progress update time, part 1

More than half a year has flown by, since i started writing here.  Whereas i haven't made much linear PROGRESS in losing weight, the scale hasn't been stuck anywhere ... and i feel i'm significantly wiser about the whole subject.

In January, i began the Personal Paleo Code program, which was an eye-opening experience.  Whether a person wants to lose weight or not -- i firmly believe it's in EVERYBODY'S best interests to go through a strict elimination diet and slowly add back every other ordinarily-eaten food, just to see what causes problems that were never even SUSPECTED before.  I understand the Whole 30 is pretty much the same thing, and there are others out there, too, which offer a description and how to go about it without spoiling the results ... but i really think people who care about their health need to check it out.

I discovered that i have issues with nightshades, which i never suspected before.  Industrial seed oils seem to give me zits, especially when i'm not getting enough zinc.  Milk products (even fermented) seem to contribute to tremors (like any overdose of carbs) -- could high insulin the be the cause?  Cream SOMETIMES contributes to an unhappy gut, but butter, never -- could have something to do with carrageenan in the former....

Wheat doesn't give me overt gut symptoms, but it really brings on the knee pain ...AND hip, and shoulder.  Oats (even soaked) do the same, to a lesser degree.  An occasional (rare!) bowl of porridge will stay in my future, but it's gotta be the unsteamed kind, and it has to be soaked overnight with whey.  I allowed myself so little of the true-sourdough ("salt rising") rye/rice bread, i don't know if it causes much trouble -- further tests are in order.

Home-cooked food (by me) is the highroad to health and weight control.  I've eliminated dozens of products i used to use with confidence because SO many of the things we buy are adulterated -- you have to be careful even buying tuna in "water" because it ISN'T -- it's a soy-laced broth.  "With olive oil" in the commercial world doesn't mean OF olive oil; i make my own mayo and dressings anymore.  The caveat above, "by me" is important -- my husband is sympathetic but not thoroughly aware.  And as for other people?  Absolutely, completely, incomprehensibly BLIND.  Obviously, most people think that if it doesn't kill you SOON, it doesn't have a negative impact on health (face-palm...).  Think CIGARETTES, kids....

I've learned a bit about alcohol, too.  The "cleanest" drink i can have is warm sake; a small amount satisfies and it's easy to stop there.  Even cold (filtered) sake is more ... moreish!  And other things also contribute to a low-grade headache while sake doesn't.  My low-carb cocktails come next, then tepid wine -- which is to say, reds.  White and/or chilled, and the "food reward" thing kicks in -- wonder if the "good doctor" can explain that one?

A very nice lady who went by the screenname "H" made the next big impact on my dietary adventures; she introduced me to "Strong Medicine," Dr. Blake Donaldson's retrospective on how he learned to treat allergy and weight loss, in the early part of the 20th century.  This book, and my subsequent reading, have revolutionized my view of limiting carbs.  H did her good deed, then kinda disappeared like The Shadow.  OOOOhhhh.  ;-)

This, as the title suggests, is going to have to be just the first report, because i realized after i started that the ground i've covered so far this year is going to take longer than i thought.  ;-)  I do hope this isn't just an exercise in self-absorption, but a useful record....

when will i ever learn?

This week of indulgent vacationing is almost over -- thank heavens!  ;-)  It's been something of an inversion -- a PERversion of what food-elimination diets are all about.  I've eaten things over the last week that i KNOW i should not eat, and am observing the consequences -- and don't try to tell me it's a reverse-placebo effect!

I have body-aches that i haven't felt since last year.  Anyone who has read some of my oldest postings might remember my awe when, after three weeks of the Personal Paleo Code program, i took a roadtrip and found that i was able to get out of the car (after driving for 6 hours straight) and experience no stiffness upon moving around.  At the time, i was SO impressed with the effects of the frequently-problematic-food avoidance, i couldn't see ever eating them again.

I ate them this past few days.  OUCH.  Wheat.  Corn.  Sauces containing mystery ingredients.  Industrial seed oils.  Sugar.

I HAVE had individual-meal "excursions" before, from my ideal diet, with limited repercussions.  One day of being "bad" can affect my knees, my water-balance, my allergies, and/or my digestion.  It takes several days to give me this gawd-do-i-feel-old sensation.  I'm sitting here right now with my feet up, leaning back comfortably against cushions; my lower-back hurts, my upper-neck hurts and my temples ache -- inflammation causes my glasses to fit poorly, and i get a pain behind my ears, as well.  I woke this morning with my hands and feet aching from the water retention.  Climbing out of bed was more trouble than it has been for seven months; i limped to the next room.

Today i'm fasting until dinnertime, and i anticipate feeling MUCH better.  I'm also going to do a little upper-body bodyweight exercise right before dinner -- some planks, maybe some pushups.  (Weightbearing exercise, especially in the upper body, is reputed to burn a LOT of glucose/glycogen.)  I'll be drinking as much coffee as is comfortable, with cream if i start feeling hungry.  I CAN LICK THIS!  ;-)

When i fly home tomorrow, i trust i'll be feeling at least a little better than i do right now.  When i get there i'll start being "perfect" again.  Perfection is MUCH easier than moderation.

radical health improvement from diet X

Every time i hear about a spectacular health turn-around after a person changes his/her dietary style, the first thing i want to know is, exactly what was changed?

Yep, a Real Home Cooking diet, in which whole foods replace CIAB will make the whole family feel, look and perform better, even if it contains the worst grains and beans in the world.  Most plant toxins aren't nearly as nasty as some of the man-made ones which flood the food supplies of modern countries!

I heard the success story of Terry Wahls, and i couldn't be more happy for her!  Especially considering her profession, this is a coup for advocates of nutritionally-based medical treatment; she's harder to shrug off than most of us grunts.  AND she's very vocal about her situation; :-D  ...i do so admire the people who get out there and fight for what i believe in, but into which i am not willing to pour my whole life's-energy.  But do i think that her diet is optimal for universal health?  No, at least not for me.

