Osu

[Teirin]

Probably a good plan, doesn't get pushed into something heavier than is right for your recovery.

 

Judo and then Kali?  Fun day!  Will you have time for all the chores and such around it?

[Kishi]

23 hours ago, Teirin said:

Judo and then Kali?  Fun day!  Will you have time for all the chores and such around it?

 

I think so! The hardest part, I think, will be getting old books to the library. Otherwise, a lot of it would just be housecleaning I could do in the evening. I don't think I have anything else planned... but even if something comes up, everything that needs to be done is kind of on that slow burn that destroys your life without noticing.

 

*

 

So! When last we left our intrepid hero, he had decided to do push ups. And straddle planche training.

 

I wound up doing the planche work first since that's the strength feat. And I gotta say, putting that move first and hitting it fresh? Big difference. It was totally easy. Push ups afterward went great as well - I'll probably hit progression standard on those next time.

 

Went to the doctor today, and... well. Good news and bad news. Good news is, I was right about my bloodwork showing high. Bad news is, I was wrong about how high, and I've now been placed on a low-grade supplement-level statin.

 

As you can imagine, that was a bit of shock. Staring at the bottle feels like I did something wrong somewhere.

 

But frankly, I'm going to look at the good. This is not some permanent prescription. It's not like thinking everything was fine and then being told I was a diabetic. And the blood numbers were the only truly bad numbers. And even then, the HDL was high too, so it's not like that's doing badly.

 

I'm going back in a couple of months for a Boston, which is basically more in-depth testing, and she's also proposed genetic testing as well to get more information. In the meantime, I'm taking this as a challenge to get my diet well and truly locked in, and off the statins. Thing is, in order to do this, I'm kind of looking at one of those massive upheavals that I'm not a fan of anymore - I'm thinking of going back to a paradigm which has worked in the past, but is a higher-carb, moderate protein diet which goes low in fats. I'll also be digging into intermittent fasting again; reason being that this has been shown to improve blood numbers and overall cardiovascular health.

 

I do apologize if it seems like I'm overreacting, but I actually do think that the data I've got on myself right now warrants such a response. Or maybe it's just that sense that I've got something to get ready for where my nutrition actually makes a difference.

 

But, uh, yeah. In the meantime, Essential Strength and Karate on the docket. K-sensei's in a sparring mood, and the hamstring's feeling fine.

[Teirin]

Hey, not overreacting at all.  Health stuff scares anyone.  You're planning on trying something to deal with the underlying problem (if diet-related) and using meds for what you need now.  You're not ignoring it and hoping it'll go away.   Given that they're planning genetic testing, you may just be more predisposed to this sort of thing.  Doesn't mean that you failed.  *hugs*

[Treva]

You are not overreacting.  At all.  I would be scared too in your shoes.  I can absolutely understand how staring at a bottle makes you feel like you did something wrong.  But you're the kind of person doctors like to take care of; you're motivated to take care of your health, you do everything you can to eat healthy and be healthy, so it's odd that someone so motivated and fit would have numbers requiring a low dose statin.  If someone spent their whole life sitting on the couch eating potato chips and mcdonalds, yeah, having to start on a statin might be because they're not taking care of themselves in other ways.  But we both know that isn't you.  This isn't medical advice, but this is "geeze, a guy who schools me on how to be healthy probably isn't at fault for his lipid panel."

You're right about the good.  You caught an odd lab value before it became an odd symptom, and now you can get further data on what's up with your body.  You're taking care of you, and if that means taking a low dose statin for right now until your genetics tell you more, that's okay.  

 

But *hugs* I get that it's a total shock.  You work so hard to be healthy, and now you still have to take medication.  That would bug the hell out of me.

