on it. It was heavenly but by the time I had the last bite, all I wanted to do was lay down.
This was opposed to my usual chef salad or salad with tuna - and even more water. Usually I'm ready to tackle the rest of the day after lunch. This time I just wanted a nap.

So I did. I napped and when I woke up I was craving sweets, bread, pasta, anything. It was barely dinner time. I felt a little dizzy and had heartburn - which I then realized I hadn't had heartburn since I started Atkins.
Despite feeling like absolute doo-doo, I managed to make some macaroni, toast, and found some cookies to munch on. Honestly what was I thinking?

Usually around this time I eat some raw veggies, and steak or chicken. This time I felt like I was shoveling down sleeping pills and play-dough. By the time the meal was over I was ready to just kick back and watch TV for the rest of the night. I wasted the entire day, got nothing done, and I felt like a sloth.

I had heard of people having 'carb' hangovers the next day, but I honestly never thought they were "real".

Let me tell you - they are real. My brain feels slow, my body feels like it wants to just shut down. I'm a whopping 5 pounds up - so much for 40 pound milestone. I've had gas so terrible that I have to leave whatever room I'm in after I pass gas. It's the worst hangover ever - and being a college student I assure you I've had some pretty terrible ones. This one can't be fought off with orange juice, coffee, advil, and a nap. This is one that will probably take me a day or two to fight off and I'm going to feel terrible the entire time.

So DO NOT cheat! It's far much more than just the pain of guilt.

[JulieB]

Thanks for sharing that. I'm sure it'll make the rest of us think twice before cheating!

[Keetje]

Grim!

When I was last on Atkins, I decided to 'celebrate' 30 pounds weight loss with some monstrously sugary ice cream. What was I thinking of? My heart started racing and I thought I was going to keel over with a heart attack. I am reminding myself of this every time I feel even remotely tempted to eat something silly.

Hope you are feeling better today BF - keep drinking lots of water.

Keetje

[shelly808]

WOW. Thanks for the powerful reminder that sugar is a something I can easily become addicted to even after just a day of it....hence you "got up and craved carbs"

Don't beat yourself up or worry about the 5lbs. I am sure you will melt that right back off soon.

Hey, I imagine the farting alone can be enough to make sure you don't do that again!!!

The good news is , I am sure there will be a time when one can have an occasional little treat, (treat not gorge), but I would imagine this only can happen once one has made it through all the OWL rungs and is doing maintenance. And you know what? That's ok!!! Who wants to go through hangovers??

Take care.

[imagood1]

You have learned a valuable lesson! When you hit 40 or 50 pounds I BET you won't go out for a deliberate cheat day will you. You need to tell others about this, especially the ones who believe you can be on Atkins during the week and eat whatever you want on te weekends...if it were that easy we'd ll be thin!

Sorry you had such a bad time, but glad you learned the hard lesson of how bad it makes you feel - you'll think twice about doing it again!

[kibskix]

i once ate a pint of icecream while being on atkins, and the next day i had the worst migraine of my entire life. this coming from a girl who has a headache maybe a few times a year. I had to lay in bed all day with no noise and no light and felt like i want to just beat my own head in with a shovel to make it stop. Now even looking at icecream makes me want to throw up.

[babymama]

While I read your post, I kept thinking, oh the gas he's going to pass! I think that's the worst part of taking a day off, it's so painful too. When I did that I had to lay on my tummy and I was ripping them out for extended amounts seconds.

So sorry to hear about your gain, that would stink after such a good loss. Go to the gym twice a day if you can, that might make you feel better about your accidental carb overdose. I know you wouldn't have done that on purpose if you had known what it will make you feel like.

[keriann_forgoodthistime]

thanks for this post! It honestly just goes to show everyone how bad sugar is for us!!!
I've been reading SO much and listening to podcasts since I started on seriously WHY sugar is realllllllllly bad for the human body and it's absolutely amazing what sugar really DOES do to our system.

I know, for me, that even a LITTLE cheat I get sick. Last saturday we went to Kings Island amusement park, and I enjoyed a small cup of INCREDIBLY yummy ice cream...but sunday, I dearly paid for it. (i need to add, this is the first real "cheat" I've actually done since going low-carb in January).

The human body was not meant to metabolize sugar...at least not the kind of crap we have in today's society.

Hope you're feeling better!

[MrsChesterDogg]

Wow...thanks for posting that. I was SO close to eating doughnuts today. It was only because I didn't take enough to eat with me to work today. I was hungry this afternoon and I saw someone eating one of those sugary gobs of goo. When I walked by where they had been the boxes were in the trash can!! You see, someone was looking out for me!
I know you will get over your carb hangover. Thanks so much for posting about it though. It just reinforces what we are all trying to do here on the board.