My Journey To Optimal Health

[Cirion]

Yeah, CO is one of the best foods for me, if I want to feel pain. CO and honey, I get a diarrhea like burn in my gut, that doesn't move and just chills there, not fun. One of the first foods I ditched was CO.

To a lesser degree, any mg supplement and baking soda also burn in my gut. All these are from my experiments a few years, back though, but not really intrested in trying them again lol.

Yeah after I watched some videos from Dr. Nick Delgado, I was convinced to stop intaking ALL oils including coconut oil. According to him not only are vegetable oils bad but so is olive oil, coconut oil, etc. All oils immediately cause an inflammatory response to the body and destroy white blood cells. This is not to say SFA can't be beneficial, just that one shouldn't be eating it in concentrated form. The concentrated fats are unnatural. It's like intaking straight sugar vs. eating fruit. (If you can't tell I am not a fan of intaking straight sugar either). Avocados are fine. Olives are fine. Coconuts are fine. Olive oil, avocado oil, coconut oil, is not.

 

[opson123]

How much of those carbs are from rice? I remember before chocolate, for a short while I tried to make rice work and couldn't get past 150g, and rice was all I ate.

 

[milkboi]

Did you watch these types of videos?



Not meaning to imply you will end up looking like them, you are probably far too un-idealogical for that, and just listening to how your body reacts to different kinds of diets... But man, a vegan diet and only taking in plant proteins can make you look like a meth-head.

 

[Cirion]

Haha, yeah the stereotypical vegan does a lot of things wrong for sure. I am not even a vegan anyways. I just take inspiration from some of the philosophies.

- They often under-eat in calories
- They often have deficiencies like B12, calcium, zinc
- They probably eat too low dietary fat for their size (as I alluded to earlier, someone who is low weight may wish to increase dietary fat to avoid lowering body fat too much)

Just to name a couple. Look at Dr. Delgado. He'll give you a correct picture into how to be vegan. He has incredible stamina and strength for a 62 y/o and looks nothing like the stereotypical malnourished vegan.

 

[opson123]

Not sure, if he's natty, but if you google Frank Medrano you can see his body looks pretty incredible. His face looks like death though. It's like his face is malnourished, but body isn't.

Skinny vegans like in the video above are in a constant state of catabolism, so building any muscle is just impossible, even maintaining muscle is difficult. Some form of endurance sport is also a common thing among many vegans, which makes things even worse muscle-wise. So while Medranos face looks pretty unhealthy, at least he is doing something right, as in being in an anabolic state to build muscle. His workouts are pretty insane too and he is still able to maintain his strength and muscle mass.

Edit2: Seems like building muscle wasn't the topic lol.

 

[Cirion]

Yeah, the common misconception as a result though is "See! You need protein to gain muscle!". Not really... you need calories to gain muscle lol. Yeah some minimum of protein is needed but not the insane 200-300 gram popularly quoted in bodybuilding circles. Carbs are actually significantly more anabolic than protein, assuming that you're in a caloric surplus and that your minimum protein needs are met (and minimum protein is not very high especially in a calorie surplus).

Carbohydrates are the preferred fuel for the body, plain and simple. Therefore it should be the primary macronutrient. Even more so with someone who trains hard. Excess protein is extremely inefficient as a fuel. Energy must be expended to turn protein into carbs to make it usable.

 

[Cirion]

98.5F and 65 bpm today. I think that's good since a low bpm but high temp would mean it's definitely not from stress. Plus I feel not too bad. Still far from optimal but that's progress.

Still just eating mostly plant protein (had some gelatin last night too though). One thing I did last night that might have induced a slightly higher waking temp - I used a diffuser with essential oils in my bedroom. A friend of mine got me interested to try this.

Interestingly, I am finding sugar is not quite as appealing to me and am shifting to a mostly starch based diet. I still eat some fruit but not like I used to.

Zachs (former member) exclusively did a low fat low-moderate protein high starch (not sugar) diet to finally lose weight and cure his hypo. I think I am starting to converge on a similar diet... Man, he was right all along.

My weight has shifted downwards a couple of lbs too. So I think I'm moving in the right direction at last.

Potatoes and rice are my staple starches at the moment.

 

[Cirion]

Weight down another lb today. No doubt water weight, but I'm guessing a good portion of my "fat" gain is actually water. Progress.

Carbs & low fat for the win! I'm not low calorie BTW. I think I've finally found the answer to lose weight without restricting calories =) I still often get 4,000 a day.

