Paleo Diet: Raw Paleo Diet and Lifestyle Forum
Members' Journals => Journals => Topic started by: albertoceraw on July 02, 2014, 06:28:31 am
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After a year eating raw paleo I decided it would be a good idea to begin a log, to record what has my journey so far, what I've learned and the road in front of me. I think this first entry will be just about how it all began.
As most people here, I also arrived at raw food through malady. It began in august 2012 when I was 22 years old and no health issues. It started with some weird abdominal disconfort accompanied by gases. At the moment I thought it would be some fleeting malaise so I didn't do anything about it for a month. But things soon started getting worse, soon exercise gave me insomnia; I got more and more bloated, to the point it caused me great pain; heartburn so bad I thought it might be a heart attack; ibs which wouldn't let me out of the house; anal itching that would make me stop right in my tracks in disbelief of how bad it was; very poor digestion, I could eat at 3pm and still feel full at 1 am next day.
Soon I was so brain fogged and so full of anxiety and discomfort that I could barely do any mental work. There were weeks where I would have to smoke and drink just to manage the anxiety and pain. Meanwhile I went to see many doctors, but you probably can guess how that went. Basically tests showed nothing, so It was all in my head. And they would say this to me even after nights that were so bad I thought about calling an ambulance.
So after one of these doctor appointments I realized that If they were right I was doomed. This was maybe after half a year seeing doctors, and loosing a lot of money. Luckily for me I found soon enough about candida, and how happy I was to find that it explained almost everything. So I dived right into the candida diet, and so the nutrition voyage began.
I was amazed to see that for the first time in 6 months my symptoms were subsiding. Almost all candida related problems went away, yet I still didn't heal completely. As I was to find out, candida was only a layer. This made me begin researching compulsively about nutrition, now that I knew this was the right way. I spent my time reading in the internet and looking for different foods in markets, spending what little money I had left.
However, even though I got rid of many symptoms, some things got worse. Leaping from candida diet to gaps, then learning about paleo, etc didn't seem to really improve anything. I went from thinking I had gastroparesis to fructose intolerance. In the end it didn't matter much, I got to the point where I has hungry all the time my weight dropping drastically, overeating to satisfy my hunger; drank kefir like mad, ate a lot of nuts, etc. I could barely do any physical or mental activity, and going out to get my food was quite the chore. I finally came to the point where for one whole week I could hardly digest anything and could barely sleep due to the intense pain peristalsis caused in me. All plant matter I ingested would come out exactly as it came in.
After that horrible episode I resigned to the fact that I could only eat meat. So for a couple of weeks ate nothing but boiled meat, coconut oil and whatever fat I could get. And this was great, for the first time in months I feld I was finally getting nourishment.
All this nutrition experimenting probably took 3 months. Then I learned about raw meat....
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Alberto
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Good luck.
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I read about eating raw meat in a blog, and even though it made sense it didn't struck me at first as something that would make a big difference, so I left it at that. What got me into raw meat was in a way, pemmican. I loved making pemmican, and one day, when I had set meat appart to dry out, I decided I would try it out. To my surprise it tasted so good that I emptied the plate. The experience was quite revealing, it immediately stopped making sense to me to cook meat.
I switched to raw right away and started reading about the subject: aajounus vonderplanitz, burger, this forum... At the beginning I followed a lot of AV stuff, some of it helped, a lot of if didn't. Same with Burger. I went through some really bad detox, expelled gallstones, severe diarrhea, rashes, etc. However even though my digestion was better, I still was in a very poor condition, I could barely think or communicate.
It took a lot of experimenting inside raw foods to start feeling better. There were many difficulties as well, like finding quality animal products. I live in Mexico city where basically people still don't care much about nutrition. Another problem was that I was trying to do cetosis/vlc in a naive sort of way. That and the fact that I was continuously experimenting with different foods, which didn't necessarily go well.
It wasn't until august 2013 that I went zero carb that I finally made progress. For the first time in several months my mind started working again. So basically it was a matter of removing all plant material from my diet. It also helped me doing zc finding a somewhat good source of food, like grassfed beef and, well... "good" bacon.
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Mexico City..... Oh dear! One of the cities with the most air-pollution on Earth!
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It's probably easy to get organ meats there, right, Albert?
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Thanks for sharing. Amazing journey.
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Mexico City..... Oh dear! One of the cities with the most air-pollution on Earth!
One of the cities with most pollution in general. It saddens me to think that this was once one of the most beautiful places in the world. What was once one of its most attractive aspects, it's mountains, are not even visible due to the smog.
It's probably easy to get organ meats there, right, Albert?
Well, sort of. On one hand, in Mexico people still enjoy a lot certain organ meats. In street food the "tacos de cabeza" are very popular; tacos made from everything in the pig or cows head: tongue, eye, brain, cheek, snout, etc. This makes very difficult to get offal from the head, it's actually the only animal parts I haven't got the chance to try raw, since the head is always sold separately to the taqueros. Stomach and intestines are the next in popularity. Yet organs as kidney, liver, heart, etc are not really popular.
Offal is very easy to get, but of a poor quality. In the city most meat comes from the north of Mexico, which is very similar to Texas in meat standards now a days, grain-fed and chemical ridden. This meat is usually considered as superior in quality. I have tasted raw liver from these cows and its bad. So what was hard was getting quality organs, and since in mexico grass-fed is not a distinction people are aware of, this was sort of difficult.
In the south of Mexico things are quite different. The states of Veracruz, Tabasco and Chiapas have a big cattle industry, yet it is mainly for milk-production. All cattle there is grass-fed and in general well-treated. Since my family is from Chiapas and has had a ranch there for 200 years, I know a bit on the subject. I went last summer there as raw foodist and its paradise, I might write about it later.
So when I set out to look for food, I was only looking for meat from the south; that was good enough for me (If you ever go to Mexico, it's what I would suggest). Yet even this was difficult. Eventually I went to a market famous for its exotic products. They sell tiger, lion, buffalo, armadillo, crocodile, boar, etc. There in one of the stands I finally found meat from tabasco. That's were I get my meat from, yet they only offal they have are kidneys, testicles (which are ok, but I get tired very easily of them) and occasionally bone marrow.
