Not much to report in terms of improvement on any fronts. I have been eating more bread and cold cereals the past week or so. I bought them more out of ease but then realized I had a lot so just been using them.
I had my second consultation with Pippa. Verdict is I'm constipated and my liver is slightly congested. The bread and cold cereals are not helping. Interestingly I am to have a pear a day. Every once in a while I'll eat something and it will taste really good, far better than it should normally taste. I've always taken it as a signal it is something the body needs and I usually follow the craving without question. Most recently this happened with a pear.
I'm glad to get rid of the bread and boxed cereals. I am looking forward to trying more varieties of warm cereals (I'm not big on oatmeal), and having more veggies and things like brown rice and sweet potatoes. I had been relying on bread more recently on the one part to make things easy and on the other part to not be so uptight about relying on rice and sweet potatoes (although I'd found I prefer them). My opinion on the enjoyability of the diet upping the bread intake is kind of negative. I think it deserves a minimal, sideline role, at least for me.
Boxed cereals I don't see having any preferred role. Coming back to them after years off was far less than I expected. I feel like they are for convenience only.
I'm excited to see what changes following these recommendations will bring. My experience and intuition is there will be more improvements.
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Sunday, September 18, 2011
RBTI Week 2
So I'm on my second week of RBTI. Not too much has changed from the previous week although things do seem to be improving very gradually. By that I mean almost imperceptably, although they do appear to be improving. I'm not really on the full program yet, so things may be moving along faster after that. Also, last Saturday was a stay up late party kind of evening and this one probably will be too. I don't know how much that prevents progress. It's probably highly individual.
I have finally finished the water flush and can start the lemonade. The water flush was a specific recommendation to me since sea salt and other items were shutting down my system and my ureas were really high. It felt like an awful lot of water to be getting in each day and I'm glad to be done with it. The lemonade is very similar to the Master Cleanse. Instead of spring water you use distilled and instead of maple syrup you can also use things like molasses, agave, or brown rice syrup. There is no fasting.
Body Temps
Not much change either direction here. I'm still not sure what entirely influences body temp. I had one day at 97.1 and the next at 97.9. I measure multiple times so it's not like one of them was a fluke. After a couple of measurements, you can pretty much tell what range it's hovering in. Overall temps are good, but slightly low on average.
Blood Sugar
I only measured this a couple times. Midweek was at 81 and this morning was at 91, which I really don't understand. I still prefer this to be in the low 80s, but again, perhaps I don't understand all the things that influence fasting blood sugar. I have not been measuring post-prandials.
Body Composition
Hard to say there's been much if any improvement. I still feel better wearing the skinny tees, as in less self-conscious. Fat loss appears to be very slow. I do have the desire to dump all excess belly fat, but not at the expense of my metabolism. That's why I've not consciously pursued it in the 18 months of quitting low-carb, and gaining my post-low-carb rebound weight. Muscle tone may also be decreasing. Perhaps I am not eating enough. Appetite has been low and I'm playing more into my body's queues as well now, pushing things away when I no longer feel like eating them. If this causes a severe or lasting drop in body temps, then I will force more food in, but so far it is not.
I may at some point start getting more regular exercise in. Right now it's mostly walking with the occasional push-ups or pull-ups. Basically not much exercise at all. I want the crud to continue clearing up more first and then I will spend some time figuring out what really fits with my personality.
The Crud
This seems to have gotten the most improvement in the past week. I feel like there's a base at which it's stabilized and that base is generally rising. It reminds me of something our lama said once about meditation. You can't really measure progress because life has so many hills and valleys that at any one point, it's difficult to assess past progress. Gradually, meditation fills those in and smoothes everything out and you get improvement over time. RBTI feels like it's doing something similar for the crud. And I have to say I'm feeling fairly decent lately, although the crud is still there and perceptible.
Sleep Quality
Ok, so it appears the sleep quality thing is part of adjusting to the RBTI meal patterns. Many people experience bad sleep for a week or two. I seem to be past the adjustment period and getting regular sleep now although a week ago I was not. I seem to be going to bed before 10:00 every night and waking up quite early, around 6:00 or so. This might be my natural circadian rythm, which I've suspected it to be for a long time.
I have finally finished the water flush and can start the lemonade. The water flush was a specific recommendation to me since sea salt and other items were shutting down my system and my ureas were really high. It felt like an awful lot of water to be getting in each day and I'm glad to be done with it. The lemonade is very similar to the Master Cleanse. Instead of spring water you use distilled and instead of maple syrup you can also use things like molasses, agave, or brown rice syrup. There is no fasting.
Body Temps
Not much change either direction here. I'm still not sure what entirely influences body temp. I had one day at 97.1 and the next at 97.9. I measure multiple times so it's not like one of them was a fluke. After a couple of measurements, you can pretty much tell what range it's hovering in. Overall temps are good, but slightly low on average.