[Urgan]

In your defense, three things:

 

1. Doctors are very aggressive about putting damn near everybody on cholesterol and blood pressure medicine--both are good when , but they're so CYA about it that I believe many more people are on these medicines than should. Exhibit A: one reading that is high and whoop here we are

2. The yardstick by which we measure "good" to "bad" cholesterol levels is not beyond scrutiny--aka I suspect we do not have a full understanding of this cholesterol thing at all and thus feeling like you have failed at fitness based on this is unfair

3. Presuming further testing cements the first reading and you choose to adhere to the doctor's yardstick, you 100% can manage your cholesterol via diet. I've seen high cholesterol reduced to levels that are below the starting threshold on the cholesterol chart and all that was done was changing food choices--my mom didn't IF or count anything, that is for sure.

 

I know this thing hits you where you live and ain't nobody telling you how you SHOULD feel about it. Again, I do not advise changing All the Things at once because no way you can track that, but maybe tune up quality of food between now and the next test? That by itself will help a lot. You may have some genetic predisposition involved that demands more aggressive measures to conform to the one-size-fits-all, IDK. You gotta use your own best judgment and try not to let it get you too down, either way. But one thing I vehemently disagree with anything that says you're Unhealthy. Period, end of story. 

[RisenPhoenix]

^What they all said.

 

Like, that's a not-fun diagnosis to get.  Reactions to it are totally allowed to be 'extreme' to try and compensate.  Do what you can for now, supplement as needed, and keep an eye on it all. 

 

2 hours ago, Urgan said:

But one thing I vehemently disagree with anything that says you're Unhealthy. Period, end of story. 

 

Also all of this.  You might not have *perfect* levels everywhere, but the factors in health are so varied and poorly understood that one bad value unhealthy does not make.  

[Kishi]

19 hours ago, Teirin said:

Hey, not overreacting at all.  Health stuff scares anyone.  You're planning on trying something to deal with the underlying problem (if diet-related) and using meds for what you need now.  You're not ignoring it and hoping it'll go away.   Given that they're planning genetic testing, you may just be more predisposed to this sort of thing.  Doesn't mean that you failed.  *hugs*

 

Yeah. And plus, I've not had the ability to get this checked for a long, long time. It was a Known Unknown, something that I was willing to write off with the information I had at the time.

 

Can't write it off now, though. Also, if the genes predispose me to this kind of thing, it means I'm gonna have to cut ties with the dogma of this place in terms of being low carb and Paleo. (of course, one can be Paleo/Primal and high carb too).

 

18 hours ago, Treva said:

You are not overreacting.  At all.  I would be scared too in your shoes.  I can absolutely understand how staring at a bottle makes you feel like you did something wrong.  But you're the kind of person doctors like to take care of; you're motivated to take care of your health, you do everything you can to eat healthy and be healthy, so it's odd that someone so motivated and fit would have numbers requiring a low dose statin.  If someone spent their whole life sitting on the couch eating potato chips and mcdonalds, yeah, having to start on a statin might be because they're not taking care of themselves in other ways.  But we both know that isn't you.  This isn't medical advice, but this is "geeze, a guy who schools me on how to be healthy probably isn't at fault for his lipid panel."

 

Yeah, that's pretty much how it feels. And if anything, I'm not scared so much as embarrassed. Like. I'm 32. I'm fit. I can ruck for miles, lift heavy loads, carry heavy loads for distance, run OCRs, and fight harder than most people I know. And I'm not inflexible either. To be put on a statin at this age is essentially finding out that something that I thought I was doing really well wasn't done very well at all. I feel like someone who turned in his best rough draft ever and just got back a bunch of red marks.

 

Like, when I had the tachycardic episode and read up on how it might lead to sudden death? That was scary. That was the whole "Oh God I'll die alone and I never published anything good and I never got married or made anything of myself" and biting back sobs at the end of the day. That was me scared. Not even at dying but that I hadn't done what I wanted to with the life that was given to me. This is more confusing than anything else.

 

Although, that being said, if I can't get this under control... then it'll be scary.

 

18 hours ago, Treva said:

But *hugs* I get that it's a total shock.  You work so hard to be healthy, and now you still have to take medication.  That would bug the hell out of me.

 

*hugs* Yeah. That's about where I am. I am officially bugged. But, it's just another supplement at this point. Hopefully be one I can get off of sooner rather than later.

