-Luke-
Member
Hello ladies and gentlemen,
I have been thinking about creating a log here for a while. First, writing things down helps me organize my thoughts and come up with ideas myself. Second, there is a lot of knowledge on this forum and people are always very helpful. I really appreciate the atmosphere and the willingsness to help other people. So, why not?
English isn't my native language and my grammar isn't perfect. So feel free to ask if something I wrote doesn't make sense.
A little background:
age: almost 35
male
height: 185cm (that should translate to 6'1)
weight: ~78kg
When I was born, I was so ugly that the hospital had to close for a week for renovation work. Okay, that was a lie. Just wanted to get your attention. Like most people I didn't find Ray Peat's work and this forum because my health was perfect. Childhood was pretty normal. I was a rather introverted kid (and I still am, minus the kid part) but grew up without internet and only three tv stations until I was around ten. A few years later I developed some nasty acne that pretty much crushed my confidence during my youth. I also had the great idea to replace the Lucky Luke comics with watching naked people doing adult things on the internet. What started as pure curiosity became a coping mechanism for feelings like loneliness, sadness, rejection, low confidence or just because I didn't want to study for school.
When I was 18 or 19 I found an acne forum and began reading about nutrition. Until then I basically ate a Standard American Diet, even though I'm not even from the U.S., but there isn't that much variation in most western countries I guess. McDonald's crap, cornflakes, potato chips, sweets, bread etc. I was never overweight and could eat whatever I wanted. I read a lot about low carb when I was 18/19 but never really tried a low carb diet (at least not for an extended period), mainly because I still lived with my parents at that time and ate whatever was available there. But I did some less-than-super-intelligent stuff like supplementing rancid fish oil and drinking soy milk. Fortunately that didn't last for longer than a year or so. When I was 21 I moved and lived alone for the first time. A little later I stumbled upon Ray Peat's work (through that acne forum) and incorporated some of his ideas (lowering pufa or using gelatin for example) without really digging deeper into his ideas. So I was aware of him but was also influenced by the Paleo community and other people. In my mid twenties I experimented with stuff like fasting, cold showers and crossfit. In 2014/2015 my health crashed. It's hard to say what really caused it, but I'd say it was a combination of things that my body couldn't handle anymore: the stress from the above mentioned "health" experiments, the stress from addiction (or whatever you want to call it) related problems, a tetanus vaccine I got in 2014 and after which my health deteriorated, over-supplementation, anxiety of the future (I had just finished my studies and wasn't sure what to do next and if I would find a job).
The symptoms were low energy levels, disrupted sleep, shoulder and knee pain, depression, headaches, dark circles around eyes, no ibido and some other stuff. At some point - for a period of a few weeks to months - I thought about suicide almost every day. It took me about a year to feel pretty normal again. But I never recovered back to the state I was in in 2011 or 2012. To some extent that's normal I think because I'm not in my early twenties anymore. But some problems remain to a lesser extent. My sleep never recovered to a state of "good sleep for an extended time", my energy level fluctuate and sometimes I still feel like an old man. Some premature aging happened. Pulse and temps aren't great. From 2014 until 2021 I worked for a life insurance company and that didn't really help. First, I think there was a lot of electromagnetic radiation in the building where I worked. I never really felt comfortable there. Secondly, I often had conflicts with my superiors. I generally have a problem with meaningless authority and question it when people try to tell me what to do. Those people call it "stubborn", I prefer the word "thinking". Last year I quit my job and started my own business (which hasn't gone very well so far).
Current nutrition looks something like this (I gave up most dairy a few months ago):
Breakfast: 1-2 eggs, gelatin, 100g greek yoghurt, glass grape juice, slightly cooked apple with some honey, some dark chocolate
Lunch: ~200g beef or white fish, 3 medium sized potatos, 350g apple sauce, decaf coffee with honey, goat milk and gelatin
Some dates and/or chocolate and/or macadamia nuts as a snack if I want/need one
Dinner: Some starch (potatos or white rice), shrimps, glass tangerine juice, some butter with the potatos/rice
Snack (~ 45 min before bed): glass tangerine juice, honey, 100g greek yoghurt, a few macadamia nuts
I may put a few days of eating into chronometer soon. Haven't done that in years. I would be interested to see what comes out of it.
Supplements:
- daily: calcium carbonate, magnesium oil, 2-4g glycine powder (in addition to the gelatin)
- occasionally: Vitamin D and K2, 100mg of both B1 and B3 two or three times a week, 25mg zinc once or twice a week, one baby aspirin two or three times a week.
