[RD] Ask a Schizoaffective.

[caketastydelish]

As a new year's resolution I started a diet I invited myself, called the 30 day diet.

30 days out of the year I'll eat/drink all kinds of garbage. The rest of the time my diet is healthy and I won't eat anything I consider 'junk'.

That includes but is not limited to:

-shakes/malts
-ice cream
-cake
-French fries or other deep fried foods
-anything with lots of sugar that isn't a fruit
-anything with lots of carbs with few exceptions. And those exceptions only happen when I'm about to go to the gym. And the exception is usually a potato (NOT FRIED).


meanwhile I tend to eat foods that are:

-have plenty of protetin
-green vegetables/salad
-fish (not fried)
-chicken (not fried)
- eggs
-water/green tea

etc

As emergency if there's no food I'll get a TV dinner (I try to make that sparingly). Even then, it is always the "healthy choice" brand. (this brand has little to no sugar, and is high in protein)

--------------------------------------

I read some articles saying the junk food diet increases the chances to depression and schizophrenia so I wanted to see if a new diet would make a new me. (I'm also hitting the gym a lot).

The answer I can tell you is more or less. I'm still somewhat depressed although I literally can't remember the last time I had a hallucination. As long as I'm on this diet, I'm having no hallucinations at all, either auditory or visual. I'm surprised that I haven't really lost weight. Although to be fair, I am bulking up and gaining muscle, so perhaps I'm simply trading the fat for a better replacement.

I'm either 6 foot even or 6'1 (not sure) and I weigh 190. My arms and legs are somewhat bulked up with muscle (not fat) although my stomach does have some belly fat which I'm trying to get rid of. The quality of my diet has drastically improved this new year but now I'm going to work on the quantity to lose my belly fat. The gym has helped my arms and legs build muscle but the belly fat is the problem which remains.

 

[Hygro]

Hm, diet changed hallucinations? Have you ever tried cutting out wheat entirely? I know someone quite close to me who did that as a kid and went from hallucinations to nothing in short order.

Otherwise, nice. Very motivating stuff. I think I will hit the gym myself tonight

 

[caketastydelish]

Isn't wheat only in bread? I pretty much never have bread unless I'm having a subway sandwich. Even then I only get the 'whole wheat' type because it is supposedly the best.

I don't eat bread very often at all.

 

[Hygro]

Wheat's in everything man. Check the ingredients of your food!

 

[caketastydelish]

Will do. The one thing I'll say is I don't have processed foods very frequently. The main exception to that rule is the 'healthy choice' TV dinners. But again, I don't eat those very much. I only eat them when there's absolutely no other food left and it's an emergency. They aren't exactly good for you, but even the healthy choice TV dinners aren't as harmful as say, McDonalds.

I do drink protein shakes which have some sort of 'whey' supplement. Perhaps that could be part of what you're talking about. Although I don't intend to give up the protein shakes.

 

[Hygro]

Whey is a dairy protein. Wheat is a grain.

 

[REDY]

I have friend who is schizophrenic. He has also strict diet - eating mostly boiled chicken with rice or potatoes, he is exercising, have cold showers, loves playing on guitar etc. He has no problems to get girlfriend. In Prague its actually good that there are organisations which help - giving you work and flat, at least temporarily. I guess that possibilities in cities and countryside are different. My friend is supported by org but has also supportive family, so he lives more independent than half of people of his age (including me) but now he doesnt feel enough to get job/study.

I'm surprised that I haven't really lost weight. Although to be fair, I am bulking up and gaining muscle, so perhaps I'm simply trading the fat for a better replacement.

I'm either 6 foot even or 6'1 (not sure) and I weigh 190. My arms and legs are somewhat bulked up with muscle (not fat) although my stomach does have some belly fat which I'm trying to get rid of. The quality of my diet has drastically improved this new year but now I'm going to work on the quantity to lose my belly fat. The gym has helped my arms and legs build muscle but the belly fat is the problem which remains.

Muscles are more heavy than fat, so do not care much about weigh. Its woman´s method how count fitness. I do not want tell anyhow thats its your case, I would be just aware that some anti-depression medicines (sorry for my English) have often effect. Regards exercising there are lot of books/articles so you probably know that there are anaerobic and aerobic exercises. Maybe you are not doing aerobic enough... or more probably it is just matter of time. Do not do anything what would be uncomfortable.