 

2 hours ago, Urgan said:

1. Doctors are very aggressive about putting damn near everybody on cholesterol and blood pressure medicine--both are good when , but they're so CYA about it that I believe many more people are on these medicines than should. Exhibit A: one reading that is high and whoop here we are

 

Well, in fairness to the doctor, though, my readings were really high. Total lipids were at 273, with LDL at 198. That's like being over 9000; that's practically double the high end of what my LDL is supposed to be, clinically speaking.

 

2 hours ago, Urgan said:

2. The yardstick by which we measure "good" to "bad" cholesterol levels is not beyond scrutiny--aka I suspect we do not have a full understanding of this cholesterol thing at all and thus feeling like you have failed at fitness based on this is unfair

 

I appreciate the thought, and that's part of the reason that we're going to get more in-depth testing done in a couple months. LDL apparently comes in two varieties - you have the hard stuff, which is bad, and the soft stuff, which is good-neutral. I suspect that what'll happen is that I'll test positive for lots of the soft stuff and that the hard stuff will be quite under control. But that being said, it's an awful bloody lot of the soft stuff.

 

2 hours ago, Urgan said:

3. Presuming further testing cements the first reading and you choose to adhere to the doctor's yardstick, you 100% can manage your cholesterol via diet. I've seen high cholesterol reduced to levels that are below the starting threshold on the cholesterol chart and all that was done was changing food choices--my mom didn't IF or count anything, that is for sure.

 

I'm absolutely certain that I can.  I wouldn't try otherwise. And I'm certain that IF isn't strictly necessary, but I figure, heck with it. I'm motivated, and there's no reason not to stack the deck in my favor for the next test.

 

2 hours ago, Urgan said:

I know this thing hits you where you live and ain't nobody telling you how you SHOULD feel about it. Again, I do not advise changing All the Things at once because no way you can track that, but maybe tune up quality of food between now and the next test?

 

So the thing is, I don't see how to do better than what I'm doing now. I eat high-quality, grass fed meat, and organic free range poultry when I can get it. My eggs are enriched with Omega-3s, I eat raw nuts, I eat whole bags of veggies at a sitting and in various states of preparation (raw and steamed), my dairy is high-quality fermented whole-fat stuff. I just don't know what there is to tune up. I don't go out to eat much except to Chipotle when coming back from Karate, 'cuz that shit ends late, but even then it's not like that's poor-grade food.

 

I love your advice, and I'm not pleased to do this. The reason I'm doing it is because I don't see how to do what I'm doing better, and I don't see how what I'm doing is getting me where I need to be right now in terms of my clinical health. And it's not like switching the macros is necessarily going to compromise me. There are lots of populations that live a high carb life with extremely low mortality rates and excellent cardiovascular health (mostly island/oriental populations, but hey, it's not like my Saxon/Gothic/Slavic heritage is low carb either). As long as the overall energy intake remains the same or similar, I just don't see anything to lose. And in the worst case? I just get a little puffy again and my training gets easier.

 

23 minutes ago, RisenPhoenix said:

Like, that's a not-fun diagnosis to get.  Reactions to it are totally allowed to be 'extreme' to try and compensate.  Do what you can for now, supplement as needed, and keep an eye on it all.

 

That's the idea.

 

24 minutes ago, RisenPhoenix said:

Also all of this.  You might not have *perfect* levels everywhere, but the factors in health are so varied and poorly understood that one bad value unhealthy does not make.

 

Well, imperfect is one thing. If I were within spitting distance of healthy LDL with high HDL like I've got, I wouldn't sweat it. But my LDL's practically off the charts, and that's not how that's supposed to work.

 

*

 

I wanted to edit this to be able to say that I love you all, but it won't let me, so I'll just have to leave it here for you.

 

So, in keeping with the theme of Things Not Going According to Plan, when I went to the gym that's closeby to the dojo, the racks were all taken and they stayed taken.

 

That kind of ticked me off in my post-statin funk, but then I remembered, oh yeah, I can study deck squats. So that's what I did.