The "wow factor" of dietary change frequently depends upon your starting point.  Mine has been changing step-wise, and to see how my health has improved i have to search my memory for details that are confounded by (comparative) youth, fitness, etc.

I started out from i categorized above as a Real Home Cooking diet.  I grew up eating white bread and corn oil, but at least we always COOKED.  Frequent eating-out didn't happen till about twenty years ago, and i had been fighting the battle of the bulge before that.  As food-and-supplement fads came and went, i never noticed a significant improvement with ANYTHING until i added systemic enzymes to my daily routine.  I suspect i was developing fibromyalgia; i would sit with my feet up and vaguely ache all over.  My chronic fatigue i attributed to the hypothyroidism.

So, first enzymes actually promoted some improvement, then my doctor recommended iodine supplementation, and that helped much more.  I went on Atkins next, and my general improvement was immensely noticeable.  No more morning brain fog, significantly improved allergies, better energy, and weight-loss without constant hunger.  I was a FAN.

The biggest reason that low-carbing didn't result in all the weight-loss i could ever have wanted was the temptation to add foods in too soon.  One sees all those opportunities to again eat the things the low-fat-me had been denying myself so long....  And, as an enthusiastic cook, i was also hot to adapt old recipes to the new philosophy, and got caught in the carb-creep that is so hard to resist.  I screwed up.

I don't remember what led me to Mark's Daily Apple, but it was my portal to the paleo/primal world.  I no longer link his site from mine, but it's still one of the first to which i send my paleo-curious friends.  Like so many other eating plans, if you go straight to it from the SAD your results will be absolutely stunning:  i didn't, so mine were much less noticeable.  Not perfect, and nor is the Perfect Health Diet ... for me.

What DID produce jaw-dropping IMPROVEMENT for me was the Personal Paleo Code program, and the Strong Medicine protocol i tried after it.  In my case, i found out that health challenges have been all about dietary intolerances and "personal toxins."

So yeah:  a veg*n diet will be beneficial ... if you ate absolutely horrible things before.  So will Atkins, despite the highly-questionable ingredients in their trademarked products.  So will a low-fat diet, if you go from lots of omega-6 oils to almost none (and can stand the hunger).

To eat OPTIMALLY is going to take a lot of n=1 experimentation.  Eat only things that are "never" toxic or allergenic for a month, then add things back one at a time, slowly.  It's  ILLUMINATING.

still one unresolved allergy....

A zit appeared on my chin yesterday morning.  Damn.  That means there's STILL something in my diet that shouldn't be there.

When i went from the Personal Paleo Code to Strong Medicine, the slight flushing on my nose and cheeks i used to get in the evenings got better.  Before i started all this, i blamed it on wine.  When it didn't go away on the PPC, i suspected it was either the nuts (i used a lot of coconut milk during that month) or the eggs (a dozen and a half per week).  On SM, i expected that pimples would be a thing of the past, too.

Now, bearing in mind that i haven't been PERFECT this past week, it doesn't have to be the meat i've been eating, the coffee i've been drinking, or the slices of lime i've put in my six glasses of water a day.  BUT, since i've been back at home, the only other things i've had are a small acorn squash, some butter, and 4 oz. of sake (unless i'm forgetting something).  The things i ate before leaving California are not out of the question, however; some reactions take awhile to manifest.

*Sigh* ...  I'm going to have to try another experiment; that's the only way to erase ALL the question marks.  From last night on, it's black tea, not coffee, with my otherwise-compliant diet.  (Wish i liked green tea, but something about it puts me off.)  I could have removed the lime/lemon from my water first, but plain water-drinking is something i have so little enthusiasm for, i might not drink enough ... and i suspect that my mostly-meat diet requires more flushing away.  I've  read that people who have food sensitivities can react to coffee as well, so that is -- unfortunately -- a possibility.  :-(

progress assessment point

During the two-plus months i've been writing here, my eating patterns have been far from consistent!  To recap:

I began, strictly following the Personal Paleo Code, with very good results.  I leaped into a new physical activity after only one week and irritated my weak knee, causing inflammation which hasn't completely left me yet.  At the end of four weeks, i began introducing a few foods, because i was on a short holiday and felt entitled/self-indulgent (that's so frequently a bad idea...).  For a couple of weeks after that, i experimented with a handful of different foodstuffs, which i had eliminated at the beginning.

Almost three weeks ago, i discovered "Strong Medicine," a book by a retired doctor whose experiences during the first half of the twentieth century taught him a considerable amount about diet and health, and which he decided to share.  I chose to try some of Dr. Donaldson's recommendations, but had to tweak them a little to make them work for me.  Both ways, they were remarkably effective.

About a week and a half ago i took another trip, and was away from home just over a week.  Most of the time i adhered quite well to a dietary pattern which was a hybrid of the two above, but on ONE day, i was VERY naughty.

So here we are, just over nine weeks from my starting point:  i've learned a CONSIDERABLE amount ... and lost about ten pounds.