Blood Sugar
I only measured this a couple times. Midweek was at 81 and this morning was at 91, which I really don't understand. I still prefer this to be in the low 80s, but again, perhaps I don't understand all the things that influence fasting blood sugar. I have not been measuring post-prandials.
Body Composition
Hard to say there's been much if any improvement. I still feel better wearing the skinny tees, as in less self-conscious. Fat loss appears to be very slow. I do have the desire to dump all excess belly fat, but not at the expense of my metabolism. That's why I've not consciously pursued it in the 18 months of quitting low-carb, and gaining my post-low-carb rebound weight. Muscle tone may also be decreasing. Perhaps I am not eating enough. Appetite has been low and I'm playing more into my body's queues as well now, pushing things away when I no longer feel like eating them. If this causes a severe or lasting drop in body temps, then I will force more food in, but so far it is not.
I may at some point start getting more regular exercise in. Right now it's mostly walking with the occasional push-ups or pull-ups. Basically not much exercise at all. I want the crud to continue clearing up more first and then I will spend some time figuring out what really fits with my personality.
The Crud
This seems to have gotten the most improvement in the past week. I feel like there's a base at which it's stabilized and that base is generally rising. It reminds me of something our lama said once about meditation. You can't really measure progress because life has so many hills and valleys that at any one point, it's difficult to assess past progress. Gradually, meditation fills those in and smoothes everything out and you get improvement over time. RBTI feels like it's doing something similar for the crud. And I have to say I'm feeling fairly decent lately, although the crud is still there and perceptible.
Sleep Quality
Ok, so it appears the sleep quality thing is part of adjusting to the RBTI meal patterns. Many people experience bad sleep for a week or two. I seem to be past the adjustment period and getting regular sleep now although a week ago I was not. I seem to be going to bed before 10:00 every night and waking up quite early, around 6:00 or so. This might be my natural circadian rythm, which I've suspected it to be for a long time.
Saturday, September 10, 2011
RBTI One Week Assessment
I have been doing RBTI for about six days now. So far this doesn't mean much. I don't have an actual set of recommendations to follow yet other than continue the water flush and then redo the tests. So there's nothing geared specifically to where my body is at. I also may still be adjusting or maybe don't have some of it down quite yet.
Body Temps
Body temp is axillary (measured under the armpit). 97.8 should be lowest. 98.0 or so should correspond to 98.6 oral. It's important to keep body temp up as that indicates everything is running correctly.
These have stayed solid. Typically I have measured around 97.5 but since starting this protocol, I have had two days at 98.0 upon waking. I also felt warmer and instinctively knew the thermometer was going to read higher.
So far I have to say this program does not affect body temp as long as you are eating the right foods and eating enough. My hunch on body temps is still that the starchy whole foods help the most: sweet potatoes, wild rice, etc.
Blood Sugar
Being measured only infrequently. I only test fasting as too many things affect post-prandial for it to be a useful measurement. My ideal is 85 or below as it shows excellent blood sugar control and energy regulation. Two separate measurements were at 86 and 83. Again my belief here is that this has more to do with how much process foods are limited and how much complex carbs in whole form are provided in the diet.
Body Composition
It seems pretty clear by this point: post RRARF* belly fat is gradually going away. I attribute this mostly to the eating pattern. It seemed to start when I originally changed to the large lunches. This was prior to initial consult and begninning of water flushes, when sea salt was supposedly shutting down my system. Since the body temps are the same or even higher, I must assume this is a true fat-burning mode and not a starvation or famine (diet) state. I am not counting calories and am eating what I feel like. I have been trying to get a lunch-time dessert every day to keep the noon meal calories up, which is something I noticed the first few days. It is easy to undereat at lunch until you become adjusted. I also noticed though after a few days my appetite was greatly diminished, so I went with that impulse, still trying to eat a bit extra at lunch. Since this did not affect my body temp, it was probably reduced appetite because my body (and not me) has decided to dump fat.
The Crud
The main condition I'm trying to overcome, described in my first RBTI post. It's difficult to describe directly, so I suggest you read that. Hard to tell how much improvement there's been. Maybe a very slight improvement, but it's compounding with effects of insomnia, so generally I still feel pretty cruddy. I'm hoping this will clear up.
Sleep Quality
Not ideal, let's put it that way. I may still be in an adjustment period, or it may be I need to wait until I get a better reading from the tests, and thus more specific recommendations. Or maybe it's the light dinners. We'll see what happens in the next few weeks.
*RRARF is a program designed by Matt Stone to help people out of the starvation mode typical to most diets. RRARF stands for Rehabilitative Rest and Aggressive Refeeding, a period where you explicitly eat more food and get more rest and less exercise. It is meant to be temporary and only done to get the metaboism fired up again and the body rebuilding its lean mass. Many people, depending on previous diet history, gain belly fat following this protocol. This is seen, based on studies like those of Ancel Keys, as a normal physiological response and possibly necessary for those in a starvation mode. The metabolism boost and lean mass gain are necessary for long term weight loss and maintanence but the body may hold on to the fat for several months. It is not known yet if there is a way to restart the metabolism without body fat gain for people that are in a severely dieted state.
