Wow-what A Difference!

So here's my latest I will do: last night, I DID eat that larger portion of meat, had like 4 ginger candies with it, purposely, to try something different than sugary coffee, and DID NOT have any starch or oats, etc. That is what I do in place of meat at night, but I am going to try eating my meat again later at night too, but with just sugary items and not do the starch. I don't feel the need for the starch if I am doing more protein. By starch, I mean oats, rice, etc. Instead, I just stick to sweets like chocolate, orange juice, sugary coffee. Oh, and I found a NEW chocolate that is CHEAP, which I love. (that it is cheap). I couldn't believe it b/c it was Nestle, who seems to ruin everything and every brand of chocolate here has lecithin (with the exception of some small fancy bars and these chocolate drops at the health food store that are like 10 dollars a pound. Which is why I just buy a bar with soy lecithin in it.) However, Nestle has DARK (53%, which is what they consider dark, hahahaha) chocolate chips with NO SOY LECITHIN. I can't believe it. I found it in the local grocery store. I am waiting for this to be some sort of mistake and expect that they will eventually add it. Anyway, it DOES taste different, and actually tastes good, which is amazing considering I have tried all the Nestle stuff and always hate it. So I ate this yesterday, too, for a snack. No starch via, oats, rice, etc. So we will see how this goes. I will say, I have PLENTY of energy this morning. So this is a good sign...will get this protein thing figured out yet.

And as for amounts, it's not so much that I counted before or after, but since starting Peat, I drastically reduced what I was consuming most--protein. And since eggs do not really work for me, and cheese does not really work, milk has been my main source, along with the limited amounts of the other things, ie. oysters, gelatin, liver, etc. So my concern has been being able to get enough of the protein via the other sources, i.e. milk, but I am really going to see if simply eating more sugar, and possibly without the coffee, when having the meat, will work with it.

I apologize for getting carried away with the protein quotes. If someone questions the status quo, I enjoy researching what and why and reviewing the information. It helps me to correct my tendency to fall away from what is ideal. I have been lax over the holidays and crashed my metabolism. This is a oretty good warning for me to not be lazy in my nutrition. I don't really like to track my foods but when I first tried it, I found I was not getting enough protein. I also could see clearly why I was gaining weight. As our metabolism improves, so does the requirement for nutrients. This is my biggest challenge.

I am not able to drink a large amount of milk at one time. I have it in coffee and sips of it throughout the day. Do you have a problem with all cheese? Have you tried Greek yogurt?

Again, I am sorry if I came on too strong. I understand that we each have to figure out what works best for us.

Oh, no need to apologize at all. You are extremely polite, and nothing about your response was nasty in any way. I appreciate you looking into it! I think you are right to remind yourself about the protein. To answer your question, I have been amazingly fine with all milk. Yesterday was the first day I seemed to have issues, but I am suspicious that it was the instant coffee and somehow blending it with the sugar in the blender, which I do not usually do, that might have caused intestinal upset along with gelatin that I tried unsuccessfully to dissolve and then put in my drink. But it did remind me that trying to drink extra milk to make up for not eating that much meat could be annoyingly inconvenient.

Cheese seems to give me the weird breath and make me feel constipated. Doesn't really matter what cheese, although the recommended one doesn't seem to do me any favors. The parm/reggiano one with only animal rennet. I actually was thinking lately about cottage cheese as an option in addition to milk, but then being a cheapo, I start calculating the cost of this or yoghurt, in comparison to milk and can't really see the point in bothering when I don't find any brand that has more protein than the milk.

I did more meat today, and WAS/am A BIT sleepy; however, I added back in a small amount of niacinamide and B1 b/c I am curious to see if this helps with the digestion, which it seemed to before. I don't need it for anxiety now, but it did appear to help with my digestion before.

The large volume of milk is definitely not optimal. I can do 8 or 10 ounces without any problem whatsoever. But more than thajt--like the amount I did yesterday, seems to feel not so great. Also, I am grossed out by the way it foams up if I blend it or even heat it a little. This doesn't happen with higher fat milk as much.

Thanks again for your thoughts. Wow--you are REALLY polite and thoughtful. Most people, even when they are trying, are not as polite as you when you question whether you are being abrasive. That is a very nice quality! And again, I love these ideas and have benefited greatly from suggestions. (minus the one from the woman who was "helpfully" suggesting I do as she does, and divert and distract from feeling any misery by dumping it on others through volunteering. I'll skip that one, but the rest of the suggestions have been wonderful.)

