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Messages - lex_rooker

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201
Journals / Re: Lex's Journal
« on: February 06, 2012, 02:32:19 am »
Well I may have found the source of the runny nose/congestion problem.  My dad died of a blood clot and at my annual medical checkup in the summer of 2010 my doctor suggested that, due to this family history, I add a tablet of aspirin to my daily regimen.   Seemed harmless enough so I went ahead and did this.  This wasn’t  a medication to treat a current disease, but was more a preventive measure to reduce the risk of clotting and suffering the same fate as my father.  Since there was no pathology present, and nothing that seemed remotely related to diet, I didn’t report this in my journal.

In researching this runny nose problem I put everything on the suspect list – including this aspirin.  Just ran across this link this morning. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspirin-induced_asthma

It describes my symptoms almost perfectly, and my onset of symptoms seems to co-inside very closely with starting the aspirin regimen, at least as best as memory serves.

I didn’t take my daily dose this morning and will discontinue taking aspirin from this point forward.  I understand that it can take several days for aspirin to clear from the blood stream so we’ll see how things look in a week or so.  Let’s hope this does the trick.

Lex

202
Journals / Re: Lex's Journal
« on: February 05, 2012, 03:38:59 pm »
Gosh, you all have me practically dead and buried!

The problems are very minor at this point and most people today wouldn't even notice them or would think they were normal.

The problem with Phil's time frame is that stuff like the prostate problem was preexisting and has slowly gotten worse over the last 10 years to the point that I finally had to up the meds.  In truth, the doctors were surprised that it took so long.  By this time many men are up to 8mg/day or have transitioned to a more potent drug than the one that I'm taking.  Others have been forced into surgery or must use catheters. 

I also pointed out that my eyesight was at +2.5 when I started this adventure 6+ years ago.  It then dropped a bit too +1.75 and has slowly climbed back up to +2.75.  From where I started this is only a +0.25 overall gain from the initial starting point in 6 years, again rather amazing from the eye docs perspective.

The UTI's have been with me for about 30 years (I started getting them in the 1980's) and usually rear their ugly heads every 2-5 years.  Neither the frequency of infection nor the intensity of the infections has changed much since I went to ZC.  In other words, ZC has had no measurable effect.

The Kidney stones were a new experience, but I've had no further problems since I increased my water intake.  If you remember, I had purposely decreased my water intake to help reduce the frequency of urination from the BPH.  This reduction in water intake happened to coinside with my starting ZC and I assume the acid urine (5.0-5.5 ph) created by ZC was a contributor but not the total cause for the stones.  I upped the fluid intake back to normal and have had no further problems other than having to use the bathroom a bit more often throughout the day.

The only real new issues are the slow weight gain and the minor allergy symptoms.  The weight gain can easily be controlled by purposely eating less, but to do that I would have to measure everything and go on a "diet".  The whole point of eating paleo is that we shouldn't have to diet to maintain our weight as the paleo lifestyle should take care of that for us.  All we should have to do is eat until we are satisfied - at least that is the theory.  The question now is, "is the theory correct?"

The allergy symptoms are more of a mystery and I thank everyone for their input.  I will take a look at everything, but as far as I know little or nothing has changed in my environment.  Of course I have no idea about the beef itself.  The only thing that really stands out might be the rendered fat as I've only been using this consistently for about 2 years.  Before that it was raw fat that I ordered monthly with the meat and ground and added myself.  I may go back to this and see if the problem clears up.  It might also be the Texas drought, and over that I have no control.

Slankers did change processors a couple of years ago as well, but I've heard of no other problems so doubt this would be the cause but will keep it in mind if all else fails.

I tried the primal beef for one month but didn't like it much.  It is ground very fine and has a pasty consistency.  It is totally missing the bone chips, connective tissue, and chewy bits that are in the pet food.  It also tastes very bland in comparison to the pet food.  I'm sure primal beef is a fine product but I prefer the roadkill aspect of the pet food.

My point in mentioning all the little niggly things with eyesight, BPH, UTI' & etc was to make it very clear to readers of this journal that ZC is not the is all, be all, end all, cure for everything that ails you.  It has helped tremendously with most of my issues but like everything else associated with us mere mortals here on planet earth, it is by no stretch of the imagination, perfect.

Danny Roddy has suggested that I expand my tests to include thyroid hormones, some stressor hormones, CO2, and lactic acid.  I'll probably start here and see what the tests look like before doing much else.  Will report results and my thoughts here as usual.

In the mean time, I'm still here and enjoying life, so don't go out and hire the professional mourners just yet.

Lex

203
Journals / Re: Lex's Journal
« on: February 04, 2012, 07:36:22 am »
Thanks so much for your kind thoughts Dorothy.

I agree that there is much incompetence in modern medicine, and herbal remedies have their place.  Done the Saw Palmetto thing and it doesn't help me.  Unfortunately, most of these remedies are most effective in the early stages of the problem.  It appears that I'm past the point where most herbal remedies will do much except reduce the amount of prescription medication that I must take, but I feel that is worth further investigation just the same.

I'm not sure what ideal weight is.  I also prefer to be proactive rather than wait until I have to purchase a new wardrobe before I take some action.  I spent 30 years waiting until conventional wisdom indicated there was a problem before taking action and it makes me sad to think how much better my life could have been so much sooner had I been more proactive.

It is also important that I communicate these trends that I'm seeing to others.  There is no one else that I know of that has done what I'm doing for such an extended period of time.  So many of the guru's out there say one thing but then do another because they've built a following on a particular idea and when it fails them, they change their personal habits, but continue to preach the broken protocol to others.  My idea was to be brutally honest and report my actual experiences, good or bad, and identify the various stages that people can expect to go through if they follow a similar path.  I don't preach that my path is correct, I just report what's happening along the way, providing information so others can make informed decisions about their own lives.

Thanks for the tip on d-mannose.  I'm definitely going to look into it as UTI's are not pleasant and there may come a time when the bacteria have become resistant to all the antibiotics and then I'm really in trouble.  Again, I'll report on this if I decide to take this supplement and let people decide for themselves if it should be treated as a medication or as a super plant food that breaks the Zero Carb label of my dietary protocol.

There is no question that TylerDurden and his original RVAF Yahoo Group changed my life for the better so many years ago.  I'm deeply indebted to him for this.  It is all about having the best quality of life possible every moment of the time.  People need to know that there is no magic bullet.  No matter what we eat, drink, or do, we will age, become infirm and die.  As of the 27th of January I turned 61, and I'm able to do a lot of things that others of my age can't do.  None the less, as each year passes there are more and more items added to the list of things that I can no longer do.