The way I look at it I'm actually in a carbohydrate "surplus" while in a dietary fat "deficit", so that I can reap the benefits of carb surplus on metabolism while reaping the benefits of fat deficit to drop weight.

 

[ilikecats]

came across this gem today:

"A single night of poor sleep probably causes significant anatomical damage to the streaming cellular systems that will be repaired over the next few days if a high level of energy metabolism can be combined with a sufficient amount of deep sleep. The things that optimize energy and sleep form the background for supporting the restorative processes. Salt, glycine, carbon dioxide, progesterone, thyroid hormone and sugar all contribute to preserving the organism's energetic reserves by reducing inappropriate excitation."

Inducing real significant regeneration is a bit like walking on a tight rope.

 

[Cirion]

Thanks for that quote. You have literally verified what I have been saying for like 3 months now! Restful sleep is literally the key to optimal health, I absolutely believe 100%. It's more important than literally anything else (sunlight, diet, food intake, etc) because I know when I have rested well that the rest of the day will be awesome (and it always is). That said of course, its often proper use of sunlight, diet, food that leads to the good sleep. I am just saying that if sleep was bad, you can't make up for it with sunlight,diet,food (at least for that day).

This is why I have been st alled on my health. I can get maybe 1-2 decent good nights rest a week, and 5-6 bad nights rest a week, so I take 2 steps forward and 5 backwards... making no progress at all... via the pathways you mention in your quote.

Even though I'm eating vegan inspired I do still have gelatin so out of that I am doing it all except the progesterone and thyroid. I have decided though if I don't get better in a couple months of my new eating that I'll probably break down and try out some T3.

I am just wondering though are you planning to take T3 the rest of your life? I just really hate the idea of being dependent on something. I don't think it's necessary. There's a reason why your body isn't making T3 99% of the time, and just taking T3 is going to mask that problem not fix it...

 

[Cirion]

I have been doing better in some ways though. So I am holding out hope that it's working.

- Overall more energy. I'm not gonna lie, I still have my low energy moments, but the last week or two, getting through work days hasn't been as bad. At my worst before I turned vegan-inspired, I literally was crashing at my desk unable to work. These moments have passed. I was starting to worry about getting fired due to my severe lack of productivity. My productivity is hardly where I want it to be, but at least I can get work done now. I also yawn less on the way home from work. I only yawned a couple times today. A few weeks ago I'd literally be yawning almost the whole time. No joke. So that's progress.

- Libido actually seems sporadically active now. Still low-ish, but I'm actually noticing a libido a little more than before.

- A little less brain fog after some light activity

- A little easier waking up in the morning than before (so I think I am getting a little more restful?)

Now because I went low protein and low fat simulataneously, it's not entirely fair to say it's the lower protein, but I do think it helps. But absolutely, the low fat does as well, I want to make sure I point that out. The randle cycle is real folks. In fact I now believe the randle cycle is far, far, far worse and far more damaging to someone who is hypothyroid - which basically means - if someone is hypo, they need to be on a 80-90% carb diet STAT. Or at least get rid of most/all dietary fat not just pufa. "Needing fat (or protein)" to be satiated is a MYTH that I believed for 6 months and it is 100% FALSE. You just need starch to be satiated (sugar is not satiating that's where I went wrong before).

 

[ilikecats]

@Cirion I think I'll probably take some for the rest of my life, I'm not interested in good health I'm trying to become a perfect organism. And my usage of T3 is probably one of the easiest and most uncumbersome interventions I use. I had pretty good health before I started using T3. Your body is always making T3 it just varies based on a variety of factors. (for one) I wouldn't want my T3 levels to constantly be under the control of every stressor I'm exposed to (you can't avoid all stressors). There's no health state to be achieved and then you just HAVE it. Take whoever you think is your model for ideal health and with the right stressors I can drop their T3 levels to next to nothing within a day. A physiological state has to be maintained. A more honest representation of my goal would be: to achieve the highest physiological state possible and to maintain it for as long as possible as often as possible. And the thyroid rebounds as soon as stopping T3 and smaller amounts shouldn't suppress the thyroid at all, they can even make your endogenous production better similar to using very small amounts of DHT or T on the testicles . And T3 therapy is about exposing the cells/organs/tissues to high amounts of T3, it's restorative and protective. You can reverse NAFLD with supplementing T3. Those benefits don't go away as soon as you stop it but they can if other factors aren't in place.

