A Metabolic Type Analysis Rocked My World

Posted: March 20th, 2009 | Filed under: Health and Fitness, Nutrition | |

I signed up for a Metabolic Typing Coaching session with über lifestyle coach Erin Huggins (http://www.ErinHuggins.com), certified Metabolic Typing Expert, and the results really rocked my food world.

I tested Fast Oxidizer, which means I burn up foods quickly and I’m hungry all the time.
This type is also known as a “Protein Type”, because the way to slow down a FAST Oxidizer is to eat a higher ratio of protein to carbs.

So, yes, I understand that proteins are good for lean muscle building.

But that’s the thing – what kind of protein?
In her analysis, I learned that the KINDS of protein I ate were just as important as the fact that I eat protein.

I learned all kinds of things that have opened my eyes to a new horizon of eating, and made me see that ever the best-intentioned diets are NOT customized to the person, and how important it is for you to customize a diet for YOU.

But first, let me give you a bit of background….

I started my “health and fitness” obsession back in college.
After gaining some weight my senior year of high school (think, senioritis + Pop Tarts + Mexican food, then going home and pretending I hadn’t been snacking all day and eating a full meal with the family), I figured I’d eat a bit healthier. Salads here, cut down the junk there.

Something went wrong in my head, and “healthy eating” turned obsessive calorie counting and anorexia. 5’4“ and 91lbs, I was still going to eat just a banana and non-fat yogurt, dammit.

Though I eventually got healthy, the obsessive mental patterns were still there.

I dropped the smoking habit I’d picked up in college, and started doing just a bit of exercise, leading up to a half-marathon. I read about health and nutrition with the same level of obsesssion as I spent counting calories, and I thought I was pretty smart in regards to that nutrition stuff.

I found bodybuilding as a structured way to exercise and monitor my food ratios. After all, if I’m counting calories like and obsessed crazy person, it’s ok, right? because I’m in the company of other bodybuilders who are just as, if not more, obsessed with counting calories and measuring portions and ratios.

Bodybuilding was good for me. It helped me to learn about eating enough proteins, getting regular amounts of exercise. It helped me feel stronger from the inside out, a strength that carried me into the outer world, and of course, had me fit my jeans better.

What I learned about nutrition during the bodybulding years was that it was optimal to eat a protein/carb/fat ratio of about 40/40/20. Lots of lean chicken, lots of veggies, lots of salads, lots of cottage cheese, and all the concoctions one can make with cottage cheese to fake out the taste buds.

Then I got tired of the sport of fitting into clothes, and the mindset of crazy calorie counting wasn’t doing me any good. And I found cycling.

Hallelujah, I found cycling!

Never before had I enjoyed the kind of pain I endured on a bike. And the best part was, once you’re out on a ride, there’s no turning back – you’ve got to ride back home! Ha!

What I learned in cycling was that carbs are king. ”Eat lots of carbs!“ my pudgy cyclist friends said. I didn’t listen to them, but when I saw lean, fit, top notch racers eating lots of carbs I gave in.

I tried a stint with a raw vegan diet for 6 weeks, with the idea being that I would clear out the gunk in my system since I was eating good clean food, and I would kick everyone’s butt, just in time for State championships.

Those 6 weeks I turned in some of the most miserable performances of my whole cycling career. Why, though? I didn’t get it, when so many people were sharing their incredible raw vegan experiences. I certainly didn’t have clarity of thought, one of the many benefits of being a raw vegan. Instead, all I wanted to do was sleep.

Fast forward to Erin’s Metabolic Typing assessment – holy hell, I was only partially right.

I’ve been eating protein, yes, but I always felt hungry after I ate them!
Weren’t proteins supposed to make me feel full longer, because they take longer to digest?

It turns out that white meat chicken, and lean meats like tuna, turkey, mahi mahi don’t work well in my system! NO WONDER!! I’d always wondered why I always felt hungry after those meals.

By eating the right kinds of meat, I will be able to normalize my system.

What This Means To Me:
1. Greater Mental Clarity
2. Better sustained energy
3. better performance on the bike
4. no unruly sugar cravings
5. no sleepiness post meal
6. no depression!

It is no wonder to me now why my body lost all its’ muscle tone when I turned to a raw vegan diet.

It’s no wonder that, while my other cyclist friends ate oatmeal and protein powder for breakfast and rode like animals, I felt awful. However, when I ate a Sausage McMuffin with Egg, I rode like a rock star.

It’s no wonder why chicken and tuna never kept me full – I thought I just didn’t have the willpower to resist!

It’s no wonder I always felt a low level of tiredness, even though I was wired on caffeine.

Wow.

Now, I had to have it explained to me that burning up fuel quickly (as a FAST OXIDIZER) wasn’t a good thing.
This is a mental block I can feel I still have from the anorexia days. The reasoning is, ”If I can burn burn burn it off, I won’t get fat! Why would I want to SLOW DOWN the system??????“

Because what I’m running on is fake energy – this is why I frequently feel tired.
Like throwing lighter fluid on a fire, it’s fake energy that goes away. As opposed to adding a solid piece of wood to the fire that is slow burning but fierce.

Another fascinating ”Ah Ha“ is that my body burns the right kinds of meats efficiently. Because of this, consuming meats is Alkalinizing to me, as opposed to Acidifying.

Yeah, that was mind blowing to me.

It made me think, ”No wonder my body gets all weird on me when I drink a lot of Kombucha Tea!! I wasn’t imagining it! It actually was acting weird!“

Part of the process of being on a Metabolically correct diet is to listen to and HEAR what my body is telling me.

I have general guidelines to follow, now it’s up to me to pay attention to what my body is saying.

Respect my body? Trust it knows what is best, and what is smart? Shut up!
These are revolutionary ideas to an anorexic, even a former anorexic, where our game was the game of suppressing all emotions, feelings, and sensations that arise from ignoring the hunger pangs.

Now that I’ve seen the WHY I should eat this way as well as the HOW it is done (I have a detailed food chart, plus pretty diet logs to track progress – I love tracking stuff), it’s game on.

I am trying a 30 day experiment on my Metabolic Type Diet.
Comparing it to a traditional cyclist’s diet, and testing and measuring how I feel mentally and physically.

If you’ve ever wondered why you aren’t performing as you want to, whether in athletics or business, I invite you to check out Erin’s Metabolic Typing program.

Foods are drugs.

Are you getting the GOOD drugs in your system?