2:1 ratio protein to carbs seems to work good for me. If the protein you are digesting runs out of sugar your body starts making stress hormones. So its good to make sure you got enough sugar to process the protein.

Well, I am going for it with the protein. When in doubt, DO MORE. I got a gross bottle of ketchup, organic with sugar, not HFCS, and squeeze TONS of it on each bite of meat I eat. I have been a bit sleepy with my increased meat consumption, but sort of ignored it. It improved yesterday and today I experienced NONE of the sleepiness; just lots of creative energy and good spirit. Since that time, about 2 days ago, I am sticking with it.

In addition, I bought yogurt, AND, cottage cheese, AND more EGGS. I decided to eat way more protein of everything. I completely sweetened the yoghurt and cottage cheese and put melted gelatin in both. I did this b/c I wanted to up the protein content. I have a knack for turning things really gross. I succeeded. It (gelatin I added) made the cottage cheese a very strange texture, and (gelatin I added to yoghurt) made the yoghurt super-gross b/c I didn't dissolve it enough, and it turned into gummy bear texture-like strands in the yoghurt. And it is SO sweet that it is almost a little nasty. I wanted to make sure I didn't get the whole blood-sugar issue with the protein so just wanted everything sweetened outright. Wow--Only I could make something that gross! HOwever, I don't really care, and am eating all. And I hard boiled an egg today (more soft-boiled b/c I didn't do it long enough--one of the soy-free ones) and ate that this morning, too. Made that gross and unappealing also because the white was still sort of slimeyish and liquidy, but I was too impatient to bother trying to fix it. I guess it was "make your food disgusting" day for me! I really want to be able to do eggs, so I am trying this and maybe my sheer stubbornness will override the egg issues I have been afflicted with up until now.

Today I am NOT tired, did not feel like sleeping till 2pm, (I was in a hot car at that point reading about calcium signals and lever systems with muscles so perhaps that was the "catalyst") and I exercised, studied, worked, and volunteered at the hospital until that time.

My theories, which probably are all wrong: I think I need more protein for my protein. And the ground beef seems to be the key--there is something to the meat that gives me the verve, and hard-core strength I do not get from the other things no matter how much milk I drink, OJ, etc. I think I need to eat the sugar literally at the same time as the protein. When I do the all-milk type protein , along with gelatin and just bits of liver, oysters, or even ground beef, while I am not sleepy, I do not feel really strong. SInce doing more protein in the form of red meat, I feel very strong, physically. NOt just physically, but I feel like I have a vast underground of resources for my mind and body; it definitely is an improvement. Without this and just being one of those people who drinks milk and gets protein through other sources, the heavy-duty vitality just isn't there. And I am not going to do cod, etc., bc I find fish gross, it is more expensive than meat, so just won't work. I have even been wanting to do more exercise later in the day. Because I have this URGE to, like the energy there just itching at me wanting to be used. Amazing. When I was doing more standard, milk, liver, gelatin, sugar, but not as much meat, I felt much more "slight" "waifey" and "fragile." Now I feel like hearty peasant girl, which for me, is preferable.

Also, I would not purposely be doing so much fat while consuming lots of sugar; however, we get the fattiest meat, which is the cheapest. So this is a good case for seeing how it works for someone to do more protein, higher carbs, and NOT low fat. Again, if I become the Michelin Man, it will be time to reevaluate, but I am not going to have my husband buy meat that is like 2 dollars extra for a pound b/c I am worried about getting fat. Also, he despises meat without lots of fat, and I don't like it either. I have always thought the combination of sugar, fat, and protein to be the perfect recipe for becoming a giant person, but we'll see. I've done high fat low carb, and on here, high carb lower fat, so this should be interesting...

Other thing I noticed: very interesting, I have been taking more magnesium, and if I take way too much, it will have laxative effect. It has not, however, and I also notice I seem to be able to drink way more than I thought since I am doing more protein, and don't pee that much. So I am doing more water, more magnesium, and definitely keeping up with the aspirin.

