My Journey To Optimal Health

[Cirion]

Still having a hard time keeping my pulse up. Also feel the bloat returning. Nathan says I need to consider Sulfur to bring down the bloating.

My pulse often will jump up to a good level after eating, then immediately come crashing back down to a low level. How to combat this? just eat more?? I've tried that and often times that often just makes it drop back down even lower. Drink more coffee?

Really seem to be at a loss!

 

[Runenight201]

Just an idea to throw out there, have you tried cutting out all animal meat and eggs? Ray does talk about how those with weight issues should avoid meat and use gelatin instead as a protein source, and of course if you’re eating dairy than you can get all your protein needs meat through there.

Methionine seems to be a growth promoting amino acid, and anti-thyroid too. So limiting its intake and focusing on sat fat and sugars may allow for metabolism to increase without the weight gain that could be associated by a high methionine (meat) intake as well. I know most people feel best with a high carb intake (both sugars and starches usually), but the problem is being satiated enough and avoiding weight gain. Carbs + fat is extremely satiating, but also can cause weight gain. I think by eliminating meat, a high carb moderate fat diet can be eaten without weight gain. Just a thought/theory I have.

Meat doesn’t need to be eliminated forever, but just enough until weight is at an acceptable level and metabolism is good, and then thrown back in at appropriate amounts.

 

[Cirion]

Well interestingly enough, Nathan has suggested to me that most meats are OK but should be eaten moderately and not as frequently as dairy, and this isn't the first time I've heard this either.

Problem is though that dairy bloats me, leaving me with basically only gelatin as my protein, which doesn't seem all too realistic. I really have to beat this bloat, and then most of my problems go away honestly...

Well, from the last time I did this, I had the most success with a high-ish Carb to protein ratio. I still think this ratio is what matters more than worrying too much about eating or not eating meat, though I'm not arguing that some protein sources are no doubt better than others. That said, when your protein intake is very high, it can be challenging to keep the carb to protein ratio high as well.

 

[Runenight201]

The ratio could be what’s most important. I’ve been cutting down on weight simply avoiding meat, and every time I overdo it on the meat I get bad BO, but then again that may not occur with fish or seafood. For the meantime it’s out and when I hit a bf% I like I may try incorporating small amounts.

Also Walt Kempner had success with his patients losing a lot of weight and reversing chronic disease eating only rice and fruit juices. His theory was that in a sick body protein wasn’t utilized properly and caused inflammation or something like that. I certainly don’t think eating a very low protein diet for a couple days could do any damage, and you may hate it or love it. I think some people then just throw a little bit of fish or other lean meats and maybe skim milk and have success with that diet, so a very low fat, high carb, low-moderate protein diet.

I feel you on the bloat. Do cheese and yogurt bloat you as well? Milk always seems to be the worst offender imo, but cheese and yogurt I seem to be able to handle much easier.

 

[Blossom]

Is the dairy fortified with vitamins? Peat has mentioned that the added vitamins can be a problem for some people and that seems to be the case for myself and @mayweatherking. I know lots of people seem to tolerate fortified milk fine though but wanted to mention it anyway.

I started losing weight between years 3&4 of Peating at around 2 pounds per month. I wasn't consciously doing anything different but I probably did become as bit more active because I moved to the country and changed jobs. I currently just follow my hunger and cravings and the only thing I pay attention to is staying low pufa, eating foods I tolerate well and keeping an adequate calcium:phosphorus ratio. I've lost 40 pounds without trying but very, very gradually. I assume it just took time for my metabolism to heal despite having improvements in my health long before my weight started to normalize. I'm a middle-aged female so it might be different for you.

PS The gravity blanket is nice but it's too hot for me. I'm hoping it will work better in the winter but for now I just have it covering my feet at night!

 

[Cirion]

Dang, 3/4 years. I think that's why this is so hard for me, It's hard for me to have that kind of patience. It's hard for me to know for a fact something is gonna work if it takes that long. How did you find the patience to keep it up, what kept you motivated, when you didn't see results until that far down the road?