 

Supported Squats: 1x21

Integrated Mobility

Halfway Squats: 1x15

Integrated Mobility

Full Squats: 1x9

Integrated Mobility

Deck Squats: 3x2

Integrated Mobility: DONE

 

High Rows: 4x6

Integrated Mobility: DONE

 

Hollow Body Tuck Holds: 4x36s

Integrated Mobility: DONE

 

FINISHER: Kettlebell Swing/Goblet Squat Ladders: 4x1-4x53

 

Lots to unpack here, so let's go over it:

• Those squats were a challenge. Between Deck Squatting and Goblet Squatting, I about felt like I had put them through a Front Squatting session. It's good to be able to match stimulus when things don't go right. That being said, the deck squatting is prone to that same movement problem it was before - can't seem to get my levers under my center of gravity. There's a regression in GST for this where you roll back onto an elevated surface, but I don't have access to mats for this like they'd like me to have. However, I was able to find videos showing deck squats onto elevated surfaces where you can't really roll it back, but can practice getting the parts to line up using a partial ROM. I think I can practice that.
• High Rows felt good, and there was no vestigial twinging or soreness afterward.
• Hollow Body Tuck holds are weird. I'm executing to standard, but still shaky. But then on the last set, something clicked and I just went completely still for time. I'll probably stay here again and see if I can duplicate that.
• Finisher was something I wanted to do for the mini going on in the Monastery right now. Original goal was to Pyramid 1-10-1, but by the fourth rep, my legs were smoked. So I just climbed the ladder a few times over the course of 10 minutes instead.

 

Karate afterward was good. Harder, on account of doing a finisher, but good quality work. Managed to land some clean hits in sparring, which is something we're gearing toward with the impending trip to NYC. I need to find my small gloves again so we can practice control, which is a weakness of mine because it's a weakness of my teacher's. Joy.

 

Managed to get it confirmed that Friday Nights are cleared nights, so I reckon I'll shift my movement practice stuff over to tonight. Saturday... whoof, but that's gonna be a lot. Especially if I try to hit open mat beforehand.

[Urgan]

4 minutes ago, Kishi said:

Yeah, that's pretty much how it feels. And if anything, I'm not scared so much as embarrassed. Like. I'm 32. I'm fit. I can ruck for miles, lift heavy loads, carry heavy loads for distance, run OCRs, and fight harder than most people I know. And I'm not inflexible either. To be put on a statin at this age is essentially finding out that something that I thought I was doing really well wasn't done very well at all. I feel like someone who turned in his best rough draft ever and just got back a bunch of red marks.

 

5 minutes ago, Kishi said:

Well, in fairness to the doctor, though, my readings were really high. Total lipids were at 273, with LDL at 198. That's like being over 9000; that's practically double the high end of what my LDL is supposed to be, clinically speaking.

 

5 minutes ago, Kishi said:

I appreciate the thought, and that's part of the reason that we're going to get more in-depth testing done in a couple months. LDL apparently comes in two varieties - you have the hard stuff, which is bad, and the soft stuff, which is good-neutral. I suspect that what'll happen is that I'll test positive for lots of the soft stuff and that the hard stuff will be quite under control. But that being said, it's an awful bloody lot of the soft stuff.

 

This reiterates my points. You're aggressively doing the very best a human knows how to take care of himself. This result is a single data point, you can't make a trend line with just one of these suckers. More tests will help give context. Most importantly, there is no test result that will come back saying Kishi didn't put in enough effort.

 

6 minutes ago, Kishi said:

So the thing is, I don't see how to do better than what I'm doing now. I eat high-quality, grass fed meat, and organic free range poultry when I can get it. My eggs are enriched with Omega-3s, I eat raw nuts, I eat whole bags of veggies at a sitting and in various states of preparation (raw and steamed), my dairy is high-quality fermented whole-fat stuff. I just don't know what there is to tune up. I don't go out to eat much except to Chipotle when coming back from Karate, 'cuz that shit ends late, but even then it's not like that's poor-grade food.