We will see if tomorrow I am achey and look like a beached whale from the egg. I just decided, since I am so stubborn, that I want to do the egg normally, which to me, means eating ALL of it, and cooking it. I do not want to eat a wet raw yolk. I want it how I want it.

Anyway, this will be very exciting if this works out. My goal is to have TONS of protein now. That's the reason I got the cottage cheese and the yogurt, despite the whole yogurt not being as good. Don't care about that. I want even my snacks to be protein rich. And I get bored easily so I want something in addition to milk.

I make sure I am getting this protein often. So for instance, upon waking prior to doing my yoga (I do not just hang there like a limp noodle, I move actively and do core work), I had some of my disgusting gelatin-noodle infused yogurt (already very sweet--I added sugar, palm sugar, honey, to all of it--Nancy's brand-no bad stuff in it--same as the cottage cheese), and some of my slightly less disgusting gelatined cottage cheese.

Then before working, I had a soft-boiled egg, ground beef with lots of gross ketchup, milk, coffee and OJ, and gelatin. And more yogurt and more cottage cheese.NOw I do wonder if the ketchup due to the tomato will cause me nightshade symptoms (i.e. swelled fingers, aches), but my thought is (and this is why I didn't make my own) that there is so much damn sugar in that and not so much tomato paste that it will be okay. And sorry, I just find it gross to eat candy after the burger, and I kind of want the sugar slathered on the meat as I eat it. Anyway, going strong, adding in new activities to my life, and feeling very jubilant in general, so I think this is a good sign.

Will see how I feel tomorrow when I wake up as the egg always has the tendency to make me constipated, achey and blow up like a whale. OH, I did notice something already, as my body very quickly shows effects of whatever I am doing. Unlike with just drinking all those liquids, where I look very skinny but sort of not very muscular, I am already looking more solid and muscle-bound--after just like several days of more protein. And doing all this protein, also I find I am not hungry at all for many many hours and do not have an urge to eat any starch at all. Just not interested when eating the protein. Will see what happens...

Someone posted this recipe a while ago. Your concoction reminded me of it.

"I have also found that cottage cheese and gelatin make a good mixture (creates a cake-like consistency).

Something I often make is:

1 cup low-fat cottage cheese
3 tbsp gelatin
1 tbsp coccoa powder or half coccoa powder/half instant coffee
drop of vanilla extract
sugar, honey, stevia to taste

It is quick, easy, delicicious (reminds me of a moist brownie)"

Quick update: didn't start eating all meat again. Just been in school.
I am doing much better managing the emotional stress from school (for me--not for a regular person) I am highly conforming to Peat staples b/c I study so many hours that it is the easiest food for me to digest.

Working very well for me is: milk, caffeine pills b/c sometimes I can't stand the sight of coffee, orange juice, and oranges. I eat oranges in multiples late at night (11 and on after I get back from class). I also started making an effort to have more coconut oil. I eat them late at night b/c that is when my day FINALLY slows down. It is just not relaxing for me to eat for pleasure before then. I talked to my teacher about organics and she told me there is not conclusive research about conventional products;she is a biologist, so I appreciated her views as they were not simply tainted with fear and ideology. Anyhow, I decided to try regular oranges b/c I like the cara cara, blood oranges, etc. and it is frustrating for me to have just one orange. I'm not like that. I like 3 or so or at least two, when I eat them. So buying the conventional ones makes it a lot cheaper and I am reconciled with this. Otherwise the amount of oranges I buy would easily be like 15 dollars or more extra expense. So that is what made me feel willing to buy oranges. HOwever, I will NOT be juicing b/c I don't have the time for this. I buy orange juice.

But I like Trader Joes or Whole Foods. When I was desperate, I got Safeway stuff with additives and I did not feel good after drinking it. Only whole foods and trader joe's has orange juice with no other weird ingrdeinnts. Even the organic at Safeway still had additives. Againn , I wouldn't care about them if they hadn't bothered me, but they did.

My nerves especially on school days (the class work is super intense) make it optimal to stick with liquids. I have been doing far less meat b/c I just don't feel like eating solids. I have a bit now and then. So basically, milk, juice, oranges, orange juice. I eat cara cara, blood oranges. I like the ones that have a pretty color; it makes me happy to look at it.

Energy is very high. Sometimes on days when I am feeling very nervous, I take even up to 3,000mg of niacinamide. 1500 mg dose at most at one time. This diet is working quite well for me.