 

[Cirion]

Fair enough. Honestly my goals are not too dissimilar to yours so maybe I'll break down and bite the bullet and do the same thing you're doing eventually. I'm not just happy being decent health I want almost "perfect" health. After all my log is labeled journey to "optimal" health not just "okay" health. I've spent three decades in life living a mediocre existence and I am tired of it. Lol so I may be joining you soon... you take Haidut's T3 supplement right? What is your current dosage/frequency of each? (Is that the topical or the oral version?)

I guess I was just convinced that I could achieve the health I want without meds, at least at my age which isn't super old. I do acknowledge that no matter how perfect your health regiment, once you get older like 50+ you probably will need thyroid and other interventions to maintain high T/DHT/low estrogen etc etc though...

I guess one way to look at it, by taking T3 and improving my metabolism and thus mood/drive in life it'll help me achieve some of my goals I have been wanting which will be a positive feedback loop to finally break the negative feedback loop I have been stuck in. I think once you've built a positive feedback loop that life will continue to look good for you as long as you don't undergo a major stressor, but in which case taking T3 would mitigate even that I imagine.

Do you think taking hormones are ever necessary or T3 would cover your needs up through old age? What does the rest of your regimen look like (besides the usual red light, carbs, sleep etc...)

Not to sound cliche but my ideal life is feeling invincible, making incredible gains in the gym, having a 10/10 libido/pick up chicks like it's nothing, even the 10/10 chicks, making money, moving up the corporate ladder all that good stuff... you know, usual guy dreams haha. If dosing T3 is what it takes, then so be it... Cuz I know an amazing life is within my reach, if I can just fix my metabolism (I know what a good metabolism feels like I have briefly had one before)

 

[Cirion]

Take whoever you think is your model for ideal health and with the right stressors I can drop their T3 levels to next to nothing within a day.

This is true... You could be cruising along in life, dream job dream girl etc... then any number of things can happen... Lose your job, your girl dies in a horrific car crash, your mom dies... any one of those is a major stressor that can crush your T3 levels hardcore... Yeah, you're right. I am tired of having roller coaster T3 levels lol.

Do you take T4 also or just T3?

 

[ilikecats]

@Cirion I only take T3- idea labs tyronene - orally. I've been playing around with adding some T4 at night but I'm not sure how I feel about it yet.

 

[Cirion]

Cheers... I think I'm gonna try it... tonight just seems to be the "night" for change to me. I dunno, I'm just feeling it tonight!

I actually was getting close to my ideal life back when I took my avatar pic. I keep it around in part because it motivates me to get back to that level! And I'm determined to not only get back to that... but exceed it. Because if I'm honest with myself, even at that point I wasn't where I wanted to be entirely (although was getting a lot closer). I felt really good about myself and treated myself to cool clothes and stuff (haha, I love my red suit, I'm fat now, but I want to lose the weight so I can fit in it again!)

For me it was more a chronic low level stressor that killed my T3 and not so much a discrete big stressor. Man, girls can mess you up (that's what did for me). Chronic stress for the entirety of dating and then one last major stress (the final "straw" so to speak) after the break-up. It'll be nice to be invincible to things like that, for sure...

 

[Cirion]

Just ordered... 20 day shipping arghhh! Now the wait begins lol. *edit* ah crap I didn't realize it's in the US daaang I got the wrong shipping method... oops.... dunno why they let me choose international even though I'm in the states... meeh oh well

I'm actually feeling better tonight than I have in a long time, but this is only the beginning... I have much grander plans... Lol

 

[ilikecats]

Cool man. Yeah I’d just keep your expectations in check for the T3 lol. It’s just a small part of the puzzle for me. But yeah it should definitely help with weight loss (among other things). Good luck dude.

 

[opson123]

From a kid to young adult, so about 20 years, my diet was basically a high starch, high sugar, lowish protein and fat diet. I never had satiation issues, I never gained fat, I ate as much as I wanted. Skim milk, refined unfortified breakfast cereals, some bananas, pasta, white sugar, jams, toast, things like that, other foods too ofc, but not as a major source of calories. Not that nutrient dense, except milk, but I liked the foods. Always swore I'd never eat any restaurant food or meat again whenever I ate some, like the hangover "never again" lol. I also played football (soccer) for about 10 years which probably helped keep me lean. I'm still as lean as then, but it's probably because of really high stress.

So in my eyes the kind of diet you eat now, and even what some vegans promote (minus beans and whole grains) is a lot more appealing than many other diets.

 

[NommyWommy]

@ilikecats how much T3 do you take daily? Do you dilute the Tyronene down? Thanks