One thing I’ve been looking into a lot lately is ketosis. Low carb research and dieting inevitably mentions it at some point. I’ve found that Eades has some nice information on his site, and I’ve also read most any other article I could find on the internet, including body building articles that usually propose a Cyclic Ketogenic diet. In a nutshell, your body goes into a state of ketosis when it runs out of glucose to run on and starts using fat for fuel. This is accomplished by a very low carb diet (or starvation or heavy duty and long workouts).

Last Wednesday – Thursday I ended up doing an intermittent fast that lasted almost 24 hours. A couple of hours after I ate I bought some ketostix to help me measure where I was, and they moderate-large amounts of ketones. The next morning I had small amounts, and then later that day trace, and eventually back to none. During the day Thursday I was pretty low in energy, very lethargic, which I’ve read countless times is a common side effect of ketosis. I’ve eaten very few carbs the past few days, so I’m going to try to go into ketosis by eating plenty, just no carbs. This morning I felt drowsy at times and laid down for about an hour around noon and waited to eat until about 3, when I ate a little steak, and then 5, when I ate a bunch of beef brisket and a little chicken. After that I felt a lot better and still feel good while writing this. I’m going to post my daily eating and its nutrition info here. I’m going to track what the ketostix say and also my energy.

I’m tempted to try the method of cycling ketosis in increments of about 5 days on, 2 days off. Many sites claim this is the best scenario because you get to have some of your cravings on the weekend and it makes it easy to stick to the diet. Bodybuilders take this a step further. They recommend going into ketosis for a little bit longer, and then doing a complete body workout that depletes any glycogen in the muscles and makes all of them hungry for glucose. At this point the carb loading starts and continues for a day or two. Supposedly the muscles get hugely pumped from the carbs. This is tempting to try, but all that I know and think about carbs, especially simple ones like flour and sugar, leads me not to try that at this point, although I might at sometime. Right now I think the huge insulin spike is something I’d rather avoid.

Last week I went to see the doctor to inquire about getting a blood test done to check my levels of various indicators such as cholesterol, testosterone, GH, IGF-1, etc. I had asked once before with a different doctor and he was very resistant, saying it was expensive and pointless. I guess I figured since this doctor didn’t know me he or she would just help me to get the tests that weren’t too expensive, but once again I encountered the same reaction. It seems to me that in America we have to have a noticeable problem to care about our health. The doctor asked me more than a few times if there was a specific problem, saying that then they might send off for the work, but otherwise they usually didn’t. I understand that there are plenty of people with problems who do need to get blood work done and that they have priority over those of us without any major concerns, but it’s not as if I’m stealing someones spot. It’s OK to explain that the tests are expensive, but it is sad that doctors take an attitude that asks “Why do you care at all, you are young and look like you’re in good health so the tests will just confirm that.” We have all been beaten over the head with the obesity problem in the country, as well as increasing diabetes, and it seems to me that perhaps if more people began to care earlier, before they experienced any problems, they might see what’s coming and take action, but no, we must have a noticeable abnormality to get any tests done. I also appreciate the fact that she was honestly telling me she felt like it wasn’t worth the cost, which I doubt it was to get ALL the tests done, but we could have looked at how much each one costs and talked that way. Instead it was just a fancy forget about it.

In an odd coincidence the school is about to offer HealthCheck Screening Options, which include tests that will measure cholesterol and testosterone for $20 and $85 respectively. That’s a bit expensive, but not the $400 plus I was hearing about all the tests. It seems fate has intervened to help me out here, so I’m going to be thankful and hopeful that eventually doctors will relish patients who care enough about their health to want to get tests done instead of discouraging the activity.

As a side not I have started tracking how much I spend each day on food and will be totaling that up once I get enough information. Today I totaled between $10 and $15 dollars, so I’m going to continue to try and tweak my eating to maximize quality and minimize price.

As I peruse many other sites and forums about how we should be eating, especially those that propose low carbohydrate diets, I find that many people are a little bit concerned with how much it costs to eat the way of our paleolithic ancestors. As a college student I can empathize with these cost concerns. For the past few weeks I have been buying and cooking my own food this way, but I haven’t really figured out exactly how much it costs compared to other diets. So as soon as I run out of food I plan on doing a challenge of walking to Publix each day to get what I need to eat. This will show me exactly how much I spend each day. I will try not to buy any package that would last me over a week, since cost per week is really what I hope to find out. This analysis will also not be perfect because I have 10 meals per week at the dining hall and I plan on using all 10 to get my money’s worth. Overall I think this will give me a very good idea for the expense of eating well. It will also be nice because I will be able to choose what I’m eating at the time and it will be more random and varied.

Quite some time ago I was looking around the internet for tips on recovery from workouts and encountered the idea of alternating the shower water between hot and cold to try and get the blood flowing into your muscles. I have recently come across the idea again, albeit a little differently. The concept of trying to help your body adapt is still the same, but I have found it explained more in depth on De Vany’s web site. You should read that post here, but to summarize he says the cold water in the ocean draws the heat out of our bodies. On top of all that it is a surprisingly good feeling, someone else said euphoric and I would say it is a rush. I’m careful to keep my breathing calm and not hyperventilate, as I have done extensive reading in buteyko (google it), and it is pretty sudden, but after 10 or so seconds it starts to feel really good. There is still a part of you that wants that wonderful warm water pouring back on your skin, but now another part of you is delighting in the cold water. I’ve started ending my showers with a minute or so of cold water and I feel absolutely great afterwards. It is also supposedly a good stress for your body because of the brief, sudden intensity that helps your body adapt to deal with stressful situations in the future. With nothing to lose except our love of warmth and comfort, it’s definitely something worth giving a shot a few times.

