My Year on the Leptin Reset

It has been a year since I did my second version of Jack Kruse's leptin reset.

This week, I found and read through a little notebook with notes on the reset.  At the time, I had planned several trips out of town, and so I wanted a compact format.  This was also at the time when I started having lots of trouble with those [redacted]people, so I was reluctant to rely upon either them or any other computerized tracking system.  After my trips, I abandoned the little notebook, so it was fun reading through it again.

I had started the leptin reset in the summer of 2011 when my lowish carb diet wasn't working well.  In May, I started a couple of days of strict low carb, and then Drs. Eades free Metabosol came in the mail.  I did the Metabosol throughout the first weeks in June, but after a few pizza meals, I was back to where I started, even up a couple of pounds, so I decided to abandon that plan and start the leptin reset in earnest in July.

By the beginning of that August, I had lost around 5 pounds on the leptin reset, was feeling much better and controlling carb cravings like never before.  But, the success was short-lived, and I resumed my difficulty with carbs and gained all the weight and then some by fall.

In January 2012, I did the leptin reset again, this time for about 6 weeks before starting back in with the exercise.  I lost more weight this time, and a total of around 15 pounds by the end of the "Paleo on 100 dollars a month challenge" in March.  By this time, I had also started CT.

Throughout the summer, I added in a few more carbs, and quit monitoring my food and weight so regularly.  The result was that I gained back the weight.  By the beginning of 2013 I was exactly the same weight as I was the year before, but with some differences.

No chronic cardio, no regular strength training.  I just live my regular active life, go on hikes here and there, and stretch if I feel un-stretchy.

Work like crazy to get wheat out of my diet.  I realize now how delicate my improvements are, and how easy it is to get completely out of balance.

Eliminated the need for sleep medication.  I started using progesterone, which has helped in so many ways.  Even though it has contributed to my weight gain, it has made me much more accommodating to all types of stresses, like from heat and exercise.  I also respond to carbohydrates differently, which can be alternatively a good thing and a dangerous thing.  I think I am much more careful with carbohydrates while on progesterone because, while I can take a few more hits, when things go south, they go south much more rapidly.

Better body proportions.  I weigh more but my clothing fits differently.  People say I look better, younger and my skin is much better.

CT around once or twice a week.  This usually involves going to the beach at least once a week and getting in the water for quite a long time, taking mostly cold showers and being in cold air some part of the day except for in the summer.

Moving back more towards a macrobiotic-but-grain-free diet consisting of more seafood, sea vegetables and seasonal food.  I was never on strict epi-paleo.  My carb and vegetable consumption is much higher.  Not as high as what Dr. Wahls recommends, but much higher than what Jack recommends.

Lab-free.  I haven't been sick, haven't been to the doctor for awhile, and I don't even know what my cholesterol levels are.  I have my blood pressure measured when I give blood, and it is at high-school level (110/70).

I know how to get back on track.  When the diet is hard to follow and I am craving carbs, I know I have moved from fat-burning territory back into carb-burning.  The best way I have found to get back is to use Metabosol for a few days and also some CT.

Here are the conclusions I have made about the leptin reset:

1.  The results are not permanent.  I need to continue to be vigilant about diet.  ANY higher-carb diet that I eat to satiety results in weight gain.

2.  CT does not work for weight loss.

In the coming months, I'll be eating a basic whole foods low carb diet, with seasonal fruits and vegetables. I plan on a lifestyle of "deep seasonality".  During the past months, while reading up on macrobiotics in prep for some blog posts, I really did see how much many similarities between where paleo is going and where macrobiotics already is.

During the past few weeks, I have also noticed that in the vegan, low carb, and Kruse-world communities, despite the advances in diet choices, lots of people are still mean and nasty.  I found the Optimal Health Cave, but I immediately started having problems with some very difficult people on both sides of the current argument over the validity of some of Jack's EMF theories.  So, I am trying to pull myself out of all that muck while I unfriend or "foe" certain people, and try my best not to be that way myself.

While I am not following the Leptin Reset to the letter anymore, I do think that while Dr. Kruse's understanding of physics and electronics seems atrocious, I think there is really something to the idea that EMF is polluting.  I will continue my research and experimentation on this subject, but mostly off-line.  I really agree with Jack, that there were some "askholes" on his site, and I am just not going to deal with their crap, so the best way to do that is to keep in touch with my IRL friends who know quite a bit about grounding and faraday cages.  But, I was extremely disappointed in Jack's responses to many other participants, who had deep and real questions and concerns that I think need to be dealt with.  Jack needs to understand that if his theories are so mind-blowing, groundbreaking, and life-changing, then why is he still a Jackhole?  Slamming people on minor technicalities alternating with the posting of pithy motivational phrases lifted from others indicates he still has some balance work to do.  It is true, people who insist that they have all the answers to the universe are held to a higher standard of behavior.

Recently, dealing with some of these people was like dealing with some of the Paleo/lc debates.  I am not into debate, I am into inquiry, discussion and exploration, and finding things that work.  Sooner or later, any fine discussion gets taken over by the high school debate teams, full of those pimply-faced nerds who couldn't even get on the "C" basketball team, which muck it up for every true seeker.  I think nothing is ever settled by debate, only things torn down.