• the Personal Paleo Code WORKS.  It's a powerful tool for determining what foods promote well-being, as well as weight-loss.  Without even giving up ALL the "autoimmunity compromising" foods he listed, and despite the injury to my knee, i felt incredibly WELL -- considerably younger;
• rice seems to be a harmless food for me -- but not for breakfast.  I must eat a fat-protein breakfast, or i'm hungrier all day.  My body agrees with the studies about meal composition and metabolic flexibility (for a change);
• alcohol is NOT harmless, though i tolerate sake much better than wine.  I'll need to do the same sort of introduction as with the former, before i can make a comparative judgement about spirits.  The difference in joint pain and stiffness (between the beginning of February and now), i believe, can be attributed to the alcohol i used;
• the "Strong Medicine" prescription also works, but doing without salt is out of the question for me -- my digestion apparently needs it.  It seems to work well, past that one-week point during which one is losing the easy stuff, and after which most eating plans don't render much progress.  It's not for the weak, though; you've got to be determined and motivated to forgo variety in the diet, even though hunger is not a problem;
• the book "Deep Nutrition" made a big impression on me, and i'll be keeping Dr. Cate's viewpoints in mind while formulating my menus from now on.  Meat on the bone, organ meats, bone broths, fermented vegetables, etc., will be more heavily used in my house!
• i have suspicions about eggs and many nuts as allergens for me -- they no longer get a free ride.  I also seem to have a fructose malabsorption issue;
• i've decided to add tyrosine to my list of supplements.  That amino acid is not heavily present in the foods i customarily eat, so my body is only getting significant quantities through conversion from phenylalanine.  Since it's a building-block of thyroid hormone, and i've craved protein all my life, and i know i have absorption issues, i'm postulating that this may be something i need to consciously supplement.  My uneven energy levels MAY improve:  we'll see, and i'll let you know later.

So, i feel i'm on the right track.  I need to lose AT LEAST another ten pounds before i'll be satisfied -- but i'm making progress at any rate!

and even more blinding light

Oh boy....  Just the other day i was exchanging comments with Steph about the studies that indicate low-carbing inhibits thyroid function; i wondered if the subjects might be confirmed glucose-burners (because it can sometimes take awhile to achieve metabolic flexibility).

Today, while surfing around other people's links, i found something which illuminates the situation -- check THIS out!  Dr. Cate explains what happens and why, and how one can get around one's body's limitations so as to benefit from the perks of low blood sugar and insulin.  YEA!

This is not the first time that "the rules" didn't seem to apply to MY body!  When i hear blanket recommendations for certain health practices from "experts" (who have maybe read a couple of studies, but who have no experience of handling the condition, in themselves or patients), i want to tell them to shut the #$%& up!!! 

You HAVE to learn to decipher the messages your body is giving you -- and your body does NOT necessarily speak your language!  In some, the craving for sweets or snack foods isn't a message that you need carbs, but rather that you have an addiction to them, and would do well treating them with distrust.

I can't sufficiently praise food-elimination programs like the Personal Paleo Code!  If your sensitivity to a particular food doesn't send you acute symptoms, you may miss your body's signal that it's problematic -- AND it may have more of an impact on your quality of life than you realize.

another challenge

Oh, i was BAAAD last night -- too much sake, which led me to get into the cashews.  BAAAAAD tess!!!

So now i'm going out of town for a week again, this time with no scale to help keep me honest....  I vow i shall stick to Donaldson's program when i'm "in" and Kresser's when i'm "out," with a little Roberts thrown in for insurance.  I would HATE to waste all the great progress i made last week because of carelessness.

California, here i come -- wish me luck!

i can't bear eating all this FOOD!

The scale is down 3/4 pound again, and i even allowed myself half a cup of cooked white rice with my beef tenderloin last night.

But my discomfort level has risen:  between the lack of salt and the high meat intake (about 50% higher than it was a month ago), my stomach is not at all happy, even with daily use of betaine-HCl.  Today is a day for readjusting the formula.  (I just took a 1/4 t. of sea salt, washed down with water, as a good beginning.)

I was VERY comfortable on the IF technique of coconut milk in my coffee for breakfast, and only two real meals per day.  The only trouble with that was, i wasn't losing any weight, despite consuming fewer calories than i am now.  (So THERE, CICO people!)  When one of Donaldson's patients reported in without having lost any weight on one occasion, it turned out that he had begun skipping breakfast in hopes of reducing faster....

Yesterday, i DID feel improvement in my bad knee, and the other felt pretty much normal again.  I did my half-hour of walking on the treadmill upstairs instead of around the neighborhood, because i suspected the cold was affecting my knee badly.  Treadmills aren't perfect walking-machines, though -- posture and muscle use don't mimic REAL walking (see Dr. Wong...).  Today i'm going to walk outside at a warmer hour, or use the stationary bicycle; i customarily use it for my Tabata sprints, as it's MUCH kinder to the knee.

...I just resolved to name my knees -- "my once-injured knee" is so unwieldy -- so it'll be Ralph (the "bad" one) and Louie.  ;-)  I'm so original!

Volume of meat is going down!  Instead of 8 ounces, it's going to be 6, and i'm going to put salt on it.  Truly, it hasn't been my taste buds that missed the salt, it's been my stomach-acid missing the chlorine!  In all the agonizing over sodium in the last few decades, "experts" predictably overlooked the other important ingredient of table salt.  Without a good source of chlorine, less stomach-acid is produced -- and contrary to what "everybody knows," an awful lot of indigestion is due to LOW acid, not high.  As a hypothyroid, i'm already inclined to have low stomach acid (which is why i keep the betaine supplement on hand), and i've been exacerbating it.  That stops now.

On the positive front, allergic symptoms are reduced on my lower-toxin diet.  I was surprised to see, under the strict PPC regimen, that i still showed a little cheek-flushing in the evenings -- something that i hitherto blamed on wine.  The most likely suspects were nightshades (which i took it very easy with), eggs (eaten in moderation), and nuts (mostly consumed in the form of coconut milk).  Last night i took stock, and found the flushing significantly reduced. 