In the city I also found a health store which sold organic grass-fead meat from Veracruz. It's from a ranch called La rumorosa which is basically the first to target this market. There are other ranches but they are to small to have a constant supply in the city. The only problem was that it was really pricey; 23 dollars for a kg of meat. Yet, to my delight they also sold liver cheaply at 8 bucks per kilo. This is excellent liver and I stock up on it every I chance I get, which is not always often.
So in general it hasn't been that easy, though I'm broadening my searches and hope to find more good stuff soon.
Thanks for sharing. Amazing journey.
It has been pretty amazing (and frigging hard) so far, as for what I have learned. Before I got sick I thought often about how we feed. I enjoyed food enormously, and ate in what I considered a healthy way at the time; still I couldn't find any sense in the way we ate, (you know based on pleasure) and I wondered if any sort of truth could be found on food. And life works in strange fashion, I got that truth the moment I tried raw meat for the first time. It has been a journey I feel I was meant to have and it has really taken me far. And I still have a lot of road in front of me...
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Well, since I haven't had time to write the chronological followup I thought I'd write about the non-diet related things I began doing. After realizing how deranged we were about eating, I began researching about other aspects of daily life in the same way as to find a more rational way to do them.
Squatting in the bathroom
It's definitely easier, and I've gotten quite used to it, to the point where it feels really uncomfortable not squatting.
Cold-thermongenesis: Cold showers, no warm clothes.
When I was sick I became very squeamish about cold, so I decided to start doing some cold-thermogenesis. I've improved greatly my cold tolerance yet I cannot say it has had a definite influence on my health issues.
Hygiene: making my own deodorant, toothpaste, creams, hair products.
I think the only thing left to do is making my own soap. In general I'm ok with the results from self-made products, especially facial cream.
Posture: Sleeping, sitting, walking, standing up.
This might be some of the most difficult changes to make since they're son engrained in our behaviour. It's specially difficult to change sleeping patterns, since at first many postures don't seem to bring sleep at all. Walking and standing properly are also hard since it's hard to be constantly aware of how you do this things. Sitting also took some time and pain to learn to sit in the floor. I also fashioned special furniture to work in more organic postures.
EMF, earthing and circadian cycles.
Sadly I haven't been able to experiment as much as I would like with this. It's really difficult to do in Mexico City. As little as I managed to do these things, they do seem to lead to a much calmer life.
And even though making all these changes makes it harder to coexist with this society, Krishnamurti once said it very well, "It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society."
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I think the only thing left to do is making my own soap.
Using soaps isn't a good idea... (I'm assuming you mean the kind of soap sold is shops just not with the toxins, so just a basic soap as if from good ol' times)
Soap removes the natural layer of oil/fat and bacteria from the skin. Then the skin dries up. To try and prevent damage from such drying up the skin will begin emitting excessive oil/fat - you'll feel uncomfortable, especially after you've ditched soaps and then test soaps again.
Since natural bacteria that should be living on you are not there then any dirt and sweat and oil/fat on your skin will go rancid - where stench comes from.
Soaps and such things kill and remove the bacteria and oils/fats. But you need those things... they act as a defensive mechanism against some hostile external stuff.
I haven't used soaps or anything like that for about 5 months, except on my hands when they are covered with some really nasty stuff, but then I immediately apply some animal fat or olive oil.
I use a glove like thing made from hemp or something similar. Though a piece of cloth or a small towel would do as well. You just scrub yourself.
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Using soaps isn't a good idea... (I'm assuming you mean the kind of soap sold is shops just not with the toxins, so just a basic soap as if from good ol' times)
Soap removes the natural layer of oil/fat and bacteria from the skin. Then the skin dries up. To try and prevent damage from such drying up the skin will begin emitting excessive oil/fat - you'll feel uncomfortable, especially after you've ditched soaps and then test soaps again.
Since natural bacteria that should be living on you are not there then any dirt and sweat and oil/fat on your skin will go rancid - where stench comes from.
Soaps and such things kill and remove the bacteria and oils/fats. But you need those things... they act as a defensive mechanism against some hostile external stuff.
I haven't used soaps or anything like that for about 5 months, except on my hands when they are covered with some really nasty stuff, but then I immediately apply some animal fat or olive oil.
I use a glove like thing made from hemp or something similar. Though a piece of cloth or a small towel would do as well. You just scrub yourself.
I agree with you Nummi, I use soap to wash my hands, and when I shower I use it on my armpits and pubic area. Mainly the hairiest parts. I never use soap on other places.
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The first months eating raw I did not experience that much of a relief since I was experimenting with a lot of foods and in general not caring that much what I ate except that it was raw. I also began to try ketosis in very naive ways which brought some bad experiences. After about 3 months of eating in this way and seeing no progress I decided to try again to a more zerco-carbish approach in a more committed manner. So I went out to search for better fats and meat, and eventually found a place where I could get my grassfed beef and reasonably good bacon and eggs.
And so, with 10 g approx of carbs coming from avocado and eggs, I started to regain for the first time my speech and mental capacities. I was able to go back to school and perform adequately. So it was basically removing fiber which allowed me to focus again.
And so it's been pretty much like that since then. Mainly eating raw meat and raw bacon, adding other stuff depending on the circumstances. I did experimenting in a more controlled manner, with sometimes dire consequences. I once tried to reintroduce fiber, and began dinning salads. The first two days where OK, but the third I could not sleep due to the unbearable pain which lasted a couple of days. I tried introducing more fruits yet my body expelled most almost immediately. If I had papaya on an empty stomach it would come rushing out in a pair of hours, albeit with no pain. The only fruits I could digest were basically banana and avocado. I ate no vegetables, except occasional experiments with vegatablesjuice, which I could reasonably tolerate.
I ate occasionally organ meats and sea food. I tried some herbal teas. Liver flushes, but basically after two times I expelled gallstones they didn't do much. I've had some high meat throughout the year, which I enjoyed when I ate it, though I maybe I haven't eaten enough to make an impact.
