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....  ;-)