AndyJ's Body Enhancement Thread

Diet is still your biggest route to change and eventually getting off the meds. How’s it going with the shopping?

Mostly done. The big obstacle at the moment is that the site isn’t air conditioned, and it’s too bleedin’ hot to be over there, much less cook. I’m probably going to buy one of those dorm-size refrigerators; I don’t think the freezer packs and ice chest setup is going to be very practical. I have a bench, equipment, utensils, spices, etc.; pretty much everything except the “food” part.

I’ve been collecting some “that looks like it might be good” recipes. I’ve found that a lot of the cookery sites are using “keto” as a keyword on anything from apple pie to deep-fried Snickers bars. A lot of effort seems to go into making things that *look* like common foods… no, fried cheese may *look* like corn chips, and sour cream may *look* like Kool Whip, but… just no.

The meal doesn’t have to look like something from Denny’s or Olive Garden. A lot of the rest look like something my dog yarks up. I may start a keto cookery thread later. Some of the Hungarian, Korean, and Vietnamese stuff looks like they would be easy to do as low-carb or keto.

Doctors get to bury their mistakes. As a novice chef, I’ll have to eat mine…

I got the lead lab back; it’s near the bottom. Interesting considering how much lead I’ve handled, machined, or cast. The autoimmune lab came back, also all within normal limits, meaning no referral to a rheumatologist. The doc and I will have to decide where to go next; despite the numbers, it’s seasonal and has all the other symptoms of autoimmune disorder.

Normal range on leptin is 0.5-12.5. Mine came back as 42.9. Leptin is produced when you eat, and is part of the “full” signal to stop eating. That I get hungry at all is likely a sign of “leptin resistance”, which seems to be common with fat people. Doesn’t sound like anything I can’t deal with, though,

The doc called Saturday evening, he wanted me to double up on the Lisinopril again, from 20mg to 40mg. I’ve spaced the 10mg tablets roughly 6 hours apart. That dropped my BP into the 130s when seated and 90s when I lay down. Otherwise, it seems much more stable than the previous 2x10mg dose. (granted, only a 24-hour data set)

Yesterday I started checking BP every half hour, out of curiosity more than anything else. I was hoping to see some change when I took the Lisinopril, niacin, aspirin, L-Arginine, etc. Some of it is testing error; the two BP cuffs seldom agree, and they’ll both give a different reading if you run tests back-to-back. So that’s the minimum amount of “noise” in the data… at first I was disappointed I didn’t see any correlation between the pills and the BP readings, but I guess spacing them out is working; my blood pressure used to increase during the day, if there was any change beyond sitting/laying, it was lost in the noise.

This is the problem with keto, it’s maybe a route in to a better diet, but there’s so much bad keto advice out there. As long as you keep the carbs a tiny proportion, you’ll probably be roughly there. I think you could get away with a protein sparing fast though to get faster progress.

Here’s a few keto recipes for you though and yes they are aping SAD food.

New York Cheesecake
Fat head Pizza v2.0
Cheese Sauce (the basic mix of butter and heavy cream can be used to make other sauces)
Pancakes/Waffles

One thing you’ll see in a lot of keto/vegan recipes is almond flour but it’s so high in oxalate that it’s worth avoiding any recipe that contains it. People die from high levels of oxalate poisoning but at lower levels it may help cause kidney stones (calcium oxalate) and has shown a relationship with urinary problems. You can normally replace almond flour with coconut flour for roughly the same effect. Coconut flour is a bit sweeter and has less bite but doesn’t generally impart that “coconut” taste but that’s brand dependent.

If you can lose the weight, I’m sure a lot of your markers will come back to closer to normal. You’re attacking the root.

Home BP tests are close enough for monitoring but can be offset from reality. It’s worth taking your BP on your machine soon after having a professional do it by hand. In the waiting room after the appointment or your car if it’s close. What are you finding the variance to be?

I brought both cuffs and checked them against the doc’s old-school wall-mount unit. It probably has half a pound of mercury in the column. The Omron cuff is about the same, the no-name one is about 20mm/Hg low. Neither cuff is particularly repeatable. I’m pretty sure it’s just crummy firmware, but there’s not much I can do about that.