Was the 40 pounds you lost all from the weight you gained when you started 3/4 years ago? If so that does give me some hope, because starting this process has made my weight go up like crazy (I hear people complain about gaining 10 lbs, sorry but I have no sympathy haha because I have gone up 20-25+ lbs)

I mean, intuitively it makes sense. Your body wants to survive, and will readily and happily gain body fat when it gets the chance to if it thinks food is gonna get scarce yet again (aka, you're going to diet/"cut" again soon), and will only happily lose fat if it is 100% convinced that abundant food is here to stay (for you, 3/4 years of constant food supply). Basically, destroying your metabolism is way easier than healing it. I guess the same can be said of most things, rebuilding always takes more working than wrecking it.

As for the blanket, yea, I have to keep my thermostat low lol (I keep it set to like 65-67).

For the dairy, Nathan recommended I try A2 dairy. I found A2 milk at my store and have been using that alongside Goat cheese primarily for my cheese (also A2). I am pretty sure it is unfortified but I can check. I think goat milk would also be A2 by definition, and I have that also.

When you say low PUFA do you go OCD overboard like some folk here (like not even eating egg, or even buying hydrogenated coconut oil etc) or when you say low PUFA do you just mean avoiding things really high in PUFA like nuts and legumes and cooking oils? I find going nearly zero PUFA is pretty unrealistic for most people unless you want to restrict most of your food choices.

How long did it take your pulses to normalize. My temps are not too bad, but my pulses are just all over the map and generally way lower than I'd like. Usually around 60 (sometimes in the high 50s) at waking, and usually high 60s to low 70s throughout the day, way below the 80-90 where I'd like to be.

 

[Blossom]

Since my health was improving despite weight gain I decided to just trust in the process. I felt I had more to gain health wise by sticking with it.
It was all weight I gained after coming off keto/low carb/paleo style eating and being malnourished from celiac. My body pure and simple just didn't want to give up any weight for a few years. I seriously didn't budge even a pound and I wasn't willing to try anything extreme.
Goat dairy is A2.
I still ate eggs (sometimes a serving of 3!!!) and used regular refined coconut oil, butter etc. just no vegetable oils, nuts etc. I try to keep it below 4 grams per day but not OCD at all about it.
It took my pulse a couple years to normalize completely but it gradually improved. I had tachycardia though.
I think a younger person would probably heal a little faster than me. I was almost 44 when I first learned about Peat.
I thought more about this after my previous post (and weighed in) and in the last 21 months I've lost 42 pounds so it's right at 2 pounds a month and still going. I honestly feel really good.
I just hope you don't give up on Peating! I definitely think you're on the right track. I'm glad you've found someone to work with too. I worked with BiochemNordic early on and found it helpful to be able to talk with someone one on one. Best wishes.

 

[Cirion]

That's awesome, your story is inspiring ! Honestly 44 years old is not that old, 44 years young, haha! Age is more of what you make it than anything else. I mean, even as a teenager my health was quite awful, so age has little to do with it most of the time. I had severe depression, basically ED (girls weren't even super interesting to me to the point where I had enough courage/motivation, and young male teens should be at the prime of their hormones... I was not), all sorts of problems. You can be healthy at any age I firmly believe now. Yeah sure no one lives forever, but I think with good nutrition, good lifestyle that you can and should be able to live a full and healthy life clear up to the day you die, for the most part, barring any serious illnesses (which should be mitigated if you live a healthy lifestyle). At 31 even with the current state of my health, I still feel better than I did at 15. It's taken me this long to get help because up until the last couple of years I thought that was the status quo and that I just needed more "grit" to be better at life. Grit does certainly help, and having bad health most of my life has helped me gain grit, so there is that.

I agree with the one on one help. It makes a difference to have someone keep you accountable!