Well, today is going to be a low-intake day, just to reset my system.  I WILL stick to the approved food list in "Strong Medicine" though!  Considering that i lost approximately 3 pounds in three days, there's no doubt that Dr. Donaldson was onto something, even though the medicine seems to be a little TOO strong for ME.


p.s.  Despite the dire warnings of reduced thyroid function on a VLC diet, i've noticed no such reaction -- and believe me, i know what it feels like.  I hypothesize that:  1) sufficient protein ingestion raises insulin levels enough to allow the receptors to work just fine, and;  2) being well-adapted in ketosis with plenty of glucose made by the liver from protein AND fat (as confirmed with my glucometer) provides all the glucose necessary for T4 conversion.  Dare i suggest that the trials where thyroid function was impaired took place in particularly-established glucose burners...?

second day of extra-clean eating

Actually, my diet yesterday wasn't as "pure" as Donaldson suggested for his patients, but not as wicked as ANY of my days last week.  :-)  I had some tomato slices with my breakfast steak yesterday, and a small piece of Japanese sweet potato with butter, with my dinner's lamb rack half.  The chuck roast i ground into hamburger (lunch) had some lamb liver added in, too.  He recommends no added salt*, and the steak and the lamb were cooked with some.

I slept better last night than recently, and awoke a little less stiff.  I feel a little touch of upper-respiratory inflammation, so i'll delete those vegetables from today's menu.  My right knee is still giving me trouble, and the left is even a little unhappy -- i blame last Thursday's dinner (Valentine's Day celebration) for the distress!  Even though we dutifully avoided the bread, some flour must have snuck in somewhere.  ;-)  Ya just gotta do your own cooking....

At any rate, this regimen isn't as easy as the basic PPC, but i'm going to hang in there for the week, as i suspect doing without eggs and nuts might be prudent -- this way, i'll figure it out for sure.  I weighed a pound less today than yesterday; we'll see where i am tomorrow.


*  no reason is given for banning salt in "Strong Medicine" -- i wish Donaldson had been more explanatory!  Potassium balance (with sodium) in plain meat is decent, and i seem to remember reading somewhere that increased meat intake requires increased salt, though i can't find it again.  Perhaps he's just referring to excessive salt use that some people DO indulge?  It's hard for me to believe that this guy falls for the kind of pseudo-science that had other doctors avoiding saturated fat....

being able to ensure appropriate intake is important

What with one thing and another, i haven't been eating very "cleanly" the last day or so.

My mood is distinctly impaired, and i blame my diet.  If you ever read Dr. Emily Deans' blog "Evolutionary Psychiatry," you'll find many instances of documentable (because, God knows, she's a Harvard-trained and -approved "limb" and dares not break the old lockstep...) effects of nutrition (or lack of it) on mental function.  Don't get me wrong -- i think well of Dr. Deans' work and respect her intellect and ability, and i understand why she has to cover her ass, but i deplore the good-ol'-colleagues' system, and she DOES belong to it....

If my experience with the Personal Paleo Code has taught me anything, it's that "clean" eating makes me feel exceptionally good, and that consuming an inferior diet makes me feel bloody awful.  Most of my acquaintance doesn't believe this.  My best friend, although she is also convinced that diet is important, doesn't share in my rejection of grains.  I'm sure she doesn't think the same of dairy as i do (forgoing it with regret), either, and nor is she inclined to abjure aspartame.  I think i've corrupted her a bit, though:  i'm pretty sure she's already ordered "Paleo Comfort Foods"!  :-)

Even when my husband is in town and we're eating out, i make every attempt to eat a diet that does not contain things i know are deleterious.  That's not good enough for optimal nutrition.  One can't be sure of what is in restaurant food, even in the best places.  I have to do my own cooking -- and if that's not easy for me, it's got to be INCREDIBLY difficult for most other people. 

But again, it's time to take things into my own hands once more.  For the sake of my health and well-being, nothing less is good enough.  Tomorrow is Day One again, and i will be deleting even more -- because self-indulgence only delays achieving what i know to be worthwhile, and indulgence isn't THAT rewarding, after all.

what's working, revisited

I went to bed early last night, and today i feel great!  :-)  Part of the credit for that, i feel, is the half-dozen raw oysters i had last evening as a first course (the rest of the meal was a lobster tail with butter, roasted okra from the "Paleo Comfort Foods" cookbook, sweetener-free raspberry-orange sorbet and coffee -- yum).  We ate comparatively early, which always agrees with me.

I had a few ounces of a good sake with the oysters -- it seemed to call for it!  That, or champagne, or vodka....  Now, i haven't added champagne back into my diet yet, as i had "trouble" with chardonnay.  On Saturday afternoon i had a short bloody-mary made with a bacon-flavored potato vodka, tomato juice and hot sauce, and i felt draggy the rest of the day.  Perhaps even potato-based vodka isn't going to agree with me -- i'll try it again sometime later, in a mixture that doesn't include the nightshades.  Sake, though, continues to be comparatively non-toxic.

My discovered "tricks of the trade" may not work with everybody.  I strongly suspect that if one's middle-aged body resists weight-loss when all of the "neolithic agents of disease" (NADs) are removed, then low-carb is definitely the way to go.  Some people say they've tried it and they felt terrible, but i suspect they weren't eliminating a "sensitive" food that they should have.  HOWEVER:  i'm not in a position to say they're wrong, either!  Not everybody's body functions the same way -- a young, healthy, athletic male body's physiology is entirely different from mine:  female, middle-aged, thyroid-challenged, food-sensitivity-ridden, and moderately overweight.

Having discovered, with the help of the Personal Paleo Code, what the worst offenders are against my health and well-being, i can offer this partial list of what helps me most:

• very low carbohydrate diet;
• intermittent fasting;
• sleep!  7-9 hours of it!
• stress control (i use tincture of licorice when feeling overburdened);
• supplements, which are entirely individual, though the Perfect Health Diet website makes some good recommendations;
• high-fat and protein meal early in the day, and any significant amount of carb i allow myself, saved for dinner;
• avoiding EVERYTHING that actively disagrees with me (all the NADs, and more), no matter how much i like it!
• tabata sprints, not too often, and walking, as Mark Sisson says;
• limiting goitrogens;
• not snacking;
• progesterone creme (again, it's individual -- but it helps the thyroid, balances estrogen-dominance, and is NOT CARCINOGENIC, California!)
• ... uh ... i'm sure there's more ... oh yeah, coffee!  i think i need another cup....  ;-)

need to start being "perfect" again

I think i've mentioned before that i find it easier to be "perfect" than to be moderate.  MUCH easier.  It's time to go back there.