This doesn't mean I'm going to remain static and wait for eternity to come.  With some of the trends I've identified, it may be worthwhile to investigate other ideas.  I've given this one a good run.  If I change something, I'll do it as I always have by deciding on the change, and then comparing the change with my previous results.  If, after a fair period of time the change isn't for the better, then I'll go back to what I was doing before.  If I see improvement in my quality of life I'll stay with the change.  What worked for me when I was 20 or 30 doesn't work at age 60.  We need to constantly be willing to change as conditions warrant.

The adventure continues,

Lex

204
Journals / Re: Lex's Journal
« on: February 04, 2012, 05:21:28 am »
Quote from: cherimoya_kid on February 04, 2012, 05:12:57 am
I've got a friend who had prostate problems from a weight-gain supplement, he started a website http://prostatesecrets.com/prostate-vitamins.htm   He uses several different herbs in his prostate formula.

Also, I've read that mango seed is good for prostate issues, although I've never tried it, since my prostate is fine.
Interesting site.  I'll add it to my list of products to investigate.

Lex

205
Journals / Re: Lex's Journal
« on: February 04, 2012, 04:26:30 am »
Quote from: raw-al on February 04, 2012, 03:34:50 am
Re BEP Benign enlarged prostate, I had that issue years ago. I tried a large # of different things which helped somewhat, but in my case, what did the trick was I stopped drinking pasteurized milk. Instantly the problem was history. Raw milk is no problem for me. I am not suggesting that you do anything BTW, just that that is what worked for me.
Wish it were this simple for me.  I haven’t drunk milk of any kind for many years, so it can’t be a milk issue, pasteurized or otherwise.

Quote from: raw-al on February 04, 2012, 03:34:50 am
I bought a zapper off of the web and it works like a charm on stubborn infections that I get from splinters from woodworking with cedar and (it's  long story) an infection that I got from kitesurfing and another infection on my nose. Zap it and next day it is gone.

It's essentially related to the beam ray, but is a very weak version that essentially doesn't penetrate further than the skin.
I did a lot of research on the Zapper and the Beam Ray 40 years ago.  Being a certified electronic genius  ;)  (I was building Tesla Coils when I was in the 7th grade), I decided to build my own.  My oscilloscope said my machines were doing exactly what they were supposed to do, but they had little or no measurable effect on the problems they were supposed to cure.  We had a healing practitioner come with his Beam Ray machine to our local Watson’s Healthfood Store.  I was excited to go see the real thing.  Many people lined up to get treatment but as I remember there weren't any objective measurable results.  At that point I came to the conclusion that it didn’t work as well as advertised and gave up on the project.  I’m glad that your experience is positive and if it works for you then by all means stick with it.

Quote from: raw-al on February 04, 2012, 03:34:50 am
The jury is out on Hulda Clarke. I essentially think she is not playing with a full deck, but I am not sure. For instance she says to use plastic foodware. This is a very bad idea, considering the issues with the chemicals involved causing all kinds of problems such as messing up young girls causing younger puberty and there is speculation on it causing young boys to be space cadets and a host of other issues.
Apparently the US Government didn’t think she was playing with a full deck either.  I never found her ideas of any practical use.

Quote from: raw-al on February 04, 2012, 03:34:50 am
Beam ray machines. Like anything out there, there are good and bad ones. I have read of quite a few people who swear by them and seen video of them talking at length about them. I am still in the figuring out stage. I can see potential, but I want proof as they ain't cheap.

If they work as advertised they are worth the investment. I hope to get a chance to see one operate in the next few months. There are versions coming out that are approved by the FDA using a limited range of frequencies. The speculation is that the certification process is so difficult/expensive that the applicants decided to go for a limited range initially just for certification and possibly go for growth down the road.
As I mentioned above, the test equipment showed that the one I built was doing exactly the same thing as the one the healing practitioner had, and to the best of my recollection neither of them did anything objectively measurable, good or bad, in relation to the human body.

Quote from: raw-al on February 04, 2012, 03:34:50 am
My wife and I discovered sungazing about 2.5 years ago. She was told by her eye doctor in February that she would need an operation for glaucoma, glasses for driving, at the next annual checkup and 3.5 diopter lenses.

We started sungazing according to HRM's method that July and at her next visit her glasses went back 10 years to 1.5 diopters, glaucoma gone, operation forgotten, in fact the doc had to measure everything twice as it didn't make sense. She is stable since and can read large print books.

Mine was around 1.2 diopters, but is now around 1.0, if I use them at all. I can read the newspaper and only use glasses when it is dark or I am tired.
It is interesting that I had a similar experience when I went ZC.  My eye doctor had me at 2.5 and within a year of starting ZC I was back at 1.75.  Unfortunately the improvement was short lived and over the last few years my eyesight has slowly but steadily degraded again to 2.75.  Sungazing in various forms is not new to the Natural Hygiene world.  It has been around as long as I can remember.  If it works for you, great, keep it up.

Quote from: raw-al on February 04, 2012, 03:34:50 am
There are a number of Ayurvedic solutions for prostate. I can't think of all of them right now as I am away from my library, but asparagus and dates (Medjool) come to mind immediately.
I’ve researched the asparagus solutions and many others as well, though I must admit that I’ve not heard of the Medjool date protocol.  None of the ones I tried had any measurable effect.  I may try the date thing if I decide to move on from ZC as I love Medjool dates.  I used to eat tons of them when I was a vegan, so if they were a remedy for BPH then one might reasonably wonder why I got this affliction in the first place.

Lex

206
Journals / Re: Lex's Journal
« on: February 04, 2012, 03:47:10 am »
Quote from: Adora on February 04, 2012, 03:34:18 am
Lex you said you tried probiotics, did you try high meat. I have noticed that this is best done exactly a AV says. I have 2-3 small bites before eating anything else, chew well, swallow and rise my mouth with water, but I don't swallow the water or eat anything else for 10 mins.
     Also, is all of your food prefrozen? I notice a big difference in fresh.
Yes, I've done high meat and a most of the other natural methods of reestablishing intestinal flora.  They all work well for the intended purpose of reestablishing intestinal flora, but beyond that I've found no additional benefit.

All my food comes frozen.  I've tried fresh for extended periods to see if it made any measurable difference and I could find no difference at all.  To people that see a difference, I encourge you to do what works.

Lex

207
Journals / Re: Lex's Journal
« on: February 04, 2012, 02:54:14 am »
Quote from: goodsamaritan on February 04, 2012, 01:09:08 am
If you have a skilled beam ray operator in your city, he may do a better job than the medical drugs.

