Category: health

Healing without medication

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Had a physical today and went over my blood test results.

All the problems I had last year – especially cholesterol – solved. All of my numbers are perfectly in range. No signs of insulin resistance or fatty liver.

I’m healthy.

I did it.

No statins (they’re seriously controversial and may even do harm…), no drugs or meds. Some supplements & lifestyle changes.

  • Cut back on diet soda from 1 liter/day to about 1 small bottle a week
  • Added Omega 3 + Coq10 supplementation, and Berberine
  • EXERCISE

… and I didn’t do any long fasts (or even regular fasting) for 3 weeks leading up to my blood tests. Fasting can raise cholesterol – who know? My previous physician simply tried to put me on a statin with NO DISCUSSION of lifestyle or other factors that could play into the test results.

I fired that doctor.

Then I fixed me.

I am no longer at risk of cardiovascular disease. I am not a likely heart attack candidate.

All of the hard work, fasting, lifting, rowing, restrictions – they all paid off. I’m healthy, I like how I look in the mirror, I like that I can move. I found sustainable practices that will keep me healthy for decades.

I’m feeling incredibly proud of myself today.

DEXA scan results and hyper-babble mode.

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Been wanting to write to the internet about this. Hyper-babble mode engaged.

I had a DEXA scan on Saturday. I was pleasantly surprised by the numbers, as my scale was showing 33% body fat. DEXA says 29%

Here are some screenshots from the scan. Turns out I’m healthy right now!! I have a high metabolism (shocker!!). My bone density is excellent, and I’m symmetrical hehe.

Here’s the results for those interested. I wish I’d done this both in 2010 and in 2020. I’ll go every 3-6 months now.

I annotated the results a bit to make them more understandable.

While the DEXA scan will become important when I get follow-up scans (to make sure I’m losing fat and adding muscle, while not losing bone density), the results of the Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR) test are what I needed right now to dial in my food/exercise.

I’m much healthier than I expected. I’m also undereating by a lot -which is not sustainable. But I will be able to eat nearly double once I hit my goals. The current goal is about 25% body fat, ~135lbs – but then I want to see muscle definition.

This journey will take 2-5 years. My goal date to see some real muscular definition (maybe even abs? Though that’s very dependent on genetics) will be my 50th birthday (I’m 45 right now).

At which point I’ll simply… continue, forever. So that I can live a long, healthy, mobile, and active life.

Can I actually keep it up? I think I can. I’m really enjoying the lifting routine (push-pull, legs, 3 days on, 1 day off) and learning how to cook healthy, high-protein meals. It feels sustainable but…. so did paleo for the first year. Intermittent fasting has proven much more sustainable, at least.

And yes, I’m still eating choc chip cookie dough, pizza, ice cream, cake. Just … not constantly, as I used to. I think that’s part of why this feels sustainable when I bombed paleo after a year. Too much restriction and sacrifice on the paleo setup, at least for my sugar-addicted brain.

Next phase: recomp. A li’l bit scared.

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I’ve been trying to figure out what my food should look like in this next phase. I’ve run through a bunch of calculators and they’re all very close.

Pictured is what I entered in MyFitnessPal for my new goals.

Macro Goals

Mind you, I’ve been maintaining a 1200 calorie diet for years now – that is currently ~450 calorie deficit to cut fat. As you can see below, I’ll be eating substantially more, a LOT more on workout days, maintaining on rest days.

I don’t know if I can get to 2060 calories. I’m confident that I can’t get there today. I just had dinner which puts me at 1150 calories o.O – I’ve planned a post-workout chocolate peanut butter, protein shake for this evening before I start my fast.

Even today I’ll be at 1500 trying to eat more.

Let me back up. I can get to a 5000 calorie day and did so 5 days of my last cycle (I was 7 days late). But we’re talking about a medium pizza, chocolate cake, chocolate chip cookie dough, ice cream. I can probably get to 10k if I start early and drink some calories, too. I can do that and not feel sick. Oh boy can I binge! SUGAR!!

But that’s not what I’m talking about here. Getting 2060 calories that involve 150g of protein? Protein makes ya feel full for a very, very long time. The food I’m eating is veryy filling what feels like forever.

And if I’m being honest with myself, I am straight up scared of gaining weight. Ultimately there will be gains both in muscle and fat, I’ll have to do a fat cut phase again in the future. But I also need to feed the muscles that I’m working so hard.

I’m 153lbs, 32.9% body fat today. If my body fat goes in the wrong direction then I will make some modifications. Possibly lifting more, possibly cutting back on food a bit. Right now my goal is generally to lose fat and gain muscle. That’s a hard one, but whatever.

I’m here for it.

And I will continue fasting. Which yes, makes it harder to get more food in. But it also gives my body a break to process insulin, go through more autophagy ,, and generally give my digestive system a rest. The fasting will be more for mental clarity, to avoid diabetes, to drop my cholesterol, and because it’s freaking cheaper and easier than eating all the time. Food is $$$ and requires cleaning up after. Crikey, what a pain!