Josh's Newbie Journal

[Josh]

Re: stabilise...in my experience so far when I go zero or low carb I get the mental symptoms, and eating a bit of starch every day makes them go away. Fruit just makes me want more fruit. Might not be perfect, but it'll do for now. I will try other combos later like low carb+mineral supp etc.

Re:oats - prefer sweet potato and yam, but if I haven't got time to cook can grab a bowl of oats. I seem to handle them ok, much better than wheat.

[Josh]

I haven't updated this for a while, because I didn't want any more false starts. It seems to be going really well now though.

Like I said, I believe an increase in fitness enabled me to adapt to higher fat easily. I'm now making up my own meals and aiming for 70%fat 30% protein. I've had one piece of fruit a day, sometimes 2.

I've cheated a fair bit with cooked meats, and even things like chocolate once or twice...but I seem to be much more stable with the longer term adaption. Before if I tasted carbs it was hard not to go on a carb binge, now I can just get back on the one piece of fruit a day without any probs. Digestive problems have not been an issue at all this time round.

I have had periods of low energy, but nothing like the exhaustion and paranoia I was experiencing.

So just keeping on, trying not to cheat too much and looking forward to getting full energy back.

[Josh]

I enjoyed my first paleo meal today. I haven't really had any problems eating raw meat unless it's very high, but never really enjoyed it until today. I wish I could say it's cause I've been so good about the diet and seeing improvements, but the truth is I've eaten a lot of crappy smoked meat and boozed the last few days around my birthday, and today when eating my raw tongue it's like my body was saying 'thank you at last something clean and raw' and it tasted really good.

Cooked food is like hitting your head against a brick wall: it feels nice when you stop.

[Josh]

I'm trying an experiment to see whether affecting my thyroid can give me more energy on low carb.

I'm taking 20 mg thyroid per day in the form of a supp containing mixed glands and organs, so it will not be a test of thyroid in isolation, but that would be very hard.

Edit: Having researched, lugol's iodine actually suppresses thyroid function at first, then increases so will not be using at first.

[MoonStalkeR]

eating my raw tongue it's like my body was saying 'thank you at last something clean and raw' and it tasted really good.

Was it beef tongue? Tongue is the only organ that scares me because it had a nightmarish taste and odor the few times I tried it. Maybe I got spoiled tongues 

[Josh]

They must have been spoiled. Tongue is very mild and inoffensive.

[PaleoPhil]

I didn't like tongue at all the first time I tried it and threw it out. It was fresh that day from the supermarket. I'm hoping that some day I'll come to like it like I have with liver.

[Josh]

Weird. To me fresh tongue has little taste. Then it gets a gentle sweetish aged flavour.

[PaleoPhil]

I've read people posting how they like tongue right away and frankly I can't comprehend it. I would have eaten liver before tongue, even before I liked liver. Maybe it's because I had eaten some liver in the past, and once in a while would like the taste of cooked calve's liver somewhat, whereas I had never tried tongue. Maybe instead of people just posting how much they love tongue they could explain why/how/etc.? To me it tasted rather bland as compared to blood-red meat and what flavor there was I didn't like at all and the texture was like a large, rough, tongue, which it is. It looked, tasted and felt gross to me. Granted, I know I would likely come to like it in time, but I'm nowhere near there yet. I was thinking maybe the next time I try it I would get it at a sushi/sashimi restaurant where the chef's cut most of it away so that it's more palatable for modern tastes, but I haven't seen it on any menus yet and when I tried cutting it down like a sushi chef in a video did it, I still didn't care for the inner part. My goal is to learn to tolerate as much of the animals I eat as possible for multiple reasons. Throwing away parts of the animal just doesn't make sense to me in the longer run.

[Paleo Donk]

You need to be specific when you talk about beef tongue. The back third is vastly different than the front third. The very back part is quite fatty and so supremely soft and very easy to eat. It almost melts in my mouth and is easily one of my favorite cuts. The front third is perhaps one of the worst cuts and is extremely hard to eat and is a constant reminder of biting my own tongue which mentally makes it that much harder to consume. A number of occasions I have simply thrown it out. Perhaps tongue from the supermarket is different from the tongue from slankers in that slankers give you every last piece that can be considered tongue - all the tissue at the very back wherever it connects to the rest of the head. Its much thicker and does not resemble the thin surfboard that we normally think of as tongue. The back third has probably at least half the weight of the tongues I get and probably at least 2/3 the calories.