This year I discovered I could tolerate well enough nuts, seeds and peanuts. I mean, they felt a bit heavy to digest, but I COULD digest them without any pain. I overate them at first since I was ecstatic at finding I could eat something other than meat and bananas. And since I wasn't very happy about eating bacon I tried to up my intake of fat through avocado and nuts. And to my surprise I started doing worse. Even though I didn't have any digestive issues, I started loosing energy, mental focus, clarity,and got back the same sort of "autism" I had before. I slept a lot during the day and could barely do any work.
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So where am I now?
The last months I have been investing more in experimenting with my diet. Since I now have a job that pays me enough to not worry about food, I've been able to acquire everything I need (which I couldn't before). Also having a rigid schedule and being away from home forces me to be more disciplined with what I eat, which is great for experimentation.
After almost a year and a half eating raw many of my health problems have vastly improved while others have barely began to get better. It's amazing to see the profound impact eating raw it makes on the way you see everything. The switch was so deep and drastic I have trouble being aware of everything that it changed. And even though I'm thankful for all the things I've learned, it also reveals sooo much more madness in the world, and it's hard not to loose heart. It definitely gives you a sort of Plato's cave feeling.
As a way of helping others ( and maybe get help myself ) I'll make a log of my successes and failures in my health seeking.
Exercise Induced insomnia.
I'll begin talking about one of the symptoms that baffled me the most: INSOMNIA. It might have been my first symptom in my health decline, and it has been also the one I have been able manage best.
It began when I decided to do more exercise and began doing capoeira classes at night. To my surprise, I didn't come home to a night of deep sleep but, even though I was spent, I would lay restless all night. This would even happen if I did exercise midday.
Soon after I began having my digestive issues and seeing doctors. I still remember the answer a doctor gave me after I asked about the lack of sleep. I'll never forget it since it was probably the greatest display of ignorance and medical incompetence I've seen. He said to me: " If it was up to me, I'd rather make exercise than sleep". YEEZ, THANKS FOR YOUR INSIGHT DOC, so glad you went to medic school to give a professional answer like that. I'd be better off asking the taxi driver his opinion...
So it took some time before I understood what was happening. Finally researching I found something that helped. It was a glucose depletion issue. Which made sense in retrospect, since I've always eaten pretty low carb in my opinion. So I tried eating bananas after making exercise at night and it worked, I slept well.
I mean, it's still a difficult balance being in ketosis and making exercise without getting insomnia, but at least I can manage it.
But it didn't end there. I also began having a different kind of insomnia where I would wake up at 2 AM. This was easier to figure out though. It was because I began eating too late. I would go to sleep maybe an hour after a meat/fat meal. So I just stopped eating late at night.
And that ended the insomnia mystery for me, even if I'm still prone to it.
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very nice journal alberto i would like to know how are you doing right now!
so if you are in ketosis and do excersise, you have to consume some carbs for sleeping? this is still being this way? did you had a hard time going from burning sugar to burning fats?
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I started doing ketosis before going raw, when I felt terrible so I can't say what was from the transition to keto and what from shitty health, but it was hard.
Yes, you can consume carbs while being in ketosis. But it's a bit risky calculating how much. I could eat up to 100 g of carbs after workout and still be in ketosis. If I couldn't sleep it was a good sign to get some sugar.
It has gotten pretty interesting lately. I've made great improvements in my health lately. I'd say the "only" thing left if the constant brain-fog, which I also think I might be on the road to heal.
I have finally solved my digestive issues and I'm now able to digest everything again. This has been great because I now can do better excercise without worrying about carbs. That has also has improved how I feel.
The final clue to the brain fog seems to be also the root of all the problems I've had: Copper toxicity. I'm not sure if its due to pyroluria or other factors, but supplementation of zinc and eating seeds and nuts has bastly improved my health, even if theres lots of road to go through yet.
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Winter has been quite the detox.
I been doing considerably better after introducing iron to my diet. When winter began, I was excercising well and beign productive, yet I felt my lungs a bit constipated, and would wake up with dried muccus in my upper airways. Eventually decided to make a ginger tea recipe I used to do to dicongest, and it worked wonders. I spend a day or two with heavy flow of muccus and felt way better after.
But I started having digestive issues. Eventually one day I waked with heavy nausea, I vomited a lot, and felt really week. That baffled me, since it sort of came out of nowhere. I felt really shitty and bit scared, but my best guess was that I had gallstones so I fasted and did a liver cleanse at night. Next morning tons of gallstones came out. I Was really happy I managed to solve that issue quickly.
Still, my digestion hasn't got that much better. I began having a lot of gas, and a bit of indigestion still. Did some egg flushes but nothing came out. Now I know its nuts and seeds that are cousing me distress. Maybe my liver is still week or maybe I still have stones. Should consider another flush maybe next month after letting my liver rest.
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Eat better sources if fat until your liver amd gallbladder heals. Nut and seed are difficult for many to digest. In my experience, any hih levels of fat from non animal sources has caused gallbladder issues and nausea. Sometimes it was easily eliminated with a sip of apple cider vinegar, other times it has caused rashes and prolonged feeling of dis ease and sickness. In the long run I have found that almost completely eliminating seed and avoiding nuts all together is the best option. You get a better ratio of omega 3's with animal fat and no anti nutrients. I have never had any amount of animal fat consumed raw, unrefined or even cooked cause gallbladder or liver issues.
Do you eat any cultured, fermented, or aged foods? What is your current diet?
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Yeah I agree about better fats.
My diet was more or less the following.
non-excercise day
light fruit breakfast
about 2 handulls of seeds and raw peanuts, maybe 200gr?
meal of raw beef meat and fat
light fruit
on a excecise day I replace nuts and seeds for white rice, potato or sweet potato and home made dried meat and a 1 lt of fruit-vegetable juice.
I add saurkraut, organ meat, and seefood on the weekends usually. I take a zinc supplement also. I used to eat high meat more or less often, but after a batch that went wrong I haven't gotten back to it.
