Hey all,
Wanted to share my experiences and improvements so far after implementing Peat diet and lifestyle strategies without ever using thyroid hormone (though I eventually will).
I'll cover Digestion, Temperature, Heart Rate, Fatigue, Sleep, and Body Fat.
Digestion: My digestion has been terrible all my life. It was either diarrhea or constipation since I can remember. Had terrible digestive ability to most good (i.e. Coming out looking like it went in) so my finding hopefully will help some people.
This digestive recovery began with 2 peat controversial foods: kimchi (fermented cabbage in chili paste) and white potatoes. Hear me out; I know kimchi is a no no because of goitrogens BUT it undeniably fixes my digestion. Is it a probiotic action? NO, it's a chelation action! Cabbage is apparently a very effective iron chelator! And by God it helped me! After 2-3 tbsp a day for 2 days, no matter how bad my digestion has gotten, makes it so everything is digested perfectly and comfortably. Have since stopped eating it since digestion is great, and am very interested in trying activated charcoal intermittently to see if it's effects are similar/better than kimchi. Also AC would help me to avoid the goitrogens and lactic acid kimchi contains.
Next is potatoes. Well cooked potatoes; preferably fried in a skillet OR mashed make BM transit times optimal. Well cooked potatoes seem to be just the right amount of fiber:starch ratio for proper consistency of bolus. I noticed that other food eaten with potatoes is integrated into the bolus very well seeming to help the digestion of those foods as well as easing their elimination, especially with fruit and veggies like mushrooms which were nearly impossible for me to digest before. One caveat here is that I do eat the whole potato. I believe the skin in valuable for its mineral content and is integral in slowing transit time to keep from diarrhea and malabsorption that just the starchy flesh might cause (it has for me anyway) if eaten without the skin. Potatoes make me feel warm, seem to help slow transit time of fruit enough to digest it properly, help me digest solid proteins (muscle meats) and keep me warm so for me they're a staple.
Short of these two things, the only other thing that has improved digestion is having a moderate amount of fat in my diet to sustain bile production, as well as making sure to disperse oral supplements throughout the day since taking a handful of pills always seems to make for a harder bolus coinciding with the point in time the pills were taken. Coffee also has helped as it actually stimulates the gal bladder for bile production.
A side note is that I believe a balance of solid and liquid foods is best as I have never had a good experience with a mostly liquid diet.
Temperature: A difficult one for me. Temp is never above 97.5F but the one thing that has helped most profoundly is CO2 supplementation. I work in the medical field and often have to wear a surgical mask. After reading a study a member posted on surgeons increasing health parameters (though they didn't realize it lol) by wearing a surgical mask through long surgeries I decided to just wear one all day at work. IT WORKED. My temperature stayed above 98f all day!! The only thing that had a sustained temperature raising effect other than this was high dose niacinamide dispersed throughout a day (1g). The only sucky thing for most people would be having to wear a mask for 7+ hours a day if you don't work in the medical field like me. The other thing I did while wearing my mask was breathe through my nose calmly as much as I could (think buteyko). I'm now very interested in making the VoS paintball cO2 mask if a member here knows how to set one up I'd appreciate the info!
Hear Rate: best thing so far has been the cO2 supplementation (surgical mask) Niacinamide, Coffee, Sugar, and LOTS of potatoes lol also help but the cO2 was the most profound and sustained.
Fatigue: A multifaceted aspect of health and one of the most complicated to overcome. I've had some great strides in this area lately. Firstly, taking 2 weeks off of any and all exercise was huge lol. I know this doesn't apply to all members here but to those that do weight train it's a very important strategy. Deloads are a good idea after a couple weeks of strength training with the basic scheme being 3-8 weeks of progression and 1 week of 1/2 effort training to recoup from cns and structural overload. I would suggest if you're like I was and very fatigued, to take 1-2 weeks completely away from strength training and just keep eating a healthful diet. At first I got a big time "De-Stress" reaction where my stress hormones were clearly dropping and I felt very hypothyroid/metabolically low. After 5 days of those symptoms (lessening each day) I finally felt normal and even good. I also dropped all caffeine during the two weeks to assure my adrenals weren't getting taxed. Some studies have shown in certain reguards (like starvation) that 14 days with the proper substrate (food/rest) was the minimal amount of time to rebound hormonally to a well functioning metabolism, this is why the 2 week lay off made sense. Also studies have shown that 2 weeks away from strength training after 4 weeks of hard training led to no loss of lean tissue or strength gained. (Sorry for not posting the studies but a google search will readily bring them up)
The other part of fatigue is obviously food and rest but we all know that. 2 things that helped pretty much immediately with a transient total reversal of fatigue (I.e were contingent upon frequent use) were Baking soda and Gerolsteiner Mineral water (used apart) A tsp or 2 of baking soda over the course of 6-8 hours made any signs of fatigue disappear as well as made me stronger in the gym. BS is high in bicarbonate which reduces lactic acid and also stimulates cAMP levels. Mineral water has and does all the same things as baking soda plus has other minerals which aid in relaxation and fatigue reduction. No other mineral water has helped in this way like Gerolsteiner. It's very high in minerals, and after drinking about 70oz of it over the course of the day it had even better effects than the baking soda. It made me stronger in the gym AND won't hurt your stomach like baking soda can if you ingest too much.