Also, I forgot, I like ice cream. I ventured off and got some TJ's stuff that had gums in it b/c I figured how big of a deal could it be, but the next morning I woke up with a practically snowy white tongue and felt super congested and heavy! So I stick with Haagen Daaz that does not have bad effects. I am also taking LOTS of B1 for brain function along with aspririn regularly. About 2 aspirin at a time, maybe 3 times a day.
As I said, the diet couldn't be working better. I am not eating a lot of seafood, b/c I am sort of skeptical that all the toxicity in the water isn't an issue. Liver and oysters when my husband buys them. I am VERY busy so if he didn't shop for these things, I would just end up having my liquids. It is easier and takes no preparation time.
As for rice and oats, I have to be in the mood to bother with it. Oranges for some reason, do not bother my teeth at all, unlike all the other citrus fruit. I LOVE THEM!

I can say that Peat diet is efficaceous b/c the amount of information and work I am completing, and my ability to manage what is always stressful for me (school, labs, etc,) is high. Sleep is NEVER a problem b/c I stay up very late so when I go to bed, I could sleep if someone blew a trumpet in my ear. I wake up when I'm not tired. Still doing gelatin, but it really fills me up and since I am sort of in a perpetual state of lots of effort, I don't do quite as much.

Not really worrying about the protein thing anymore. Fish isn't reasonable for me to eat all the time. Tried cheese again with bad results. And meat when I feel like it is okay, but I don't feel like it much. I notice without it, with primarily liquids I mentioned and oranges, I feel great. With meat, I just don't feel as good. However, it could be that if I were doing very relaxing things and not that which required tons of effort and study, that maybe meat would be more appealing to me. So all is good. That's the update. And eating this way, makes me VERY skinny, but frankly I don't care. As long as my brain is working, I don't care about the other things-fat thin or skinny, in my case. Brain working is the only checkmark I am looking for and niacinamide to control the gushing anxiety. However, what I like about niacinamide is that unlike an SSRI that I could not just take when I felt like it, I CAN do this with niacinamide, b/c my anxiety is not out of control every day. Just sometimes, and then I need a mega-dose to bring it down. Ok..that's all.

oh, that reminds me of one more thing. It's funny how tastes change. When I started, could only stomach milk hot. Always needed it to be sweet. Now I really like drinking it plain. Tastes good to me that way. Ok. now I am really going back to study. Can never seem to get by with just one paragraph. :)

Glad to have an update, Caroline. Good to hear from you. Terrific that your diet is working so well for you.

Thanks, Peata. It is working great. Caffeine pills, B1, and aspirin, and milk and oj seem to be really great for me. I don't feel the need for all that much meat protein. When I do, I eat it.

I have very little freakouts in school, which was a problem before. I am nervous and manic about it, but that's just school in general. I don't find it relaxing to be quizzed and graded and made to shove way too much information in my head. It feels aggressive and provoking to me so I am always looking for ways to adapt, and conquer it to some extent. Going on the offensive in this way seems to be helpful for me.

Caffeine seems to have no withdrawal effects on me that I can see. If I don't have it, I don't notice any headaches, lethargy, etc. So not sure why my system seems to work that way, but that's fine with me. Better than my egg issue. Eggs, rice, potatoes, are all still iffy, with rice having least negative effects. Ice cream doesn't seem to be really great either, for some reason. Even the Haagen Daaz. Oh well. I am so busy I don't really get off on making a big deal about food. I just put things in me and make sure I have enough fuel.

Great to read about your success! I'm just curious, how much Oj and milk do you drink every day?

Hi, I am one of those people who is naturally very erratic. Like it's not lack of thyroid, etc. My "normal" is not. Of course, that is why Peat diet, which seems weird to the regular person, is perfect for me. So I go in phases of things I am nuts over and then that I want nothing to do with on a regular basis. It's part of my personality. For example, I was up at 4 am. I will sleep a bit during the day when I get tired. Point being: everything other than being madly in love with my husband is always changing for me. Love coffee, hate coffee, like caffeine pills, hate oranges, love oranges, etc.