I try not to use too much supplements and have a more intuitive approach. I had a period where I mindlessly poured supplements into myself and I'm pretty sure that contributed to my health problems. Thought about integrating same kale broth for more minerals.
I usually exercise three times a week (plus things like yoga/stretching a couple of times a week). I don't really have a fixed plan or fixed training days, even though when my energy levels are good, it doesn't vary that much. But I like a more intuitive approach instead of "pushing through" just because some plan says so. I'm pretty sure this "pushing through" approach also contributed to my health problems in the past. In an optimal week it looks something like this:
TE1 (strength based):
- Weighted pullups/chinups and weighted dips (low reps, higher intensity/weight)
- Pistols (one-legged squats)
- (Weighted) ring pushups and ring rows (8-10 reps)
- 1-2 prehab exercises
TE2 (strength endurance based):
Something like 4 out of the following exercises (KB Swings, Goblet Squats, KB Snatches, KB Clean&Jerk, Pushups, Body Rows, jumping squats, one-legged deadlifts with kettlebell, bulgarian split squats) and I do that for 25-30 minutes while I use nose breathing as an indicator (pause if I feel like I can't breath through the nose semi-comfortably anymore)
TE3 (sprints): 3-6 sprints ~25-40m all-out, pause until I can comfortably breath through the nose.
Current problems / things I'd like to improve:
- temps/pulse: After waking up it's usually something like 36.2 °C and 65-70 pulse. Temps rise to 36.6 -36.8 after lunch.
- stress levels: Could be better. Still disrupted.
- sleep: Sometimes sleep is good, sometimes it's pretty bad. Doxylamine is the only things that "helps" when it's bad ("helps" in quotation marks because it rather knocks me out instead of putting me to sleep).
- teeth/dental health: My teeth are quite sensitive to acidity, cold and heat. I have considered using a straw when I drink juice.
- would like to gain a little (3-4 kg) weight, mostly muscle mass. But that's a long term project. I don't worry about it much. But I think some extra weight would do me good.
- loneliness: I'm more of a lone wolf type and don't mind being alone. But like many other people I've lost many or almost all friends (didn't have that many to begin with) during the last year or two. Don't know how to "solve" that problem. Would like to move to another country, probably the U.S. But that's not easy.
- work on my posture: it isn't that bad, but I sit a lot and my posture could be better.
Thanks for reading!
I have been thinking about creating a log here for a while. First, writing things down helps me organize my thoughts and come up with ideas myself. Second, there is a lot of knowledge on this forum and people are always very helpful. I really appreciate the atmosphere and the willingsness to help other people. So, why not?
English isn't my native language and my grammar isn't perfect. So feel free to ask if something I wrote doesn't make sense.
A little background:
age: almost 35
male
height: 185cm (that should translate to 6'1)
weight: ~78kg
When I was born, I was so ugly that the hospital had to close for a week for renovation work. Okay, that was a lie. Just wanted to get your attention. Like most people I didn't find Ray Peat's work and this forum because my health was perfect. Childhood was pretty normal. I was a rather introverted kid (and I still am, minus the kid part) but grew up without internet and only three tv stations until I was around ten. A few years later I developed some nasty acne that pretty much crushed my confidence during my youth. I also had the great idea to replace the Lucky Luke comics with watching naked people doing adult things on the internet. What started as pure curiosity became a coping mechanism for feelings like loneliness, sadness, rejection, low confidence or just because I didn't want to study for school.
When I was 18 or 19 I found an acne forum and began reading about nutrition. Until then I basically ate a Standard American Diet, even though I'm not even from the U.S., but there isn't that much variation in most western countries I guess. McDonald's crap, cornflakes, potato chips, sweets, bread etc. I was never overweight and could eat whatever I wanted. I read a lot about low carb when I was 18/19 but never really tried a low carb diet (at least not for an extended period), mainly because I still lived with my parents at that time and ate whatever was available there. But I did some less-than-super-intelligent stuff like supplementing rancid fish oil and drinking soy milk. Fortunately that didn't last for longer than a year or so. When I was 21 I moved and lived alone for the first time. A little later I stumbled upon Ray Peat's work (through that acne forum) and incorporated some of his ideas (lowering pufa or using gelatin for example) without really digging deeper into his ideas. So I was aware of him but was also influenced by the Paleo community and other people. In my mid twenties I experimented with stuff like fasting, cold showers and crossfit. In 2014/2015 my health crashed. It's hard to say what really caused it, but I'd say it was a combination of things that my body couldn't handle anymore: the stress from the above mentioned "health" experiments, the stress from addiction (or whatever you want to call it) related problems, a tetanus vaccine I got in 2014 and after which my health deteriorated, over-supplementation, anxiety of the future (I had just finished my studies and wasn't sure what to do next and if I would find a job).