Sleep: This is one I have yet to completely ameliorate but I can actually sleep now which is a vast improvement. I've realized that supplements ruin my sleep taken right before bed. Doesn't matter what it is, even things that should relax me like anti histamine, gelatin, or glycine. Cessation of supplements after 6pm is a must for me otherwise I can't sleep at all. Being able to sleep only came about when, just like stopping supplements, I stopped any exertion after 6pm and stayed away from cold foods like ice cream or cold juice or cold milk.
Body fat: I have always been controlled with calories so this has never exactly been hard to figure out for me BUT because I have always tracked my calories I am aware of just how much food I'm eating at any given time and what's happened lately is positive. After taking a long layoff from physical activity and implementing all the things I've talked about, I am now able to eat roughly 400 calories more a day without any weight gain. By just eating as often as I felt like and being mindful to watch for signs of stress reactions be it from to long without food or eating too much in a sitting and avoiding such reactions I have found that 8-9 meals a day at 300-400 cals each containing Protein:15-20g/Carbs: 40-50g/Fat: 6-9g. This comes to roughly 3200cals. The most impressive part of this is I gained no weight from stopping working out for the two weeks which my my calculation burned about 600-700 cals a session! So I quite possibly boosted my sedentary maintenance calorie level my 1100 calories! I love eating so it's awesome in that I get to eat more food lol but even more exciting that with my compromised thyroidbhealth I have made such strides. Visually I first became very puffy with edema when ceasing weight training and gained about 3lbs. I believe this happened because my body began eliminating the copious amounts of hydrophilic stress hormones circulating through me. Once the amount of stress hormone decreases from the serum I lost all the weight through urination plus a pound which led to me being a pound lighter than before I took the time off. I have not gained any of the weight back after 4 weeks which I believe shows signs of a sustained and improved inflammatory system.
This is my progression so far! Any questions or comments or advice is much welcomed and appreciated!
Wanted to share my experiences and improvements so far after implementing Peat diet and lifestyle strategies without ever using thyroid hormone (though I eventually will).
I'll cover Digestion, Temperature, Heart Rate, Fatigue, Sleep, and Body Fat.
Digestion: My digestion has been terrible all my life. It was either diarrhea or constipation since I can remember. Had terrible digestive ability to most good (i.e. Coming out looking like it went in) so my finding hopefully will help some people.
This digestive recovery began with 2 peat controversial foods: kimchi (fermented cabbage in chili paste) and white potatoes. Hear me out; I know kimchi is a no no because of goitrogens BUT it undeniably fixes my digestion. Is it a probiotic action? NO, it's a chelation action! Cabbage is apparently a very effective iron chelator! And by God it helped me! After 2-3 tbsp a day for 2 days, no matter how bad my digestion has gotten, makes it so everything is digested perfectly and comfortably. Have since stopped eating it since digestion is great, and am very interested in trying activated charcoal intermittently to see if it's effects are similar/better than kimchi. Also AC would help me to avoid the goitrogens and lactic acid kimchi contains.
Next is potatoes. Well cooked potatoes; preferably fried in a skillet OR mashed make BM transit times optimal. Well cooked potatoes seem to be just the right amount of fiber:starch ratio for proper consistency of bolus. I noticed that other food eaten with potatoes is integrated into the bolus very well seeming to help the digestion of those foods as well as easing their elimination, especially with fruit and veggies like mushrooms which were nearly impossible for me to digest before. One caveat here is that I do eat the whole potato. I believe the skin in valuable for its mineral content and is integral in slowing transit time to keep from diarrhea and malabsorption that just the starchy flesh might cause (it has for me anyway) if eaten without the skin. Potatoes make me feel warm, seem to help slow transit time of fruit enough to digest it properly, help me digest solid proteins (muscle meats) and keep me warm so for me they're a staple.
Short of these two things, the only other thing that has improved digestion is having a moderate amount of fat in my diet to sustain bile production, as well as making sure to disperse oral supplements throughout the day since taking a handful of pills always seems to make for a harder bolus coinciding with the point in time the pills were taken. Coffee also has helped as it actually stimulates the gal bladder for bile production.
A side note is that I believe a balance of solid and liquid foods is best as I have never had a good experience with a mostly liquid diet.