 

I love your advice, and I'm not pleased to do this. The reason I'm doing it is because I don't see how to do what I'm doing better, and I don't see how what I'm doing is getting me where I need to be right now in terms of my clinical health. And it's not like switching the macros is necessarily going to compromise me. There are lots of populations that live a high carb life with extremely low mortality rates and excellent cardiovascular health (mostly island/oriental populations, but hey, it's not like my Saxon/Gothic/Slavic heritage is low carb either). As long as the overall energy intake remains the same or similar, I just don't see anything to lose. And in the worst case? I just get a little puffy again and my training gets easier.

 

If it helps, I'm not particularly a fan of low carb. That's putting it mildly. If I said otherwise, with an average carb macro YTD of 261g in the pursuit of fiber and gainz, I'd be a huge liar. Fat is somewhere around 50-60% that, eyeballing the numbers. Not that you need my seal of approval, I'm just saying that there's a whole spectrum of belief that carbs are invaluable to proper performance. Also not shooting down low carb, we all have to find our own way. You just need to try to tweak your formula a bit and see what happens next, right?

[Kishi]

9 minutes ago, Urgan said:

This reiterates my points. You're aggressively doing the very best a human knows how to take care of himself. This result is a single data point, you can't make a trend line with just one of these suckers. More tests will help give context. Most importantly, there is no test result that will come back saying Kishi didn't put in enough effort.

 

Oh yeah. I mean, the Doc was surprised at my numbers. She honestly couldn't believe the results. I present as a very healthy dude, and I think we both expected very good numbers. Although, when she suggested more training, I was like, "Lady, you wouldn't believe me if I told you how much I do now just for fun."

 

1 hour ago, Urgan said:

If it helps, I'm not particularly a fan of low carb. That's putting it mildly. If I said otherwise, with an average carb macro YTD of 261g in the pursuit of fiber and gainz, I'd be a huge liar. Fat is somewhere around 50-60% that, eyeballing the numbers. Not that you need my seal of approval, I'm just saying that there's a whole spectrum of belief that carbs are invaluable to proper performance. Also not shooting down low carb, we all have to find our own way. You just need to try to tweak your formula a bit and see what happens next, right?

 

Yep! And it's honestly not the biggest tweak. Like I said, the overall energy makeup is about the same. Since my body doesn't seem to want to play the hormonal game the way it's typically suggested, it seems reasonable to fall back to the CICO game and see what happens.

[Urgan]

12 minutes ago, Kishi said:

Oh yeah. I mean, the Doc was surprised at my numbers. She honestly couldn't believe the results. I present as a very healthy dude, and I think we both expected very good numbers. Although, when she suggested more training, I was like, "Lady, you wouldn't believe me if I told you how much I do now just for fun."

 

Loooooool. At least she didn't tell you to just walk around.

[Kishi]

14 minutes ago, Urgan said:

 

Loooooool. At least she didn't tell you to just walk around.

 

Nah, credit where it's due. She at least had the gall to push for HIIT training. At least she knew what that was.

[Teirin]

Oh dear, suggesting more training to you *facepalm*  I understand why but that's funny.  

 

Do you know what your usual fiber intake is like?

[Kishi]

7 minutes ago, Teirin said:

Do you know what your usual fiber intake is like?

 

Used to! I reckon it's probably around 20g per day right now, between veggies and whatever fruits/starches I eat, although the bulk of my fiber comes from veggies.

[Teirin]

I am very much not a doctor, but soluble fiber is supposed to be good for your cholesterol.  Maybe more of that?  Legumes, psyllium, and oats seem like good sources.

[Kishi]

26 minutes ago, Teirin said:

I am very much not a doctor, but soluble fiber is supposed to be good for your cholesterol.  Maybe more of that?  Legumes, psyllium, and oats seem like good sources.

 

You know, I've heard that. And legumes have been downgraded on the Primal list from Bad to Better. Maybe it's time for me to start throwing some of those in, see what happens. Maybe my body will take to 'em.

[Kishi]

So, let's get this thing updated.

 

And you can tell when I'm posting from work versus when I'm at home. I can actually put up some gifs when at home.