I will say that drinking lots of milk definitely gives me gas. I didn't notice this until most recently. Probably my body is getting sensitive to it. I don't actually care b/c it's not terrible, and I don't get stomach aches nor does my energy feel bad. So I figure I am just like a minor walking gas bomb, and that is fine. It doesn't cause me inflammation of the joints which makes me immediately stop consuming things that have that effect. I like milk and have no intention of giving it up; it is my major source of nutrition, so I don't care if I have some lactose issues with it.

Currently, I have been liking much more milk than OJ, which is probably why I am a gas bomb. Could be that if I bought some really fancy milk, that didn't have vitamin D added (I get organic at Trader Joe's) that it would be better. But I don't care enough to be bothered. I also tried adding in tiny, and I do mean tiny bits of banana to milk to make the milk thing yummier. Too much banana, and I am an itch bag. But the past few days, I had tiny amount of it in my milk and didn't have itchiness. Not really more gas than usual, either. Really, this is why the all meat diet worked so well for me, with the exception of pork, which I find revolting. Meat and piles of fat always worked great. I never had any allergy issues with it. None. Just smelled like an f-ing dead person.

That is the other thing: as of yesterday, I got boneless skinless chicken breasts, stire fried them in coconut oil with some curry powder and salt. I am really sick of red meat. I just don't like it any more, and my tastes have changed so I don't like lots of fat, period, except for if I cook in coconut oil, eat it plain for energy. This is also kind of funny b/c up until now, you could not have force fed me chicken--especially white meat. I would only eat dark meat and mostly skin. so the chicken breast appealed to me, esp. as I did some reading that whatever the bad stuff is that is supposed to be bad in chicken, is not worse than red meat, and actually better in some respects. The not really liking fatty foods is sort of strange b/c I have always LOVED things with tons of fat. I am just grossed out by it and it doesn't appeal to me now. No idea why. And I have been finding that I don't feel that happy with how I feel after eating meat, so that's why (red meat) I decided to try chicken. I have been thinking about it for a while, but am super lazy about going shopping at all (why drinking liquids is perfect for me) so I didn't get around to it until yesterday. Also, I find that with chicken, I may easily be able to get way more protein. Not so with meat. I don't feel good eating that much of it. Even at the time when I eat it, it is yummy and then I just feel heaviness later. I didn't feel that at all with the chicken and I ate four breasts yesterday. Two in the day, two at night. Probably the lack of fat allows me to eat a lot of it without feeling that heavy feeling. It is frozen and already in little breasts, so I find it less disgusting--which has always been an issue.

Also, just to be clear, I am not like the other Peat people who restrict fat as a method of weight control. Not into that sort of thing at all. I do like coconut oil but find butter to be somewhat problematic digestive wise. Coconut oil I can eat tons of without any ill effects. Just wanted to emphasize I am not fat-restricting to try and manage weight. I am a skinny bones, and even if I wasn't, my ONLY emphasis is having my brain in good functioning shape. I wouldn't want to be like grossly overweight, b/c it would irritate me to feel heavy in my body, but I don't care about weight, and have no interest in restricting food to force a body shape. But it is a moot point b/c I am a bone eating this way--regardless of fat consumed or less fat consumed.

I do wonder if maybe the sugar I get all the time in my peat diet (I make sugary barbecue sauces with far more sugar than tomato or I get arthritis symptoms. Seriously, I am like allergic to almost every food in one form or another but I don't eat any of those things so it doesn't matter---again, why the all meat thing worked for me--nothing to irritate my system)--anyhow, before if I didn't have HUGE amounts of fat, I felt really bad. Now I don't want it at all, and it is actually unappealing to me so I wonder if Peat diet is giving me what I need. Will say, I feel LOTS more energized since eating that chicken. I was surprised how much of it I wanted. I was able to eat a lot of it without feeling bad at all after.

Sorry. Super LONG answer with lots of unrelated jazz. Also, I am doing lots of experimentation with caffeine pills. Did 600mg several times now--twice when I did it, it knocked me out utterly. Yesterday though, it had an energizing effect. 200 mg is fine. Caffeine just does not seem to have the effect on me that it has on a typical person. I can do piles and piles of it, as I have and then do absolutely none at all and I never have any withdrawal symptoms. Nothing. I may actually be more energetic without it, but I assume that my addled almost 50 year old brain cells need it for school, since I find school hellish and stressful, even if I get perfect grades. I have to so it will help my competitiveness when I apply to school since it is highly selective and competitive process. Being mediocre or even kind of good is not good enough; every class I take, I need to get excellent grades. I use this (the caffeine) in place of Adderall, which I am sure would benefit my studying but after reading about all the things it does, I am absolutely not going to take it, so will stick with my super obsessive compulsive studying, along with ray peat diet, and caffeine pills and B1 to do the trick.