Body Temps
Body temp is axillary (measured under the armpit). 97.8 should be lowest. 98.0 or so should correspond to 98.6 oral. It's important to keep body temp up as that indicates everything is running correctly.
These have stayed solid. Typically I have measured around 97.5 but since starting this protocol, I have had two days at 98.0 upon waking. I also felt warmer and instinctively knew the thermometer was going to read higher.
So far I have to say this program does not affect body temp as long as you are eating the right foods and eating enough. My hunch on body temps is still that the starchy whole foods help the most: sweet potatoes, wild rice, etc.
Blood Sugar
Being measured only infrequently. I only test fasting as too many things affect post-prandial for it to be a useful measurement. My ideal is 85 or below as it shows excellent blood sugar control and energy regulation. Two separate measurements were at 86 and 83. Again my belief here is that this has more to do with how much process foods are limited and how much complex carbs in whole form are provided in the diet.
Body Composition
It seems pretty clear by this point: post RRARF* belly fat is gradually going away. I attribute this mostly to the eating pattern. It seemed to start when I originally changed to the large lunches. This was prior to initial consult and begninning of water flushes, when sea salt was supposedly shutting down my system. Since the body temps are the same or even higher, I must assume this is a true fat-burning mode and not a starvation or famine (diet) state. I am not counting calories and am eating what I feel like. I have been trying to get a lunch-time dessert every day to keep the noon meal calories up, which is something I noticed the first few days. It is easy to undereat at lunch until you become adjusted. I also noticed though after a few days my appetite was greatly diminished, so I went with that impulse, still trying to eat a bit extra at lunch. Since this did not affect my body temp, it was probably reduced appetite because my body (and not me) has decided to dump fat.
The Crud
The main condition I'm trying to overcome, described in my first RBTI post. It's difficult to describe directly, so I suggest you read that. Hard to tell how much improvement there's been. Maybe a very slight improvement, but it's compounding with effects of insomnia, so generally I still feel pretty cruddy. I'm hoping this will clear up.
Sleep Quality
Not ideal, let's put it that way. I may still be in an adjustment period, or it may be I need to wait until I get a better reading from the tests, and thus more specific recommendations. Or maybe it's the light dinners. We'll see what happens in the next few weeks.
*RRARF is a program designed by Matt Stone to help people out of the starvation mode typical to most diets. RRARF stands for Rehabilitative Rest and Aggressive Refeeding, a period where you explicitly eat more food and get more rest and less exercise. It is meant to be temporary and only done to get the metaboism fired up again and the body rebuilding its lean mass. Many people, depending on previous diet history, gain belly fat following this protocol. This is seen, based on studies like those of Ancel Keys, as a normal physiological response and possibly necessary for those in a starvation mode. The metabolism boost and lean mass gain are necessary for long term weight loss and maintanence but the body may hold on to the fat for several months. It is not known yet if there is a way to restart the metabolism without body fat gain for people that are in a severely dieted state.
Friday, September 9, 2011
Overview of RBTI
So I felt it would be good to give Matt Stone's perspective on the RBTI. Matt and Pippa were in Roseville on Sunday Sep 4th and that's where we got our testing and initial consults. After we all had our tests and consults done, Matt sat down to give us all an overview of the program. The first eight minutes were a really excellent explanation of RBTI from his perspective. The following YouTube video is a recording of that talk.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvI7MY7lptw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvI7MY7lptw
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
RBTI Initial Consult and Impressions
So yesterday I met Matt and Pippa in the flesh. It's funny how many people knock Matt on his blog. Everybody's just following guru Matt to his next obsession. We all need to get over it and just live our lives. True that, but such criticisms don't understand Matt's real goal, which is exactly that. Like myself, Matt is an information nerd more concerned about understanding things at a deep level than being right or making money. Like me, he will continue to pursue and acquire health information until he has a deep and comprehensive view... far deeper than currently exists anywhere. Although he's far more dedicated to it than I ever will be. In person, he's much like he is in his videos: slightly dorky and a bit too enthusiastic about health stuff.
The notions that Matt is trying to make money or is in some kind of ego craze are laughable. There was nothing glamorous about him and Pippa spending their labor day weekend driving six hours to meet a bunch of health nuts and WAPF groupies and play with their urine samples (granted I am spinning that as negatively as possible). Matt didn't even collect any money. Pippa collected $25 for consultation. Such is my outlay so far, and it doesn't look like the costs of this program will be increasing much anytime soon. More on that later. I asked Matt about his income sources, which are apparently non-existant at the moment. I have to believe that considering how much content he must go through to churn out all the material and answer all the blog posts he does.
The Program
I have to say overall this appears to be much more easy to follow program than I anticipated, more akin to say incorporating Weil's guidelines in "Healthy Aging" or Guiliano's in "French Women Don't Get Fat". Both have excellent information but are overly verbose and perhaps cumbersome to implement in their entirety. Or maybe Matt and Pippa have just done a good job at breaking this program down to the essentials. So let's get to that.