 

Friday wound up being a good day for training. I did my forearm headstands and managed to not only pop up but to correct myself while inverted. That was a good thing to be able to do. Good practice. After that, side lever practice, hex bar farmer's walks, and practicing on the bag for a bit.

 

I was hoping I'd get the time to do some rucking, but I could never quite seem to get the time to line up.

 

Saturday, I slept late and didn't go to judo. But that turned out to be okay, because there was a tournament that day and the dojo was empty. I did S&S, strained my left lat a little on swings, but that seems to be better here on Monday.

 

Kali that day was really really good. We went over some of the movement mechanics that the tomahawk guy brought last week. He apparently needed some work and got schooled pretty hard. He was not there this past Saturday, and Manong doubts he'll be back. Sad, but not surprising. Humility's pretty hard to come by in the martial arts. I say that as someone who isn't humble all the time.

 

I went out that night to go watch The Death of Stalin, a dark political comedy that reminds me too much of the present day. It's a film that was very good, but ultimately I don't think is going to foster a dialogue. The Left will say, "See, this is what Trump is like!" and the Right will say, "See, this is what the Left wants!" The long dark conversation about the nature of totalitarianism will not be had for this film.

 

OTOH, though, I got to try out one of the new restaurants I live near now prior to going out, and drank good beer and ate good food. I have no regrets. I measured myself beforehand, and both my weight and waist measurements are down. I measured my gut a few times and the average is now just bit into the 34" mark, which I think is pretty great. Not bad, high carb, not bad at all.

 

Sunday, I went out and hit the gym hard.

 

Incline Push Ups: 1x9

Integrated Mobility: DONE

 

Push Ups: 4x6

Integrated Mobility: DONE

 

Deadlifts:

5x132

3x151

1x170

2x8x189

 

KB Ladders:

Squat-Goblet Superset: 3x1-5x44

 

Tuck Ups: 4x15

Integrated Mobility: DONE

 

Band Pull Aparts

 

Push ups were done smoothly, without any having to pause or catch my breath, and I was able to do them as programmed. Deadlifts were faster with a barbell, and didn't give my hamstring any trouble. Ladder volume was up because I was able to find lighter kettlebells. Tuck ups... not easily done, had to stop and then keep going, but managed to grind through. Banded pull aparts were good.

 

After that was personal training and after that was family D&D. The folks are getting the hang of things, although I think some of what they're doing is accidental brilliance. There was an encounter where we had to fight some giant vultures, and Mom's bard put one to sleep in mid-air, causing it to crash and take damage, which scared it off. A very Bardic move, which I tried to praise her for, but I'm not certain she made the connection that she can and should think sideways about this kind of thing. Or maybe she did, and she'll forget in a month or so when we get together again. Oh well. We tried.

 

Also, I talked to her about my heart stuff, and she said that she's probably the source of my blood woes. My dad's heart attack came out of nowhere as far as his blood numbers were concerned, but Mom apparently maintains in the high 100s to low 200s these days. So, we had fun comparing notes about that.

 

My eating was kind of off the rails this past weekend, but I think the fasting is helping with that. Even as much as I ate, I never got the feeling of being nauseated or sick of food. One other thing that helped is a piece of advice from the IF community to use whey protein to feed muscles in the 'fasting' period. It's technically breaking the fast to do it, but it really helped me in terms of showing lots of strength and being able to recover well and not go entirely off the rails when I ate this weekend.

 

Shoot, I'm not even feeling bad for having eaten some kind of bean most every day of the past few days. So, on the whole, I'm optimistic about how things are going right now.

[Treva]

2 hours ago, Kishi said:

After that was personal training and after that was family D&D. The folks are getting the hang of things, although I think some of what they're doing is accidental brilliance. There was an encounter where we had to fight some giant vultures, and Mom's bard put one to sleep in mid-air, causing it to crash and take damage, which scared it off. A very Bardic move, which I tried to praise her for, but I'm not certain she made the connection that she can and should think sideways about this kind of thing. Or maybe she did, and she'll forget in a month or so when we get together again. Oh well. We tried.

