PaleoPhil's Journal

[Raw Kyle]

Do you practice that stuff? The time my balance and flexibility is the best is when I train it.

[PaleoPhil]

I used to practice it and experienced only slight improvement. Now that I eat right, my balance and flexibility have improved dramatically, despite not practicing it to any significant degree.


I discovered that my local health food market carries fertilized eggs--yay. So I'm getting my egg experiment going in earnest. I had 8 fertilized chicken eggs and 2 quail eggs tonight. The fertilized eggs tasted a little lemony, which will take some getting used to, whereas I found that the omega-3 unfertilized eggs had vanilla notes.

[William]

Good one. I note improvement in balance and flexibility as lack of broken toe nails/less clumsy walking.

Complicated by poor balance when I had partial deafness due to old earwax buildup.

[PaleoPhil]

Yes, my earwax buildup is less now too. I used to get it chronically in one ear.

I have a theory on that--I think it's similar to the buildup of mucus in the throat, sinuses and bowels when biologically inappropriate foods with antigenic and inflammatory effects are ingested and the body tries to put up a protective barrier against them, as well as get rid of them by sneezing and coughing (allergies, asthma, bronchitis), defecating (IBS-D), and/or urinating (type 1 diabetes).

[PaleoPhil]

I've been good about eating raw and not cheating much and haven't had any cramps lately.

[djr_81]

A very interesting history Phil.
I look forward to seeing how things go for you the longer you're on a ZC/raw diet.

[PaleoPhil]

Thanks!

[PaleoPhil]

OK, I've been generally eating 3-8 eggs a day; no ill effects, but no weight yet gain either.

[PaleoPhil]

OK, now for a gross topic.

My stool volume has decreased, as other people reported. This suggests to me either that my GI tract is digesting better, or a raw carnivorous diet is easier for me to digest than moderate-carb mostly cooked Paleo and half cooked near-ZC, or both.

The downside is I got a bit constipated as a result, because my colon tends to suck water out of its stool contents at a rapid rate and less volume has meant going less often, with some drying of the stool as a result. It's not nearly as bad as it was in my carby days, though.

[Paleo Donk]

Try squatting instead of sitting on the toilet, might help.

"The principal cause of constipation is the result of the awkward nature of the angle of rectum (bottom) when defecating in the sitting posture normally used in western method of defecation. The only or the best normal defecation position is squatting posture allowing smooth bowel removal."


http://hubpages.com/hub/Health-benefits-of-squat-toilets

[PaleoPhil]

yes, I agree that squatting is best (it's the way most of the world still does it, since most Chinese and Indians still squat, I believe), though I sometimes forget

thanks for the article; I can use that study to help convince family

[van]

an increase of fat can help.  Most of a stool from a carb eater is bacteria

[PaleoPhil]

Yeah, but I cut back on fat a bit because I was getting saliva that was so sweet it was gross. That may have contributed to the mild constipation, but I wanted a break from the saliva.

[PaleoPhil]

Wow! My teeth have really firmed up. It used to be that my retainer was easy to put on, because my teeth would simply move into place if it was slightly off as I pushed it into place. Now my teeth are rock-solid and I have to place my retainer on perfectly to get it on. My teeth no longer budge at all.

[PaleoPhil]

My teeth no longer budge at all."

I mean they don't budge when I put my retainer on. I can still move my loosest tooth with my fingers a little bit, but it doesn't wobble like it used to and my tongue can't move it.

I cheated today and ate some 2 cooked bison burgers, 3 cooked eggs and 3 strawberries with lettuce and olive oil because I was too hungry after work to wait until I got home, so I ate at a cafeteria. I was still hungry later and ate some raw meat and melted suet.

[PaleoPhil]

I've had a big drop in remaining dandruff in recent days; don't know whether the tea tree oil shampoo I've been using helped at all or not or if this is just continuation of the improvement from diet.

My spine has straightened noticeably more. Pretty amazing how rapid the improvement is since going carnivorous.

I noticed that the grassfed suet I've been getting recently seems to have less of the fibrous, connective tissue stuff and gnarly bits than the grainfed stuff. More pure suet. It's definitely more yellow too, like people said.

[PaleoPhil]

This thread: http://www.rawpaleoforum.com/general-discussion/iris-colour-change-on-a-raw-animal-food-diet/msg17163/#msg17163 people were talking about their eye color changing from brown to green, blue, etc. on a Paleo diet. I was convinced my eyes couldn't have changed color because they've been solid brown my whole life. I just looked and, sure enough, the outer edge of my iris has turned dark blue-green, and I've only been eating mostly-RPD for about a month. Simply amazing.

[PaleoPhil]

I took my first ketone measurment: small-moderate (15-40 mg/dl), so I guess I'm not fully ketone adapted yet.

[PaleoPhil]

I lowered my fat intake and ketones dropped to trace amounts (about 5 mg/dl) and the sweet saliva went away. My weight is up to 137 lbs now, possibly in part due to some rare-cooked steak and a little bit of french fries I ate on a couple of social occasions.

I visited my parents and my mother said the ring around my eyes is blue, so I think my original identification of it as blue-green is probably right, but maybe more blue than green. It turns out my father has a blue ring around his eyes that he wasn't aware of and neither of them could remember whether I had one before or not, so maybe I had it and wasn't aware of it. It's possible, given my partial color-blindness. I'll try to remember to check it every now and then and report any changes.

[PaleoPhil]

Yesterday I walked to work wearing a short-sleeve shirt in 46 degree weather with a "real feel" of 46 degrees without shivering. I think that's the coldest weather I've handled coatless without shivering in my lifetime. I could see my breath. Granted, walking warms the body, but it was still remarkable given how sensitive to the cold I used to be.