I’ll keep that about the almond flour in mind.

One of the after-effects of the lengthy infection that led to me finding Thunders was severe erectile dysfunction. From here, I learned about various supplements and their effects, and tried L-Arginine, L-Lysine, L-Tryptophan, and boron. I was one of the lucky ones; my problem was solved by one 500mg L-Arginine in the morning, one 500mg L-Tryptophan in the evening. EQ was satisfactory and morning wood happened five or six times a week; better than many over-60 guys; I was fine.

The doc put me on a blood pressure med called Lisinopril. Having heard horror stories from many people about unpleasant side effects from different BP meds, I discontinued all supplements several days before starting the drug. Since I wasn’t taking any other prescription drugs, that would give me a “clean” baseline if I had any problems.

It turned out I had no problems with Lisinopril. I noted a lack of morning wood and general unresponsiveness along with poor EQ (those detailed logs occasionally turn out useful) but figured things would return to normal. However, I resumed L-Arginine and L-Tryptophan two weeks ago, and it’s still limp down there.

A web search turned up many sites claiming 1 to 3% of men taking Lisinopril report ED as a side effect. It would be just my luck… before seeing the doc about it, I’m going to try increasing the supplement doses (which are small, by comparison to what most people seem to take) and seeing if L-Tryptophan and boron will help.

Sometimes I feel like a dog chasing its tail.

Mostly just extending and pumping the last couple of months. EQ has been trending down steadily. I’m putting in a lot more time PE’ing than most people, but it’s low intensity and hasn’t been a problem before. Makes me wonder what my testosterone level is at the moment. The endocrinologist appointment is 61 days from; I expect he’ll order a lab test. Then who knows how long before TRT. It will depend on whether he wants to try other things first. The supplement stack that did so well for me before isn’t working now, or perhaps EQ is so bad the only reason I have any at all is due to them.

I’ve been taking my blood pressure a dozen times a day. It was bouncing up and down enough to worry me; now it’s a lot more steady, and the differential between sitting and laying down is a bit lower. It is averaging in the low 120s, with the lowest average being 113 and the highest 131, so I’ll just let it ride until I see the doc next time.

I had to get a refill on the Lisinopril, and the pharmacy said insurance wouldn’t cover the refill because it was “too early.” The prescription they had said 1x/day, and the doc changed it to 4x a while back, but they didn’t have that, and it was a weekend so I couldn’t get hold of the doc. But they were fine with just selling me a refill outright for $17. Lesson: get refills *before* I run out.

The flexibility/stretching exercises have been successful, though it took a while. Still a bunch of crackling in my neck on the head rolls, but the crunchy shoulder moves freely now, and I have a lot less pain with the right hip, so maybe the hip was just arthritis and not a degenerated joint. Yet, anyway. I’ll start with the barbell and dumbbells next week. I found the barbell, one dumbell, and some of the weights; the other weights are behind a bunch of stuff in the storage room, and after considering the enormity of digging my way back to them, I’ll just buy or make some more weights.

I never found a complete carb chart anywhere, so I’ve been making my own. Heck, there are vegetables I’ve never even heard of. Lots of stuff from Mexico, but almost all of it is high-carb. Some Asian stuff that would work with keto, which might be available at an Asian grocery in town. I’m willing to experiment; between carb limits and food allergies, the “vegetable” side of the menu is pretty barren.

I finally got around to following up on your warning. I’d never even heard of oxalates before. Wonderful.

They could have been the main contributing factor to the kidney stone I got about ten years ago, at my last diet/healthy eating attempt. Almost everything on that diet was on the top of the oxalate scale.

In further news, I also came across “glycemic index”, which is basically “how much something affects blood glucose, as compared to table sugar.” While chasing down data on artificial sweeteners, I found a couple had no carbs, but a higher glycemic index than sugar. Same for a couple of vegetables. It’s not a big deal to me since I’m not diabetic, but my wife is, so those went on the ‘avoid’ list.

Type 1 or type 2 diabetic? You can reverse type 2 diabetes with diet. Basically cut out carbs, live on fat for energy. Over time your body recovers. Within months. Keto can work but carnivore is easier. It’s also useful with type 1 diabetes but there’s no chance of recovery, it’s an insulin control method. That said there are people who control type 1 diabetes with a fruitarian diet.

