Primal Blueprint Journal DCarr10760 (David) page 32

[ecks]

I've been wearing my New Balance minimals for a couple months now and I love them! I treat them like shit and there is no sign of wear and tear yet. And they're machine washable! Mine have the vibram souls. I'm not sure if they make other minimals or if we have the same ones.

[Judg]

I'll have to think about getting the Minimals in the Spring. I'd try the Five-Fingers, but I think hubby would be totally horrified... He's such a conformist. Plus he has a bone spur in his heel, and absolutely needs more support. He was also raised with a horror of bare feet, so imagine...

[DCarr10760]

@judg, So far I like the New Balance Minimus shoes. I do not believe that they are as good as the VFF in terms of mimicking barefootedness, but they do have less "support." Last night my feet were tired in odd places but his morning I feel fine, so I think that's a good thing.

@ecks, In looking at the Leptin Reset, I'm sort of having a difficut time understanding how it is different than a Ketogenic diet, but I'm in. I think the major difference is the heavy protein load at breakfast. I normally eat a couple of eggs, which is only 15 grams. Upping that shouldn't be too hard. Some kippers along with the eggs and I should get to 40 - 50 no sweat.

@Siobhan (and Judg) Yesterday was a rambly day, here in the journal and in the rest of my world. It was hard for me to focus on any one thing for very long. I think I was tired. I am feeling much better today. My temp was 97.8 so it seems to be coming back up to whatever normal is for me.

I was 0.2 lbs lighter this morning (well within my normal weight fluctuations) but I bring it up because I was concerned that last week's loss was due to dehydration. Yesterday I made it a point to drink plenty of fluids and had some saltier things as well. So I think it was real. Hopefully I'm stabilizing after the weirdness of the fasting and potato thing.

My intention was to make the braised pork with roasted butternut squash from the recent recipe in Mark's blog. But didn't really have time to roast the squash, so I ended up braising the pork with yummy pie-like spices and tossed in some mystery greens from the fridge, (maybe it was escarole) and using some leftover sweet potato. It was great! I don't eat sweet potato very often, though I love it. I just had three peices, about 1/4 of a large sweet potato. So for the day I was still under 50 grams of carbs. Haven't checked to see if I'm in ketosis recently, but I might be. I'm not really intentionally avoiding carbs, I've just been away from them now for so long that I don't think to eat them.

I certainly feel more energetic, so that's good!

[Siobhan]

The pork sounds great! Good thing I ate before reading this!

I am looking at neoprene booties for winter hiking, or at least cold fall weather hiking. They are pretty cheap. I feel I have been spending way too much money lately. But I hate to put my feet back in shoes except for work, where we have things like needles and heavy moving things that like to crush unsuspecting toes. (No, we don't leave needles lying around, but we do have violent patients that can cause them to go flying.) Still, I am interested the NB Minimus. If I could find them on sale...a really good sale...

[DCarr10760]

I had my lunch, some of last night's pork leftover with whatever mystery greens were in the fridge, cooked down and tossed in. It was a lot of food volumetrically, but low in calories I suspect. I had a half of an avocado too, but I am hungry now. It probably doesn't help that everybody in the office has been talking non-stop about food all day.

I did notice I've been hungrier than usual since the whole wonky metabolism-temperature thing hit. Judg mentioned that it's part of the famine response and the increased appetite can take a long time to resolve. I've heard the same thing. I hope I wasn't so deep in it that it takes a real long time to normalize.

I'm not craving any particular thing. Just hunger.

[ecks]

A leptin reset is essentially a way to force yourself into ketosis. At the same time it also increases your metabolism and helps fire up a good burn

[DCarr10760]

@ecks I'm in, I'll start Monday.

So not too much to report. Weight is stable, happiness level is good. I continue to warm up so I think at least the immediate results of the metabolic downregulation are sorting themselves. I hit 98 degrees (F) for the first time this AM. So the leptin reset thing will be good for me, I think. This weekend I'll load up on canned fish etc. I'll make the trek to Whole Foods.

The CSA is over for the year :-( I will miss it, particularly because I liked having the vegetables on hand and didn't need to think about what to have, I just looked in the fridge and something was there. When I go shopping for myself, I get in a rut and always buy the same things.

We have a service here in CT where a woman sources locally grown foods from Connecticut farms and you order from her website and once a week they deliver it to your door. I am thinking of doing it. It's really pricey, but it does support CT farms, which I do believe in. Their Grass fed meat prices are 3x what I pay, so I will only do it for vegetables and specialty things I can't get conveniently locally.

The alternative is to do without, or to spend half of every Saturday (and a lot of Gas money) driving here and there for things, so it might actually work out.

[Judg]

Forcing myself into ketosis sounds good to me. I'll have to read up a bit myself too. I'm prepared to do weird things for very short periods of time, but if it's supposed to go on longer, it can't be too restrictive. I wouldn't last.

I'm not an expert on the whole famine mechanism thing, but I suspect that the five-year reaction is one to prolonged deprivation. Short-term, I know it kicks in at three weeks, which is why I always limited my calorie-deprivation stints to three weeks. I am still convinced that this was a very important element in my success.

[DCarr10760]

I tried my kraut! Very yummy and crunchable. I've been having it with my eggs in the morning.

Weight is still within a pound of the weight in my signature, so it is stable. Food has been good, no cheating. To get the extra calories to maintain my current weight I have been eating more fat, mostly nuts and have been having some fruit, kiwi and apples.

Next week I'll do the leptin reset, when I am in Ketosis I may fast a day and see how that goes. But for the balance of the weekend I'm just trying to stay on an even keel.

[ecks]

I was thinking about starting to make my own sauerkrout. I had some with dinner last night while I was at a restaurant. Did you do anything magical with yours or just a basic recipe?