Temperature: A difficult one for me. Temp is never above 97.5F but the one thing that has helped most profoundly is CO2 supplementation. I work in the medical field and often have to wear a surgical mask. After reading a study a member posted on surgeons increasing health parameters (though they didn't realize it lol) by wearing a surgical mask through long surgeries I decided to just wear one all day at work. IT WORKED. My temperature stayed above 98f all day!! The only thing that had a sustained temperature raising effect other than this was high dose niacinamide dispersed throughout a day (1g). The only sucky thing for most people would be having to wear a mask for 7+ hours a day if you don't work in the medical field like me. The other thing I did while wearing my mask was breathe through my nose calmly as much as I could (think buteyko). I'm now very interested in making the VoS paintball cO2 mask if a member here knows how to set one up I'd appreciate the info!
Hear Rate: best thing so far has been the cO2 supplementation (surgical mask) Niacinamide, Coffee, Sugar, and LOTS of potatoes lol also help but the cO2 was the most profound and sustained.
Fatigue: A multifaceted aspect of health and one of the most complicated to overcome. I've had some great strides in this area lately. Firstly, taking 2 weeks off of any and all exercise was huge lol. I know this doesn't apply to all members here but to those that do weight train it's a very important strategy. Deloads are a good idea after a couple weeks of strength training with the basic scheme being 3-8 weeks of progression and 1 week of 1/2 effort training to recoup from cns and structural overload. I would suggest if you're like I was and very fatigued, to take 1-2 weeks completely away from strength training and just keep eating a healthful diet. At first I got a big time "De-Stress" reaction where my stress hormones were clearly dropping and I felt very hypothyroid/metabolically low. After 5 days of those symptoms (lessening each day) I finally felt normal and even good. I also dropped all caffeine during the two weeks to assure my adrenals weren't getting taxed. Some studies have shown in certain reguards (like starvation) that 14 days with the proper substrate (food/rest) was the minimal amount of time to rebound hormonally to a well functioning metabolism, this is why the 2 week lay off made sense. Also studies have shown that 2 weeks away from strength training after 4 weeks of hard training led to no loss of lean tissue or strength gained. (Sorry for not posting the studies but a google search will readily bring them up)
The other part of fatigue is obviously food and rest but we all know that. 2 things that helped pretty much immediately with a transient total reversal of fatigue (I.e were contingent upon frequent use) were Baking soda and Gerolsteiner Mineral water (used apart) A tsp or 2 of baking soda over the course of 6-8 hours made any signs of fatigue disappear as well as made me stronger in the gym. BS is high in bicarbonate which reduces lactic acid and also stimulates cAMP levels. Mineral water has and does all the same things as baking soda plus has other minerals which aid in relaxation and fatigue reduction. No other mineral water has helped in this way like Gerolsteiner. It's very high in minerals, and after drinking about 70oz of it over the course of the day it had even better effects than the baking soda. It made me stronger in the gym AND won't hurt your stomach like baking soda can if you ingest too much.
Sleep: This is one I have yet to completely ameliorate but I can actually sleep now which is a vast improvement. I've realized that supplements ruin my sleep taken right before bed. Doesn't matter what it is, even things that should relax me like anti histamine, gelatin, or glycine. Cessation of supplements after 6pm is a must for me otherwise I can't sleep at all. Being able to sleep only came about when, just like stopping supplements, I stopped any exertion after 6pm and stayed away from cold foods like ice cream or cold juice or cold milk.
Body fat: I have always been controlled with calories so this has never exactly been hard to figure out for me BUT because I have always tracked my calories I am aware of just how much food I'm eating at any given time and what's happened lately is positive. After taking a long layoff from physical activity and implementing all the things I've talked about, I am now able to eat roughly 400 calories more a day without any weight gain. By just eating as often as I felt like and being mindful to watch for signs of stress reactions be it from to long without food or eating too much in a sitting and avoiding such reactions I have found that 8-9 meals a day at 300-400 cals each containing Protein:15-20g/Carbs: 40-50g/Fat: 6-9g. This comes to roughly 3200cals. The most impressive part of this is I gained no weight from stopping working out for the two weeks which my my calculation burned about 600-700 cals a session! So I quite possibly boosted my sedentary maintenance calorie level my 1100 calories! I love eating so it's awesome in that I get to eat more food lol but even more exciting that with my compromised thyroidbhealth I have made such strides. Visually I first became very puffy with edema when ceasing weight training and gained about 3lbs. I believe this happened because my body began eliminating the copious amounts of hydrophilic stress hormones circulating through me. Once the amount of stress hormone decreases from the serum I lost all the weight through urination plus a pound which led to me being a pound lighter than before I took the time off. I have not gained any of the weight back after 4 weeks which I believe shows signs of a sustained and improved inflammatory system.
This is my progression so far! Any questions or comments or advice is much welcomed and appreciated!