She’s a Type 2, and would probably be okay if she lost some weight. She’s in that zone between “this is serious” and “insulin shots” where she can live in denial while stuffing her face full of junk food and soda. But she’s an adult and determined to do as she pleases; the are limits to what I can do about it.

Hey AndyJ… just wanted to say keep going man. Awesome to see you taking steps to get on track. If you don’t mind, I’ll just throw out some perspective a bit. Ignore it if you want.

First off, the doctors aren’t conspiring against you regarding BMI. Given your current condition, you are just too much of a risk and you will be for quite some time even with good progress. I agree that BMI isn’t an optimal way to measure, but for 95% of the population it is pretty close. We westerners have just done a great job of convincing ourselves that being fat is normal and healthy. But it hasn’t done us any favors.

I’ve done the keto thing very successfully. If it works for you, great. The good part is that it’s the only “diet” I’ve done that doesn’t leave me hungry all the time. The bad thing is that it’s really boring after about 2-3 months. But let me be real with you. At your age, height, and weight you are literally burning about 3500 calories a day just sitting around. That is a huge amount of food in a day. Even with “bad” foods. For example, that’s like eating a double quarter pounder with cheese, medium fries, and 20oz soda, for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, every day. If we were talking healthy whole foods, you simply couldn’t eat that much food every day. So even getting into a reasonable calorie range (about 2500 cal per day) is going to pay off huge for you until you drop quite a bit of weight.

I know the joint pain sucks, but you are on the right track with the exercise. Dieting your way back to health really sucks because you don’t really feel any better and the only pay off is a lower number on the scale. But let me give some advice on the exercise. BUILD MUSCLE!!! A lot of your joints aren’t as bad as you think they are. You just have terrible posture now pulling them in all sorts of weird directions which causes the pinching and popping, and grinding. Please get on YouTube and watch hours and hours of how to do basic weightlifting with proper form (the channel AthleneX comes to mind). Don’t worry about the advanced stuff or heavy weights yet. If you can barely do 2.5lbs dumbbells, that’s great, but make sure you have PERFECT form in your lifts. Start VERY LOW in weight and increase slowly over time focusing only on perfect form. My advice… stay away from body weight exercises as much as possible (push-ups, sit-ups, pull-ups, squats, etc). They are exactly wrong and demoralizing for people whom are really overweight and out of shape. They are frustrating, and worse yet impossible to maintain proper form when your muscles aren’t strong enough to move your own weight.

My personal opinion as well, focus more on lifting weights than cardio. If you are lifting properly, you’ll get your heart rate up enough, and the lifting is more emotionally and physically rewarding. You’ll drop fat faster, your joints will feel better, and if you use a decent weightlifting app you’ll get the satisfaction of setting new records all the time. I recommend DrMuscle as it uses AI to structure your workouts for you. All you have to do is start at Level 1 and be consistent. Just swap out any of the bodyweight exercises until you’ve lost a decent amount of weight.

True, and something I’m working at. I have the keyboard slouch to match the swivel chair butt.

That’s the plan!

Between my knees and the hernia, almost all of the body-weight stuff is off the table. I will have to do most of the barbell and dumbbell work while seated. Not the best, but better than nothing.

Weights are the plan. I was always fat, but I was strong. Now, between age and years of illness, I am seriously debilitated. I’ll never be 20 again - or even 40 - but I can be a lot better than I am now.

63 is still young. Go get it man!

Most type 2 diabetics don’t realize that it’s reversible. It’s not something promoted by allopathic medicine. I guess it would hit profits. Of course it’s best to reverse it before you lose a foot or something. I get you though, she can make her own decisions and sometimes it’s not easy to get facts in front of someone so that they can actually make a decision.

By the way have you watched the movie “The Magic Pill” (2017)? It was available on netflix.

It’s a really high level film about diet and includes people reversing diabetes done in an emotion tugging way.

It’s probably highly effective propaganda (in a good way) unless you’ve come across all the concepts already.

If I’m cooking already I think she’ll just eat what I do, which ought to help.