[PaleoPhil]

Thanks for that explanation, PD. I can't remember now whether I had learned that and tried the back part or not. I do recall trying various parts of it, including what looked like the least tongue-y and gristly parts, but perhaps I missed the way back.

[Josh]

This may be obvious, but you have to skin it! Use a knife to take off the rough surface skin.

[PaleoPhil]

Yes, I did, thanks, I actually eventually hacked it down to a narrow core, like the sushi chef in the video did, but I was surprised to discover that even the inner parts of it had a rough texture and bland taste of a tongue, like biting your own tongue, but PD explained that the best part is at the back.

[Josh]

In my experience even the front is fatty meat and quite slippery and smooth. The back is 'permeated' with solid fat.

Either we have different tastes or getting different tongues!

[PaleoPhil]

Yeah, I really don't know what people are talking about if the whole inside is supposed to be good. PD's info comes closer to matching my experience, though it was only one tongue. Maybe I'll have better luck in the future. Plus, I didn't like the taste or texture of marrow at first either, but am increasingly getting used to it. I can only get tongue and marrow from the supermarket, whereas I can get everything else from the healthfood market. Suet from the supermarket was also disgusting, whereas I like the grassfed suet at the healthfood market, so maybe that's the main factor.

[Josh]

I week and a day in, taking 20g of thyroid a day. My supplement has other glands in, so I can't say it's tested in isolation. I will try and get hold of some Dr Ron's at a later date.

I have been feeling similar to when I came back from a high altitude place...it feels like each breath is giving me energy, and the air is rich. Hard to explain. I also have a lot of energy in the mornings. Even though I haven't been training much I seem to have good energy for exercising.

However, I feel some brain fog and have had periods of tiredness in the afternoons. This could well be down to giving up caffeine though.

Seems quite promising.

[Josh]

I didn't want to speak too soon, but I'm 2 weeks into zero carb now. I only had one day of feeling very tired, the rest of the time it's been ok. I'm not on top form, but I could happily stay like this until I feel better.

I can't say for sure it was thyroid, as there's other factors. It was a mixed gland supplement, and I haven't tried zero carb for a while only low carb. However, I think that considering I had bad problems in the past on low carb, and even recently was not managing on 60g carb a day and now feel more or less fine on zero carb...IMO the thyroid made a big difference.

Now I have to decide if and when I'm going to add carb back into my diet.

One thing I've found difficult is that I've been having protein snacks after exercise in the evening, and it's easy to overeat. I think my body is being sneaky and trying to get protein to make up for the lack of carbs. I still don't know how to handle eating and exercising. Maybe a small amount of meat and fat in the evenings won't keep me awake as much as a full meal.

[Josh]

I thought I'd try eating <30g carb to see how I felt, so I had an apple yesterday. I didn't really like it...it was too sweet and I found it hard to finish. Today I feel less physically tense though. I can see why people get cramps, low/zero carb seems to increase the overall level of muscle tension at this point.

I'm not sure what to do. I'm quite happy to carry on zero carb in a way, but not sure if I want to go all the way down that route, as Lex has said that it compromises short bursts of energy, and that it may be a tradeoff between benefits from vlc and zero carb. I guess you just make a choice what you want. On paper vlc would seem to make sense, but I'm just enjoying the zero carb.

[Josh]

Well I haven't updated for a while but I think these diaries are useful for the readers and writers so here goes.

I've posted a thread about having problems feeling off-kilter where I realised that it's down to having food left in my gut. A couple of people have suggested I was eating too much. I was pushing myself to eat more. You could say that's wrong, but on the other hand I've had times where I didn't have any appetite and ended up in starvation mode, so maybe it's about striking a balance.

Anyway I've spent the last couple of days not eating meat and trying to get it out of my system. Drinking lots of warm water. I first tried eating a few courgettes, which seemed to help me go to the toilet and clear a bit out.