I read an article which, as I recall, attributed the ability of the Inuit to go shirtless in 50 degree weather without shivering to the slightly higher levels of internal abdominal fat they have, but I am skin-and-bones and I came close to their feat, so I think diet is a much bigger factor. Animal fats seem to be the key.

[TylerDurden]

Yesterday I walked to work wearing a short-sleeve shirt in 46 degree weather with a "real feel" of 46 degrees without shivering. I think that's the coldest weather I've handled coatless without shivering in my lifetime. I could see my breath. Granted, walking warms the body, but it was still remarkable given how sensitive to the cold I used to be.

I read an article which, as I recall, attributed the ability of the Inuit to go shirtless in 50 degree weather without shivering to the slightly higher levels of internal abdominal fat they have, but I am skin-and-bones and I came close to their feat, so I think diet is a much bigger factor. Animal fats seem to be the key.

I do agree that (raw) animal food in large quantities does protect against the cold and is very useful for me when skiing, but it's a problem in summer, of course. In summer, I usually have to cut down considerably on raw animal food consumption and either just eat very little or greatly increase the amounts of raw plant foods in the diet - otherwise, I start sweating pretty heavily, which is unpleasant. of course, 1 major problem re all this is that in palaeo times we didn't wear clothes(except perhaps simple furs, though I doubt it), so I'm sure that if I wandered around stark naked in summer, the issue re  raw meats making me hotter would be irrelevant. Sadly, we will need major cultural changes before I can do that.

[PaleoPhil]

I do agree that (raw) animal food in large quantities does protect against the cold and is very useful for me when skiing, but it's a problem in summer, of course. In summer, I usually have to cut down considerably on raw animal food consumption and either just eat very little or greatly increase the amounts of raw plant foods in the diet - otherwise, I start sweating pretty heavily, which is unpleasant....

I thought overheating in the summer would be a problem for me too and was prepared to reintroduce some carbs like berries, but it didn't happen. One thing that helped is that it was a cool summer, but even hot temps, whether outside or in my stuffy office, did not bother me. I started thinking about this after my post on handling the cold better. How is it that I also handle heat well too? It's like my body's thermostat is working better or something. Anyone else experience this? I think Lex mentioned something along these lines.

I don't sweat much, but I never did, so not much change there other than maybe a tiny bit more sweating (which is probably more natural and aids cooling--the idea of trying to eliminate sweat with antiperspirants is an unnatural modern notion, of course, though that's easy for me to say given that I don't have to deal with heavy sweating).

[William]

One day in winter in Inuit country we had a heat wave - temp went up to about -10F, so I did a photo op.
Went out wearing army mukluks, snug swim shorts and earmuffs, carrying the ice chisel which is about 6' long.
The trick is to bathe & dry  first - if there is no wind blowing, the dry fine body hair in abundant sunlight are enough to keep us warm. The ear in shadow will freeze, so earmuffs. I am not considered hairy.

I was eating a lot of pork then.

[PaleoPhil]

My dental visit went pretty well. I had no significant pain despite having stopped taking prescription fluoride (which had deadened the pain in my exposed root in the past, that had been very painful to clean) over a month before. I cannot remember the last time there was no pain in a dental cleaning.

I still had quite a bit of tartar on my lower teeth, which are prone to it, as with past visits, probably in part because I stretched my visit beyond the normal 3 months to 4 and was not as thorough about my dental hygiene as I had been in the past. The hygienist was surprised that the high-pressure-water cleaning did not hurt in the slightest, as it does many of her other patients. Both my teeth and gums are less sensitive than they were in the past, although the pressure cleaning had been only slightly painful in the past.

When I told my hygienist that my loose teeth were no longer wiggling, she said it could be the tartar. Yet, after she cleaned away the tartar, my teeth were still not wiggly. My gum bleeding was lessened, but there was still some, which my hygienist attributed to insufficiently thorough flossing.

Then my dentist came in and checked me out and couldn't move the formerly wiggly teeth that he and the hygienist had wiggled before. When I mentioned that they were no longer wiggling, he attributed this to proper flossing and brushing, despite the fact that the hygienist had attributed the bleeding to inadequate flossing. Like Lex, I didn't bother to disabuse him of his notion or point out the contradiction. Neither of them seemed to remember the extent to which my teeth had wiggled in the past, for which I don't blame them, because it's probably a minor issue to them and they have many patients.

I tried the 9" foot stool that Lex suggested for the toilet (to convert it into a more natural squat toilet). It's amazing how much easier it made things. At 9" it still felt a little low and awkward. I think that even-with-the-rim and to the sides instead of the front would be more natural, but a 9" stool does seem to produce a major improvement.

[PaleoPhil]

To help prevent tartar, I was thinking of getting something like this:

Primadophilus Reuteri Pearls 60 Pearls
by Nature's Way
Price: $16.39

It contains lactobacillus reuteri (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lactobacillus_reuteri). Reuteri has been shown in studies to have dental  benefits (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lactobacillus_reuteri#Clinical_results_in_humans). Probiotics seem more in keeping with a Paleo/Primal approach than processed sugar alcohols like xylitol. What do you think? I suppose high meat bacteria would be even better, so I will try to learn more about high meats and eventually try more of them. I also started taking some magnesium supplements again--I think I went down to zero too fast.

Another change I noticed from the RPD is that even when I haven't gotten much sleep and am very tired I yawn less than I used to and my yawns are much smaller and briefer. Anyone else notice that?

I also continue to handle cold and hot temperatures better and better. It's like my body's thermostat is getting better tuned on a higher-fat diet.