While i was out of town, i had to make a flock of compromises with all the eating out and car travel and such.  I've allowed some of the compromises to continue a bit since i got home.  Taking stock, i observe a few symptoms returning which had evaporated while following the Code to the letter, and i'm not willing to put up with them, so back i go.

Pal Jabekk's blog (Ramblings of a Carnivore) today really struck a chord with me; it talked about how moderation might be the worst thing you could do.  I wish he had gone into more detail but, though brief, i feel his point was made.  Choosing a middle path is frequently a mediocre way to do things, ESPECIALLY when it comes to diet and health.

I was feeling SO GOOD two weeks ago -- it's time to get back to that.  The few things that i've added to my menu are going back into the pantry till i'm "sorted out."  Then, i'll add in butter.  This stuff is NOT hard to do.

convinced!

<sigh...>

I repeated the "trial of the boxed chardonnay" -- and he's been declared GUILTY.  Also, it seems likely that he had accessories to his crimes.

For brunch yesterday, my big bacon-and-egg scramble was accompanied by about a quarter of a cup of grapefruit juice.  Then, for dinner, I had a glass of chardonnay with about a half-cup of oven-roasted cauliflower and a few buffalo wings made from the Perfect Health Diet recipe.  Coffee with coconut milk, a handful of macadamias, and a square of 70% chocolate comprised the rest of my intake.   I woke up this morning with a touch of intestinal gas and bloating, and not only was my bad knee a bit achey, but so was my right shoulder.  Stretching and flexing also revealed a bit of all-over discomfort.

I hope that wasn't too much information, but this blog is all about what diet can do to a 56-year-old body....

The bacon and eggs were found not-guilty a month ago, even though the diet police consider that keeping an eye on them is worthwhile.  The cauliflower is probably completely responsible for the GI issues, even though i still suspect i have a fructose-absorption complication (but 1/4 cup of grapefruit juice sipped while eating the BES???  no way can i imagine that to be significant).  This leaves the wings and the chardonnay....

I had a few of the wings the day before yesterday, when they were fresh out of the oven.  Now, bear in mind the minute quantity of rice flour and rice syrup in them -- five pounds of raw wings were tossed with 1/4 cup of rice flour and there was a lot of this left in the shaking-bag, AND one tablespoon of rice syrup was in the sauce that was tossed with the finished wings.  I ate about a cupful of rice the night we went out for Mexican food in Houston, and had no perceptible problem with it.  Also, several months ago (after i determined that oatmeal bothered my knees) i ate quite a bit of rice without feeling it.  Rice flour/syrup also found not guilty!

Boxed chardonnay -- as Sherlock Holmes said, when you eliminate all the suspects who could not be guilty, whoever is left (however unlikely) HAS to be "it."  You are now to be incarcerated in the basement refrigerator unless there's a darned good reason to let you go free.  I'm going to get "clean" again, and then try some red wine -- but i have a strong suspicion i'll have a reaction to that, too.  ...Maybe i should try potato vodka next, instead...?

I LOVE the Personal Paleo code for how it makes it so simple to figure out what impacts one negatively!  Since the first week, my weight loss hasn't been very impressive, but i feel that i'm learning some important things, and that may be far more significant.

interesting thyroid "discovery"....

I misled you, yesterday:  i had that innocent meal all planned out, but when the kids came back from the birthday party, they were all "up" for going to Marina's for dinner -- and i wasn't about to argue.  :-D 

After mentally juggling whether i might add cheese or rice to my PPC program, rice won (it came with my carne asada -- i DID NOT TOUCH the beans).  Now, here's the interesting part:  all over the paleo blogosphere, you'll hear that a diet too low in carbohydrates will result in lower functional thyroid level.  Apparently, not in me.

The argument is, it takes sugars to convert T4 (the "starter" hormone the thyroid makes) to T3 (the active hormone, converted all over the body, but mostly in the liver).  Therefore, if you run your body on a lower carb regimen, you'll not convert as well.  This has apparently been "proven" in rodent studies (i can't remember if it's been tested in humans).  A certain very lean young male bodybuilder uses this as basis for giving questionable nutritional advice to people like me -- the very opposite phenotype to himself (don't get me started!)....

So, having eaten a VERY low carb diet for the entire month of January, i had a significant serving of starch last night, for the first time since starting the Personal Paleo Code program.  I woke up this morning, curled up in a ball and feeling rather chilly.  Enhanced T4-T3 conversion?  HAHAHAHAhahahah....

Just last month we were reminded (as has been known since the middle of the 20th century, but conveniently "forgotten") that the body IS able to convert fatty acids to glucose, as well as protein-to-glucose.  The body, in its wisdom, has a way to do what it NEEDS to.  Correspondingly, my liver seems to provide me with enough sugars to achieve the thyroid conversion just fine on a low-carb diet, fueled by my own body's stores.  Feed the body in an evolutionarily appropriate manner, and it'll work with you.

Mark this down in the "every body is unique" category, maybe, but i've always been suspicious of the "you need a significant amount of carbs" message, given how good i feel on a low-carb regimen.  I DO NOT believe that more than 50 carbs a day does me anything but ill, based on a half-century's experience living in this body.

Pay attention to your body.  It's less likely to lie to you than someone with a reputation to build (or uphold).

more reflecting on effects of "paleostyle" living

As i progress in the first month of the Personal Paleo Code, different things start "popping out at me" -- gaining my attention as fewer diet-confounding symptoms are noticeable....