Talk about retro.  I didn’t know Rife machines were still around.  Was into that stuff in the 1960’s and didn’t find that it did anything at all.

Quote from: goodsamaritan on February 04, 2012, 01:09:08 am
I would use herbs instead of drugs. (olive leaf, oregano, etc.)
Not sure if herbal remedies are any safer than some of the more modern drugs.  A friend of mine died from kidney failure from drinking a popular herbal tea (since removed from the market) in the 1970’s.  I know that some of the popular concentrated prostate remedies have led to heart and other issues so will tread with caution here.  The medication I’m taking has a long track record of safety with few side effects, but I feel that it is worthwhile to review the herbal alternatives every few years to see if there is something I’d consider trying.  I have tried olive leaf and oregano in the past and they didn’t have any side effects, but they didn’t have any other measurable effects either so I stopped taking them.

Quote from: goodsamaritan on February 04, 2012, 01:09:08 am
I would manipulate my body with high fat, high carb binges to jack up metabolism and speed up the healing process.  I don't see why you have to experiment with zero carb forever.  You can go back to zc once you are well.

I’m not into binging or manipulation without careful thought and a clear objective.  I have no idea what I’d be healing since I don’t know the source of the problem.   My metabolism seems to be relatively high as it, so not sure there is anything to jack up.  I also have no way to directly measure my metabolism and not convinced that binging on carbs would do anything but create temporary metabolic havoc.  Just not willing to do this without a clear understanding of what I’m dealing with and a well thought out plan. 

Quote from: goodsamaritan on February 04, 2012, 01:09:08 am
Eyesight may be corrected by pinhole glasses.
There’s that retro thing again.  Pinhole glasses (I still have mine) were popular in the 1960’s  I think I got my pair at the same time I purchased Rena Taylor’s Hunza Book at Waton’s Healthfood Store in Visalia Circa 1964. They are worthless for presbyopia.

Quote from: goodsamaritan on February 04, 2012, 01:09:08 am
I would look at distilling your own water.  Squeeze just a touch of orange for organic structure.  For better hydration than plain water.

Did the water distilling thing years ago.  Today I use a more modern deionizer and filter system.  My water has less than 1ppm of anything measurable in it.  That is as good as or better than distilled water.  I can't think of anything more hydrating than water since by definition, only water can hydrate.  No clue what organic structure is, but it sounds impressive - and you say all it takes is a bit of orange juice?

Quote from: goodsamaritan on February 04, 2012, 01:09:08 am
Get a hulda clark book and check your home for pollution sources.  Things you put on your body, home pollution, etc.

Unfortunately Hulda Clark was run out of town in disgrace here in the US years ago.  It seems the Federal Trade Commission had trouble verifying her claims so she went to Mexico where actually having something with verifiable benefit is not necessary.  As I remember, her big thing was the Liver Flush and her magic multi frequency cure-all machines ( I think one was called the Zapper so you know that had to be good).  I think I culled her books from my personal health library in the 1990s.  Nothing she claimed could ever be verified by anyone else and since I got no benefit from her ideas I dumped the lot.

Quote from: goodsamaritan on February 04, 2012, 01:09:08 am
If you have stopped having sex, you may try getting back in action, it's good exercise for the prostate. There are prostate massage devices out there that work.

My doctor recommended trying prostate massage 7 or 8 years ago and I performed it regularly for over a year before it became clear that it wasn’t going to work in my case.  I understand that it can be helpful for some people but it didn’t work for me.

Quote from: goodsamaritan on February 04, 2012, 01:09:08 am
See a chiropractor, see an acupuncturist... get the highest levels of those experts as you can get.

Can’t tell you how much money I spent on chiropractors over the years, all to no avail.  They all found mis-alignments, that when corrected would put me in the peak of condition, but all I ever noticed was that my wallet got lighter while headaches and other issues persisted.  Never tried an acupuncturist.  The idea of being stuck with needles for no other purpose than to be stuck with needles never appealed to me.  I’ve had friends and family that went to acupuncturists over the years but all have given up on them with no long term resolution to their problems.

Quote from: goodsamaritan on February 04, 2012, 01:09:08 am
You will need to repopulate your gut with probiotics.  Get a combination of different probiotics and overdose on them.  Include high meat.

I do this during and after taking anti-biotics as these tend to rec havoc on the bacteria population of the digestive system, and taking a dose of probiotics speeds up the natural replenishment of intestinal flora.  I’ve noticed no other positive benefit from doing this and my experience has been that taking probiotics on a regular basis is a waste of time and money.  If taking probiotics had any material effect on the conditions I’m experiencing, I’ve taken them on enough occasions over the years to have noticed.  I’ve never noticed any change in my various health conditions from taking probiotics other than those related to the digestive system.  Once the gut flora is reestablished, taking further doses has had no measurable effect.

Quote from: goodsamaritan on February 04, 2012, 01:09:08 am
a 3 day VCO detox will clear you of ALL fungal and yeast infections. You will like this, it is zero carb... with lemons and virgin coconut oil.
Been there, done that (several times), it’s never worked when a medically verifiable infection was present.

Lex

208
Journals / Re: Lex's Journal
« on: February 04, 2012, 12:08:50 am »
Trouble may be brewing in paradise as I'm begining to notice some relatively minor problems poping up.  Some may be due to just getting older, some may just be ongoing issues not related to diet, and some may be be attributable to my Zero Carb diet.  As they say on Fox News, I’ll report and you can decide.

As I’ve reported previously in this journal I suffer from BPH (enlarged prostate) and take an Alpha blocker (Doxasozin) to help make passing urine easier.  I’ve been taking 2mg/day for almost 10 years but have recently upped the dose to 4mg/day.  This would indicate that the problem is slowly getting worse so the ZC diet may have slowed the progress but it hasn’t  stopped it.  Not sure where to go from here on this issue.  May try some of the herbal remedies, but if I did so, I don’t think I could say that I was eating Zero Carb in good conscience.  The herbal remedies may be tablets of concentrated plant extracts, but this only means that if I were actually eating the plants themselves, I’d be eating a lot of them.  I’m currently looking at “The Prostate Formula” from Real Health Laboratories which has good reviews, as well as “Crila” which seems to be a relative newcomer to the field and is a plant extract from Vietnam.  Neither of these is a cure, but they may reduce the dependence on the more invasive Alpha blocker drugs.