I don't usually eat nuts, I just bought some recently,but seeds were a great adition which helped think a lot more clearly when I began eating them daily. Right now I think I'll replace them with eggs and vegetable juice while I wait a little before reintroducing them.
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Well, digestive issues continue, and I'm pretty sure it's still the liver. I find diffucult to digest nuts and seeds, but also animal fats as I now have to accept.
I guess the only option is doing another liver cleanse on the weekend, but since the flushing with eggyolks didn't do much last time ( maybe becouse my liver needed rest from recent flush?) I think I might go with a coffee enema this time, although I'm still unsure if it'll work with me.
Anyways, time to fat-fast and eat some appfel.
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Well, I did a coffee enema in the morning hoping to flush my liver in a quicker way. But I don't think it worked. Did a water enema first, and then the coffee one, and just felt a little push in the liver at the beguining but that was it. No stones came out.
So I'm getting ready to do a olive oil flush in the night, and hope that gets it out since my liver feels pretty congested.
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do you feel neccesary to do that things? or you feel guilty and want to "pay for your sins" ??
many people i have read that warn about enemas and things that go in the holy hole. they says that our body has all the tools to get the things out of there, and if it is given time, eating the right foods (all raw is almost always "right", but it depends on how much you eat too)
if you interfere with the body's tools, you are extending the restoration of the malfunction.
when i have problems, cause i have ate toxic things during many days, usually i go for a lot of fat (cream and butter, avocados, the best i can get) for a couple of days, and then, i feel like my bowels can be emptied again.
hope you feel good
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Haha, sins? with coffee enemas?
No, I find liver flushes are necesary, maybe not coffee enemas in particular, since I've yet to see its merits. I do not belive in dogmas, so I do not close myself to any options out there. I like to see for myself. I have not really found merit in eating 100 % percent raw, as I have not found it sufficient to heal all my ailments. I've had to search in a lot of other places to keep healing.
The body was adapated to heal in an enviroment way different to the one we live in now. We must seek ways to help our body.
My problems are not from eating toxic stuff. I think my diet right now is as good as it gets.
Anyways, I think the flush worked. I believe my digestion is way better today even If I didn't went to the bathroom to throw stones even after I took epsom salt with water. I think the epsom salts even made my stomach a bit upset.
Thanks for the good wishes, I hope your coping well over there.
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Well the flush might've helped my liver but apparently the coffee enema had a negative impact in my intestinal flora. After I had it, I've been having undigested food on my stools agains, especifically, spinach.
Ah, just when I was beguining to feel I was about to be healthy again, so much starts going on. But I can't complain, I've been healing pretty rapidly the last 6 months. I just want to relax about my health for the first time in almost 2 and a half years.
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I think the epsom salts even made my stomach a bit upset.
Too strong solution? If not dilute enough it will definitely upset stomach.
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Too strong solution? If not dilute enough it will definitely upset stomach.
Yeah, most probably.
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My digestion hasn't recovered yet, but it's not as bad as before. Mainly still some trouble to digest fat. Nuts and seeds give me gas, and I can't digest vegetables well again. Other than that I've been feeling good, which is a problem since I think it makes not take as seriously my still latent health problems. Been doing to mucho excercise, which is great but I've paired it with trying to eat vegetables, which taxes my GI and eating a bit late, which gives me poor sleep. So now I think I've stressed my body.
However... Intelligence and mood are getting better and better, I've now energy to exploit my day fully. I'd say I've regained 60 or 70 % of my health.
I have some interesting personal proyects right now. I'm making healthy food products for sale. RIght now I make raw nut bars and dehidrated meat "cookies". (https://scontent-b-atl.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpa1/v/t1.0-9/10906362_10155151489240164_3390512097645805405_n.jpg?oh=31d2a6ba38c31caf6fbe9e093d2230ec&oe=556251EA)
Theres a lack of nutrition conscience in Mexico and I'm trying to make healthy options available.
Right now I think my body is healing really fast and thats why my liver might not be as strong as before. All the extra activity is making me a bit unstable and I should consider some rest.
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Maybe potato starch could help with gut issues? Helped me, I can digest somewhat more plant stuff (vegetables) than before and much easier. Though I now need to start limiting myself 'cause I tend eat them a bit too much now that it's easier.
It can be homemade easily if don't want the store-sold.
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Thanks, I don't even think there'll be store sold in mexico.
What helped after year and half of search, was I think, rice water. I found out about it in the most unsual way. After a while of not finding answers with doctors you think you'll only find answers in the internet. But casually I found someone who had the same problem and solved it drinking the water you get after boiling rice and guavas. I was skepticall, since I was 100 % raw paleo advocate at the moment, but decided to give it a go. I mixed that whith eating saurkrout and some high meat, and suddenly I could digest fruit, and then even vegetables.
However lately I did a coffee enema, and my digestion actually got worse. It's not as bad as before, but I still resent the drawback. In a hope to regain the flora and to "negate" what happend I've tried to eat spinach lately, and now I have diarreah at work... But not as much undigested food, so I have hope I'll get better soon.
I think I'll add potatoes to see if it speeds up the recovery. Thanks.
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alberto can you send me a package of your cookies?
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Just let me see how hard it is to send food to the USA Jessica!
I'm making three types of meat cookie: Tumeric, grasshoper and chipotle ( mexican type of chili). I really like the tumeric ones after
workout.
Heres the nut bars.
(https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpa1/v/t1.0-9/p526x296/10947228_10155135810850375_5932736775310799346_n.jpg?oh=5e10432ffc625c83427a794cf2dc661d&oe=5553A1DD&__gda__=1432895266_f0816873a2fca4700d16b501c59cd00a)
******
My digestion is getting still weaker, I'm tending to fruitarianism and lean meat. Have good energy though and mental clarity, but so much carbs only work doing a shitload of excercise...
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Alberto, tell us more about this "boiled rice and guava" water thing, please. I'm curious.
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Alberto, I too am struggling with gut/digestion/elimination issues.
One helpful thing I learned is to avoid spices, they can irritate the colon!