The No Foods
This is the biggest potential hurdle. These foods are really more about avoidance than moderation. They cause immediate disturbance to body chemistry which can last for several days, during which body healing is compromised. First on the list is pork in all its forms (including as gelatin or additives in dietary supplements). Next up are nuts and seeds, chocolate (and cocoa), shell fish and skin fish, black and green tea (but not coffee in small amounts), and finally undercooked or raw meats, such as sushi. Sea salt is a food to minimize.
My thoughts on the no foods
I find the avoidance of pork interesting, not just because it's listed in the Bible as an unclean meat. That to me indicates ancient cultures avoided for it reasons unknown (I believe it was cultural wisdom that was later attributed to the word of God). They aren't the only culture. Certain Native American cultures will not touch pork, or at least it's more likely in the older generations. I know this anecdotally through firsthand accounts due to my time on health blogs. I had thought the Okinawans ate a fair amount of pork, so I looked up Dan Buetnner's research with the Blue Zones, and it appears they ate it only occasionaly for celebrations. This jibes with RBTI as a healthy, well-mineralized body would have only a small disturbance from the no foods and would remain healthy as long as the no foods aren't being consumed consistently. There may be healthy cultures eating a lot of pork, but I just don't know enough to qualify it.
Chocolate I am already suspicious of. It never seemed to fit normally along with other foods. When I was low-carb and unhealthy, I would regularly binge on dark chocolate. Now that I'm practicing more intuitive eating, I find myself cutting it out, along with alcohol. I don't doubt it's disruptive to body chemistry, along with caffeine, nicotine, and alcohol. It appears to be more disruptive than I would have anticipated though.
The sea salt guideline is drawing a lot of flak on Matt's blog but I'm willing to go with the flow on this one. Apparently it shows up in the body chemistry. I'm trying to think how we've collectively come to the conclusion that sea salt is healthy. Any references are appreciated.
The other foods are not that big a deal to me, so I don't have much comment on them.
Meal Patterns
This is the other biggie of RBTI. Have a carb heavy breakfast (oatmeal or other porridgy breakfasts are recommended), a big lunch, and a light dinner. Actually, Guiliano seems to advocate a similar pattern, except that she asserts that the big meal can be lunch or dinner. RBTI does not assert that, but since RBTI isn't overly strict, I may end up stretching the rules here and there a la Guiliano. Meats and sweets are eating at lunch and avoided at dinner. Dinner is typically made up of non-starchy vegetables and is things like soup, salad, Spanakopita, low-fat yogurt, etc.
I've been adjusting to the meal pattern over the last few days (prior to the consultation) and I have to say I already agree with the avoidance of meats and sweets after 2pm. Some of my worst nights falling asleep in the past few months were meat heavy dinners. And sweets don't just don't feel right in the evening. Don't know why, but left to myself, I don't want any. The meal pattern was a rough adjustment, but it's already beginning to feel natural.
Dairy, butter, etc.
Yes, RBTI advocates use of skim-milk, low-fat yogurt, and minimal amounts of butter. This is directly against a lot of WAPF teachings. But let's take a critical step back here. I read Nutrition and Physical Degeneration and Weston A. Price didn't restore health in kids using gobs of butter. He restored health using high-vitamin butter and freshly ground whole wheat in a single meal that was otherwise part of a very deficient diet. He acknowledged that healthy cultures recognized the importance of high-vitamin butter and organ meats, but there is nothing to say you need to go through pounds and pounds of butter, as some WAPF followers seem to believe. A couple things: fat is necessary for absorption of certain nutrients but contains no minerals itself, and high-solvency oils like those found in butter are more difficult to digest.
Weston A. Price wasn't the only researcher to study traditional diets. If we look at the research of others such as T. L. Cleave, we see healthy cultures that ate very high carbohydrate, some 80 to 90 percent. Sweet potatoes, yams, and grains are common.
Lemon Water
RBTI does require the use of distilled water if you are to truly follow it. Often this has lemon and a bit of sweetener dissolved in it, depending on where your body chemistry is at. My best understanding of this is that distilled water best matches the body's own natural pH and thus requires less work for the body to maintain it's own enviroment. Contrary to a lot of conventional wisdom, RBTI does not always advocate drinking a lot of water. It depends on your chemistry. If your salts are too low or you tend towards hypoglycemia, drinking too much water can be a major stress.
Water is generally not drunk in the late afternoon or evening, another principle I agree with. Although I used to drink lots of unsweetened lemon water (prior to becoming a health nut) I would naturally stop in the evening, as I found my system was still trying to clear out the excess after I went to bed (annoying).
My Consultation
It doesn't amount to much. Apparently I've had too much sea salt (and chocolate) and not enough water recently. My prescription is a water flush (i.e. drink plenty of water the next few days). Other than that, Pippa said I would need to retest after the flush. That's going to be a couple of weeks or so until the test kit arrives that the group of us here in Mpls ordered. Yes, we're only ordering one kit for all of us so far. This program is going to be really cheap.