Due to the BPH and associated urine retention I tend to suffer from bouts of prostatisis (inflamed prostate) and general bacterial urinary track infections.  The last episode was about 18 months ago and as is usual for this sort of thing I ended up in the emergency room on a weekend with a fever of 102+F and voiding small amounts of urine every 20 minutes or so, with the usual painful burning and the whole nine yards.  It was a slow day in the emergency room so I got the Full Monty treatment.  Started with a catheter to check urine output (this took 8 hours), IV antibiotics, CT scan to check to see if my old kidney stone problem had returned (it hadn’t), and finally a prescription for Cipro, and instructions to see my personal doctor within the next couple of days.  Good thing I followed up as my doctor took a urine sample to send to the lab for testing. Ended up being a Staph infection that was resistant to Cipro, (as well as most other common antibiotics), and by the time we got it under control, bladder, kidneys, and prostate were all involved.  Was on an 8 week regimen of an antibiotic cocktail that did the trick.  None of this seems to be associated with diet and since these things have been recurring every 2 to 5 years for the last 20 years (I’ve always been subject to infections and especially UTI’s) I didn’t report it here, but doing so now so that you have a complete picture and you can decide for yourself.

In late December/early January I had what appeared to be a budding UTI only this time it happened during a week day so I got to skip the visit to the emergency room.  Had some minor burning when urinating and the glans of the penis was inflamed around the opening.  Didn’t appear to involve the prostate, kidneys or bladder yet, and there was no fever, so I thought I’d caught it early and it would be relatively simple to deal with.  Went to the doc and he took the usual urine sample to send to the lab and prescribed the same cocktail of antibiotics that worked in the previous case to get things started – that was a Thursday.  The lab needs at least 48 hours to culture the samples so I set up an appointment to check back on the results on the following Monday.  By Monday I was in real trouble as the drugs hadn’t done a thing.  The lab reported that they were unable to get any growth on the sample so it didn’t appear to be a bacterial infection.  After much testing and handwringing it turned out to be a fungal yeast infection and had to be treated with Miconazole Nitrate as well as the antibiotic.  This seems to put to rest the idea that Zero Carb will prevent fungal and yeast infections as this is clearly not the case.  Another Myth busted.  Though diet clearly did not prevent this problem both my doctor and I don’t believe it to be the cause of it either, but again, you get to decide.

Now we get down to things that might be more relevant to diet.  Over the last 18 to 24 months I’ve noticed a very slow but steady weight gain.  I’m now up to 175 lbs which is considered lean and almost perfect for my 6’1” frame but is about 15 lbs heavier than my previous plateau at 160 lbs that had remained stable for several years.  I don’t weigh myself often so the way that I noticed this was that I had to consistently let out a belt notch or two.  Waist has now gone from 32” to 34”.  It has been almost 6 years now since I started this ZC adventure and there have been continual changes over that time.  Early on the changes were fast and dramatic.  Over time the changes are much smaller and slower but as you can see they are continuing.  This also puts another nail in the coffin of the belief that you can’t gain weight on Zero Carb.  This belief is just plain false.  I’m certainly not fat or overweight by any means, but the trend bothers me.  My belief is that my weight should be stable if I’m doing things right.  A steady increase of weight, no matter how slow, could become problematic over time so it may be time to look at making some changes.

My eyesight has also progressively gotten worse over the last few years.  Probably not caused by diet, but again, a ZC diet didn’t halt or prevent the problem.  Five years ago I needed reading glasses of +1.75 and no correction for distance.  Today I need reading glasses of +2.75 and though I still don’t correct for distance, I’m noticing problems, so will most likely need a small amount of distance correction in the near future as well. I expect this will become an issue when next I take the vision test to renew my driver’s license. 

Last but not least, I’ve been noticing allergy type symptoms.  This has manifested itself as sneezing several times during the day, coupled with a constant runny nose with minor sinus congestion.  We are in the middle of winter in Southern California and Pollen and other irritants are rather low.  This is also a fairly new development over the last 18-24 months, (hmmmm, seems to co-inside with the weight gain), as I’ve never had this in the past.  The nasal discharge is clear and watery and the doc says there’s no sign of a virus or bacterial infection.  The medical diagnosis is allergies.  To me, this is the most worrisome of the problems.  If all was well in Zero Carb land then suddenly being afflicted with allergies shouldn’t happen.

None of this is earth shattering, and by themselves, each of these problems is small, but taken together it may point to it being time to reevaluate my dietary protocol and look at making some changes. Annual labs are still good but they only test for the normal things like blood glucose, cholesterol, and due to my age and prostate issues, PSA. I had dinner with Danny Roddy last night and his research has lead him to believe that more hormal tests should be done - especially thyroid related levels. I get the T4-T3 and TSH done in my annual lab tests but Danny believes there are some stressor hormoes that need to be checked as well.  Not sure I buy into all the hormone replacement therapy stuff that is so derigueur these days, but it is a place to start looking, and other than giving up a bit of blood to the medical vampires, the testing should be fairly harmless.

More on this as it develops.

Lex



 

209
Journals / Re: Lex's Journal
« on: January 16, 2012, 05:35:43 am »
Quote from: zeno on January 14, 2012, 10:19:19 am
What starchy root vegetable would you recommend and what is your recommendation for the preparation? I'm under the impression that most starchy root vegetables (like potatoes) are harmful when eaten raw. 

I really don't have any recommendations as to what to choose to eat.  You'll have to decide that for yourself.  There are pros and conns for everything (including meat!).  As for cooking starches, I can verify that raw root starches are difficult to digest.  When I was a vegetarian I found that potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, sprouted grains, sprouted beans etc don't digest as well raw as when they are cooked.  I might even make the leap of intuition that it was the  inclusion of these plant foods to our diet that started the cooking revolution - but that is just a guess.

Lex

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Journals / Re: Lex's Journal
« on: January 16, 2012, 05:23:37 am »
Quote from: Löwenherz on January 13, 2012, 02:42:29 am
Does your wife eat a lot of complex carbs?

She eats lots of carbs both simple and complex.  Every meal is carb based, (pasta, rice, potatoes, bread etc.).  Loves her deserts: candy, cake, cookies, ice cream etc.

Lex

211
Journals / Re: Lex's Journal
« on: January 11, 2012, 03:54:34 am »
Dorothy,
I use an FA73 commercial fat analyzer.  It is a small unit about 6" square and you put a precisely measured amount of meat in it and it cooks out the fat which drips into a small vial.  You then measure the height of the fat in the vial and it tells you how much fat is in the sample by % of weight.  This is the same unit that is used by meat markets and grocery stores to assure that they are meeting USDA standards when they label the fat content of their ground meat.  The device is very simple, but they charge over $500 for it.

I measured the Primal Beef and it came out in the 18%-19% range.

