"Life Without Bread"

[Foxx]

Foxx, there is something else to consider: you may just be sleeping in 2 "phases." Like sleeping around 4 hours, waking for around an hour, and then sleeping for another 4 or so. This is not unusual. There's quite a bit of info about this being normal before electric lights were available. So if you feel (at some point) that the overall quality of your sleep/rest is good, the 2 phase pattern may be natural if everything else is ruled out. So, while continuing to look into this issue, keep it in mind and look into that too. FWIW.

Thanks SeekinTruth, I'll keep that in mind and pay attention to how often I'm waking up at night.

Foxx, could your sleeping problems be related to your recent life changes? Even if your sleep was already disturbed prior to those changes, the build up to them could have well disrupted your sleeping patterns.

Thanks Gertrude, that could be part of it as I've had some concerns around these changes, though I think there's still something else going on.

Just a suggestion for those who seem to have transition problems that include tiredness, lack of energy, etc: don't forget D-ribose. It may be that some systems are so affected by epigenetics that moving back to fat metabolism is problematical and requires energy to bootstrap over the chasm. It may also be that stimulating detoxing by giving the liver work to do requires a lot of energy that is not yet available. So, again, D-ribose - a level teaspoon two or three times a day in a cup of your favorite tea - might be just the ticket?

I haven't tried D-ribose yet so perhaps that'd be helpful. Thanks Laura!

I'll try some things and report back. :)

 

[Gaby]

More custom questions based on your post might include sleep quality, Mg supplementation, and CT treatments.

Maybe there are already standardized questionnaires you could use and to compare? Maybe using google scholar is an option. Fwiw.

I think those are very good suggestions to keep in mind. In the mean time I'm thinking and more inclined towards the idea of allowing people to tell their story on a creative way and/or their own style with the help of a questionnaire/guidance of things to answer when they write their testimonial. That would be enormously helpful for newbies and to present the info to a wider public, it will also be healing in itself on many levels.

As we post our testimonials, more people will feel encouraged to write theirs. Then we'll look everything as a whole and see patterns which will help for a development of a follow-up questionnaire that will gather more data according to a research protocol, details of which can be developed as we go along. It will be easier in the sense that it would have to be the sort of "yes or no" answers or numbers what has to be filled down. We can also remain open minded to the idea that we don't necessarily have to make an official study, but use the testimonials for a book. For instance, Life Without Bread includes graphs and studies that were not necessarily published, but were gathered by the writers. Other books just include testimonials to illustrate their health research. How about the following? :

Can you please write your health testimonial answering the following questions below when applicable. You can read all the questions first and then compose a story, but please note that it will be enormously helpful if you answer with specific data when applicable. The idea of this exercise is to illustrate the story of forum members and to gather information that is spread-out throughout various threads during time in a more synthesized way. This would be enormously helpful for newbies and other potential readers, and it could also prove to be a very healing writing exercise in and of itself.

-How did your lifestyle and diet used to be before you encountered our health research?

-What were your health problems and how were they addressed? You can describe your medical history, abnormal medical tests and/or medication, and family history as it will help to illustrate your condition better.

-Around what time did you start the diet? Was there any particular event which triggered your decision?

-Which dietary changes did you make? Please describe a brief chronology of dietary changes and feel free to report the relief of symptoms as you went along.

-Did you encounter problems with the diet and if so, how did you resolve them?

-If you took any supplements, which were the ones that made the most difference to you?

-Would you please describe your EE experience. Did you follow any particular advice or have any specific problem with the program? Feel free to include your EE testimonial if you made one.

-Did you follow alternative treatments such as FIR sauna, cryotherapy or cold adaptation as explained by Dr. Kruse, heavy metal chelation, anti-candida protocol, etc.? Can you please describe briefly the protocol you followed and when you did it? Any problems encountered?

-What were your main improvements (either physical or non-physical: sleeping patterns, weight loss, medical conditions, concentration, well being, self-improvements, etc) and how did it change your life? Did something in particular make the most difference (diet, EE, cold adaptation, FIR saunas, etc.) to you? Or was it everything as a whole?

-Have you done any kind of laboratory test (such as inflammatory markers, cholesterol panel, HbA1c, etc.) or medical test to monitor your progress or heath status? Will you please describe the results?

 

[Mrs. Peel]

Also, apologies if this was mentioned before, but are you in ketosis or are you're carbs too high still that your in glucose metabolism?

No, nowhere near ketosis. I actually felt/feel much worse eating a bunch of red meat and fat than I did before I tried it, which is why I'm still trying to transition. My Genotype was Warrior (I know we've since debunked A'Adamo) where NO meat was listed as being beneficial. I think people who are younger and generally more healthy have a easier time transitioning than an older person who's unknowingly abused their body for decades. It's like unraveling a tangled ball of string. You just can't pull the end and expect it to unroll smoothly until you go through and untie all the kinks. I'm going to substitute veggies for brown rice and quinoa and chicken, turkey, and fish for red meat.

I drink ginger tea, do take glutamine morning and evening mixed with water. Diabeties runs in my family, my brother actually has Type 2, several uncles have it and one died from complications.