I am still super skinny, but it will be interesting to see if adding more chicken, i.e. more protein this way makes me more muscley. I really don't bother exercising anymore since I am always studying.

supplements: forgot. I take aspirin, caffeine pills, B1 and niacinamide, and if I am feeling more nuts re: school issues (like all the crap I have to learn in too short of a time) which causes anxiety, I take buttloads of niacinamide to dampen that. Seems to work. I had backed off niacinamide, but then decided I am a little nuts without it, so especially on school days, I tend to take a lot more so I am not manic.

ahahhaah At least I don't suffer from fatigue anymore. No way.

Thanks for your answer! I feel much better with chicken than beef too, dunno why though... It might be the lack of fat as you mentioned.

All the best!

Over chicken. Made me not feel good after a few days.
Trying cheese all this week and am ignoring the whole only buy parmegiano-regg thing b/c it's a. a pain, b. expensive, and c. I don't feel like it. I figured I could make up for not eating very much meat, which I am doing again.

However, now I am taking a break from it and will see if I feel better or worse. I think it made me feel sort of constipated and bloated which is usually not the case, even when I eat like 1/2 or more of a container of ice cream.

Made my own chocolate syrup to add to milk, so have been using that and got actualy coffee beans again b/c I am totally sick of instant. I can barely stand to look at it much less smell it.

Forgot to take all my supplements lately b/c I was on break, though not really b/c I studied non-stop. Didn't notice any difference to be honest. None. Even when I don't have caffeine at all.

I made potato again the other night and I do think it may cause joint pain. Really, it seems the only food I can eat without ANY problem is air. Milk actually gives me a bit of gas, but I am not going to stop with that. Oranges are great. No problem at all. I can eat a million of them in one sitting (I like tangerines b/c I am so lazy that I don't really like to have to cut and peel my favorites-the Cara Cara).

Other than that, I have been pounding ice cream non-stop but decided it is too expensive and lasts me like one day b/c I eat it all so I made the chocolate syrup instead. Much cheaper if you figure a whole gallon of milk, plus whatever it takes to make my chocolate sauce, and I think, less disgusting than the ice cream. I don't really like the way any of it is made. Haagen Daaz, some other organic brand that tastes really yummy but I eat in two seconds--enh. And I am not EVER going to be making my own any time soon. Also, I stopped liking the Trader Joe's OJ the fresh unpasteurized and/or the organic in the plastic containers. I feel like I just taste plastic, and it is too strong. I'll stick with the stuff that has been mixed with oranges in Brazil and left for a year and put into the weird sci-fi pasteurizer. It's fine for me.

Also, tried bananas at one point. Those made me TOTALLY itchy. I would love to eat those regularly but I itched all over after eating them and got weird stomach cramps.

And I was on a shrimp kick, but I got totally grossed out just smelling it and looking at it. Seafood seems disgusting and dirty to me and I'm not motivated to eat it. Especailly, as water all over the place is polluted, yet you pay top dollar for shrimp from Thailand or China that isn't clear in terms of how it is produced, and what sort of process they are using.

All in all, I am ending my ice cream bender, although it was very easy to just eat ice cream mostly, and oranges. Going back to lots of milk. And chocolate sauce. Will see how that goes. Clearly, it is not affecting my thinking abilities b/c I am cramming in more information than ever so I haven't noticed this. Also, I seem to need less sleep now.

Oh, last thing. I got these headphones that are made for people doing construction. They were like 20 bucks. Not expensive. They block out sound without being noise-cancelling. That seemed like a hassle. Something else electrical to have to charge and that would break. I go to sleep with those on and a blindfold and nothing can wake me. This is a good thing since I go to sleep at very late hours. Well, not too exciting, but that's it for now

Oh, also, I have been exercising, doing yoga, for hours at a time sort of off and one to stay alert while I watch physiology videos so I went from doing absolutely no exercise at all to tons. It is not "cardio" b/c it is more body weight type of stuff, and also I do not damage my muscles by just hanging there like a corpse in a static stretching pose. I use a foam roller a lot. It is much easier to keep alert when I am moving.