One thing happened several times over the course of the weekend, which RECENTLY hasn't been an issue with me:  forgetfulness!  I don't know how many times i was conversing with someone, and the word i wanted just would NOT come to mind.  This was historically something that would often annoy me about myself, even in early adulthood, but not something that's troubled me over the past few years.  On the drive between the living-history town and my daughter's house, i had plenty of time to ruminate on why this may have occurred over the weekend.

The stand-out "failure" i was guilty of, during the event, was late nights and early mornings.  The people i "play" with are VERY dear friends whom i see way too seldom.  When i finally get to enjoy their company, i try to make the most of the hours, and it's very easy for 2am to overtake me -- then, the next morning i may (as i did on Sunday) have to awaken at 6 in order to wait tables at breakfast.  Wednesday night (as i was preparing to leave home), Thursday night (sharing a room with my best friend), and Saturday night (as described above) i got WAAAYYY too little sleep.  Could that be why my brain just was not retrieving language-related information the way i expected it to?

On the other hand, i was proud of myself, the way i stuck to the dietary part of the Code.  As all my friends were downing beers, ciders, wine and "Pembertons" (Coke), i sipped innocently at my San-Pellegrino-with-a-sliver-of-lime pretty happily (it helped stave off the dehydration i frequently experience, too).   Bacon and eggs, nuts, a few fruits (more than my usual, in fact), steak and green beans were the mainstays of the weekend.  My energy and stamina were good.  I have to say, i DID leave a couple of supplements at home which i take semi-regularly -- i figured i'd be able to make up for their lack by eating things like oysters....  :-D

I'll make sure to get plenty of rest this week, and see how that improves the way my brain works (i'm even feeling more difficulty in expressing myself in writing).  I slept very well last night, so i'm thinking that one more long night's sleep OUGHT to catch me up properly.  If tomorrow's post isn't a bit more fluent ... well, i'm on the Gulf Coast and it's the end of January!  Where's me some seafood?!

two-week progress point and a digression

I had a good scale reading today -- that was certainly a mood-upper -- 7.5 pounds lost in two weeks.  My measurements haven't improved much (only waist and hip are recorded in the PPC) -- in fact, the RATIO has gone the wrong way a little.  Just shows, i lose fat off my backside faster than off my middle.  A little disappointingly, my (subjective) overall health improvement score is a flatline; perhaps a 0-3 reporting range is too narrow for small-but-perceptible changes?

But my progress isn't what's gotten me excited this morning.  I was just reading the blogs that have been updated since i stopped reading last night, and found something noteworthy from Dr. Sharma (linked on the right side of this page):  a colleague of his, also lecturing at a special event, explained the weight-defending homeostatic system in a way that ACTUALLY MAKES SENSE. 

The argument goes, of course, that in pre-industrial ages, fat storage was valuable for sustenance in times of famine.  (It's also valuable in illness --perhaps you've noticed, when you're feverish, and you don't really feel like eating ordinary fare, you weigh less when you get better.  Problem is these days, sickness is frequently a time when people eat anyway -- treats like ice-cream and snacks!)  So the hedonic system encouraged our ancestors to pig out when they came across something like fruit, which would pack on the pounds in fall, so they could "eat" their own fat tissue all winter when food would be harder to come-by.

Dr. Colmers explains that the weight-defending homeostatic system has been at work all our lives, as we go from infant to child to adolescent to adult, making sure we don't slip backward into a pathological wasting-away of what we so arduously gained (think about primitive people, here -- gaining is hardly arduous in Western society).  It's logical to me, NOW.  Some people explain a HELL of a lot better than other people.

I never thought the idea of the body defending an ever-increasing fat mass to be particularly logical.  Oh yes, i know about leptin-resistance: that contributes, without a doubt.  Is it alone enough to tip the scale (pardon the pun) toward detrimental quantities of fat gain, or does mitochondrial inflexibility start now?  (Does this work the same way with bodybuilders who add freakish quantities of muscle?)  I'm going to have to review what i've read about these points....

Currently, the Drs. Jaminet are formulating an hypothesis on quality of lean tissue being the goal of the brain's drive to keep us big or make us bigger.  I'm extremely eager to see what their ultimate argument will be.

So much information out there, and lots of mental collating to do.  "We" know so much, and yet average people, even doctors, know so little.  Wow....

what's working

This day is the last of my second week on the PPC, and the diet is flowing in a comfortable groove.  Hunger has not been any kind of problem, and urges to eat forbidden things have been completely manageable.

I wake up generally alert (not brain-foggy), i pee, weigh myself, and go make a cup of coffee.  The progress has been steady, the only "complication" being the inflammation radiating from my right knee (the one i injured a half-dozen years ago) after the unusual stress i gave it last Wednesday.  I may have to re-think that dance class.... 

On the other hand, THE KNEE PAINS ME LESS THAN IT USED TO.  How THAT is happening is an intriguing puzzlement.  Is it merely diet-related (cutting irritants that had been on my menu list before), or could the strengthening of the muscles surrounding it (the tabata sprints on the stationary bicycle) have something to do with stabilizing the joint?  Can't tell you -- wish i could!  My original instinct, to wait till weight loss stalled before adding in exercise, was probably the right decision, but it's too late now -- i'll have another chance to see what happens in Step 2, when i add back some of the foods i eliminated.

I already knew enough to eat most of my carbs for dinner rather than load up at breakfast -- the latter helped me gain a few pounds last summer.  By the way:  the very word "breakfast" is not used as it once was, and i feel a need to point out a few things!  :-)  Breaking one's fast doesn't mean eating within a short period of time after waking -- i think we have cereal commercials to blame for the confusion.  Break-fasting, etymologically, is eating for the first time after a period of abstention, which for most people is after their night's sleep.  Okay?  Make sense?  So the old saw "breakfast is the most important meal of the day" may be taken from the rubbish-heap and reanalyzed for importance -- for people who do LOOOOONG fasts, there's no doubt that the first meal they eat after it is crucial.

But i digress -- i'm a life-long linguaphile, and hate sloppy mis-use (don't get me started on "goes" and "says"...). 