I've also learned to avoid cooked/processed foods, extravagant remedies, "miracle cures," and to keep things as simple paleo as possible.
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Alberto, tell us more about this "boiled rice and guava" water thing, please. I'm curious.
Sure.
Well, as it happens my friend had a very similiar story. Suddenly her diggestion started deteriorating until she could not digest properly food. Doctors did not help at all, and maybe after a year of struggle one of her mothers friends told her about a natural remedy, to make the rice water with guave "atole". Atole is traditional mexican beverage but usually made of corn. But basically it's just boiling rice and guavas together for about an hour, and drinking the water thats left.
She started taking it and began getting better, and also added pinaple with chia to the mix, which she says it also helped greatly. This she found out through some friends who trained for football, and the recipe was supposed to improve digestion.
At first I was skeptic, but since it was the first ray of hope after months and months of research I decided to give it a try. I did the rice atole, and added some light fruit with saurkraut at night. Then I began doind the chia thing also. Eventually I could digest all fruit, and before I knew pretty much everything.
I think she took longer to recuperate, but she didn't do raw paleo or anything. Right now I think the mixture of atole and saurkraut was the best combination.
I stopped having digestive issues until recently when my liver started giving trouble. After the enema I stopped digesting well vegetables, but not like before. Right now it only gives me diarreah but it doesn't come out undigested.
Alberto, I too am struggling with gut/digestion/elimination issues.
One helpful thing I learned is to avoid spices, they can irritate the colon!
I've also learned to avoid cooked/processed foods, extravagant remedies, "miracle cures," and to keep things as simple paleo as possible.
Thanks for the advice. I don't think I suffer from my colon now. The only issue now seems to be a still fragile instetinal flora and a congestioned liver, which I guess is taking extra turns to detox my body right now.
Saddly simple 100% raw paleo was not enough for me. At first It helped me greatly, but then I began to hit a pleateau. And I'm happy I was oppen to other sources of healing, because If not I might have disregarded the rice water remedie. Raw paleo is the best way to keep healthy and thriving, but not sure If enough for healing in our current world.
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Sounds like atole has been a good starch source for gut flora to help you "recover" from your ultra-low carb "experiment," but I'm curious why you have chosen a cooked starch for this purpose? You can achieve the same gut health with raw starches from paleolithic food sources.
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Sounds like atole has been a good starch source for gut flora to help you "recover" from your ultra-low carb "experiment," but I'm curious why you have chosen a cooked starch for this purpose? You can achieve the same gut health with raw starches from paleolithic food sources.
Well, it's actually the other way around. I went low carb because I didn't have any gut flora. I did try a lot of raw starches like jicama, plantain, seeds and nuts, but they didn't work. They made me bloated and gasy, with no subscecuent improved digestion.
I'm actually not sure why the rice water works altough I can speculate. Theres little info on the net, but in Mexico it is a common remedie for babies with diarreah which even doctors prescribe. It's also very popular in asian countries for topical use.
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I've found raw vegetable/root starches are very hard to digest. I would never eat a raw sweet potato. Steamed, mashed, and then cooled works best for me.
Some people that suffer from IBS do terrible with Fiber(ive found mainly insoluble, i do ok with small amounts of fruit). Fermenting and cooking essentially predigest it for our weak guts. I get the same effect from unripe fruits, vine/sun ripened is the way to go for IBS.
this post just now brought me back to when i was a young child. At dinner i would only eat the tops of broccoli(steamed). my father would get very upset, called it being wasteful, and made me eat the stems. they gave me horrible stomach pains, and gas. He also tried feeding me raw carrots. I vividly remember throwing up my first raw carrot. I suspect that after continuous force feeding, my body adapted somewhat. Now 10-15 years later, the fiber has taken its toll, and worn my system down.
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I've found raw vegetable/root starches are very hard to digest. I would never eat a raw sweet potato. Steamed, mashed, and then cooled works best for me.
Some people that suffer from IBS do terrible with Fiber(ive found mainly insoluble, i do ok with small amounts of fruit). Fermenting and cooking essentially predigest it for our weak guts. I get the same effect from unripe fruits, vine/sun ripened is the way to go for IBS.
this post just now brought me back to when i was a young child. At dinner i would only eat the tops of broccoli(steamed). my father would get very upset, called it being wasteful, and made me eat the stems. they gave me horrible stomach pains, and gas. He also tried feeding me raw carrots. I vividly remember throwing up my first raw carrot. I suspect that after continuous force feeding, my body adapted somewhat. Now 10-15 years later, the fiber has taken its toll, and worn my system down.
Yeah, before paleo I thought fiber was always good. That there actually wasn't something like to much fiber. I don't remember how it happened that I lost my flora. It was when I began trying to cure my candida and began doing experiments with digestion. I think I increased somewhat my consuption of fiber, but I was mainly cooked veggies and nuts and seeds. I also drank probably too much kefir. And I also tried enemas for the first time, which now after what happend, could've been a mayor factor! Thing is, I don't remember if I did them previous to loosing my intestinal flora.
Anyways I don't have IBS symptoms now, and before this recent lapsus, was doing great with fiber again. Even eating raw carrot and stuff.
I think I'm getting a bit better now, stopped excercise to get some rest and got the flu afterwards. Nut and seed digestion improved again. ( I know people advise against them, but I they're important in my diet due to the pyroloruia like symptoms.)
I think I'll do an egg flush on the weekend.
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If you have pyroluria like symptoms you should probably stear clear of all foods hij in copper and focus on foods higher in sinc and b vitamins. Nuts, seeds, fruit and veggies are generally all higher copper than zinc. You would be better off to eat raw or cooked meats, especially muscle meats with plenty of fats and also egg yolks. Look up the high copper connection to pyroluria and see if that doesn't ring true to you. Copper zinc imnbalance tends to make exacerbate candida symptoms as well. Look up all of the minerals that help combat candida, selenium, sulphur, tcetc, you may be low in those as well.