The other thing she said was that their was pressure on my heart and it may have been beating louder. I had noticed that my heartbeat felt louder the past few days but had been only mildly concerned about it.
The notions that Matt is trying to make money or is in some kind of ego craze are laughable. There was nothing glamorous about him and Pippa spending their labor day weekend driving six hours to meet a bunch of health nuts and WAPF groupies and play with their urine samples (granted I am spinning that as negatively as possible). Matt didn't even collect any money. Pippa collected $25 for consultation. Such is my outlay so far, and it doesn't look like the costs of this program will be increasing much anytime soon. More on that later. I asked Matt about his income sources, which are apparently non-existant at the moment. I have to believe that considering how much content he must go through to churn out all the material and answer all the blog posts he does.
The Program
I have to say overall this appears to be much more easy to follow program than I anticipated, more akin to say incorporating Weil's guidelines in "Healthy Aging" or Guiliano's in "French Women Don't Get Fat". Both have excellent information but are overly verbose and perhaps cumbersome to implement in their entirety. Or maybe Matt and Pippa have just done a good job at breaking this program down to the essentials. So let's get to that.
The No Foods
This is the biggest potential hurdle. These foods are really more about avoidance than moderation. They cause immediate disturbance to body chemistry which can last for several days, during which body healing is compromised. First on the list is pork in all its forms (including as gelatin or additives in dietary supplements). Next up are nuts and seeds, chocolate (and cocoa), shell fish and skin fish, black and green tea (but not coffee in small amounts), and finally undercooked or raw meats, such as sushi. Sea salt is a food to minimize.
My thoughts on the no foods
I find the avoidance of pork interesting, not just because it's listed in the Bible as an unclean meat. That to me indicates ancient cultures avoided for it reasons unknown (I believe it was cultural wisdom that was later attributed to the word of God). They aren't the only culture. Certain Native American cultures will not touch pork, or at least it's more likely in the older generations. I know this anecdotally through firsthand accounts due to my time on health blogs. I had thought the Okinawans ate a fair amount of pork, so I looked up Dan Buetnner's research with the Blue Zones, and it appears they ate it only occasionaly for celebrations. This jibes with RBTI as a healthy, well-mineralized body would have only a small disturbance from the no foods and would remain healthy as long as the no foods aren't being consumed consistently. There may be healthy cultures eating a lot of pork, but I just don't know enough to qualify it.
Chocolate I am already suspicious of. It never seemed to fit normally along with other foods. When I was low-carb and unhealthy, I would regularly binge on dark chocolate. Now that I'm practicing more intuitive eating, I find myself cutting it out, along with alcohol. I don't doubt it's disruptive to body chemistry, along with caffeine, nicotine, and alcohol. It appears to be more disruptive than I would have anticipated though.
The sea salt guideline is drawing a lot of flak on Matt's blog but I'm willing to go with the flow on this one. Apparently it shows up in the body chemistry. I'm trying to think how we've collectively come to the conclusion that sea salt is healthy. Any references are appreciated.
The other foods are not that big a deal to me, so I don't have much comment on them.
Meal Patterns
This is the other biggie of RBTI. Have a carb heavy breakfast (oatmeal or other porridgy breakfasts are recommended), a big lunch, and a light dinner. Actually, Guiliano seems to advocate a similar pattern, except that she asserts that the big meal can be lunch or dinner. RBTI does not assert that, but since RBTI isn't overly strict, I may end up stretching the rules here and there a la Guiliano. Meats and sweets are eating at lunch and avoided at dinner. Dinner is typically made up of non-starchy vegetables and is things like soup, salad, Spanakopita, low-fat yogurt, etc.
I've been adjusting to the meal pattern over the last few days (prior to the consultation) and I have to say I already agree with the avoidance of meats and sweets after 2pm. Some of my worst nights falling asleep in the past few months were meat heavy dinners. And sweets don't just don't feel right in the evening. Don't know why, but left to myself, I don't want any. The meal pattern was a rough adjustment, but it's already beginning to feel natural.
Dairy, butter, etc.
Yes, RBTI advocates use of skim-milk, low-fat yogurt, and minimal amounts of butter. This is directly against a lot of WAPF teachings. But let's take a critical step back here. I read Nutrition and Physical Degeneration and Weston A. Price didn't restore health in kids using gobs of butter. He restored health using high-vitamin butter and freshly ground whole wheat in a single meal that was otherwise part of a very deficient diet. He acknowledged that healthy cultures recognized the importance of high-vitamin butter and organ meats, but there is nothing to say you need to go through pounds and pounds of butter, as some WAPF followers seem to believe. A couple things: fat is necessary for absorption of certain nutrients but contains no minerals itself, and high-solvency oils like those found in butter are more difficult to digest.