What works!?  :-)  A high-fat-and-protein breakfast, WHEN I'M PROPERLY HUNGRY, is what works for me.  Having my husband around is a difficulty (sorry, baby) when it comes to this point, because he's primed for eating at "mealtimes" rather than "by his stomach" -- or perhaps he just gets hungry sooner than i do!  It's easy to get out of the pattern of "eating to hunger," but it's important for MY body.  Bacon and eggs (or something with a comparable nutritional profile) will stick to my ribs for HOURS.  There have been days when all i wanted after it was a snack before bed.

You see, when your body is accustomed to functioning on fats and ketones, and if you have excess body fat, once your dietary energy has been burnt off your cells seamlessly move to burn stored energy instead.  Hunger isn't about an empty stomach -- it's about fuel usage and accessibility.  For a comprehensive look at why we get hungry, J Stanton's series of articles ought to receive a Pulitzer prize!

After breaking my fast, i wait until my meal has cleared my stomach, then go for the walk/tabata sprints, depending on which i did yesterday -- anything which challenges your muscles (sprints) shouldn't be done EVERY day; lack of rest (rest is when the tissues recuperate and get built up again, stronger than ever) is why all those fit 30-somethings keel over from heart attacks while out running, you know.  Add to the mitochondria-enlivening and neurotransmitter-encouraging effects of exercise, the appetite suppression of it, and you've got something worth getting off your backside for.  (Pardon the grammer here -- that sentence was aiming for impact.)

When eventually hungry again, i finally indulge in a dinner with judicious quantities of carbohydrates.  This plan is what my body responds to -- yours may vary, but if you're doing it differently and it's not working for you for weight loss, reconsideration might be in order.  There's a good rodent study supporting the efficacy of late-day carb intake, but rodent studies should ALWAYS be accepted with a grain of salt -- there are significant differences in their little metabolisms.

During the course of the day, i take various supplements.  Some are taken with meals and some on an empty stomach; some are scrupulously taken separately and others together.  A lot of minerals, particularly, seem to compete for receptors and absorption, so to me, HOW can a single multivitamin give an across-the-board good result?  The things i take are influenced by my particular health challenges, so they're not to be recommended universally -- and it's taken YEARS of experimentation to reach the balance that seems correct.  If your body is undamaged, you may not need supplements at all.

As i said in earlier posts, i'm sharing what works for this middle-aged body in hopes that some other woman may find it instructive.  With all the contradictory advice out there, people often have no idea what might help them.  The point here is, THIS IS NOT HYPOTHESIS, or even theory -- this IS WORKING RIGHT NOW on my perimenopausal, thyroid-challenged, clinically-overweight (bmi 28) body.  This is the most effective regimen i've ever found.

further enlightenment

I got a flash of insight this morning as i was finishing my first cup of coffee:  although fulfilling the "hot caffeinated beverage" function for which it's intended, coffee without heavy cream is much less of a pleasure-delivery system than it used to be.

Now, "duh" is the expected response to a statement like that.  If i stopped my analysis there, this would be the most banal post i could possibly write, but the way my mind works, it's the subtle ramifications that i find most intriguing.  I'm attracted to the tiny rills which swell the mighty river.

Two reactions will probably inhibit a lot of people who might otherwise try this dietary scheme:  the "i can't give up grains" response, and the "but i always ... because it relaxes/invigorates/pleasures me."  The problems are addiction, habit, and fear of loss of pleasure.  Been there.

The first time i specifically banished grains from my diet was when i started Atkins, about 8 years ago.  I don't specifically remember it being all that difficult, though i sorely missed a few foods which had been staples when i suffered under the low-fat paradigm.  But on the occasions since then, when i allowed myself to indulge in bread, rice, or oatmeal, i clearly felt the pull of such foods -- the urge to continue eating, scarfing them down, despite the lack of actual HUNGER.  When my husband was working in New Orleans ... OH MY GOD ... the wonderful french bread you could buy for a SONG at Croissant D'Or....

Some foods are physically as well as psychologically addictive.  Treat them as the evil seducers they are -- they want to convince you that it's all about innocent pleasures whose only downside is disapproval by puritanical anti-hedonists.  They're lying.  The downside is disease and misery.

Various blogs (and the recent book "Wheat Belly") explain why, with their discussions of the addictive properties of grains.  You don't notice it so much when it's a part of your everyday diet, but quit for a while and reintroduce -- WOW.  My name is Tess, and i'm an addict.  I won't embarrass myself by getting technical with talk of opioid receptors and endocannabinoids, but i'll willingly confess to being their thrall.  Just recently, during the holiday season, i allowed myself a treat in the form of "party mix" made with only rice chex and nuts, and the usual butter/spice topping.  i rationed my servings, but after the butter-rice combination hit my digestive tract, i felt the urge to stuff my maw like Cookie Monster!  Butter and vegetables don't have QUITE that strong an appeal.

A HUGE number of people actually exhibit signs of panic when they're asked to give up bread and cereals.  (Note to self:  add "auto-hypnosis" to "addiction" and "habit" above....)  If they believe they can't give up these things, they're very likely to saboutage themselves.  They're addicted, and the best thing they can do is go cold-turkey.  Eat pre-cooked mini-quiches for breakfast, and wrap your sandwich in leaf-lettuce rather than bread; order restaurant sandwiches and hold the bun -- it's not that hard to substitute.

Enter, "habit."  That glorious first cup of coffee of the morning, as a vehicle for cream ingestion ... i did it every day, and didn't think about it, because cream is "legal" in low-carb diets.  I expected to want it much more than i do, now that i've gotten used to coconut milk.  I expected cheese and wine to elicit cravings, because i love them and used them often.  I DIDN'T.  When i got back from taking my husband to the airport last night, i wanted to sit down with a cocktail; a month ago, i would have done just that.  But i didn't CRAVE it (because these are not physiological NEEDS) -- it was easy to resist.  I don't NEED all these things i consumed regularly, before.  I hardly miss them at all.