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Well, it's actually the other way around. I went low carb because I didn't have any gut flora. I did try a lot of raw starches like jicama, plantain, seeds and nuts, but they didn't work. They made me bloated and gasy, with no subscecuent improved digestion.
Technically, you can't not have any gut flora. Each person's gut flora is nourished and sustained by what that person ingests. Whatever gut flora you have, it will change when you change the food you feed it. Sometimes, a switch in food might result in initial discomfort, like the gas and bloating you described, but the gut microbiome is very maleable. Initial discomfort is not an indication that something is wrong, only different. Sometimes the gut flora that you hope to have can be introduced with supplements, fermented foods, fecal transplant, and so forth.
By the way, many of my vegan friends claim that, if they ate meat, they would die. They are actually describing the same effect: a new food causes initial discomfort because their digestive microbiome was prepared to digest something else entirely.
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If you have pyroluria like symptoms you should probably stear clear of all foods hij in copper and focus on foods higher in sinc and b vitamins. Nuts, seeds, fruit and veggies are generally all higher copper than zinc. You would be better off to eat raw or cooked meats, especially muscle meats with plenty of fats and also egg yolks. Look up the high copper connection to pyroluria and see if that doesn't ring true to you. Copper zinc imnbalance tends to make exacerbate candida symptoms as well. Look up all of the minerals that help combat candida, selenium, sulphur, tcetc, you may be low in those as well.
Yeah as far as I have read, pyroluria/ high copper is what best describes my symptoms. However, one of the mayor improvements I had last year was when I started eating sunflower seeds daily. Before that I still struggled badly to get work done and be productive. I began taking a zinc supplement some weeks ago and it seemed to improve a lot my condition, mainly I noticed that I recovered way better after excercise, which left me cloudy before.. I've haven't taken them as much i after I stopped seeing improvements.
So I can't say its common pyroluria, but it's something among those lines. Still, I think I should be more regular with zinc supplementation as it supposedly takes up to a year to get zinc normal.
Technically, you can't not have any gut flora. Each person's gut flora is nourished and sustained by what that person ingests. Whatever gut flora you have, it will change when you change the food you feed it. Sometimes, a switch in food might result in initial discomfort, like the gas and bloating you described, but the gut microbiome is very maleable. Initial discomfort is not an indication that something is wrong, only different. Sometimes the gut flora that you hope to have can be introduced with supplements, fermented foods, fecal transplant, and so forth.
By the way, many of my vegan friends claim that, if they ate meat, they would die. They are actually describing the same effect: a new food causes initial discomfort because their digestive microbiome was prepared to digest something else entirely.
I know, I was speaking very freely. I meant more like no fiber flora. And I did try to go beyond that initial bloating and stuff, but at two weeks it only seemed to get worse, so I don't think it was just my flora getting used to it. I would get even more violent reaction from other things.
I find it weird that people would get really bad reactions from raw good meat since it doesn't seem like it needs too much bacteria to degrade it.
I'm happy to find that it didn't take anything as drastic as a fecal transplant, or worse, something amongst AV lines like eating shit, to recover my digestion.
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A small update excercise related.
For a while I've been drinking fruit juice after workout. I usually train capoeira for 2 hours 3 times a week. At first I tought a lt of juice (Carrot, orange, tangerine) was excellent after workout to replenish lost energy, since it's fairly quick energy and also rehidrates the body. However I avoided juice in other situations because of how quickly it raises the sugar levels, and I told myself that after workout it was ok because of the raised insulin you get.
However now that I've been doing excersise for about 4 months. I feel like I don't need that much anymore after class. Before I would end really beat up and gulp the lt of juice in one gulp. Now I can barely finish it and it raises my sugar levels.
No more fruit juice I guess. Maybe just a small smoothie of slower releasing carbs.
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No more fruit juice I guess. Maybe just a small smoothie of slower releasing carbs.
I'm not a big fan of drinking foods. You need to chew foods, especially carbohydrates, because the mouth, tongue, nose, facial muscles, etc., are part of the digestive tract, where many digestive signals get generated, transmitted to the brain, and used to inform the stomach, liver, gall bladder, intestines, etc. what's coming down the hatch.
With a history of blood sugar issues, I used to avoid oranges completely. However, I grow oranges at my house, and I hated not eating my own excellent fruits. I found that if I eat them whole, sharing one orange with my two grandchildren, I get no negative blood sugar impact from part of an orange. In contrast, OJ usually contains an armload of oranges, so quantity alone is responsible for a lot of the sugar jolt in OJ. An orange has about 10 g of sugars, so compare half an orange (5 g = not much) to how many oranges you use to make a glass of OJ, and you'll quickly see how the sugars add up.
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I'm not a big fan of drinking foods. You need to chew foods, especially carbohydrates, because the mouth, tongue, nose, facial muscles, etc., are part of the digestive tract, where many digestive signals get generated, transmitted to the brain, and used to inform the stomach, liver, gall bladder, intestines, etc. what's coming down the hatch.
With a history of blood sugar issues, I used to avoid oranges completely. However, I grow oranges at my house, and I hated not eating my own excellent fruits. I found that if I eat them whole, sharing one orange with my two grandchildren, I get no negative blood sugar impact from part of an orange. In contrast, OJ usually contains an armload of oranges, so quantity alone is responsible for a lot of the sugar jolt in OJ. An orange has about 10 g of sugars, so compare half an orange (5 g = not much) to how many oranges you use to make a glass of OJ, and you'll quickly see how the add up.
Yeah, I rarely get problems with sugar when I am eating the fruit. Yet I still find curious the change, I think I'm doing excercise more efficently and don't need as much to replenish glycogen as before.
Aside that, I've had some other changes theese weeks. I've had problems with "uncontrolled energy". For example, waking up tired and then surges of enery at night, a BIG increase in libido ( which is unfortunate since I'm single right now). I've been having problems concentrating and doing mental work, but not in the same way as before. Actually I suspect now it's because some sort of detox/healing might be going on, I sort of feel underneath normality rising up again.
I really hope it's that and that it may pass quickly, since I've been really irritable and grauchy at work. If it keeps up like that it may drive me into loosing my job. I'll try to eat as much seafood as I can since I think thats helping right now.
