Hi Everyone - I apologize for the long introductory post, but I figured it would be best to get all my background information out there to put my journey in context. I am a 44 year old female. Up until about 3 years ago I was quite healthy, very lean and extremely active (fitness instructor, runner, weight lifter etc). Shortly after my 40th bday I decided to lose the last 10lbs that always bugged me. I purchased an online fitness and nutrition plan and followed it to the letter. It involved 5-6 meals a day, low carb, low fat with 1 hour of cardio a day plus 4 days of weightlifting. It worked quite well and I had lost those 10lbs in about 12 weeks and started to lay down some nice muscle.
I think I lost way more than 10lbs because I was definitely getting very small to the point that size 0 was baggy. I was thrilled, but the hours of food prep a day and the time in the gym was starting to wear on me and causing a strain on my marriage. DH was less than thrilled with my new body....apparently he likes jiggle, grrrr men! I started experiencing severe bloating and gas which I now realize was probably from all the sugar free gum I was chewing to help me stick to the diet. The bloating was horrible and by the end of the day, I looked 6 months pregnant. What was the point of being skinny if I look pregnant right? So I stopped the diet and the exercising and predictably the weight started to come back on. But the bloating didn't go away and my hair started falling out. I decided to go low carb/high fat to try and maintain my weight, so in the summer of 2013 I dropped to <20g carbs. The bloating was better once all vegetables were removed from my diet. However, the fatigue, hairloss and weight gain continued....and I developed acne and highish fbg. I gained about 20lbs in about 4 months. I went to many doctors (10 total - gp, 3 endocrinologists, allergist, gastroenterologist, 2 ER visit, 1 quack, etc.) about the bloating, hairloss, weight gain, high fbg and acne, but no one had any answers.
Last June, I finally got in to see a functional medicine doctor who diagnosed me with chronic and acute lyme. The joint pain that I had in 2001 for 4 years (that no doctor could figure out) was most likely the lyme ...so my bloodwork showed that the infection was still in the acute phase meaning that the body never got a handle on it...or the infection was reactivated. My t3 was abysmally low so she started me on a bunch of supplements and Armour thyroid. All of my hormones were in the deficient range (dhea, insulin, testosterone, thyroid). I have been through several antibiotic and herbal protocols for the lyme, but have made no progress. I have not exercised in 2 years. The doctor wanted me to continue my vlc/zc paleo diet as that was in line with her dietary philosophy.
So after a year of this with no progress, I found Ray Peat on MDA and have decided to try and heal my hormones and hopefully lose some of this weight. I have been semi peating for the last two weeks, but I think I will be more successful if I log my journey and have a place to get support and ask questions. I also bought a spot in a 9 week weight lifting class. I really want to exercise again and replace some of the muscle I have lost...I feel better when I work out and I have followed the advice of others in the past and took two years off and it hasn't helped, so time to try something different. I took my first class on Friday and I was careful to not overdo it. I have to think of myself as a beginner and not grab the weight I used to use. I took the lightest weight for each exercise and although I wanted to vomit the first 10 minutes, after that, I felt good and had no trouble completing the class. I am sore but it is a nice feeling if you know what I mean. The class is at 5 am 3x/week so we'll see how it goes.
So back to peat....I am focusing on lean proteins (mostly gelatin, eggs, dairy and tinned oysters), fruit and oj. Breakfast is usually tea with 2tsp of sugar and 2-3tbs of gelatin and an orange and some grapes or other fruit. Lunch is 2% cottage cheese with fruit....maybe some oj w/gelatin....if I need snacks it is some light jarlsberg cheese with fruit or oj... Dinner is eggs, cheese and fruit or oysters and fruit or meat and fruit. I got a little off track this week and fell into 2 boxes of meringues from trader joes...technically peat, but eating the entire container is doing me no favors weight wise...just after no sugar for soooo long...well you get the idea
If I get brave, I'll take and post my before picture tomorrow. I am going to my functional medicine doctor on Wednesday ....I had some additional lyme/coinfections tests run to see if there is something else that needs to be treated before getting the lyme and an amino acids profile test as well as the usual stuff she always runs....hormones, a1c, cbc, etc. I'm sure she will not be thrilled with my new diet, but I did a meat and water only diet for almost a year to help with the lyme and got nowhere. I couldn't even think of exercising on zc so that fact that I made it through a whole 1 hour class on peat is encouraging.
Interesting thing though is that she ran a 23&me genetic test on me a while ago and it showed that I don't digest fats well....I asked her what I should eat and she was like I don't know because she is very pro LC paleo....so even though the evidence was there that lchf doesn't work with my genetics, she could take that step to tell me to switch to hclf...but 2 years of lchf hasn't worked for me and I never experienced the appetite suppression everyone talks about...so we'll see what she has to say.