I’ve been reading a ton of stuff all over the internet about how best to eat. It seems that most people agree that processed and modern food is all garbage, as if you didn’t already know that. If I had to say right now I would probably say just to eat good whole foods until your full each day and stay active as the main thing, but I find it fun to look into the past and see how other people have done it and try and tweak your plan. One particularly interesting line to follow was that of Vilhjalmur Stefansson an explorer who went to live with the Inuit (Eskimos) who eat all meat. He has written a fair amount about his experience and lived for years on exclusively meat, even doing a one year monitored meat diet observed by scientists and documented. One such article is here. I’d also like to check out Gary Taubes’ Good Calories, Bad Calories, which seems to have those on both sides of the fence arguing fiercely, but Lord knows the low-fat vs. low-carb battle will never be settled.

Here are some pictures of meals I’ve had recently, a salad with a bunch of stuff thrown in and mahi-mahi with onions, mushrooms, garlic, etc.

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Now that I have settled back into college and established somewhat of a routine, I can figure out what I’m going to eat and plan more effectively. I still have a long way to go and would like to find out exactly how much it costs me eating this way compared to other options, but right now I’ll stick with just getting food at the right time. Since reintroducing animal products into my diet I feel excellent, even better than I did on just vegetables, fruits, and nuts. I also haven’t gained any scale weight, which I don’t place much “weight” on, but I don’t believe I have gained back any fat. I hope to slowly increase my lean muscle mass. I was up to close to 200 lbs on my mass gain plan of last semester consisting of eating most anything in site all the time. The closest I got was probably 197. Now I am back down to about 180-183 consistently. I’m fairly certain I lost mostly fat, but I’m sure I lost some muscle. I certainly noticed losing the fat and hope to stay at the same percentage while gaining muscle. I have posted this week’s meal plan here, so check it out if you’d like to.

I couldn’t update last night because I didn’t have my computer, but here’s what I had yesterday…
Breakfast – fruit smoothie
Lunch – salad w/ broccoli, nuts, and seeds

Then for the rest of the day I decided to do some intermittent fasting, something I’ve talked about before and somewhat of a hot topic on many sites. A lot of the reasoning sounds good to me, so I’ll do it every once in awhile. I ate lunch at about 12:30 and then didn’t eat anything until this morning at 9:30. After I ate lunch yesterday I swam some sprints and this morning I did deadlifts and squats. Hopefully the growth hormone released during fasting and the workouts will help me get stronger. I felt pretty hungry, but nothing unbearable.

In other news, I went to Trader Joe’s today and stocked up. I also bought some meat, cheese, and eggs, stuff I can’t eat on this trial. So now I must officially announce the end of my 7 day vegan/primal trial. I have gone from Sunday – Thursday, and I think in that five days I have experienced all I need to experience. It’s not the hardest thing in the world, although I’m sure it would begin to get very difficult because of boredom, but I believe that some meat belongs in a diet and I figure I might as well go ahead and start my real lifestyle eating plan. This trial was good to me because it showed me how to get more fruits and vegetables in during the day as well as how many foods I couldn’t eat. Even still, I won’t be changing much, just the aforementioned stuff I bought and maybe the occasional bread, sweet, etc., but that will be pretty rare. This plan has laid the groundwork for me to cook my own healthy meals and take control of what I eat. I have changed my meal plan at college to 10 meals a week, so I will be eating about 3 each of breakfast, lunch, and dinner, with one other meal thrown in. I’m going to post the simple sheet I put together here.

I have cut my finger while cutting a coconut, so I’ll have to keep this short. Yesterday and today I had the same breakfast and lunch, fruit smoothie and salad respectively, with my usual toppings of broccoli, sunflower seeds, and almonds on the salad. I also had one apple each day and snacked on nuts throughout. For dinner I made excellent zucchini and squash both days with onions and garlic, and then added asparagus tonight. I have felt pretty hungry by the time I eat, but in a natural way. So far I have not experienced any withdrawal symptoms and actually feel great. I’m gonna have to buy some more veggies for dinner tomorrow, but so far so good on my 7 day trial.

Today is the first day of my 7 day trial of eating just vegetables, fruit, and nuts. Last night for my final meal I had some excellent grouper and a few scallops, so maybe that will last me through the week. I also snacked on some dark chocolate, which I won’t do this week. For my breakfast this morning I had a fruit smoothie with bananas, blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries, an apple, and a handful of almonds. It was excellent as usual, and I’m just about to have a lunch of salad and maybe a little more fruit and nuts. Since I have that breakfast pretty much everyday, nothing is unusual so far, I’m interested to see how I will feel as the day goes on.

I’ve been gathering food for going back to school and for my 7 day trial of eating just vegetables, fruits and nuts. So basically a vegan diet without grains or any sort of refined carbs and sugar. I imagine I’ll eat pretty much the same types of food at each meal every day, as if I’ll really have a choice. I’ll eat fruit for breakfast, usually in the form of a fruit smoothie with different stuff thrown in for variety. For lunch I’ll make a big salad with dark lettuce or spinach, sunflower seeds, and perhaps some random other vegetable or fruit options thrown on top. I’ll make the dressing myself with olive oil, some sort of vinegar, honey, and mustard. For dinner I’ll try and cook some vegetables and probably have a little more fruit, maybe another salad. Throughout the day I’ll snack on fruits, mixed nuts, and I’ll use almond butter liberally. The hardest thing to avoid will be meat, and another difficulty will be snacking on dark chocolate every now and then. I’ll write up what I eat daily and how it goes. I certainly don’t plan on foregoing meat any longer than the week, I just want to do this as an experiment.