 

[caketastydelish]

I tested out my fat percentage today and apparently it's 17.9 (almost 18).

They say over 22 % fat is overweight, meaning I am not overweight. Although I want to slim it down to more like 10% or so. I have a long way to go. I'm not sure how to go about it either. I'm already following a much more strict diet than I used to and I'm hitting the gym like never before. My weight is the same.

 

[Hygro]

If your weight is the same you're losing fat mass somewhat faster than gaining muscle mass.

@REDY what are the affects to your friend for living such a Spartan body lifestyle.

 

[REDY]

It is very hard to say for what is responsible his lifestyle, his illness, his genes/metabolism and his current mood. He was always sporting and intelligent, but also kind of fragile physically and psychically. He had to have surgery of shoulder because workouts and damaged his ankle for life on football. In same time he can run marathon, he was best on long runs already in school. I realy wonder myself if its just bad luck or symptoms. In psychics, he was attending same secondary school as me before he was diagnosed. He beat me in chess without effort, he can memorise all capitals of countries in hour...but also be apathetic for hours or even days.

 

[Zelig]

As a new year's resolution I started a diet I invited myself, called the 30 day diet.

30 days out of the year I'll eat/drink all kinds of garbage. The rest of the time my diet is healthy and I won't eat anything I consider 'junk'.

I don't really get this - 30 random days per year?

I don't really buy into diets in general. If you want change in results, you need permanent lifestyle change. Eating well is pretty easy - buy mostly vegetables, don't buy anything premade, cook (or eat raw) everything yourself. If you don't feel like cooking, drink some Soylent. You can optimize further, but not really worthwhile until you're at least at that point.

 

[caketastydelish]

It already is a permanent lifestyle change. For the rest of my life I plan on continuing this.

And not exactly 30 "random" days. I mark them on the calendar whenever I've used one of them up. There are certain events I find them worth using.

There's no way I'm going to go all 365 days with no junk food, period.

 

[Oruc]

I don't really get this - 30 random days per year?

I don't really buy into diets in general. If you want change in results, you need permanent lifestyle change. Eating well is pretty easy - buy mostly vegetables, don't buy anything premade, cook (or eat raw) everything yourself. If you don't feel like cooking, drink some Soylent. You can optimize further, but not really worthwhile until you're at least at that point.

Cheat days are very common on diets and diets are supposed to be permanent otherwise they're worthless. What you just described is a very rough outline of a diet.

 

[Zelig]

Cheat days are very common on diets and diets are supposed to be permanent otherwise they're worthless. What you just described is a very rough outline of a diet.

Well it's the difference between "I'm on a diet" and "this is my diet".

 

[caketastydelish]

Like I said, it is a permanent diet. What constitutes for "healthy food" may change over time as I learn more. What will remain consistent is the garbage food will not be consumed more than 30 days out of the year, for the rest of my life. Unless I change my mind, which I hope I don't.

 

[caketastydelish]

My diet has, of recently, changed. Changed for the worse, basically.

A lot of things have changed.

I was sleeping well over 12 hours a day. And tired even during my waking hours. It completely knocked me out. It has been like this for the majority of the past 7 years, when I first got on all these meds. meds: antipsychotic: Olanzapine. 5 mg. Fluvoxamine. 100MG lamotrigine 100 MG. I used to experiment to see what would happen if I went off my medications. When I did, I would get severe panic attacks, anxiety, and practically hyperventilate even in the safety of my own house with nothing going on.

Later I tried just not taking the Fluvoxamine but not skipping anything else. Same problem: super panic attacks and anxiety.

Then I tried the opposite (as of about a week ago): just don't take the Olanzapine, do take everything else. This is what happened: I went from sleeping like crazy to getting virtually no sleep whatsoever. For the past several days, I might have slept a grand total of like 6 hours. I lay in bed and can't fall asleep even though I really want to. I have WAY too much energy. Never thought I'd have too much of a good thing. I am also nowhere near as hungry. In a span of roughly 7 days, I've lost over 10 pounds. This all sounds crazy, but I promise I'm not making it up. When first started stopping my antipsychotic, I was having some hallucinations. After 2 or 3 days, it fizzled out and went away. I have a blog where I write random stuff, and I have been WAY more creative and productive. What I've written in the past week is more than what I've written in the past several months combined.