Anyways thanks for reading ...I know it was really long....I appreciate anyone who takes the time to stop in here and any feedback is most welcomed.
I think I lost way more than 10lbs because I was definitely getting very small to the point that size 0 was baggy. I was thrilled, but the hours of food prep a day and the time in the gym was starting to wear on me and causing a strain on my marriage. DH was less than thrilled with my new body....apparently he likes jiggle, grrrr men! I started experiencing severe bloating and gas which I now realize was probably from all the sugar free gum I was chewing to help me stick to the diet. The bloating was horrible and by the end of the day, I looked 6 months pregnant. What was the point of being skinny if I look pregnant right? So I stopped the diet and the exercising and predictably the weight started to come back on. But the bloating didn't go away and my hair started falling out. I decided to go low carb/high fat to try and maintain my weight, so in the summer of 2013 I dropped to <20g carbs. The bloating was better once all vegetables were removed from my diet. However, the fatigue, hairloss and weight gain continued....and I developed acne and highish fbg. I gained about 20lbs in about 4 months. I went to many doctors (10 total - gp, 3 endocrinologists, allergist, gastroenterologist, 2 ER visit, 1 quack, etc.) about the bloating, hairloss, weight gain, high fbg and acne, but no one had any answers.
Last June, I finally got in to see a functional medicine doctor who diagnosed me with chronic and acute lyme. The joint pain that I had in 2001 for 4 years (that no doctor could figure out) was most likely the lyme ...so my bloodwork showed that the infection was still in the acute phase meaning that the body never got a handle on it...or the infection was reactivated. My t3 was abysmally low so she started me on a bunch of supplements and Armour thyroid. All of my hormones were in the deficient range (dhea, insulin, testosterone, thyroid). I have been through several antibiotic and herbal protocols for the lyme, but have made no progress. I have not exercised in 2 years. The doctor wanted me to continue my vlc/zc paleo diet as that was in line with her dietary philosophy.
So after a year of this with no progress, I found Ray Peat on MDA and have decided to try and heal my hormones and hopefully lose some of this weight. I have been semi peating for the last two weeks, but I think I will be more successful if I log my journey and have a place to get support and ask questions. I also bought a spot in a 9 week weight lifting class. I really want to exercise again and replace some of the muscle I have lost...I feel better when I work out and I have followed the advice of others in the past and took two years off and it hasn't helped, so time to try something different. I took my first class on Friday and I was careful to not overdo it. I have to think of myself as a beginner and not grab the weight I used to use. I took the lightest weight for each exercise and although I wanted to vomit the first 10 minutes, after that, I felt good and had no trouble completing the class. I am sore but it is a nice feeling if you know what I mean. The class is at 5 am 3x/week so we'll see how it goes.
So back to peat....I am focusing on lean proteins (mostly gelatin, eggs, dairy and tinned oysters), fruit and oj. Breakfast is usually tea with 2tsp of sugar and 2-3tbs of gelatin and an orange and some grapes or other fruit. Lunch is 2% cottage cheese with fruit....maybe some oj w/gelatin....if I need snacks it is some light jarlsberg cheese with fruit or oj... Dinner is eggs, cheese and fruit or oysters and fruit or meat and fruit. I got a little off track this week and fell into 2 boxes of meringues from trader joes...technically peat, but eating the entire container is doing me no favors weight wise...just after no sugar for soooo long...well you get the idea
If I get brave, I'll take and post my before picture tomorrow. I am going to my functional medicine doctor on Wednesday ....I had some additional lyme/coinfections tests run to see if there is something else that needs to be treated before getting the lyme and an amino acids profile test as well as the usual stuff she always runs....hormones, a1c, cbc, etc. I'm sure she will not be thrilled with my new diet, but I did a meat and water only diet for almost a year to help with the lyme and got nowhere. I couldn't even think of exercising on zc so that fact that I made it through a whole 1 hour class on peat is encouraging.
Interesting thing though is that she ran a 23&me genetic test on me a while ago and it showed that I don't digest fats well....I asked her what I should eat and she was like I don't know because she is very pro LC paleo....so even though the evidence was there that lchf doesn't work with my genetics, she could take that step to tell me to switch to hclf...but 2 years of lchf hasn't worked for me and I never experienced the appetite suppression everyone talks about...so we'll see what she has to say.
Anyways thanks for reading ...I know it was really long....I appreciate anyone who takes the time to stop in here and any feedback is most welcomed.