Well, that's it. Surely, this is boring, but oh well, such is my life. I like it though, so it works out fine.

Yay caroline!
I always enjoy your updates!

Hi.

So always something new with me. I'm not sure what did it exactly, but I radically cut down my meat this past week. What I notice: BAM. NO weird breath. Like NONE. I am convinced meat doesn't work for me, b/c I have had weird breath issues where sometimes I smell like a dead person, despite brushing, even when I wasn't consuming sugar, etc.

I stop eating meat, and presto, no weird breath. Like, it actually smells GOOD. Also, I experimented and had a little bit yesterday, like the size of 2 1/2 chicken mc nuggets--maybe less. Very shortly after, I felt like I had often, when eating meat--sleepy. This was the first time in days I had felt like this, and previoiusly had not been doing meat. I did a little at night, but I am not really motivated to eat something that causes me to have weird breath. I don't believe this is a good sign--especially as it made me feel like crap, and I notice this every time. It is not a relaxed kind of nice feeling--it is a groggy feeling.

So what I have been doing instead--way more milk, and now that I'm not eating meat really, I am getting higher fat in my milk, just b/c I think it's better to have more fat. Also, I am doing dates now, really easily. I do dates in milk with salt blended. Also, I am consuming much more coconut oil. Super easy. And I have gelatin. And rice--I am doing that successfully. Usually basmati---seems to work better than jasmine for some reason. Unfortunately, though it would be perfect, still cannot do potatoes. They make me feel like meat, but in addition, I get joint pain. But who knows--maybe now that Ive really reduced the meat, they could work. Sometimes I have coffee, but lately I haven't been bothering. Also, I am eating way more fruit. And now I am eating cheese successfully. It is very interesting, b/c the moment I cut out the meat, I can have cheese, I can have dates, I am not getting gas from milk--I am going to make it a point to have oysters and a bit of liver each week. But I am amazed b/c I thought, I will have cr-p energy just having this milk and date concoction, but it is working out great. Also, I still do OJ.

I am REALLY happy about this, and happy also, that I tried meat again, bc this is the same result I got a bunch of other times. As for cheese, I really like anything with goat, or sheep. And I get full fat now. I didn't do well with the cheap stuff and the stuff that was lower fat.

Really happy about this, and it is SO easy to use dates. Even easier than oranges. I guess it just took some tweaking, but I am feeling really successful, and I rarely feel the need to take niacinamide or the other stuff in large amounts or if at all. Also, exercise (I only do sun salutation and pushups and foam roller sort of stuff--nothing "aerobic") has made a HUGE difference. On my mood. LIke HUGE. As big as the diet. I haven't done it regularly for so long, and it just makes me feel fantastic. I'd forgotten about this.

So anyway, here's cheers to dates. Oh, and I have given up buying organic fruit. I don't care anymore after my bio teacher told me there is no absolute proof that organic really makes a difference. It is not that I am assuming she is god. But she is not coming from ideology, and I decided that I don't want to feel guilty about buying lots of fruit. Then I can get papaya, for example, as I did last night, at Trader Joe's and it's like 3 bucks instead of like 7 that it would have been (it was big) if it was organic.

Well, that's all. Still cruising through my physio class. So far so good, but I'm in the long stretch here, so there's not lots of time and TONS of information yet to come.

Also, I notice I need way less sleep. Like 6 hours feels like 8 used to. I never force myself to wake up; I just get up when I'm ready, but since I started eating like this, weirdly, I need less sleep. NO idea why, but I'll take it. Cheers to everyone!

OH, I thought of one other important thing to note. I was skeptical that I would have very good energy and be able to maintain the kind of intensity that is necessary for me right now as a student, on dates and milk. And cheese, gelatin, etc. Seemed implausible at best.

But I have been happily proven wrong--my focus is good, energy is good, and I feel a little less aggravated or set off by things that would normally cause me greater issue, AND I notice I am much more able at calming myself without using any kind of supplements at all. I just have myself calm down now, and it is possible.