Yesterday I tried butter as a lubricant laxative. Mixed feelings. It did seem to help, but I had a stomachache that night.

Today I got a craving for green salad and olives so have just eaten it. I'll report back. I know dogs and cats eat greenery to purge so maybe there's something in it.

Maybe salad is healthy for most standard eaters because they need the constant purge.

On the plus side, it seems like I'm adapting well to low carb. I don't have any problems getting through my day with less than 30g of carb. Hard exercise has still made me feel tired the next day, so hopefully that will continue to improve.

There are two factors I've changed so don't know what is the main reason. One is taking blue ice fermented cod liver oil with high vitamin D. There are a few things on the internet about vitamin D and energy, but who knows what the truth is.

The second is that I am eating higher protein, about 60% fat 40% protein by calories.

Also if I was overeating, maybe I was getting enough energy from gluconeogenesis.

Hopefully it will hold up as I try eating less.

[Josh]

The green salad and olives predictably gave me the shoots, but I felt better for it. I'm going to repeat today.

I had a lot of raw egg yolks today, which tasted amazing and feel not bad now.

Tomorrow, I'm starting on meat again. Fingers crossed it wil go ok.

[Josh]

I have been gradually eating more meat for the last few days. Yesterday I had about 250g and today I feel bunged up.

I found an post in Lex's journal about constipation:

http://www.rawpaleoforum.com/journals/lex's-journal/msg50245/#msg50245

Seems like it might just be par for the course for now. So I want to move away from trying to use salad to clear me out...I'm going to buy one of those syringes.

Feel happier though. Seems like it's not necessarily problems from eating too much, might just be adapting to lower amounts of fibre. Fingers crossed it will sort itself out.

[Josh]

Just been eating meats, egg yolks and 30g carb from fruit since the last post.

My digestion seems ok. Sometimes it's a couple of days between shitting, but it's not particularly uncomfortable.

My skin is a bit better, but not great. Don't know what's up with that. Maybe not recovered yet. I hope I can reach the heights of beauty I had with previous low carb experiments.

I tried mixing my mince with raw egg yolks 2 nights ago, as some people have reported that it's helped them. Not me! I felt nauseas straight after, and evacuated my bowels. Then felt a bit sick the rest of the night. Don't want to put you off trying it though, everyone's different, but don't try it just before an important meeting!

Peace out.

[Josh]

Since the last update, I've gone fully carnivore. I have been for over 3 weeks, and I feel ok which is a turn up for the books.

I'm beginning to suspect that earlier problems were more about digestion than macronutrient ratio. However I was VLC for 2 months beforehand so I expect that helped.

The carnivore thing just happened naturally. Carbs were getting on my nerves giving me a 'sugared out' feeling, or too much fruit in my stomach (at 30g carb per day btw which is not a lot) So I just did a few days without, and had no reason not to carry on.

My energy is fine. I don't have a massive amount of wind for exercise, but I'm continuing with volume training workouts with the weights of 10 sets/10 reps and 2 exercises, and they're pretty much ok.

If I do add carbs back in I will try refeeds not daily carbs. I craved carbs after my workout today, so there may be something in the idea, but I will see how 'zero carb' goes first.

I will still eat liver.

On the other hand, I've been finding it hard as ever to eat raw.

I have decided to use Johan August's idea of increasing raw meat by 10g a day. I have started with 20g today, and will increment it from there.

I won't measure cooked meat or limit it, I hope it will take care of itself as I eat more raw.

I may make an exception and binge on raw liver as it doesn't seem to give me many problems.

As things stand, it will take at least 50 days but I would have thought they'll be a tipping point, e.g. if you can eat 400g you can eat 500.

[Josh]

In other news, I am experimenting with supplements for ADHD-PI.

I have sorted out the fridge smell with barbecue charcoal. Have 3 small trays in the fridge with charcoal lumps, and the smell is hardly bad at all with 2 week old meat.

[klowcarb]

Since the last update, I've gone fully carnivore. I have been for over 3 weeks, and I feel ok which is a turn up for the books.

Sounds good!