Tyler,
They love their olive oil.  My wife drenches everything in it.  It seems that if they don't add 2 cups of olive oil to every dish they don't think it is worth eating.  They also cook everything to death.  If there is the slightest bit of pink in the meat, many Greeks won't eat it.  I think the olive oil thing comes from being a poor country and needing calories to work hard in the fields all day (which no one does anymore).  They cook everything with lots of oil and then dredge slices of bread in it when eating.  It provides calories where meat is scarse.  I know my wife said it was a big deal that on Sunday they got to have chicken.  One chicken was divided between a family of 8.  Obviously no one got much.  The rest of the week was potatoes, greens, or squashes cooked in lots of olive oil and served with bread.

Lowenherz,

PSA levels have risen slowly over the past few years.  I remember 20 years ago when they were .5.  Now they are running 2 - 2.5.  Like everything else we measure, I'm not totally sure what it means, but at this point my doctor is not concerned.

Lex

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Journals / Re: Lex's Journal
« on: January 07, 2012, 11:54:00 am »
Dorothy,
First, no, my wife doesn't eat as I do.  She is Greek (born and raised in Greece in the mid 1940's) so food as a social thing is very important to her.  She suffers from diabetes, gall stones, very high triglycerides, cholesterol off the charts, blocked bile ducts (requiring medical intervention every couple of years), and rheumatoid arthritis that is slowly disfiguring the joints in her fingers.  She knows that she can control much of this with diet, but in her words "I eat what Greeks eat", and that's the end of that.  It is her life and she makes her choices just as I make my choices and we both must live with the consequences of our decisions.

We have a very high tech kitchen.  We cook on two $3,000 Gaggenau induction hobs.  We have a $7,000 Dacor convection oven and other nice toys.  We have a second full Bosh Stove in the garage (the "Dream Kitchen") as well as a second refrigerator and my freezer, which competes for space with my table saws, metal lathes, mills, and workbench etc.  Why all the kitchen stuff?  Well I'm famous for my Chocolate Chip, Coconut Macadamia Nut, and Oatmeal cookies and killer apple pies.  I've often baked 150 dozen cookies, and 30 apple pies over a weekend for charitable events.  I've also done dozens of wedding cakes, and my wife bakes bread regularly.  We host family gatherings several times per year and it is not unusual to have 50 people or more attend.  If we aren't hosting then another member of the family is (my wife has four sisters within a 30 minute drive or so, and yes, they have many of the same health problems as my wife), and all share cooking duties.  In short, even though I don't cook anything I eat, or eat anything I bake, our kitchen gets lots of use.  I'll be making a Pistachio Chocolate Swirl cake for my daughter's mother-in-law's birthday on Sunday. 

I don't recommend that anyone be as strict as I am.  I do so because of my age, my previous vegan lifestyle, and the health problems I created for myself.  For most people I recommend that they eat mostly red meat and fat, drink mainly water, and choose one or two of the following each day:  a small serving of vegetable, small salad, piece of fruit, or a small serving of a starchy root vegetable.  There is certainly no magic in Zero Carb and I'm not even sure Zero Carb is desirable or necessary for most people, and that includes me.  I just continue with it because it is working well for me at this time and it is simple and convenient.  I assure you that if I start to see problems of any kind I'll take my own advice and add in a few veggies, small salad, bit of fruit or the occasional starchy root.  If/when this occurs, I'll dutifully report it here.

As for Slankers high fat ground beef, I order it on occasion and find that it consistently measures out at about 18% fat which is still a little low.  Yes, I know that they say it is 22% but they don't actually test it.  They just add about 20 lbs of fat to every 100 lbs of lean meat and assume it will come in around 22%.  This is very simple to do at the packing house as it requires no skill or fancy measurements.  Here's how the numbers work out:

100 lbs of lean meat containing about 2% fat which is 2 lbs of actual fat.
add in 20 lbs of fat and your total weight is now 120 lbs.

Take the 22 lbs of fat (20 lbs you added and 2 lbs that were in the lean meat) and divide it by the total weight of 120 lbs and you end up with 18.3% fat by weight.  Surprise! this is almost exactly what I measure when I test it.

With the pet food coming it at 16-17% fat,  it is clear that I still have to add a good bit of fat to get to my normal average of about 25%.  If I'm going to have to add fat any way, why pay $5/lb for some of it just because they add it to the ground meat at the packing plant.  I may as well just purchase cheaper fat and add all the fat myself.  By saving that $1 per day, at the end of the month I have $30.  I can purchase about 30 lbs of local fat with $30 which, when combined with Slankers normal ground beef and pet food, is enough fat to meet my dietary needs for about 3 months.  This means that by April, my savings have paid for all the fat I will need for the entire year.

Lex

213
Journals / Re: Lex's Journal
« on: December 29, 2011, 02:10:47 pm »
Quote from: Dorothy on December 28, 2011, 09:45:50 am
So Lex - do you have a sense on a typical day how many of your calories (the percentage of your diet) come from your rendered fat?

Probably 45% of calories comes from rendered fat.

Quote from: Dorothy on December 28, 2011, 09:45:50 am
Slankers sells big hunks of suet that arrive frozen. These are probably what you use for your rendering right Lex?

When I render fat I do about 150 lbs of fat at a time.  Slankers can't provide that amount of fat.  Our forum and others like it have created a large demand for fat and Slankers has a tough time keeping up.  For rendered fat I purchase locally from Marin Sun Farms in the San Francisco area.  They have very good grass fed beef and can also supply large amounts of fat.  The problem is that they don't ship - you have to pick it up at one of their retail locations.  Since I reneder only once a year, it pays me to drive 300 miles to get the fat.  For day to day meat, I perfer to order from Slankers, because they will ship.  Driving 300 miles to get a month or two worth of meat is not cost effective, and I don't have storage space for more.  This is one reason that I render fat.  I can store it without refrigeration. 

Quote from: Dorothy on December 28, 2011, 09:45:50 am
If you take this hunk and break it apart while still frozen you can take a section and with a very sharp knife slice it on the edges to make crumbled suet or slice it very thin for mincing into tiny bits. I was surprised at how easy it was. I mistakenly thought it had to be defrosted - but it's much easier to handle when still frozen.

I used to do this but I just don't have the storage room.  Space is limited and I have a very small freezer (7cu.ft.) that I use for my food.   Storing frozen fat takes up a good amount of space.  Messing with frozen fat also takes up a lot of time when preparing meals.  I prefer to spend my time doing the things I love to do like working in my shop or playing with my grand daughter. 