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Today my great grandmother died. She was 109 years old.
And contrary to the usual posts of old age here, it was bit sad that she died so old.
She was a remarkably strong woman who lived by her own up until she was almost 100 years old! She even travelled alone! But she had a tragic accident and she was hit by car. Her hip was shatered and even still she would do arm bars to try to keep strong and things. However eventually she could no longer walk and this was unbearable to her. TO have to depend on other people, this depresed her inmensely. Confronted by her helplessnes and inability to do things for herself she began just whishing for her death. She was so strong that this almost took another 10 years, 10 years resenting her fortitude and asking God to take her.
Now she can rest.
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Condolences to you. My friend and healer Sifu Jen Sam says around 90+ people who had figured out old age usually succumb to injuries like that. Sifu's own father died at 95 hit by a car as he tried to cross the street. My own grandma at 88 had pneumonia in the hospital after their mishandling when she fell down the stairs and broke her wrist, but I sent my aunt to save her. Then at 95 my grandma slipped in the bathroom and dislocated her hip and had complications of pain and atrophy and bed sores because it took my aunt 3 months before she called me for help. I fixed her up along with 3 healers but her mobility is now severely limited.
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True, having to endure the last few years of life in incapacity or pain can be a problem. I think, though that rpders generally will have better prospects in old age, such as stronger bones so that falling is less likely and less of an issue if it does happen, along with far fewer chances of getting strokes, heart attacks etc.
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One thing I've noticed, especially among old women ( who sadly where raised to serve other people) is that the worst thing is to feel useless. They struggle a lot to keep working and doing everything by themselves and I think this eventually leads to injuries and problems. Even in good health one should plan (and accept) a more contemplative, meditative life in the last years.
My great-grandmother biggest strength became her biggest weakness. One should be flexible to life, no matter what.
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There was this 90 something years old ultra-marathon runner who said: "you don't stop running when you start getting old, you start getting old when you stop running"
One should be flexible in life according to one's own abilities, not because "I'm old so I should start being reasonable and stop being active altogether". Thank god my grand-parents remain somewhat active, even the oldest one (almost 90 years) who still go for rather long walks.
The main task of an elder is of course to share it's knowledge and teach life lessons.
No one wants to feel useless, because being useless either means being dependent and wasting other people's energy, or basically being left to die if the burden (you, the useless person) is too great to carry.
Nowadays people are artificially kept alive on meds, in such a state that death would likely be more desirable for both parties. In Paleo times (aaahh, the golden Paleo times!), when a person came to the conclusion that it could not keep up with the rest of the group anymore, or which presence would likely put the others in danger, the person would have the wisdom and decency to leave the group and die.
I think the time between critical health decline/advanced disability and death would've been a lot shorter in these times, so you'd probably have a few last days of limited activity before realizing "it's time".
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Jeune, I agree with you. It's exactly about knowing your limitations.
Last weekend I went to visit my cousin in a town called Huitzilac. It's a beautiful foresty place where he's studying permaculture, and working a piece of land with some friends. He's growing vegetables, raising rabbits and even built a temazcal, wich is a mexican sauna.
I bought one of the rabbits for lunch and left there fantasizing about having a similar life.
(https://40.media.tumblr.com/93567f1786b6eae821dee5ad24d267de/tumblr_nldfmjgHHO1tixvjto1_540.jpg)
(https://41.media.tumblr.com/8d6891363784ae90e134b541a4149926/tumblr_nlf7zgJc1f1tixvjto1_540.jpg)
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I had some interesting, profound dreams tonight. Oscilanting between incredibly pleasant and nightmarish. Lots of emotions from fear, hate and persecucion to incredible beauty, tenderness and love.
It's been such a long time of illness that I didn't even remember what love felt like. And now it looks like finally I'm recovering my mind.
It's so complicated to talk about having mental issues since it all deals with an ontological realm which people rarely find use in mapping or talking about. It's easy to say my leg hurts, and having others imagine or recreate this. However, saying that you can't feel due to biological reasons... it's almost impossible to get across.
The religious legacy of seeing the mind-emotions as separate from the body makes it almost impossible to talk about disease. If you feel biologically depressed, they assure it's because of negative thinking or emotional distress, etc.
I tried so hard to communicate to my family what I was experiencing, and failed miserably. Ex. I developed authism which impaired greatly my ability to communicate, they would only see it as "he doesn't want to communicate, he's being anti-social".
End of rant.
This days have been difficult, but it indeed looks like it's because of some healing taking place as I suspected. It's still pretty hard to go to work with all this swings in mental states, recent blood-sugar episodes and still erratic digestive behavior.
I'm just doing my best to keep productive in spite of this and do my best to eat as well as I can. Having lots of liver and beef fat; drinking green juices; getting lots of seafood on the weekend;eggs; saurkraut; seeds.
(http://41.media.tumblr.com/0a3994da27468d276f75d389d1744a17/tumblr_nloowtUFsX1tixvjto1_1280.jpg)
This is what my lunch looks like.
Another big change in behavior. Did some research and experimentation and I'm taking EMF seriously now. Has made a definite role in the last days in my healing.
It's feels so strange having emotions again, I don't even remember how to live with them anymore.
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Hey Alberto, I dont know if you have ever considered it but i know that certain mushrooms have helped me to recover from physiological splits where I really lost touch with the majority of my emotions, and very much helped me process and explore both positive and negative aspects of the complete extent of my emotional range . Right now I am experimenting with Lions Mane mushroom which is said to restore and repair the nervous system, but in the past I have done many experiments with low doses of psilocybin mushrooms, which have been an incredibly effective, and safe, way to explore emotional pathways that I had shut down due to extreme emotional trauma. There are plenty of studies out now that confirm what I had learned in the past through self experimentation and the experiences of friends and family. I have also written a bit on the forum about those experiences and my feelings regarding taking mushrooms as medicine. There are also many other avenues to explore to connect the body and brain in a safe and healthy manner, yoga, breathe work, meditation and yes, DREAMs, exploring dreams and creating a healthy body and lifestyle that promotes the awesome healing of a body in tune with its own proper circadian rhythms...! Its a beautiful journey you are on and you might be surprised that, after having gone through so much emotionally in the past, that instead of being hindrances, your emotions can now be an ally and a guide and your ability to discern them properly your best strength :)
What do you do for work? Do you think there is a better job out there that might be more conducive to healing?
