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I had been toying with the idea of trying out a specific diet for quite some time. Not for weight-loss reasons, but because I wanted to test how this diet would affect my inner state. I wanted to see if I could use diet to support my body in such a way that it could navigate life optimally.

Since I can be very consistent and come from a research background, one thing was clear to me from the start: all in or not at all. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be able to reliably experience or attribute the effects, nor could I reliably report them to others. That’s why I embarked on this journey with genuine interest and motivation, even though I was also aware that it might be uncomfortable at first because my body wasn’t used to it.

The diet is actually quite specific: always just one food item in your mouth at a time, never mixing them. So, for example, just potatoes. Then just salt. Then just another single food item. I stuck to the experiment consistently for about ten to fourteen days—and during that time, I felt physically terrible. I had hardly any energy and felt tormented inside—almost as if I were undergoing a self-imposed ordeal. It wasn’t that I had a craving for a specific food that I wasn’t allowed to eat. Rather, I was tormented by the strictness of the rule: constantly having to think about what I was “allowed to eat” at any given moment. A rigid, externally imposed structure. As a result, I had no appetite for anything and was simultaneously in a constant state of hypoglycemia and exhaustion.

Still, I kept going because I still thought it might just be a phase of “internal resistance” or the result of my past conditioning. I just wanted to see it through. Looking back, it was a case of “I'll grit my teeth and push through!”—a pattern I know all too well from my life. I can pull myself together to an extreme degree—and that’s exactly what I did here, going against what my body was actually signaling. The turning point came the moment I made a clear decision: I’m stopping. I’m going back to eating normally. And I won’t do this again in this way; instead, I’ll consciously listen to my body’s signals. In that moment, I felt truly relieved and happy.

The next day, I developed a cold (PCL of a “stink” conflict, SBS of the superficial nasal mucosa). First a stuffy nose, then a runny nose (approximately a “lump of air” conflict, SBS of the deeper nasal mucosa). I was able to immediately connect it to my experience with the dietary experiment, but I didn’t yet suspect that it would escalate much more severely. However, I expected to have the cold for quite a while, since I had been highly conflict-active for 10–14 days. The cold described above lasted for about 8 days.

Then, very suddenly, while I was getting some respite care for my young child (I was finally able to relax and didn’t have to handle the entire daily routine on my own), a one-sided problem developed: A yellowish, pus-like discharge appeared on the right side, and I experienced severe pressure pain in my cheek, even when bending over (due to inflammation of the mucous membranes of the superficial and deeper sinuses). There was a strong feeling of pressure behind my right eye. My nose then cleared up again, but the area around the right maxillary sinus was extremely tight and throbbing. It became particularly intense when I ate: When chewing, and especially when my teeth separated again and sticky food (e.g., pasta) was caught between them in my mouth, sharp pains shot through my right upper jaw and the lower part of my cheekbone. It felt as though every tiny movement was tugging at an overstretched, overstimulated structure.

That night, I experienced such severe pain in my right cheekbone and eye area that I could barely sleep. I kept wanting to press against it from the outside, as if my body were instinctively trying to create counterpressure against the internal pressure. I felt much colder, and my feet, in particular, were freezing. But at the same time, I knew this: It has to do with resolving the situation, not with a new problem (here, presumably an overlap of the PCL phases of the underlying mucosa of the maxillary sinus, paranasal sinuses, and likely involvement of the periodontium due to a bite conflict). The second night was almost even worse: waves of intense pain, then a bit calmer, then, as I was falling asleep again, another massive surge of pain that woke me up.

During this time, I paid very close attention to my body, applied heat, occasionally felt the need for cold, and was very thirsty. It became clear to me that several layers were at work simultaneously: the mucous membrane of the sinuses, which had long since subsided, and the underlying bone, periosteum, and periodontal area, which was going through its own, slower, and very painful healing process—exactly where I had “bit through.” What was fascinating to me was that, looking back, I could identify the inner conflict very clearly: it was less about “not getting what I wanted to eat” and more about having subordinated myself to a rigid rule and a system of authority, thereby disregarding my immediate bodily sensations.

As a coach and “researcher,” I wanted to be thorough, conscientious, and in doing so, I completely ignored my own limits. After the second truly terrible night, the pain gradually subsided during the day. I was able to sleep more deeply and soundly again, and the pressure in my face became more bearable. Only a small amount of greenish-yellow discharge was coming from my nose—more like the last remnants of the body’s cleanup process. I can still feel something “lingering” in the right maxillary sinus area, but the peak is gone. I’m pretty sure I’m still dealing with a refugee conflict right now, which intensified the swelling in the PCL and made the pain very severe as a result.

This was an extremely instructive experience for me, as it very clearly showed me the effects of my old pattern (I grit my teeth and tough it out).