Quote from: Dorothy on December 28, 2011, 09:45:50 am
Slankers also sells marrow bones - but it's not nearly as simple and is certainly is not as economical. I have to admit though that my favorite way to add fat to ground meat is still with egg yolks from my chickens. yum.

I don't use marrow bones except on special occasions because they take too much time away from my other interests.  I spend very little time in food preparation - maybe 45 minutes every 10 days or so when I prepare my mix and divide it into daily portions.  I eat very few eggs.  Maybe 3 or 4 times a year when traveling and sausage and eggs are the only thing that even remotely resembles paleo on the menu. Eggs would be very seasonal in our natural environment and even then finding eggs with yolks would be difficult.  Most eggs in the wild would be well on their way to becoming birds, and they would only be available about 6 to 8 weeks out of the year.  Therefore I don't make them a significant part of my diet.

Quote from: Dorothy on December 28, 2011, 09:45:50 am
The primal mix is also much higher in fat content because it is so high in organ meat.

I've tried the primal mix but prefer the pet food.  The primal mix is ground too fine and is like paste to me.  I like the chewy chunks,  bits of bone, and other textures in the pet food.  It is also very bland tasting compared to the pet food.

Quote from: Dorothy on December 28, 2011, 09:45:50 am
Also, their regular ground comes in a high fat version and a low fat version. I think the high fat is about 30% fat and the low fat is 10% if I remember right. That I'd imagine would have to be taken into consideration. Which one do you order Lex? If I remember you used to order the chili meat.

I order all of the above as the mood suits me and depending on what Slankers has in stock when I order.  Sometimes they are out of one thing or another and I have to substitue something else.  My normal order is the regular ground beef as I prefer to pay the high price for lean meat and add my own less expensive local fat (usually rendered but sometimes fresh).  Second is the chili meat and last is the high fat stuff.  I don't want to pay $5+/lb for fat just because they mixed it into the ground meat.  I pay a little over $1 per lb for my local fat.

Quote from: Dorothy on December 28, 2011, 09:45:50 am
I don't know what percentage fat the chili mix is compared to the other mixes... do you know Lex?

Everytime I've tested the chili meat it comes in with about the same fat content as the regular ground beef which is between 10% and 12% by weight.

Lex

214
Journals / Re: Lex's Journal
« on: December 27, 2011, 05:53:51 am »
Quote from: zeno on December 27, 2011, 01:52:08 am
I believe you stated that you are eating 2,000 calories worth of food per day. Is that true? How much does 2,000 calories of meat weigh? 

Assuming that my meat contains about 25% fat by weight (about 76% of calories from fat), I usually eat between 1 1/2 to 2 lbs per day.  This would have the following breakdown:
                                                         
                                                          1 1/2 lbs               1 3/4 lbs                  2lbs
Total Calories                                1,995                     2,325                     2,658
Grams Protein                                  107                       125                          143
Grams Fat                                          170                       198                          227

My guess is that I average somewhere between 1 1/2 and 1 3/4 lbs per day unless I'm doing a lot of physical labor and then I'll eat 2 lbs or maybe even a bit more.  95% of the time I only eat one meal per day at around 2pm and I eat until I'm satisfied.  When digging trenches for sprinkler systems or other physical work I'll often eat a second meal around 6pm because I am hungry again, and again I eat until I'm satified, but this time it only takes about 1/2 - 3/4 lb of food to satify me.

When eating out I always order 2 ribeye steaks (usually 1 lb each) extra rare.  Since these don't have as much fat I can eat more.   

Lex


215
Journals / Re: Lex's Journal
« on: December 25, 2011, 02:24:02 pm »
Quote from: zeno on December 25, 2011, 08:33:02 am
I'm surprised you enjoy the pre-frozen meat. It just doesn't do me any good and doesn't taste all that good either in my opinion...

To be honest, none of this food tastes like chocolate chip cookies no matter where it comes from, but it should be pretty clear that I don't spend much time on taste or fancy presentation.  I eat to satisfy my hunger and nutritional needs and that's about it.  It's sort of the barefoot approach to eating - basic in the extreme.

Quote from: zeno on December 25, 2011, 08:33:02 am
Lex, perhaps you can help me to understand fat to lean meat ratios in a low-carbohydrate diet. When people are asked how much they eat of fat relative to lean meat, they often answer somewhere around 80%. Does this mean that one would be eating 80% fat by weight or caloric content? This is something I've never understood. 

We usually mean 80% of calories from fat.  This equates to about 30% fat by weight.  I personally stay in the region of 70% to 75% of calories from fat (about 20% to 25% of fat by weight)most of the time.  When I get upwards of 80% of calories from fat or above, I find that a lot of the fat is not digested and it is eliminated as soft pasty stools that float.  With too much fat in the diet, a bowel movement is akin to squeezing a tube of toothpaste.  Since the fat is not digested, it is calories wasted so why eat it.

Remember that I'm eating ALL the fat in my meat because I eat it raw.  Most people purchase ground beef with 30% fat (and therefore 80% of calories from fat) because it is the cheapest, but then they cook it until much of the fat is rendered out and they eat the cooked meat and throw the fat away.  Meat cooked medium to well done can lose 75%-95% of its fat content.  If you throw the fat away, the cooked meat might only contain between 15% to 35% of calories from fat.

Lex

216
Journals / Re: Lex's Journal
« on: December 24, 2011, 11:48:29 am »
Thanks for such a wonderful post Dorothy.  I'm so glad you found my journal of value.  I do try to accurately report my experiences and then it is up to others to decide for themselves what they wish to do.

I've tried Slankers Primal Mix and found it to pasty and bland for my taste.  I'm so used to the pet food with the chewy chunks and occasional bone chips that the finely ground stuff they make for humans seems boring.

I used to order the chili meat on a regular basis but for the past couple of years have just settled on the regular ground beef for convenience.  I'm much more about working in my shop or doing other things I enjoy than spending hours agonizing over food, so I keep things very simple and consistent.  I doubt if I spend more than 30 - 45 minutes per day total on food including prep time and time to eat.

You are certainly right about the cheap bags they pack the meat in.  I usually set my meat out over night in 9x13x2 glass baking dishes and let it defrost.  When I mix everything I just poor the liquid back into the mix.

I wish you all the best on your dietary adventure.  If I can help in any way don't hesitate to ask.  I try to check my journal every few days and respond to posts, but often times I'm away from home for several days at a time teaching antique clock repair classes or giving Jerky / pemmican demos and I'm probably the only person left on earth that doesn't carry internet access around in their pocket whereever they go.