I am not saying everything is perfect with everything--there is always room for improvement, IMO, and that is sort of my thing anyway--always looking to improve just for the fun of it. But things are definitely going in the right direction, and it is SO EASY to eat like this. I can have a shake 2 minutes before racing off to class, and I never ever get indigestion, etc. So very grateful for this new discovery.

I'm so glad to hear things are continuing to go in the right direction for you. It can be really challenging to find a healthy home/school balance and still take good care of ourselves. You really are an inspiration the rest of us trying to do the same things in life. You just don't know how much that encourages others!

Thanks for the kind thoughts, Blossom! Appreciate it--I see it and immediately got a nice feeling!

Well, I am in the home stretch here--at least until the next one, come new short semester where I will be taking a science class meant to be taken over a few months. I figure I am already used to an insane pace, so I might as well maintain it.

So my latest food agenda is: I am LOVING cheese. I have newly discovered Brie. The thing is, I don't like cheap crappy cheese. I hate it, actually. So I have figured out that I can get really nice brie, and it's not too expensive, whereas the other cheeses I was getting, are way more expensive and I get a tiny amount. I am not dainty, so small amounts just frustrate me.

Occasionally I will eat a little more meat, but I have found that if I can maintain some modicum of self-control, when I am too lazy to make anything and there is a bowl of cooked meat sitting there, SMALL amounts at one time are optimal. At night, it is not as big of a deal but in the day, bigger amounts are a HUGE mistake b/c I immediately feel like crap.

So back to my cheese. I am getting more and more fat in my milk, b/c I just started wanting it when I stopped eating so much meat. Also, the other night I ate a whole triangle of brie. Must have been like a zillion fat grams but I didn't notice it. I seem to do VERY well with dairy fat, except butter is still a no-no for me. I don't feel good when I eat it. Really, I just find that when I eat sugary stuff, which before would have seemed totally junky, I do really well.

Also, after just completing the acid/base section in class, and dealing with the whole CO2 +H2O etc. which yields bicarbonate buffer system, etc., it made more sense to me to try bag breathing. B/c I also learned about respiratory ability to remove CO2 or retain, etc. Anyway, I did this when I was feeling flipped out (b/c of school--always the trigger) and it totally worked. I did it again today. I decided not to bother with the niacinamide for stress a while ago. I want to work it out myself. I don't want to have to take a pill, even if it's a "supplement". So I did it again today, but with a small plastic baggy, rebreathing, and it worked again.

This has been my major issue, so now that I have this as a tool, this really makes a difference. It's not lack of ability (though I always assumed so) or lack of intelligence (also assumed this), but anxiety that disrupts my ability to function optimally. So now that I know this--even when I don't have a bag, I just hold my breath for a bit, and it works really well.

I just want to mention that the cheese, which really bothered my system before, works phenominally without meat as a mainstay. Also, I sort of don't even like liver now. I would do oysters, but I have to remind my husband to buy them. I just don't like anything rough, or tough, or to dry. Oysters are almost like eating nothing, and just taste like ocean to me. Also, I am turned off on shrimp for a while now. I hate the smell of them, they seem dirty and foul to me, and I am not motivated to eat them, and especially hate how they are always salted.

Still doing coffee. Husband is buying me higher fat milk today. What I like about this--I hate how the skim milk I was drinking got all foamy. The more fat it has in it, the less foamy it is. I remember this from when I was drinking straight creme doing ketogenic diet. Oh, also I prefer it piping hot, and worried I wouldn't get protein b/c it would be denatured, but looked this up, and found that is what happens to protein anyway (duh)(hadn't gotten to that section yet in physio) AND in fact, it might make it easier for people with milk issues. It does for me. less gas, and I like it much more.

Kind of getting tired of dates now.

Well, that's it for now. Tons and tons and tons of studying to do, but with focus, a bit of prayer, and movement/exercise so I don't feel comatose, I seem to be very productive. also, I am doing TONS of foam rolling, but I have a roller now that looks like a torture device. It has little knobby things sticking out of it. To begin with, I could just do it on my back, and then, sort of the side of my rump. But now, I tried it on my legs, and it hurts sort of, but feels hugely relieving and actually very nice. So I am really enjoying that as well. Do it on my arms too.

Ok. That's it for now. Gotta review the respiratory system. Already went through like 4 lectures today. Got two more to go....

Hope everyone is faring well. (Seems like it should be "are", but oh well. Everyone considered singular. )