That means I'll be reconnecting with that neighborhood nerdy kid who became an astrophysicist, that radio guy who builds faraday cages as a hobby, and others who effing love science. 

It's Pumpkin Time!

I met Dr. Mary Dan Eades at the Ancestral Health Symposium and had a nice chat with her.  I mentioned that her pumpkin blogpost is one of my favorites.  So many people had been asking about potassium, and also insisting that everyone needs to eat lots of bananas in order to get enough potassium.  I'm happy to report that she has set the record straight, so I send lots of people over to her site to read about the Great pumpkin.

I harvested my first pumpkin of the season yesterday.  It is a Baby Pam pumkin, and only about a pound or so.  It is curing on the patio, and I will probably "boot it up" next week.  By that time, the green taste will have disappeared.  I love this pumpkin because it is early, tasty and small.  The seed quality is fantastic, but unfortunately, it is not much of a keeper.  I grow it to eat in the summer and early fall, and it tastes terrible by Halloween or Thanksgiving.  I suppose I could have more if I had a root cellar.  Not gonna happen unless I dig a hole in the ground myself.

I also harvested a couple of tatume squashes.  I grow this variety because it is in my summer squash variety pack.  I enjoy it on the grill when immature, but this year, not only did I have a seed snafu, but all the other summer squash plants did well and I was overwhelmed, so I let the tatume's continue to grow.  The first years, I grew a few out, but didn't prefer the flavor to the sweeter varieties.  Since then, like the Mexicans, I have developed a liking for the tatume, and also other overgrown summer squashes.

Here's my new favorite soup recipe.

Squash soup
tatume, chayote or overgrown summer squash (4 cups chunks)
1 cup chicken broth
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon hot curry powder (my curry blend already contains a bit of salt)
lemon basil

Cut and peel the squash, cut into chunks and cook in chicken broth in a saucepan until tender.  (I usually start my chicken in a bit of bacon fat, and so enjoy the bacon flavor in the soup, too.)  Cool.  Blend the squash, add the curry, and then return to the pan and reheat.  Remove from heat and stir in the cream.  Garnish with lemon basil.
I also make the squash puree, add the curry, and then store it in the fridge.  It keeps well for several days, and I just add the cream after reheating the squash.

Here's Dr. Eades' pumpkin post:  http://www.proteinpower.com/drmd_blog/recipes/waiting-for-the-great-pumpkin-soup-that-is/
Here's another one of her pumpkin posts:  http://www.proteinpower.com/drmd_blog/pumpkins-back/  Check out her picture of Cinderella pumpkins.  I grow these, too, and the first one will be ready in a few weeks.  Even though you aren't really supposed to count the pumpkins until they hatch, yesterday I counted 12 Cinderella pumpkins.

I Did This and I Did That

I know, it sounds egotistical. But, many who read my blogs regularly know that sometimes if people post something that goes against the accepted nutritional "gold standard recommendations based on years of evidence-based medicine by peer-reviewed professionals who are licensed and registered to know more about it than you do", they can get into trouble. But, it is OK if they post their personal experience.

I'd like to tell you about my own personal experience with potassium.

It is in all their books, and the Eades' say that a good way to get more potassium is in salt substitute. The other day I was in the garden, and it was very hot, the first really hot day, and I got dizzy. Remembering the Eades' recommendation, I decided to try some salt substitute. I bought a container of Morton salt substitute and just put one shake on some food. (1/4 teaspoon has 17% of the RDA.) I felt better immediately. Now when I come inside from some heavy-duty exercise in the heat, I have a bit of the potassium in a glass of water.

The Eades recommend it along with a low-carb diet. Here's Dr. Mary Eades take on it:

www.proteinpower.com/drmd_blog/uncategorized/potassium-good-for-the-heart-vindication-good-for-the-soul/

Dr. Eades also has a great post about pumpkin. She does comment on our usual solution, which is to run to the high-carb banana for potassium and why pumpkin is better for people concerned about their carb intake.

http://www.proteinpower.com/drmd_blog/recipes/waiting-for-the-great-pumpkin-soup-that-is/

It turns out that most of the potassium I eat comes from jerusalem artichoke, avocado, fish, winter squash, turnips, kale and swiss chard.

Here's a link to a page with potassium content of foods:

http://www.pamf.org/patients/pdf/potassium_count.pdf

I am not as fond of this list because it shows many of my favorite selections cooked or boiled, and this doesn't include the water. I always save and use my cooking water, and it contains lots of the potassium that was contained in the food. I am kind of fond of this list also:

http://www.vaughns-1-pagers.com/food/potassium-foods.htm

Just as a reminder to all that a certain weight-loss website dietitian says the low carb diet is "disastrous, dangerous and above all-- boring!" and she also does not recommend potassium supplements. I would not recommend such practices anywhere on the Internets, but I hope you enjoyed my anecdote. Just take everything I say with a grain of, um, salt. (Well, I guess that sounded like a recommendation, but it's not.  If you want advice about potassium please see your doctor.)