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. 

In case I forget

Five years ago today I was at my highest weight, and after finally finding myself sick enough of it and having enough time, I started on a weight loss plan.

First, I got up for Denise Austin's TV show.  I know, people really make fun of her, but for several years I had been in school and working seven days a week in front of a computer and wasn't even doing basic exercising.  The last straw was when I found it was even difficult to turn over in bed.  How did it get so bad when I wasn't looking?

I started walking and following a low fat diet like they recommend.  This was very difficult, and it took me quite a bit of time to lose even 10 pounds and keep it off for more than a few weeks.  I struggled for two more years, stopping when I became unmotivated and then restarting, usually at a higher weight than before.

Twenty eight months ago I started a lower carb diet, and then lost the rest of my weight.  I haven't maintained all of the loss, but I did lose and keep off over 18% of my body weight.  (I also lost my long-term vegetarian lifestyle.  How eat-crow-ish that was.)

This week I have been pouring over the Diabetes Prevention Program and other studies, and have seen first-hand in the data how difficult it is for people to lose weight and keep it off.  It is easy to get discouraged.

But, then I look back at some of my older records of weight, and realize that I am already in the tails of the distribution of weight loss outcomes.  For that, I am pleased.

Oh and P.S. Coca-Cola.  Some calories are more equal than others.  Just sayin'

Everything I learned about epi-paleo I taught to my Cat

I'll admit, I didn't think it was the year of the cat at the Brash household.  I spent so much time nursing one cat to her eventual death that I didn't realize how bad the other cat was doing until the sickest one went off to the sweet hereafter in April.

It was then that we realized how old and thin and sick our last kitty was.  He was losing the use of all four legs, just like our other cat.  He didn't run around anymore, and his coat was getting pretty shabby.  I thought he probably had some kidney disease as well.

Around this time, we started eating the epi-paleo diet in earnest.  That means lots of seafood.  Our vet had told us to put the other cat on a lower protein diet because of the kidney problems, but then I got to thinking about what that diet would be for a cat, specifically.  Neither liked the low protein food our vet carried, so I started giving both of them bits of cream and butter, especially the frail cat who had trouble keeping any other kind of food down.

Now with all the seafood around here, there is lots of salmon skin, shrimp cooking water, sardine cans and other seafoody goodness.  I have quit cooking meats in any kind of spices and seasonings so he'll eat the leftovers.  He is especially fond of lamb fat and salmon skin cooked in coconut oil.  He also has a seaweed fetish and goes nuts over chlorella so much that I have to keep it on a high shelf.  I give him as much as he wants.

He always has a cat-smile on his face after a meal of salmon.  Since we have salmon 4-5 meals a week, this means he is quite happy most of the time.  I noticed an immediate improvement in his fur and energy level.  He's still not all that good at grooming anymore, and so has trouble with his claws, but he has started to run around again, and howl at the imaginary beings in all the corners of the house.

Honestly, I didn't think he would be alive by Thanksgiving and he seems to just be getting better and better.

The Tuna Boat just Sailed In!

What a nice half-way-around-the-year reminder of my "Paleo on 100 dollars a month" challenge.

A friend called and mentioned that her friend's son went out fishing near San Diego and caught this huge tuna.  She was offered some, but was unprepared for two details.

First, she was given a ton of it.

Second, she found she doesn't like tuna.

Did I want to take it off her hands?  Sooooooo, here I am, after an unsuccessful market run looking for suitable epi-paleo eats on a budget, and an entire platter of freshly-caught tuna just drops into my lap, right before dinner.  Already perfectly seasoned.  She told me to keep the platter, too.

Since it was already seasoned in a rich blend of garlic, lime and some kind of Middle-Eastern seasoning blend, I decided not to eat it raw.  I didn't have to do anything except plop the huge slabs of tuna in a pan and lightly steam it until it was cooked enough to flake.

Mmmmm!  Tuna for dinner.  Tuna for breakfast.  Tuna all week.  Tuna coming out of my ears.  Tuna making me friends with all the neighborhood dogs and cats.  Tuna making me happy, too.