The symptoms were low energy levels, disrupted sleep, shoulder and knee pain, depression, headaches, dark circles around eyes, no ibido and some other stuff. At some point - for a period of a few weeks to months - I thought about suicide almost every day. It took me about a year to feel pretty normal again. But I never recovered back to the state I was in in 2011 or 2012. To some extent that's normal I think because I'm not in my early twenties anymore. But some problems remain to a lesser extent. My sleep never recovered to a state of "good sleep for an extended time", my energy level fluctuate and sometimes I still feel like an old man. Some premature aging happened. Pulse and temps aren't great. From 2014 until 2021 I worked for a life insurance company and that didn't really help. First, I think there was a lot of electromagnetic radiation in the building where I worked. I never really felt comfortable there. Secondly, I often had conflicts with my superiors. I generally have a problem with meaningless authority and question it when people try to tell me what to do. Those people call it "stubborn", I prefer the word "thinking". Last year I quit my job and started my own business (which hasn't gone very well so far).
Current nutrition looks something like this (I gave up most dairy a few months ago):
Breakfast: 1-2 eggs, gelatin, 100g greek yoghurt, glass grape juice, slightly cooked apple with some honey, some dark chocolate
Lunch: ~200g beef or white fish, 3 medium sized potatos, 350g apple sauce, decaf coffee with honey, goat milk and gelatin
Some dates and/or chocolate and/or macadamia nuts as a snack if I want/need one
Dinner: Some starch (potatos or white rice), shrimps, glass tangerine juice, some butter with the potatos/rice
Snack (~ 45 min before bed): glass tangerine juice, honey, 100g greek yoghurt, a few macadamia nuts
I may put a few days of eating into chronometer soon. Haven't done that in years. I would be interested to see what comes out of it.
Supplements:
- daily: calcium carbonate, magnesium oil, 2-4g glycine powder (in addition to the gelatin)
- occasionally: Vitamin D and K2, 100mg of both B1 and B3 two or three times a week, 25mg zinc once or twice a week, one baby aspirin two or three times a week.
I try not to use too much supplements and have a more intuitive approach. I had a period where I mindlessly poured supplements into myself and I'm pretty sure that contributed to my health problems. Thought about integrating same kale broth for more minerals.
I usually exercise three times a week (plus things like yoga/stretching a couple of times a week). I don't really have a fixed plan or fixed training days, even though when my energy levels are good, it doesn't vary that much. But I like a more intuitive approach instead of "pushing through" just because some plan says so. I'm pretty sure this "pushing through" approach also contributed to my health problems in the past. In an optimal week it looks something like this:
TE1 (strength based):
- Weighted pullups/chinups and weighted dips (low reps, higher intensity/weight)
- Pistols (one-legged squats)
- (Weighted) ring pushups and ring rows (8-10 reps)
- 1-2 prehab exercises
TE2 (strength endurance based):
Something like 4 out of the following exercises (KB Swings, Goblet Squats, KB Snatches, KB Clean&Jerk, Pushups, Body Rows, jumping squats, one-legged deadlifts with kettlebell, bulgarian split squats) and I do that for 25-30 minutes while I use nose breathing as an indicator (pause if I feel like I can't breath through the nose semi-comfortably anymore)
TE3 (sprints): 3-6 sprints ~25-40m all-out, pause until I can comfortably breath through the nose.
Current problems / things I'd like to improve:
- temps/pulse: After waking up it's usually something like 36.2 °C and 65-70 pulse. Temps rise to 36.6 -36.8 after lunch.
- stress levels: Could be better. Still disrupted.
- sleep: Sometimes sleep is good, sometimes it's pretty bad. Doxylamine is the only things that "helps" when it's bad ("helps" in quotation marks because it rather knocks me out instead of putting me to sleep).
- teeth/dental health: My teeth are quite sensitive to acidity, cold and heat. I have considered using a straw when I drink juice.
- would like to gain a little (3-4 kg) weight, mostly muscle mass. But that's a long term project. I don't worry about it much. But I think some extra weight would do me good.
- loneliness: I'm more of a lone wolf type and don't mind being alone. But like many other people I've lost many or almost all friends (didn't have that many to begin with) during the last year or two. Don't know how to "solve" that problem. Would like to move to another country, probably the U.S. But that's not easy.
- work on my posture: it isn't that bad, but I sit a lot and my posture could be better.
Thanks for reading!