Weston A. Price wasn't the only researcher to study traditional diets. If we look at the research of others such as T. L. Cleave, we see healthy cultures that ate very high carbohydrate, some 80 to 90 percent. Sweet potatoes, yams, and grains are common.
Lemon Water
RBTI does require the use of distilled water if you are to truly follow it. Often this has lemon and a bit of sweetener dissolved in it, depending on where your body chemistry is at. My best understanding of this is that distilled water best matches the body's own natural pH and thus requires less work for the body to maintain it's own enviroment. Contrary to a lot of conventional wisdom, RBTI does not always advocate drinking a lot of water. It depends on your chemistry. If your salts are too low or you tend towards hypoglycemia, drinking too much water can be a major stress.
Water is generally not drunk in the late afternoon or evening, another principle I agree with. Although I used to drink lots of unsweetened lemon water (prior to becoming a health nut) I would naturally stop in the evening, as I found my system was still trying to clear out the excess after I went to bed (annoying).
My Consultation
It doesn't amount to much. Apparently I've had too much sea salt (and chocolate) and not enough water recently. My prescription is a water flush (i.e. drink plenty of water the next few days). Other than that, Pippa said I would need to retest after the flush. That's going to be a couple of weeks or so until the test kit arrives that the group of us here in Mpls ordered. Yes, we're only ordering one kit for all of us so far. This program is going to be really cheap.
The other thing she said was that their was pressure on my heart and it may have been beating louder. I had noticed that my heartbeat felt louder the past few days but had been only mildly concerned about it.
Why RBTI Part 2
So in the last post, I explained the general condition that I am experiencing and the couple initial forays I made into alternative medicine and my subsequent cold feet. There are a few things I see differently about RBTI that are persuading me to give it a chance. I will cover those here.
Trust
Basically this is my trust in Matt Stone of 180 Degree Health. I came across his clear and concise arguments against low-carb over a year and a half ago. I've been following his blog as he explores new ideas and cuts through dietary dogma ever since. Matt, it seems, goes out of his way to explore new off the wall ideas and not get stuck in any one paradigm. He's very well informed and answers questions directly. RBTI is the most promising thing he's seen in quite some time and he's been studying it now for the past month or so.
I don't need to explain my condition
Thank God. RBTI uses one set of tests and one set of numbers for all patients. I'll be more likely to have my conditioned explained to me, then to have to attempt to explain it to my practitioner. The tests themselves aren't all that expensive and I can buy the equipment and then test from home, so any up-front costs are one time only. Also, the consultation can be done over the phone, and most likely will be some simple rules based on my numbers along with some general RBTI guidelines. Also, if RBTI fails to help my condition, it's easier to see it as a failure of RBTI rather than some failure on my part to describe it adequately.
More dietary freedom
RBTI allows for processed foods, desserts, and the like. My understanding here is it's more about the overall context of the diet, avoiding specific disruptive foods, and following a meal pattern that allows the body to rest and heal. I still plan to eat plenty of fruits and vegetables, but many of us recovering from health obsession need to learn to let go and eat a frozen pizza or scoop of ice cream.
The underlying prinicple makes a lot of sense
Ok, if you've already googled RBTI, ignore what you think it means. I'm going to give you mine (and Matt's) understanding: provide as much support balancing the body chemistry as possible while giving it an adequate mineral supply and watch its healing processes increase by an order of magnitude. This is the same principle you would apply in restoring soil health or marine health and it also works for the body. The body is also like its own ecosystem and it is self-regulating. Unfortunately, like any ecosystem, the more damaged it becomes, the more delicate it is and the more difficult it is to restore. This is exactly how RBTI sees it, and the healthier you are (according to the numbers), the more dietary freedom you have. This explains why it seems healthy people can go around eating whatever they want with immunity, while unhealthy people struggle constantly with different diets. The healthy are probably doing enough intuitively to keep things on track.
Intuitiveness
This gets me to a final thought I have about RBTI as I've been learning about it from Matt's blog and from the newly formed Facebook group. There seems to be aspects of it that align with my intuitive eating patterns of seven or eight years ago: drinking water with dissolved lemon juice throughout the day, eating a carb-heavy breakfast, eating a lighter dinner with cottage cheese or similar easily digestible protein. RBTI may end up clearing up some of the remaining dietary dogmatisms I have and I may well end up adopting some of the practices well into the future.
My expectations
My expectations are that RBTI is going to have me feeling a lot better over all. I will be trying to follow it off and on for a month or more. After September, I may try to follow it more stringnetly. My hope is that by holidays (Thanksgiving) I will be feeling very good and would plan to let go of a lot of the RBTI specific restrictions. I may incorporate many of the RBTI recommendations into my lifestyle.
I will do my best to track my numbers (test results), general feeling, and other health measures as best I can, although past experience tells me that can get overwhelming, so I'll do my best.