I suspect that "fear of loss of pleasure" may be a very strong motivation to continue eating things we shouldn't.  To get back to the cream and wine as exemplars:  i LOVE cream, and there's no reason from a low-carb point of view, why i shouldn't allow myself to enjoy it ... UNLESS it causes physiological effects which i'm significantly better without.  The ONLY WAY i'll ever learn exactly what these effects may be is to strictly CUT THEM OUT of my diet.  For the space of a month???  If this is the hardest thing i'll every do, i lead a charmed existence!  Hell, gestating a baby makes this look like dancing around the maypole.  The sheer pleasure of being able to walk around with less pain and more agility makes the "pain" of giving up "neolithic agents of disease" laughable.

Think about it.  Think of all the things you've dreaded doing, then found it wasn't such a big deal when you actually started.  I've discovered that being "perfect" on the PPC is MUCH easier than i ever anticipated.

new week, new challenges

One of the reasons i undertook this blog was inspiration from the (short, free ebook), "The Flinch" to cultivate talents/skills which i have written -- or shrugged -- off in the past.  Consequently to that, i just began exploring something i have a life-long lack of aptitude for:  DANCE.

I'm no fan of all the recent television programs featuring this art/sport, although i get a great deal of pleasure and feel a lot of admiration when watching a fine performance.  I enjoy evenings out at the ballet.  Once i even got to see Baryshnikov, live.  :-)  Back in my fencing days, i took an adults' class in "ballet" (well, ballet-inspired conditioning, led by a prominent local dance teacher) in an effort to get balance for my body, since fencing is notoriously asymmetric.  My wind and flexibility definitely improved, but i became no better dancer as a result.

So when that little devil on my shoulder hinted that, despite not wanting to indulge "the flinch," i might hesitate to enter a new realm of endeavor that featured this bugaboo, naturally i said "screw dat" and went searching for a school.  The voice of one of my living-history personae lept to the aforementioned shoulder, kicked the devil overboard, and made a supportive suggestion:  Irish dance.  She wants to learn to jig.  ;-)

Last night, i attended the first class.  The atmosphere was friendly and encouraging, and the instructor WELL-versed in teaching adults as well as smaller fry.  We plunged right into learning basic steps.  Knowing how out-of-condition i am, i took it easy and therefore have barely any aches today, but a little inflammation.  The PPC, being an anti-inflammatory regimen, will sure be a help here!  I'll continue to take it easy today, with a little stretching and flexing -- maybe, too, do a few yoga moves that seem like they'd be helpful.

Tomorrow i start the Tabata sprints!  I was putting off beginning to do them regularly, in anticipation that my weight loss won't continue this well very long.  EVERYBODY knows that exercise makes a difference in metabolic support and mitochondrial rehabilitation, even though it sucks for actual weight loss.  I WAS saving the heavy artillery for when my footsoldiers (diet) started to get tired.  The latter are still battling steadily, but they're going to get reinforcement anyway.

We'll see how this progresses!  No doubt, it's going to be a challenge.

one week in, impressive progress

I woke early this morning, eager to enter my first week's results in the PPC's progress tracking tool.  ...Earlier than i should, in fact -- i sat up WAY too late last night, writing (which is also going well, but i won't go into it here).

I couldn't be more pleased with my progress.  I'm not eating a significant difference in number of calories, but a few staples of my ordinary diet have been pulled from under me by the strictness of this first phase of the Personal Paleo Code.  Generous amounts of heavy cream and butter, and phases of home-made yogurt use were customary with me.  Wine with meals, and the occasional not-sugary cocktail also fit into my idea of what the civilized bohemian should be drinking.  I even decided it would be wise to cut the nightshades.  Cheese, cream cheese, rice, stevia in my coffee, a couple of sucralose-sweetened sodas per week -- all banished.  About four and a half pounds of "ugly fat"* have also been banished.  In only one week.

Did i mention, i'm hypothyroid?  It's BLOODY hard for me to lose weight, though when i first started Atkins i had this same sort of success.  Trouble is, once you dump the worst dietary offenders (white flour, sugar, fruit juices) ... where do you go from there?  Eliminating seed oils, when i first discovered paleo, and balancing omegas 3 and 6 only take you so far.  Tweaking vitamin/mineral intakes, ditto.  Add to that, the fact that i'm now considered to be "of a certain age," and no matter what anyone tells you about it being natural to get dumpy now, it's still not a good thing to do, for many reasons.

One gets in a pattern of eating "permissible" low-carb/paleo foods.  Until and unless you steel yourself into a month of puritanical eating, you'll never know exactly which food is doing what to you.  I can tell you, IT'S WORTH IT.  It's a social pain-in-the-ass, and i'm lucky that my husband's business-trip was of long enough duration for me to be able to concentrate most of my attention on what i'm doing.  ...Wait, maybe THAT had something to do with the stress-snacking urge i suffered the other day.  Did the electrical outage distract me from my iron-backbone concentration?  If so, it goes to show what conditioned behavior patterns do to you -- one major distraction, and it's back down the slippery slide....

Well, i have another 3+ weeks before i can even THINK of adding in some of my deletions.  (Toward the end of that time, i have a major social event coming up; gotta consider it a challenge -- even a DARE -- and ramp up my "stubbornness response" to see it through.)  The heady progress i've made this week won't last, i'm not fostering delusions about that.  But the remaining signs of "physical degeneration" i've experienced, like my once-injured knee's tendency to arthritis pain, SHOULD also improve ... and i've yet to add in the REGULAR tabata sprints on the stationary bicycle.

"Ain't no stoppin' us now!"

*  Reference to a very old joke:  "wanna get rid of that ugly fat?  divorce him!"  Or "her", i guess.  :-)