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Since eating Paleo/Primal, I've also felt pretty zen, and calm most of my days. You could say it takes ALOT now to get me excited about something...whereas in my grain-days and SAD food days, it seemed I was always pretty hyper, and my breakdance practices were explosive and energetic. Since going Paleo though, it seems difficult to be explosive in any aspects of my life. I feel good, but you know...I'm not jumping out of my seat for anything.

Is this normal? Has anyone else experienced something similar? Or is this just life funk?

--UPDATED--

I am cold alot of the time...and my carb intake can range from low, 50g, to high 125g. I don't really count calories or grams of anything. I eat until satisfied, but never stuffed.

I definitely do not drink Red Bull or any liquid calories (I used to chug gatorade like nuts). I'm a super lightweight in terms of caffeine and alcohol. I've been off bread for pretty much 2 years now, no cheating at all, and am pretty diligent about avoiding hidden gluten, even though I'm not celiac or super-sensitive.

I guess some of it is still life funk too? I'm only 21, soon 22, so that's still a young age?

Thanks for the comments and brainstormin'.

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just wondering if this could be another body-temp/thyroid related issue/question, there's been a few of late. do you feel the cold more now you are paleo? what's your carb intake like? – daz Nov 22 2011 at 8:53
sounds like a life funk. – JayJay Nov 22 2011 at 16:32
i think (emphasis on think) that carb intake has an influence on both the Thyroid (think metabolism) & Adrenal glands (think adrenalin). i found this chart useful to check for thyroid & adrenal related symptoms; drrind.com/therapies/metabolic-symptoms-matrix – daz Nov 22 2011 at 23:39

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I've had the exact opposite experience in terms of heat. I can stand cold weather without a jacket until it gets down in the high 40's with no issue, to the point where people on the train platform that were wearing thick jackets were staring at me.

But about a month ago I ate a bit of my kid's birthday cake, I thought just the frosting, but must have gotten some cake in it too, and had bad digestive problems due to the wheat. Right after that, I immediately felt cold on days I considered too warm to bring a jacket on. I'm almost back to normal.

The most obvious conclusion would be lack of enough available calories. Maybe up the amount of daily fat you're ingesting, say via coconut oil or avocados (i.e. every day.)

You're expending a lot of energy while breakdancing, maybe a carb refuel afterwards to top off your glucose levels would help. I work out fasted about 2x a week these days for about an hour and go high intensity (but nowhere near what it would take to breakdance), so if I don't eat carbs about an hour or two after, I feel like a zombie for the rest of the day.

Perhaps you still have some hidden source of gluten or other anti-nutrient - maybe from nuts or seeds, that you're not aware of (or you're under the 30 days or so it takes to heal your gut fully from wheat?).

A less likely issue would be the thyroid. If it's a thyroid issue, taking a little bit of iodine will make a difference. If it does, get your doc to run some thyroid tests on you. Don't add a lot of iodine as it could have the opposite effect, and you'd really need to get your levels tested to know for sure. But if a little bit has a positive effect, get yourself tested.

If you started paleo recently and are getting 'the low carb flu' that would be something to work through. Certainly from the level of activity you do, you'd need higher carbs. Just be sure to get it from good sources.

Other factors: Is your sleep good? Any outside stress? Too much caffeine during the day?