Trust
Basically this is my trust in Matt Stone of 180 Degree Health. I came across his clear and concise arguments against low-carb over a year and a half ago. I've been following his blog as he explores new ideas and cuts through dietary dogma ever since. Matt, it seems, goes out of his way to explore new off the wall ideas and not get stuck in any one paradigm. He's very well informed and answers questions directly. RBTI is the most promising thing he's seen in quite some time and he's been studying it now for the past month or so.
I don't need to explain my condition
Thank God. RBTI uses one set of tests and one set of numbers for all patients. I'll be more likely to have my conditioned explained to me, then to have to attempt to explain it to my practitioner. The tests themselves aren't all that expensive and I can buy the equipment and then test from home, so any up-front costs are one time only. Also, the consultation can be done over the phone, and most likely will be some simple rules based on my numbers along with some general RBTI guidelines. Also, if RBTI fails to help my condition, it's easier to see it as a failure of RBTI rather than some failure on my part to describe it adequately.
More dietary freedom
RBTI allows for processed foods, desserts, and the like. My understanding here is it's more about the overall context of the diet, avoiding specific disruptive foods, and following a meal pattern that allows the body to rest and heal. I still plan to eat plenty of fruits and vegetables, but many of us recovering from health obsession need to learn to let go and eat a frozen pizza or scoop of ice cream.
The underlying prinicple makes a lot of sense
Ok, if you've already googled RBTI, ignore what you think it means. I'm going to give you mine (and Matt's) understanding: provide as much support balancing the body chemistry as possible while giving it an adequate mineral supply and watch its healing processes increase by an order of magnitude. This is the same principle you would apply in restoring soil health or marine health and it also works for the body. The body is also like its own ecosystem and it is self-regulating. Unfortunately, like any ecosystem, the more damaged it becomes, the more delicate it is and the more difficult it is to restore. This is exactly how RBTI sees it, and the healthier you are (according to the numbers), the more dietary freedom you have. This explains why it seems healthy people can go around eating whatever they want with immunity, while unhealthy people struggle constantly with different diets. The healthy are probably doing enough intuitively to keep things on track.
Intuitiveness
This gets me to a final thought I have about RBTI as I've been learning about it from Matt's blog and from the newly formed Facebook group. There seems to be aspects of it that align with my intuitive eating patterns of seven or eight years ago: drinking water with dissolved lemon juice throughout the day, eating a carb-heavy breakfast, eating a lighter dinner with cottage cheese or similar easily digestible protein. RBTI may end up clearing up some of the remaining dietary dogmatisms I have and I may well end up adopting some of the practices well into the future.
My expectations
My expectations are that RBTI is going to have me feeling a lot better over all. I will be trying to follow it off and on for a month or more. After September, I may try to follow it more stringnetly. My hope is that by holidays (Thanksgiving) I will be feeling very good and would plan to let go of a lot of the RBTI specific restrictions. I may incorporate many of the RBTI recommendations into my lifestyle.
I will do my best to track my numbers (test results), general feeling, and other health measures as best I can, although past experience tells me that can get overwhelming, so I'll do my best.
Why RBTI Part 1
As I sit here, I hold with me a 7 page intake form, an extensive list of general dietary recommendations, and a list of specific supplements I am supposed to be taking. This is from February of this year. It was from a consultation with a naturopathic doctor. I did no follow-up consultation, no lab tests, and only weakly followed the recommendations. The problem, as I saw it, was I had no guarantee that the program or the doctor in question was going to help me with the problem in question, or that she even understood it. She was not the first time I sought help.
The first was with Sean Croxton of Underground Wellness, who does his own diet and lifestyle coaching. I had a full consultation with him as well. The format was rather similar: a lot of specific questions designed to get a general set of imbalances followed by a recommended set of labs specific to my consultation. There were to be follow-up consultations and dietary recommendations.
Typcically, once you add consultations, lab tests, and supplements together, $1000 isn't a bad estimate for an initial foray into the world of alternative medicine. Unfortunately, it's a lot to ask in a world where you are on your own, and in a doctor who's efficacy you are unsure of and who you are not sure understands your condition. Such are the courses available to people who are looking for very specific, guided help beyond "get more sleep", or "eat plenty of fruits and vegetables", or "you're perfectly healthy", or "we could prescribe something". There are many people bouncing around in the blogosphere that have specific physiological complaints which are medical system seems to just sweep under the rug, or throw into catch-all categories like Chronic Fatigue Syndrome or Fibromyalgia.
My Condition
The condition of which I complain did not exist six or seven years ago. It's onset definitely came during my extended low-carb stint. It was a very unhealhty period of my life, characterized by excessive exercise, inadequate sleep, and reliance on chocolate and alcohol. I understand now that an obsessive mindset was pushing my body well beyond its limits. At the time, I attributed my physical malaise to insomnia and lack of sleep, which I was in turn attributing to stress. I now recognize it went beyond that and attribute it to some sort combination of the following: an accumulated nutitrtional deficiency, some imbalance in body chemistry or homones, or atrophy or down-regulation of some important glandular or hormonal system.
