Primal Journal (OptionJedi) page 2

[OptionJedi]

So finally got to see my doctor today to review my labs taken on April 8.

Previous HA1C of 8% is now at 6.3%!!! This was the original catalyst for going primal and the doctor was more excited than I was (she said she doesn't really see this number retreat that often, this quickly, this dramatically). Still a little on the high side but definitely going in the right direction after 3 months going primal.

Blood pressure has been in the 120/80 range for over a month now on daily measurements.

Doc says she wants to wait another 3 months and re-check all blood work before she is going to start paring down the meds. She was very conservative and tried to manage my expectations to not be too high about paring down the blood pressure meds (the most costly) and the metformin. I am pretty confident I will get rid of the metformin for blood sugar as that was the last med added and I'm making definite progress against the need for that. On the blood pressure side, I just need one of the 4 in the cocktail to go as that represents more than 50% of the overall cost... The saga continues...

Clothes continue to get looser as I am now wearing 36 waist pants and they are loose on me. 3 more months and I should hopefully be looking at 34's.

Have kind of plateau'd/stalled on PBF though.

I'm doing pushups on my knees and have kind of stalled on 35 in the first cycle and 20 on the second cycle.

Pullups are still on the gravitron and really haven't been able to break 14 cycle 1, 10 cycle 2

Squats are still against the wall and can do 50 cycle 1, 50 cycle 2 non-stop, but they burn like hell during on the quads. Love the feeling afterwards but don't like before and during.

Presses are actually re-gressing a little. Barely make 25 on cycle 1, about 22 on cycle 2

What has increased alot is planks. I can now do 2 cycles of straight elbow/toes planks for 90 seconds each. The side planks I'm still doing on knees, frankly it's too easy but doing them straight legged is too hard. Is there an in-between or do I just go longer on the knees?

Is this an indicator of over-training?

The sprinting caused a bunch of hamstring discomforts and calf dis-comforts. Actually, after much research, I think I had what someone on the internet calls "Calf Heart Attacks". So I've been resting and doing "sprints" in the gym using the elliptical and the bike. This part has been advancing ok. I've been doing 20 seconds on and 40 seconds resting. 8 intervals after about 4 for warm up and then a cool down period.

Overall the PBF has stalled though, any ideas on how to break through? Doing about twice a week combined with 2 sprints/week. I do tai chi in between and will go for a bike ride or hike with my kids on the weekend. Over-training?

The food side has been awesome. Not hungry, not feeling deprived. Got all the meat/protein I want. Didn't realize until about a week ago that I need to eat more fat. The CW conditioning has me feeling "wrong" for eating fat. But I'm over that now finally and have started to make sure I get more fat in the diet. I've got some really good extra virgin olive oil and and now taking 2 tablespoons straight in the morning along with my morning coffee (no sugar, half and half).

Weight loss has kind of stalled too. Been stuck at 195-200 for a while now, though my clothes are looser by alot so I have to imagine I'm building up muscle, losing fat, and generally changing my body composition.

Look forward to the next set of blood work in 3 months so I can get rid of some of these meds.

[TimR]

Hey OptionJedi, just read through your journal, congrats on the progess to date! Also, thought I would respond here from your Sprinting and cramps thread..

I supplement with 500mg of mag and 200 mg of potassium daily. The RDA for Magnesium is around 400mg a day. So if you are taking 120mg a day, depending on diet, you may benefit from some more mag. (Saw you were on metformin and maybe some BP meds? I would check with your doc before making significant changes to your supplements. Magnesium also lowers BP, so wouldn't want any synergies happening there with the BP meds.)

I do all my running in VFF, and while I don't have flat feet, I have had my share of foot problems while running in typical running shoes... I developed bunions (actually had that corrected by surgery) and plantar fasciatis. The PF disappeared almost over night when switching to VFF, and my feet have strengthened immensely. I do both sprints and 1 longer running session a week, all of it on trails.

Its just my opinion, but I would expect that with increased mag (after checking with doc), a bit more weight loss and some more experience with the sprints that the cramps will go away.

[TimR]

Where, here I sit writing my first journal ever, digital or otherwise.

I am 45 years old, Chinese American, a father, a software engineer, and travel alot internationally (think over 100K miles/year for the last 10 years). Oh, and of course I love to eat as my main form of dealing with stress (and I have alot of stress).

Oh, and except for the Chinese American and a lot of travel part, this could be me! One of my biggest challenges in going primal was to stop the stress-related eating. Bad day at work? Man that Snickers bar would sure help out! One quote I read on a forum somewhere helped me out with that, it went something like "If hunger is not the problem, then eating is not the solution!"

[OptionJedi]

Hey Tim. I hear you. Things are alot better now after being primal for almost 3 months. However, eating sure is a lot EASIER solution than the real solution the real problem sometimes

[OptionJedi]

So I just got back from a doctor's visit to review blood work done on July 15.

My A1C is now down to 5.6 from the 6.3 in April. I am now well within normal range and the doctor happily without hesitation agreed to take the Metformin off my list of meds. She said any hint of diabetes or pre-diabetes is now gone. Mission accomplished here though I think I'll still be making progress, this was the major objective of pursuing PB in the first place.

Oh, and by the way, I'm now down to 185lbs (220lb starting weight in Feb 11) in weight and the 34 pants (32 pants at start) are loose. In fact, I got size 32 shorts and they fit just fine. I've also had 4 suits altered because the pants were just too baggy and the jackets needed to be taken in.

The rest of the blood work was good too. Total cholesterol was 170 (< 200 ). LDL was way below normal and HDL was above normal (which is good). Even my Vitamin D was in the good range (although on the high end due to the 7000 IU of daily supplementation, doctor says I should tone it down to 2000 IU as too much may cause atherosclerosis.

Everything was in normal range. I think my doctor was more excited that I was and was totally shocked. She was beaming and said it made her day as she doesn't see many "reversals" of this magnitude.

The only negative to this visit was that the blood pressure is within range, but I experimented without the meds for a few days and it shot back up to 150/100. The doctor thinks this is a genetic "present" inherited from my parents who both have high blood pressure. I still have about 15lbs of fat to lose so we'll give it another 6 months and see how it goes. It may be that I'm stuck on BP meds for life. I am currently using a cocktail of 4 meds. I was hoping to remove at least one of them (which is 50% of the total cost by itself). She did not feel comfortable given where my current BP is at.

So not the home run victory I was hoping for, but I think I definitely hit a double, maybe even a triple. Not bad for 5 months on PB.