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Shamanistic plants in general have been of tremendous importance in my life. However at one point I felt like they had taught me what I needed and moved on. I'd mostly say that the benefits are psychological and spiritual. Yet, it's not really that sort of therapeutic help I need right now, since its not a psychological issue. Although lately I've been feeling like I'll like to make a trip to take peyote.
However I've thought about really not eating much mushrooms ( non-allucinogenic) and that I should explore more about them. Lions mane mushrooms sound really interesting. Not sure if I'll find them here.
I'm grateful for this journey as it has made me grow in many valuable ways. Sometimes it's not easy seeing it this way though. After all, it's usually only under threat that humans grow, sadly.
Right now I work as a software developer. So no, maybe it's not helping me heal directly, but right now it gives me the money to get things that can actually heal me. There a very few jobs in Mexico which let you live properly, and right now I still need the stability to repair my nervous system.
BTW, last weekend it was a special occasion, so I drank some mezcal. I actually felt pretty good the following days. I'm wondering if it had to do with pyroluria related symptoms or maybe it was the big amount of seafood I downed on the Sunday? I'm still pretty much in the dark.
(https://40.media.tumblr.com/db114d7eaa83b3c831e8d358bc9f6e5f/tumblr_nly5iyIWpe1tixvjto1_540.jpg)
This about 3 dolars worth of oysters in the market of La viga. I usually get this and a kilo of clams for another 3 bucks,
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I went to camp with some friends near the mountains. We spent the night waiting for a lunar eclipse. I was happy for an opportunity to camp, and spent the day and night barefoor and withouth cover. Slept little.
Next day I returned home, feeling tired but good. However I did some excercise and inmediatly got fever. Spent badly the night, with my usual feverish thoughts which are a mixture of seeing my body as composed of separate entititys which have to be adminstered in a abstract/mathematical way. Since I've been watching the series VIkings lately my body was a large kindgom, and my mind kept rambling in a mathematical way about it.
However as soon as I felt feverish I ate my meal with some high meat and hoped for the best. I know a lot of people here reject high meat out of frozen meat, but it's the only king of organic meat I get so I have no choice. That said, high-liver ( out of frozen liver) is one of the most delicious things ever. It doesn't have a putrid smell, and its really delicious. I don't make as much as I'd like because I tend to forget to air the thing and sometimes it goes to waste.
Next day I still felt weak, but was not feverish. Went to get seafood, and rested.
Today I feel quite relaxed, and thinking a lot clearer. Not sure what to think about this "detox". I'm actually a bit troubled since I think I can no longer ignore that the envioroment I live in ( mexico city!) might seriusly be keeping me from healing. I'm not sure how I'll be able to solution this yet.
(https://40.media.tumblr.com/37c15c0b16ca37f397ddd135c1ade274/tumblr_nmeh78IVjA1ruwlv7o1_1280.jpg)
The volcano popocatpetl spewing smoke.
(https://40.media.tumblr.com/98da6731e505329d908e66f11fb05ac8/tumblr_nmeflwll4a1ruwlv7o1_1280.jpg)
(https://41.media.tumblr.com/eaa7b0a6e9789ed85215e4c8751466ae/tumblr_nmeflwll4a1ruwlv7o2_1280.jpg)
The iztaccihuatl, which means sleeping woman.
The legend of the mountains: http://www.mexonline.com/history-popo.htm (http://www.mexonline.com/history-popo.htm)
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awesome photos alberto! thank you so much for sharing!
sounds like you are at the next level of healing where your environment must now match your personal state of health. would it hurt to start doing some deep inquiring about the next leg of your journey? perhaps to calm your mind try some deep breathing meditations and gentle yoga? you may find the answers you are searching for there.
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Thanks Jessica,
Deep inquiring is being done constantly. Although it doesn't help that in my condition I can barely plan today's activities.
So I've been experimenting still and finally I more or less managed to dissipate my brain fog and anxiety for a little while.
My experiment consisted in eating as much seafood as I could for a week.
(https://41.media.tumblr.com/19cd6bb2cbd4ebd21c5c97078b37a21b/tumblr_nporkfNr7S1tixvjto1_1280.jpg)
I ate my fill of oysters every day, and added clams and some shrimp.
The first day I ate as much as I could. The second day I could barely get out of bed, and even after my brain didn't seem to do better, I just couldn't wake up as If I were coffee addicted and didn't have my morning cup. Added to this I had incredible hunger which eventually was only satisfied by eating my fill of seeds and nuts. This relaxed me, and my mind started to wake up. At night, my brain fog and anxiety dispelled.
Next day I was still feeling good, and kept going. Third and posterior days no improvement.
I've repeated this experiment and more or less the same thing happens. I'm unable to wake up the next day until I eat seeds and nuts, and then eventually I start feeling better.
So I guess I'm pretty sure I have pyroluria now. Since its the mix of high zinc foods with high b6 foods thats trigged relief in my symptoms.
I did experience benefits from taking zinc sups, but I don't think I got any from the b6 supps because I can only get the pyridoxine hydrochlorine, which only made me pee highlighter ink.
I just asked friends who are traveling the states for zinc picolinate and p5p so I can start experimenting. I don't think theres a single physician in Mexico which could help me with it, so I'll have to keep experimenting and hope I can make things better soon.
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Quick Update.
Zinc supplementation definitely helping. But b6 pyrydoxine began giving trouble, without much signs of benefits. Problems like insomnia, decreased mental activity and physical recovery.
I'm far from fixing my problems still. But I can't complain, except for my meat sources. My provider has repeatedly failed to deliver me quality fat. I'm not sure I have enough time to search for new sources.