What it feels like
On a good day, it's barely noticable. I will go through many of my normal activities without even thinking about it. Then when I sit down to meditate, it will be apparent. On a bad day, it is difficult to ignore, and focusing on work is much more difficult. On an average day, I am aware of a sensation in the upper back, near the neck, and near the front of the head, kind of in and around the eyes. The sensation is not pleasent although I would not classify it as pain, itching, or any other common physical description. The unpleasentness depends on the severity and the more severe, the more likely it is to extend down the legs and arms. I remember back during the midst of the unhealthy period, during a very bad day, describing the sensation to a friend of mine as a "raw nerve" sort of feeling. At that level, it's difficult to even fall asleep.
Why I sought alternative help
Seeking alternative help came months after I quit eating low-carb, well after I'd been stocking up on real, whole, healing foods, long after I'd cut alcohol, chocolate, and other stimulants way down in my diet. For some reason my body just wasn't bouncing back and the variables were just too complex to sort out. This is not the sort of thing I imagine asking a general practitioner about, so I didn't even bother. The times I sought help were periods of doubting that I was actually healing, or healing fast enough. I don't doubt now that my body is recovering. It's just very slow, has large ups and downs, and so is difficult to gauge process.
How it's affected my life
The main problem with my condition is that it's made me far more anti-social than I would otherwise like to be. Rather than going out, going to parties, going to clubs, I have often closeted myself in my house simply for the idea that I need rest, or that if I didn't get enough rest or get to bed early enough, tomorrow may be a cruddy day. I went through a much more liberal month or two recently, but this may have come at the expense of a slowing or halting in my progress, so I have begun pulling back again.
In my next post I will talk about why I've chosen to experiment with RBTI and what my hopes are for it.
The first was with Sean Croxton of Underground Wellness, who does his own diet and lifestyle coaching. I had a full consultation with him as well. The format was rather similar: a lot of specific questions designed to get a general set of imbalances followed by a recommended set of labs specific to my consultation. There were to be follow-up consultations and dietary recommendations.
Typcically, once you add consultations, lab tests, and supplements together, $1000 isn't a bad estimate for an initial foray into the world of alternative medicine. Unfortunately, it's a lot to ask in a world where you are on your own, and in a doctor who's efficacy you are unsure of and who you are not sure understands your condition. Such are the courses available to people who are looking for very specific, guided help beyond "get more sleep", or "eat plenty of fruits and vegetables", or "you're perfectly healthy", or "we could prescribe something". There are many people bouncing around in the blogosphere that have specific physiological complaints which are medical system seems to just sweep under the rug, or throw into catch-all categories like Chronic Fatigue Syndrome or Fibromyalgia.
My Condition
The condition of which I complain did not exist six or seven years ago. It's onset definitely came during my extended low-carb stint. It was a very unhealhty period of my life, characterized by excessive exercise, inadequate sleep, and reliance on chocolate and alcohol. I understand now that an obsessive mindset was pushing my body well beyond its limits. At the time, I attributed my physical malaise to insomnia and lack of sleep, which I was in turn attributing to stress. I now recognize it went beyond that and attribute it to some sort combination of the following: an accumulated nutitrtional deficiency, some imbalance in body chemistry or homones, or atrophy or down-regulation of some important glandular or hormonal system.
What it feels like
On a good day, it's barely noticable. I will go through many of my normal activities without even thinking about it. Then when I sit down to meditate, it will be apparent. On a bad day, it is difficult to ignore, and focusing on work is much more difficult. On an average day, I am aware of a sensation in the upper back, near the neck, and near the front of the head, kind of in and around the eyes. The sensation is not pleasent although I would not classify it as pain, itching, or any other common physical description. The unpleasentness depends on the severity and the more severe, the more likely it is to extend down the legs and arms. I remember back during the midst of the unhealthy period, during a very bad day, describing the sensation to a friend of mine as a "raw nerve" sort of feeling. At that level, it's difficult to even fall asleep.
Why I sought alternative help
Seeking alternative help came months after I quit eating low-carb, well after I'd been stocking up on real, whole, healing foods, long after I'd cut alcohol, chocolate, and other stimulants way down in my diet. For some reason my body just wasn't bouncing back and the variables were just too complex to sort out. This is not the sort of thing I imagine asking a general practitioner about, so I didn't even bother. The times I sought help were periods of doubting that I was actually healing, or healing fast enough. I don't doubt now that my body is recovering. It's just very slow, has large ups and downs, and so is difficult to gauge process.
How it's affected my life
The main problem with my condition is that it's made me far more anti-social than I would otherwise like to be. Rather than going out, going to parties, going to clubs, I have often closeted myself in my house simply for the idea that I need rest, or that if I didn't get enough rest or get to bed early enough, tomorrow may be a cruddy day. I went through a much more liberal month or two recently, but this may have come at the expense of a slowing or halting in my progress, so I have begun pulling back again.
In my next post I will talk about why I've chosen to experiment with RBTI and what my hopes are for it.
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