 

[Oxajil]

That looks pretty neat Psyche. What about personal care changes or environment/household changes? Like: using alternative products for washing one's hair, buying shutters that doesn't let in any light, substituting old cookware for stainless steel/iron cast, etc. These could be the smaller details, but they could contribute to any health effects that have been observed? Maybe adding a question asking whether (and if so when) any personal care or household changes have been made and whether any beneficial effects were observed after? Fwiw.

 

[Gaby]

That looks pretty neat Psyche. What about personal care changes or environment/household changes? Like: using alternative products for washing one's hair, buying shutters that doesn't let in any light, substituting old cookware for stainless steel/iron cast, etc. These could be the smaller details, but they could contribute to any health effects that have been observed? Maybe adding a question asking whether (and if so when) any personal care or household changes have been made and whether any beneficial effects were observed after? Fwiw.

Good point, to see if something was done towards environmental toxicity and after all, gluten is also found in a lot of shampoos...

 

[truth seeker]

I was wondering if info regarding changes with menstrual cycles, menopause and even pregnancy (if it applies) might be helpful. That may be a good incentive for more women to want to improve their diet.

 

[Gaby]

I was wondering if info regarding changes with menstrual cycles, menopause and even pregnancy (if it applies) might be helpful. That may be a good incentive for more women to want to improve their diet.

Yeah, we can add an extra question for the women for that.

 

[mcb]

...I actually felt/feel much worse eating a bunch of red meat and fat than I did before I tried it, which is why I'm still trying to transition...

You and a bunch of other people here. :)

Several of the books we have read recommend diving in (in the manner of Atkins "induction"), while you may have seen cautions here in this topic to take it slow. I would definitely caution against jumping into a zero (more or less) carb diet, as some here have done, unless you are young and healthy, and it is not clear to me that it would be important in for most people to eliminate all carbs.

After you have done your reading, though, you can try a low-carb induction and see if it is bearable, assuming you don't have any major disease that might preclude doing that (which is where the reading comes in). The worst symptoms should ease within a few weeks. There is a lot of helpful information in the New Atkins book (if you have done your reading and know what foods to avoid), including "troubleshooting" advice. It should be read in the context of the additional information in Primal Body, Primal Mind.

Unless you have access to some sort of medical practitioner that knows paleo diet well, you are going to have to be your own doctor, at least to some degree. This is risky, but so is doing nothing. You need to have done all of the recommended reading first.

 

[Laura]

Yeah. Even after over a year of transitioning and detoxing and stuff, going strict low, LOW carb made me feel like I was gonna just collapse sometimes. I stuck with it, though, and it took several weeks to feel okay. I've still never had that "high" that some people talk about.

I would think that the best way to do it would be a gradual carb reduction, getting down to about 70 and staying there for awhile, and then maybe lowering it by 10, staying there for awhile, and so on. It takes time for the genes to be activated to redo the whole system. And it is probably especially difficult if a lot of energy is going into detoxing. I guess maybe those of us who don't do it so easily must be pretty toxified!

 

[mcb]

...I would think that the best way to do it would be a gradual carb reduction, getting down to about 70 and staying there for awhile, and then maybe lowering it by 10, staying there for awhile, and so on. It takes time for the genes to be activated to redo the whole system. And it is probably especially difficult if a lot of energy is going into detoxing. I guess maybe those of us who don't do it so easily must be pretty toxified!

I have not read anything that says you shouldn't do that, but what I have encountered repeatedly in my reading is that easing into it may prolong the discomfort unnecessarily. Of course depending on each person's individual body, it might also prolong it necessarily. Ideally if you were concerned about existing health conditions you would work with a well-informed doctor, do some tests, start with a steep carb reduction (but not going to zero) if that were not contraindicated, and then plot a course from there.

I don't know what the best advice would be. A lot of people in the general population have been successful using the Atkins approach, but a lot have failed as well. My approach is to do well-informed (lots of pre-reading) individual experimentation, applying common sense liberally and avoiding extremes.

 

[Mrs. Peel]

Ideally if you were concerned about existing health conditions you would work with a well-informed doctor, do some tests, start with a steep carb reduction (but not going to zero) if that were not contraindicated, and then plot a course from there.

Therein lies the rub! My doctor called me after I had the bloodwork done and didn't even mention anything about the low iron and Vit D or high B12 levels. If I hadn't asked for (and paid $4.50!) for a copy of the results, I wouldn't even know myself!! All she did was mention high cholesterol and blood sugar, but didn't even suggest any sort of follow-up.

You really do need to be our own doc.

 

[Laura]

Ideally if you were concerned about existing health conditions you would work with a well-informed doctor, do some tests, start with a steep carb reduction (but not going to zero) if that were not contraindicated, and then plot a course from there.

Therein lies the rub! My doctor called me after I had the bloodwork done and didn't even mention anything about the low iron and Vit D or high B12 levels. If I hadn't asked for (and paid $4.50!) for a copy of the results, I wouldn't even know myself!! All she did was mention high cholesterol and blood sugar, but didn't even suggest any sort of follow-up.

You really do need to be our own doc.