Lex

217
Journals / Re: Lex's Journal
« on: December 24, 2011, 11:19:42 am »
Quote from: zeno on December 13, 2011, 12:34:47 am
Pardon the redundancy, but I have two simple questions: as of now are you still mainly relying on Slanker'spet food product as your meat source?

Yes, I still use Slankers pet food as my main ORGAN meat source.  I mix it with a good bit of Slankers regular ground beef.  I tried their primal mix, but missed the chewy bits and occasional bone chips that are in the pet food.  The primal mix also tastes rather bland whereas the pet food is a bit more robust and each batch is different depending on what went into the mix.

Quote from: zeno on December 13, 2011, 12:34:47 am
In the past you've made it clear that you don't believe in cooking your food but I remember that you claimed to rendering your fat. Do you still eat rendered fat?

I'm not sure I said that I don't believe in cooking my food.  I think what I said was that no other animal cooks its food and therefore, it seems reasonable that we shouldn't cook ours either.  That said, yes I do render my fat for two reasons:
1) it is much easier to store as once rendered it doesn't require refrigeration, and 2) I make a good bit of pemmican to send as samples as well as for demonstrations to Scout Troops, Church Youth Groups, Hiking Clubs, and the like.  At the demos I render a couple of pounds so that people can see what to do, but supply pre-rendered fat for making the bulk of the pemmican.  I render about 150 lbs of fat a year, and do it all over one weekend in June or July.

Other than that, I eat out several times per month and usually eat lightly cooked food on these occasions.  It is my custom to order ribeye steaks extra rare when available, but will settle for whatever is the most paleo friendly thing on the menu if necessary.  On occasion I'm stuck with Caesar Salmon Salad or other such fare and in that case I order 3 servings of the salmon on the salad, a 1/2 cup melted butter to get some fat, and leave the green stuff in the bowl for the dishwasher.

218
Welcoming Committee / Re: Hi everyone
« on: November 03, 2011, 02:49:28 pm »
Billy,
The moderators want to make sure our forum is the best it can be.  We get thousands of visitors and we don't want them distracted by spelling errors, missing punctuation, and poor grammar.  They do their best to clean things up without changing the meaning of the message. 

I'm not a moderator, but I personally appreciate it when they fix my errors.  I try to catch them myself, but miss on occasion and don't see the error until the message is locked and I can no longer fix it myself.  I've never had them make a change that I wouldn't have made myself if I had seen the error.

Some of the moderators are a bit obsessive/compulsive about it, but I'd rather have them make the corrections than have my posts full of spelling, punctuation, and bad grammar for all the world to see.    Many people read my posts as they will yours, so I want them to be the best they can be as it reflects well on me as well as the whole community of this forum.

Lex

219
Journals / Re: Lex's Journal
« on: October 14, 2011, 11:00:41 am »
My guess is that if you don't eat organ meats on a regular basis then some fruit and/or green plant food is necessary to good health.  All carnivores that I'm aware of eat the entire animal.  If we choose to be carnivorous, then we must do likewise.

This also supports my contention that when the Cree Natives put dried berries in their pemmican it wasn't to please the whiteman's pallet.  They did it because pemmican is made from muscle meats and muscle meats alone will not support good health.  Of course this is pure speculation on my part, but if you've ever added the small amount of fruit (5%-10% by weight) to pemmican you'd know that there is very little taste difference between pemmican with fruit and pemmican without.  No one would choose to add fruit to pemmican for the taste as the fat and dehydrated meat just overpower it.  It's not at all like adding dry fruit to a bland grain based bar.  Native Americans were also very efficient.  Their traditions evolved over many centuries and the work was so time consuming that I doubt that they would add an extra step or ingredient to a process unless it was necessary.   Why would they spend the time to harvest, dry, and grind berries to be added to pemmican if it wasn't critical to the process.  I've made pemmican both ways and I can assure you that adding 5%-10% dry strawberry or blueberry powder to pemmican doesn't transform it into a fruity tasting Pop-Tart. 

Records indicate that pemmican was used as a base and eaten with other foods and also eaten alone.  My guess is that the pemmican without fruit was probably used when other foods were available to supplement, and the pemmican with fruit was used when it was the only food eaten.

Danny Roddy tried eating a pemmican-only diet for over a year, but his results were disappointing over the long term.  It might be interesting to re-run the experiment only this time add a small amount of dehydrated fruit to the pemmican.  The fruit would need to be a high nutrition low sugar fruit like strawberries, saskatoon berries, blue berries, etc.  Might even be able to use commercial super food supplements like Super Reds Formula from Purity Products.  It's worth thinking about.

Lex

220
Suggestion Box / Re: Color scheme & Spell Check?
« on: October 13, 2011, 11:20:42 pm »
Yes, now spell check works again.

Is there an option anywhere that you can turn on that will allow the user to change the color scheme from this default orange color?  It is very uncomfortable to look at for any length of time.

221
Suggestion Box / Color scheme & Spell Check?
« on: October 13, 2011, 10:53:16 am »
The international flaming orange color is a bit overwhelming.  Can I change this to something a little more subdued?

I also miss spellcheck.  It wasn't perfect but it did help a lot - especially since the window where we can make corrections is so short.  Do you plan on bringing this back?

Lex

222
Journals / Re: Lex's Journal
« on: October 13, 2011, 12:55:28 am »
Nothing major, just small things that I used to consider normal but have found dissappear if I eat my normal food.  Things like cold sores, small patches of eczema, edema in hands and/or feet.

These things don't happen over night or by eating one or two odd meals.  They start to occur if I eat improperly over a couple of weeks or longer.  I don't get all of them at once.  Edema (swelling of feet and ankles, or puffy fingers) is usually the first thing to show up, followed by itchy patches of skin, and finally the occasionall cold sore though these don't always happen.  I've had this happen several times when I've been traveling for an extended period and my normal food is not available.  During these times I just eat the best choice of food available to me at the time which is usually grain fed meats, eggs and the like.  The fat I eat when traveling is butter as it is the only acceptable fat that is always available when eating out.  Also most of this stuff is cooked, though if I have the opportunity I ask for it rare.

Hope this helps,

Lex

223
Journals / Re: Lex's Journal
« on: October 11, 2011, 01:19:22 pm »
I got the following note from a member of another forum.  I thought readers of my journal might be interested so I’m duplicating it here along with my reply.

