I've been working very hard on my health and fitness, maybe a little too hard, but for the last few months I was hitting a wall. I was gaining weight and bloat, a bit of strength too, but I couldn't turn around the bloat no matter how much cardio I was doing.
After some research, and after a day of feeling particularly bad when taking vitamin D (big stomach cramp and headache), I decided that it's time to start trying to figure out What the Hell is Going On.
This is where Orange Juice comes in. I consistently feel good drinking OJ, and I noticed in the past that even though it has calories, it always seems to give me a 'leaning out' effect.
So I do some more study, and I come across potassium. Hmm, not really a vitamin (is an electrolyte), not talked about much, maybe not that important. Then I realize, I've been salting more and eating out more. That means very high sodium. But Peat teachings suggested sodium is good, so I didn't think anything of it. So I read more, and realize that the following imbalances likely were occurring:
- High sodium : potassium ratio; hence why OJ always feels good. And in general, this may be true for most urban western populations, everyone loves a good glass of OJ, even if they protest at the sugar.
- Why was vitamin D making me feel so bad? Well my understanding is that vitamin D helps you absorb calcium, I do decent on calcium, have been high vit D supplementing for years, and so it's possible I have a very high calcium : potassium ratio.
- In analyzing my diet (which unfortunately doesn't include enough salads/greens), it became quite clear to me that if I don't drink OJ, I pretty much don't get potassium. Besides for most foods that contain potassium, you need like a kilo of the damn thing per day to get into to 4 gram+ range.
The experiment of the last 48 hours has been really panning out well for me. I'm drinking 2+ liters of OJ a day, stopped vitamin D, and at the same body weight the bloating, water retention, fatigue is all dissipating. I'm going to continue 2L of OJ a day for a week or so more and see where this takes me.
Thoughts and experiences? Water retention *really* pisses me off, because even in the past when I was working out really well and got my body to the shape and weight I wanted, I was still holding water and couldn't take a decent picture unless I did sauna sweating, tricks with cold weather, etc.
After some research, and after a day of feeling particularly bad when taking vitamin D (big stomach cramp and headache), I decided that it's time to start trying to figure out What the Hell is Going On.
This is where Orange Juice comes in. I consistently feel good drinking OJ, and I noticed in the past that even though it has calories, it always seems to give me a 'leaning out' effect.
So I do some more study, and I come across potassium. Hmm, not really a vitamin (is an electrolyte), not talked about much, maybe not that important. Then I realize, I've been salting more and eating out more. That means very high sodium. But Peat teachings suggested sodium is good, so I didn't think anything of it. So I read more, and realize that the following imbalances likely were occurring:
- High sodium : potassium ratio; hence why OJ always feels good. And in general, this may be true for most urban western populations, everyone loves a good glass of OJ, even if they protest at the sugar.
- Why was vitamin D making me feel so bad? Well my understanding is that vitamin D helps you absorb calcium, I do decent on calcium, have been high vit D supplementing for years, and so it's possible I have a very high calcium : potassium ratio.
- In analyzing my diet (which unfortunately doesn't include enough salads/greens), it became quite clear to me that if I don't drink OJ, I pretty much don't get potassium. Besides for most foods that contain potassium, you need like a kilo of the damn thing per day to get into to 4 gram+ range.
The experiment of the last 48 hours has been really panning out well for me. I'm drinking 2+ liters of OJ a day, stopped vitamin D, and at the same body weight the bloating, water retention, fatigue is all dissipating. I'm going to continue 2L of OJ a day for a week or so more and see where this takes me.
Thoughts and experiences? Water retention *really* pisses me off, because even in the past when I was working out really well and got my body to the shape and weight I wanted, I was still holding water and couldn't take a decent picture unless I did sauna sweating, tricks with cold weather, etc.