Yeah. And that is such a hard realization to face when we have been brought up to rely completely on doctors. I remember the doctor of my childhood: Sam Adams in Tampa, drank whisky and smoked cigars and had a human skeleton on display named "Mr. Bones" that I was allowed to touch if I didn't cry. He made house calls, too. He believed in the power of the body to heal itself given the right food and conditions.

Meanwhile, check this out peeps:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005FCKN2S/ref=s9_newr_gw_d66_g351_ir03?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-7&pf_rd_r=196C8V4GT1CZY0KMSFD3&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470938451&pf_rd_i=507846

 

[beetlemaniac]

Great idea, about the measurements/quantification... I think they are important and we should really know what's going on under the hood. Although most measurement are bound to be imperfect, a more important indicator would be a general trend. At the same time the focus can't be totally on health as Megan says. Most other forums like Dr. Kruse's tend to focus on this goal. There's a balance to be had I guess. Growth and learning while trying to serve others would have to be given priority.

Just a little thing I'd like to add is that the societally sanctioned addictions such as video gaming, pornography, alcohol and food addictions seem to keep the hormones/neurotransmitter balance in a constant state of disarray due to their hyperstimulative nature. I think these habits also prevent healing because the addict needs to constantly produce chemicals to keep him feeling normal, which use up things like amino acids and whatnot. So like in my experience, all these addictions really need to be taken seriously as a part of the lifestyle-changing program. I think all have to be quit cold turkey or managed very closely because they get so easily out of hand, especially when they've been learned at a young age, while being normalised by peers and family.

From my experience, trying to cut out one addiction can easily lead to a relapse in another addiction due to absence of the "high" aka withdrawal. And there can be multiple withdrawals occuring at once, depending on how much "cheating" you do. The neolithic world is crazy like that, as I'm only starting to see. Recently I decided to stop using sweeteners (stevia) for 2 days (this is the second day). I don't really know if it's related and there could be a lot of confounding factors considering the amount of habits I've accumulated, but I felt really uncomfortable without my sweet fix and started thinking of ways I could start playing video games again, watching youtube clips of people playing video games and things like that. It's just an anecdotal example but the pattern is there. Sleepless nights also seem to promote compulsive behaviour in my experience.

What I'm trying to say is that it's unwarranted to say that you're over your addictions, be it any addiction at all and constant vigilance is so important. I guess you need to know yourself. Learning to juggle these problems is really hard but I think I am getting a sense of when I am acting compulsively and pulling myself back as often as I can. Everyone here has given so many useful ways to break the hold of these habits, through writing, self-compassion, meditation, and all these ways are really beautiful as they create a meaningful relationship with the self.

So "just a little bit" is never OK, a lot of the time. For me, when it comes to food, carbs are my weak spot. I have a sweet tooth. Touching even a small amount of carbs for me tends to spiral into uncontrollable cravings to snack. Fallen in this trap too many times already. I was so taken by Jack Kruse's Leptin Reset mainly because of the no-snacking rule, which seemed like one of the really important pieces of the puzzle regarding change in eating habits (aka resetting your hunger signals and syncing metabolism to circadian cycles).

Sorry for being so off-topic, just wanted to share a bit about how our neolithic behaviours are so interrelated in the degeneration of a person. I found out how easily they pull me away from my aims and dreams only after making so many mistakes. I recently watched a movie about a heroin addict and saw myself in him, that really scared me. In the end of the movie he died of brain haemorrhage because the brain couldn't survive without the drugs.

 

[Gertrudes]

Meanwhile, check this out peeps:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005FCKN2S/ref=s9_newr_gw_d66_g351_ir03?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-7&pf_rd_r=196C8V4GT1CZY0KMSFD3&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470938451&pf_rd_i=507846

Very interesting. The reviews seem very compelling as well, I'm adding it to my basket.

 

[SeekinTruth]

Ideally if you were concerned about existing health conditions you would work with a well-informed doctor, do some tests, start with a steep carb reduction (but not going to zero) if that were not contraindicated, and then plot a course from there.

Therein lies the rub! My doctor called me after I had the bloodwork done and didn't even mention anything about the low iron and Vit D or high B12 levels. If I hadn't asked for (and paid $4.50!) for a copy of the results, I wouldn't even know myself!! All she did was mention high cholesterol and blood sugar, but didn't even suggest any sort of follow-up.

You really do need to be our own doc.

Yeah. And that is such a hard realization to face when we have been brought up to rely completely on doctors. I remember the doctor of my childhood: Sam Adams in Tampa, drank whisky and smoked cigars and had a human skeleton on display named "Mr. Bones" that I was allowed to touch if I didn't cry. He made house calls, too. He believed in the power of the body to heal itself given the right food and conditions.

Meanwhile, check this out peeps:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005FCKN2S/ref=s9_newr_gw_d66_g351_ir03?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-7&pf_rd_r=196C8V4GT1CZY0KMSFD3&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470938451&pf_rd_i=507846

I think that the things that get mentioned and shown concern by doctors (and in general) are those things that have one or more lucrative drugs on the market to supposedly address. Anything that doesn't is ignored. Pretty much everyone is programmed this way by the powerful interests. OSIT.

I'll check out that Amazon link.