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Pretty much everyone is hypothyroid in my experience the problem is that the test for thyroid function suck, fortunately you can easily check thyroid function with by measuring body temp(you want it to be ~98.6 after eating). Supplementing with iodine could help but the dose needs to be kept low. – cliff Nov 23 2011 at 14:59
There was some information on perfecthealthdiet.com which indicated that if you supplement with selenium, you can use much more iodine to support your thyroid without ill effects. – Mike Gruber Nov 23 2011 at 15:49
I'm pretty gluten-free, even the hidden stuff like soy sauce, weird sauces when eating out, and I can sense when I get the slight bloat and bleeeh feeling when eating something contaminated. I eat lots of Korean food (K-town in L.A.) I don't believe it's low-carb flu...as I've been Primal/Paleo for a year and a half now. I'm doing a no-coffee November, even though I rarely got past 6-8 o.z. per day before. I sleep well, but have trouble falling asleep sometimes, and not sure about the stress? What does truly stress free feel like? – Knarf Nov 23 2011 at 19:41
Not being able to sleep is a bad sign, might mean stress. Could be anything from overthinking about whatever you're excited or too much light exposure. Some melatonin will help you fall asleep within 30mins, but not stay asleep. I think the whole thing points to not enough calories. I personally did a whole month on decaf (titrated down to it), but found I couldn't stay alert enough to do work, so went back to half-calf ~2-3cups/day. For sure if I do a lot of coffee, I can't sleep well. – raydawg Nov 24 2011 at 12:41
@Mike Gruber: cool, good to know about the selenium. That's already in the stuff I take, though I was taking it as a chelating agent for mercury from fish. :) – raydawg Nov 24 2011 at 12:43
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Low carb isn't for young kids like yourself, its for middle aged adults who have screwed up there bodies with 40 years of Twinkies and mcdonalds.

Get a thermometer and find out your body temp. If its below 98.6 after eating you are likely hypothyroid.

If I were you I would drastically increase carb intake preferably from fruit(I like pineapple and orange juice personally) or heavily buttered tubers. Eat small frequent meals of carbs/pro and fat till your temp starts to rise if its not high enough.

FYI theres no such thing as a life funk, properly functioning healthy people don't get into "funks" :)

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Really? I think people can get into funks...I mean I just graduated college, and post-college life funk, and adapting...I guess I'm having a hard time finding my niche n' all... – Knarf Nov 23 2011 at 19:38
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I had the same exact thing happen to me.

On low carb (0-50g) I feel very mellow and it's hard to get me to have intense moods at all, but I'm not very hungry. At first I thought this was a good thing. Yet I don't think it is anymore because I want to have the explosive energy of before low carb.

On 50-100g a day I feel alright.

Not restricting my carb intake (but trying not to binge) has returned a sense of normalcy. I would suggest that you up carbs in order to get that energetic feeling back.

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I've had the same experience, although I prefer being a bit mellowed out sometimes :) – karimoo Nov 22 2011 at 18:35
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Easy fix; on your breakdancing days down some dark chocolate or some yams or something but on your non-breakdancing days keep it low carb. For the most part taking the wheat and gluten Out of your diet is going to add years to your life and you're going to live longer than your bagel eating and Red Bull chugging buddies.

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I am cold alot of the time...and my carb intake can range from low, 50g, to high 125g. I don't really count calories or grams of anything. I eat until satisfied, but never stuffed.

I definitely do not drink Red Bull or any liquid calories (I used to chug gatorade like nuts). I'm a super lightweight in terms of caffeine and alcohol. I've been off bread for pretty much 2 years now, no cheating at all, and am pretty diligent about avoiding hidden gluten, even though I'm not celiac or super-sensitive.

I guess some of it is still life funk too? I'm only 21, soon 22, so that's still a young age?

Thanks for the comments and brainstormin'.

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hey - i moved this into your question so others could see and it wouldn't get overlooked by accident :) – jesuisjuba - paleorepublic.com Nov 22 2011 at 21:17
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Great F#ing question! I'm having this same problem. I think the answer does come from eating more carbs.

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I have added more carbohydrates in the form of mostly sweet potatoes and occasional white rice, but I still feel at my best/"clean" when I don't seriously gorge on them. My limit is around 2 medium sized ones a day + veggies. Any more than that, and I think I feel just kind of hot, uncomfortable...or even "inflamed." 2 medium sized + veggies goes for a rather sedentary day with 1-2 hours of slow walking and biking. Breaking isn't exactly weight lifting though...it does require explosive efforts, but its surprisingly more balance and technique rather than lifting heavy things... – Knarf Nov 22 2011 at 23:39
Even when adding it in, I have energy...but lack explosive power. – Knarf Nov 22 2011 at 23:40

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