I used to have a huge appetite -probably too much, to the point that I was overweight. I am 6 foot tall and before I started this 'experiment' I weight 205.pounds. Today - like 5 days later, I am at 188. This is not a joke. My 'diet' now, consists of going to McDonalds once a day with large fries and a medium banana smoothie. That's literally all I eat all day.

But there is also bad. I am beginning to have a headache and I am feeling my immune system start to get weak. I have heard that anyone in the world will start to hallucinate, have delusional beliefs, or freak out, if they go long enough without sleep. For me though, this really might not be good. Maybe I'm just a little bit paranoid, but I think my heartbeat has accelerated to some degree. I am also starting to get more or less 'slap happy'. This is a term for drunk people who are not violent or dangerous, but just emotionally immature. There's no alcohol in my system of course.

And about the weight. At 6 foot tall and 188 pounds, whatever. That's less of a priority, because I am still easily within a decent range. But if I continue to eat like this, I would start to become a toothpick. Or even a literal anorexic.
---------------------------------
This was a week ago, and I Pmed a few people on CFC about it. Here's what ended up happening: I started taking my antipsychotic again, except it's Ziprasidone instead of Olanzapine. The doctor prescribed 60 mg but I decided to take half of it.

What ended up happening is I was once again able to sleep like a normal person. And I mean like a NORMAL person. Like roughly 8 hours or so. I am much more productive, energetic, and positive while I am awake. To be honest I was always like this to begin with, but those goddamn meds were knocking me out, making me a zombie, and wiping out 90% my creativity. I wish I could have tried this 7 years ago (when I was first diagnosed) but so be it. But I'm still not eating much is the only thing. But I don't care, because I'm still nowhere near underweight. And if I get to that point, I can easily sweet tooth my way back to a respectable weight. I have *some* hallucinations now. Mostly I hear the little 'ding' sound a skype notification would make, even though there's nothing there. And the reason I'm getting these mild hallucinations (whereas before literally nothing) is because I'm taking a much smaller dose of antipsychotic. But these mildly annoying hallucinations are the lesser evil, no contest.

----------------

edit: Will my dream of becoming a published author/ professional writer happen? Honestly I don't know. It's a very competitive field, but I'd like to think I have the talent and drive for it. Even if I don't do that I could feasibly work for an advertising agency, or as an editor. Or a librarian, or something. I only have two classes left in this computer associates degree which by now I consider to be a big mistake, and the only reason I studied it to begin with is because my family says I'm good with computers (I sort of am), and I needed a "real" degree. But I don't have the passion for a career out of it. I would do it before becoming homeless. As long as I've got shelter, I will just work my ass off by writing 12 hours a day.

By the way librarian in particular is an interesting choice (not that I have my heart set on it, just saying) because 1) A surprising thing I've found out is that librarian is a popular career path for people with my type of mental illness, if any career at all. Because libraries tend to be peaceful and quiet, thus not stressful enough to trigger delusions. 2) my computer degree actually wouldn't be useless for a library. 50 years ago, maybe. Today, no. They are becoming increasingly digitzed, and most people with tech skills would rather work in the actual tech industry and get paid more. To have someone familiar with technology AND books, they would most likely kill for me. Again, Librarian is far from plan A. I don't even particularly want to do it. It's just interesting to think about. Male librarians are stereotyped as being effeminate, or even gay. I will make up for it by blasting Linkin Park music in the library, and whenever anyone asks me for a book suggestion, I will point them toward the nearest Tom Clancy novel.

 

[Hygro]

eating, not just about weight but about nutrition. Gotta eat!

 

[caketastydelish]

I could also be like Daniel a little bit too. Be a mercenary as well. Librarian by day. Mercenary by night, for people that don't turn their books in on time.

 

[Lemon Merchant]

My diet has, of recently, changed. Changed for the worse, basically.

A lot of things have changed. <snip>

Cake,

Schizoaffective disorder can also include bipolar symptoms. Have you and your doctor discussed the possibility that your sleeping problem, elevated mood, and increased productivity aren't the result of a mild episode of mania? I only ask because a similar thing happens to a friend of mine. She's well managed with meds, but the crash after the high can be a little difficult.

 

[caketastydelish]

It's a possibility but here's the thing: I have been 99% depressed/sleeping all the time. I heavily lean on the 'depressed' side of things rather than mania. Then all of a sudden I cut off from that med, and bam, I suddenly got a bunch of energy. It's hard to call it a complete coincidence.