Quote from: Dextery

Hi Lex,
I see you are still alive!
You may not have been keeping up with the latest Bru Ha Ha in the paleo world here on Jimmy Moore’s page. Lots of knives. http://livinlavidalowcarb.com/blog/is-there-any-such-thing-as-safe-starches-on-a-low-carb-diet/11809
Jimmy asked for comments about Paul Jamanet’s Safe starches in low carb and each expert...so to speak...offered their take. One was Kurt Harris who is in the camp of...... ok on safe starches and you can’t really survive well without them. I asked him about you and your carnivory. He replied as follows:
•   
•   
•   
    Dextery  4 hours ago in reply to Kurt Harris

•   How do you explain Lex Rooker being a total carnivore for the last four years eating a diet composed of 85% fat and 15% protein and zero carbs? He seems to be thriving without safe starches. You know his Dexa Scan is fine. And his lipids are fine. Lex does not appear to be deprived of glucose at all. His ketones are doing just fine.
•   Flag
•   LikeReplyReply
•   
    Kurt Harris  1 hour ago in reply to Dextery

•   How do you explain people surviving for years on vegan diets, even though it will kill you in the long run? It is not impossible that a person could go from the SAD to meat and water and get healthier, yet meat and water is the not the optimal diet or even a very good one. Look at Danny Roddy's experience. He was a protege of Lex Rooker and got scurvy...

Lex-
Did Danny actually get scurvy or was that a rumor created by Sisson? Is it true or not? I could not find anything on Danny’s site. Did KGH misstate the facts?
Hope everything is fine in the clock repairing business.
Thanks
Dextery

Hi Dextery,
Sorry for the late reply. I've been out of town teaching a 1 week antique clock repair class. Just got back a couple of hours ago.

I spend almost zero time on the forums arguing over diet. What I'm doing seems to be working well for me at this time so I have no reason to look for an alternative. I really don't want to get dragged into discussions over "Safe Starches" or any other bit of dietary esoterica, as there is no way to tell what is safe and what isn't. Every self-proclaimed guru seems to be able to make the case that whatever they've chosen to eat is safe, or good, or optimal, or whatever. As for me, the best I can do is say that what I'm currently doing seems to be working but if I start to have problems I'll change in a heartbeat.

I have dinner with Danny on occasion and he's never mentioned scurvy to me, but that doesn't mean much. We usually talk about other things when we get together. One thing I can say is that Danny has never been shy about pointing out both the good and the bad of his dietary adventures on his blog so if he didn't mention it there then there is a better than even chance that it is just a rumor.

Dr. Harris isn't the only one that tends to assume that because Danny and I enjoy each other’s company on occasion, and we often agree in principal on the subject of diet, that Danny, (and others like him), are doing what I'm doing and it is not working for them. This is just not true. Danny has never done what I'm doing. He decided to try his own experiment with eating nothing but pemmican made from dehydrated muscle meat and rendered fat. He and I often discussed that this might lead to problems over the long term, and he did finally terminate the experiment as he wasn't getting the results he expected. Was scurvy an issue there? I have no idea. All I know is that after eating nothing but pemmican for more than one year, he gave it up because it wasn't meeting his needs.

In my case, I eat all parts of the animal in the form of Slanker's pet food. It is very strong tasting and as far as I know there are very few souls brave enough to eat the way that I do. Those that try it don't last very long as they can't tolerate the taste. I've been eating this way for about 5 years now with no signs of problems. I attribute my success to the pet food - not the fact that I eat zero carb. My own experience shows that when I'm away from home and not able to eat my normal daily mix for an extended period of time, I start seeing signs of problems brewing. When I return to my mix everything goes back to normal.

I also allow my food to sit out at room temperature for several hours before eating it. It becomes rather sour tasting, sometimes with a bit of a fizz to it - especially on very warm days, indicating to me that it is teaming with bacteria. It could well be that the bacteria are producing the vitamins or other nutrients that are in short supply in fresh raw meat. I just know that in paleo times there was no refrigeration and that much of the food we would have eaten would be swarming with bacteria. Who's to say that rotting meat teaming with bacteria isn't a vital part of our diet? I have no way of knowing, but it seems to make sense to me so I try my best to emulate what our natural environment would be like without all the modern food preservation techniques.

As you can see, my diet and lifestyle are far from just a simple zero carb, meat-only, diet. My food is a complex mixture of all parts of the animal and the exact make-up of this mixture changes with every order based on what went into the mix at that time. Every order of pet food is different. I also let my food ferment for several hours and sometimes overnight so that it is teaming with bacteria.

When I stop eating this mix and just eat a normal zero carb diet of fresh muscle meats I soon begin to notice little things cropping up, so I return to my tried and true mix and all is well again. I also don't know of anyone else that eats exactly the way I do, so just because others agree with me in principal, the devil, as always, is in the details. Very few are willing to deal in details. They want a quick magic cure-all that requires little thought and delights their taste buds.

Lex



224
Welcoming Committee / Re: Hello
« on: September 19, 2011, 10:42:48 am »
Authur,
Anything with a sweet taste can cause an immediate and significant insulin reaction from the body.  This is something you want to avoid. 

I also found that for me, trying to continue to drink or eat sweet foods made kicking the carb habit almost impossible - even if they were non-calorie artifical sweetners.  As long as I was consuming them I'd go on carb binges.  I was only successful when I went cold turkey, and then it took several weeks for the carb cravings to subside.  Once they did I was good to go.  You need to understand that at one time I was drinking two 2 liter bottles of soda per day, and that was the minimum.  Sometimes much more.  If that isn't an addiction I don't know what is.

I've been soda free for about 7 years now.  Today my only beverage is water, no milk, tea, juice, soda, or coffee.  Just plain clear water.  I feel great and don't miss the soda one bit.  I also don't miss the 40" waistline that went with it!

Lex 

225
Journals / Re: Lex's Journal
« on: September 19, 2011, 10:18:15 am »
Quote from: TylerVo on September 18, 2011, 10:58:28 am
What do you usually eat? I know the ratio, but what are you eating to get the fat/protein?

I don't think I've seen what your meal plan looks like, but if you've written it already I'd appreciate it if someone would link me to the post.

Tyler,  you can start here: http://www.rawpaleodietforum.com/journals/lex's-journal/msg4377/#msg4377

Today I usually use rendered fat instead of fresh fat and I often mix 1 1/2 lbs pet food to 4 lbs regular ground beef, but the pictures should give you a pretty good idea.  I use rendered fat as it doesn't require freezer space.  I only have a 7 cuft freezer so space is limited and I'd prefer to use it for the lean meat and pet food rather than for the fat.  It is not ideal but is a resonable compromise that I'm willing to live with.

There are other postings throughout my journal that describe various variations.  I know it is tedious, but if you are really interested in what I'm doing and why, you may wish to read through my journal.  I expect it will answers many of your questions and will surely give you food for thought.

Lex

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