I'm just ready to improve my quality of life to where I actually LOVE life. I've never really loved life in my 31 years of existing, which is sad, our lives are already too short, I want to enjoy the time that I do have left not be stuck in a perpetual state of learned helplessness.

 

[Blossom]

That's awesome, your story is inspiring ! Honestly 44 years old is not that old, 44 years young, haha! Age is more of what you make it than anything else. I mean, even as a teenager my health was quite awful, so age has little to do with it most of the time. I had severe depression, basically ED (girls weren't even super interesting to me to the point where I had enough courage/motivation, and young male teens should be at the prime of their hormones... I was not), all sorts of problems. You can be healthy at any age I firmly believe now. Yeah sure no one lives forever, but I think with good nutrition, good lifestyle that you can and should be able to live a full and healthy life clear up to the day you die, for the most part, barring any serious illnesses (which should be mitigated if you live a healthy lifestyle). At 31 even with the current state of my health, I still feel better than I did at 15. It's taken me this long to get help because up until the last couple of years I thought that was the status quo and that I just needed more "grit" to be better at life. Grit does certainly help, and having bad health most of my life has helped me gain grit, so there is that.

I agree with the one on one help. It makes a difference to have someone keep you accountable!

Definitely, In most ways I feel better than I did at 15 too! You can't really ask for more than that IMO.

 

[Jsaute21]

That's awesome, your story is inspiring ! Honestly 44 years old is not that old, 44 years young, haha! Age is more of what you make it than anything else. I mean, even as a teenager my health was quite awful, so age has little to do with it most of the time. I had severe depression, basically ED (girls weren't even super interesting to me to the point where I had enough courage/motivation, and young male teens should be at the prime of their hormones... I was not), all sorts of problems. You can be healthy at any age I firmly believe now. Yeah sure no one lives forever, but I think with good nutrition, good lifestyle that you can and should be able to live a full and healthy life clear up to the day you die, for the most part, barring any serious illnesses (which should be mitigated if you live a healthy lifestyle). At 31 even with the current state of my health, I still feel better than I did at 15. It's taken me this long to get help because up until the last couple of years I thought that was the status quo and that I just needed more "grit" to be better at life. Grit does certainly help, and having bad health most of my life has helped me gain grit, so there is that.

I agree with the one on one help. It makes a difference to have someone keep you accountable!

I'm just ready to improve my quality of life to where I actually LOVE life. I've never really loved life in my 31 years of existing, which is sad, our lives are already too short, I want to enjoy the time that I do have left not be stuck in a perpetual state of learned helplessness.

My advice would be "embrace the process." As a lifelong athlete, the below quote from Jacob A Riis has always rung true for me. If you eat Low Pufa for 3 years in a row, drink moderately at most, eat good quality proteins & carbohydrates, I feel pretty certain that your health and appearance will improve. Every day your health is improving, it just takes time for the results to show. Nathan is very smart. Guy was obese, had cancer, was suicidal and now looks great and is clearly functioning at an extremely high level. Be positive, and continue to do research.

“When nothing seems to help, I go and look at a stonecutter
hammering away at his rock, perhaps a hundred times without as
much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred and first
blow it will split in two, and I know it was not that last
blow that did it, but all that had gone before.”

 

[Cirion]

Checked my A2 milk container. Only additives is Vitamin D, no other vitamins as far as I can tell. Nathan did just warn me that milk (even A2) can feed candida, and that I may need to supplement sulfur (either sublimed, or through onion powder).

It did look like the 2% milk had a few more additives like vitamin A, so I'm gonna stick to the whole milk which only has the vitamin D added.

 

[Jsaute21]

Checked my A2 milk container. Only additives is Vitamin D, no other vitamins as far as I can tell. Nathan did just warn me that milk (even A2) can feed candida, and that I may need to supplement sulfur (either sublimed, or through onion powder).

