Here’s what happened to me:

• Felt guilty. The food was DELICIOUS, but immediately I felt guilty. No big deal.
• Felt hot when trying to go to sleep. My body was not used to all the sugar, and I think it was trying to burn it off by increasing my body temperature. The entire night, I was sweating profusely and uncomfortable.
• Swelled up with water weight. I weighed about 3 lbs more the next morning. I didn’t eat 3 lbs of food, so this has to be water weight. I could definitely see pudginess over my abs which are normally pretty nice in the mornings.
• More guilt. Even though I celebrated my birthday and I was okay with it, seeing the above feels like I took a step back and let myself down. Even though it’s okay to live a little, these feelings still pop up. I make them go away with logic, but the feelings persist.

Here’s what didn’t happen to me:

• I didn’t gain 150 lbs back in a night.
• I didn’t fall off the wagon and start eating bad foods.
• I didn’t lose my motivation, determination, or perseverance.
• My clothes didn’t fit tighter. Not even a belt hole tighter.

Here is what I found after a few days:

• Weight gain was temporary and gone within a few days.
• The guilt faded along with the temporary weight gain.
• Still felt amazing that I was able to eat something so horribly bad and recover after a few days.

The takeaway from this is that it IS okay to live a little every now and then. I celebrated my 50th birthday with some bread pudding, and I didn’t explode upon contact with sugar. It was a treat, and my body did have a reaction to it, but it recovered soon enough. It was also an interesting exercise in pondering what my body went through before I adopted the Paleo Diet. The excessive carb intake was hurting my body, yet I kept dumping more and more carbs into my mouth which then worked its way through my body. If just one slice of bread pudding effected me so much, I can’t imagine what all the carbs I used to eat were doing to me.

Then again, I can imagine it. I weighed over 312 lbs and was diabetic, had high LDL cholesterol levels, fatty liver disease, nerve tingling and circulation issues in my lower extremities, and declining vision. Now, all those things are reversed and/or gone completely. I never want to go back, and remembering how it felt to be so unhealthy makes me stick to my diet. Except on my birthdays. Then I will eat cake or bread pudding even if it’s not Paleo.