It did look like the 2% milk had a few more additives like vitamin A, so I'm gonna stick to the whole milk which only has the vitamin D added.

Though nutritious, I would stick away from whole Milk if trying to lose weight. In moderation, it shouldn't hurt you but high fat/high carb intakes in combination do put on weight. Its real simple. Some fat is essential imo but if you are trying to improve health while losing fat - low fat is the way to go.

 

[Cirion]

Low fat never worked for me. Always felt starving doing that. Yeah it can help keep weight down but keeping weight down I've come to accept is not actually the goal, healing is Low fat will not facilitate the healing process. Healing first, weight later - that was Blossom's experience also. Anyway, it's not like I chug whole milk all day long, I just do a glass or two a day.

From what I'm hearing from Nathan, the true ideal meal is gonna have a good balance of everything, which intuitively makes sense.

Quality protein + starch + sugar + salt + veggies + saturated fat = a true "balanced" meal. You need it all. This is a deviation from my belief previously that both veggies and starch were "bad", I no longer believe this.

I hate gaining fat, but the fact is without a surplus of nutrients your body simply will not heal. I am going to get back to my weightlifting 3x a week though to hopefully reduce the damage a little though.

 

[Jsaute21]

Low fat never worked for me. Always felt starving doing that. Yeah it can help keep weight down but keeping weight down I've come to accept is not actually the goal, healing is Low fat will not facilitate the healing process. Healing first, weight later - that was Blossom's experience also. Anyway, it's not like I chug whole milk all day long, I just do a glass or two a day.

I hate gaining fat, but the fact is without a surplus of nutrients your body simply will not heal. I am going to get back to my weightlifting 3x a week though to hopefully reduce the damage a little though.

Cool. Sounds like you have a solid plan of attack.

 

[Cirion]

Yeah I think so. The coaching is really helping I think, because now as I encounter problems help is just an email away.

 

[Runenight201]

@Cirion the balanced approach to meals is definitely how I’ve been feeling as of late. Every time I’ve ran into problems it’s because I went too far in a single direction (too much dairy, too much fruit, too much sugar, too much starch, too much fat, too much meat, too much vegetables, etc....)

I think the balance of each meal definitely depends on individual context, energy, and micro nutritional needs, and that once you know what high energy feels like with a clean digestion, mental clarity, proper satiation, and positive mood/emotions, each meal can be created to maintain or reach that state. What is needed at breakfast may be different than what’s needed at lunch, vs what’s needed as a snack, vs what’s needed as dinner, but in the grand scheme it should all support a healthy mind/body state.

 

[Jsaute21]

Yeah I think so. The coaching is really helping I think, because now as I encounter problems help is just an email away.

He is very smart man. I am reading his book.

 

[Cirion]

I am slowly trying to bump up the carb intake again, only this time instead of purely from sugar trying a roughly 50/50 split from starch and sugar to try to stabilize the blood sugar better. Keeping it simple for now, today am just having a mix of apples & sweet potatoes (two of my favorite foods), quite a lot of each - 6 apples packed for food for work today alongside 7 whole sweet potatoes & beef cooked in coconut oil for the protein source. Salted both generously also. And of course no peat meal is complete without a cup of coffee with the meal with cream and sugar added

 

[raypeatclips]

Quality protein + starch + sugar + salt + veggies + saturated fat = a true "balanced" meal. You need it all.

+1 completely agree with this.

 

[raypeatclips]

Though nutritious, I would stick away from whole Milk if trying to lose weight. In moderation, it shouldn't hurt you but high fat/high carb intakes in combination do put on weight. Its real simple. Some fat is essential imo but if you are trying to improve health while losing fat - low fat is the way to go.

I completely believe the issue is with how calorific fat is compared to carbs and protein, so it is much easier to get more calories when being generous with fat sources. I am eating very generous fat sources these days, but making sure I don't overdo calories, and looking slimmer than I have in years. Really is a matter of calories IMO.