 

Also, I talked to her about my heart stuff, and she said that she's probably the source of my blood woes. My dad's heart attack came out of nowhere as far as his blood numbers were concerned, but Mom apparently maintains in the high 100s to low 200s these days. So, we had fun comparing notes about that.

Oh the D&D stuff sounds hilarious, what fun!  Go bard go?

 

Ah.  That makes a lot of sense.  At least you have a family member to talk to about that?

I was doing a little bit of completely unsolicited looking for you because I remembered a few diet things that may or may not be helpful reading for you.  There's this book that was rec'd to me (https://www.amazon.com/Heal-Your-Heart-Positive-Prescription-ebook/dp/B00PG992UY) by the physician who wrote it, and this highly comprehensive meta analysis paper from a few years ago (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3798927/) on all the different recommended diets and what parts work for what lab values, with a focus on cardiovascular health.  There might be some interesting ideas in there, I'm not in the know on your complete diet program.  

 

2 hours ago, Kishi said:

One other thing that helped is a piece of advice from the IF community to use whey protein to feed muscles in the 'fasting' period. It's technically breaking the fast to do it, but it really helped me in terms of showing lots of strength and being able to recover well and not go entirely off the rails when I ate this weekend.

OooooOOOOooo I am very curious, might you be kind enough to direct me to these resources?  

 

You sound like you're kicking ultra butt on your workout program!!!  It's so nice to hear you having good positive progress on your workout regimen.  

[Urgan]

19 hours ago, Kishi said:

Also, I talked to her about my heart stuff, and she said that she's probably the source of my blood woes. My dad's heart attack came out of nowhere as far as his blood numbers were concerned, but Mom apparently maintains in the high 100s to low 200s these days. So, we had fun comparing notes about that.

 

Good old genetics. If she's maintaining there, then has it been deemed normal for her?

[Kishi]

20 hours ago, Treva said:

Oh the D&D stuff sounds hilarious, what fun!  Go bard go?

 

Oh, indeed.

 

20 hours ago, Treva said:

Ah.  That makes a lot of sense.  At least you have a family member to talk to about that?

I was doing a little bit of completely unsolicited looking for you because I remembered a few diet things that may or may not be helpful reading for you.  There's this book that was rec'd to me (https://www.amazon.com/Heal-Your-Heart-Positive-Prescription-ebook/dp/B00PG992UY) by the physician who wrote it, and this highly comprehensive meta analysis paper from a few years ago (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3798927/) on all the different recommended diets and what parts work for what lab values, with a focus on cardiovascular health.  There might be some interesting ideas in there, I'm not in the know on your complete diet program.

 

Oh, indeed. It's handy.

 

The book looks interesting! I'll definitely give it a look. It looks like it'll be more interesting reading than what I've been doing lately.

 

As far as my complete diet program, I'm basically using my predicted lean body mass to calculate my macros. Right now, it's about 2000 calories per day, made up around the following parameters: roughly 1 gram of protein/pound, 0.2-0.33 grams of fat per pound, with the rest of my calories being made up by carb sources. My foods at this point are mostly Paleo/Primal - lots of lean meats, veggies both raw and cooked, whole eggs, switched to nonfat fermented dairy. I've added legumes for protein and fiber, and I'm aiming to eat a wide variety of them - presently black, pinto, kidney, lentil, and garbanzos. Fiber intake is a little harder to track than it used to be on account of having started eating Chipotle again to help me get some sleep (due to prep time in the kitchen), but I've lately found that I can get two bowls for the price I was paying before and I can really load up on veggies and pico and beans that way. Water is presently about 2L per day or more, and most of my caffeine intake is via chai throughout the day (although I dosed myself with about 200 mg of caffeine prior to Sunday training. That was fun).

 

I gave the paper a look, and though I didn't really get the time to look too in-depth into it, it does look like I'm doing a lot of what they'd say to do in terms of getting the blood numbers back down. I'll have to look into it further to see what's going on there.

 

20 hours ago, Treva said:

OooooOOOOooo I am very curious, might you be kind enough to direct me to these resources?  

 

 

I want to link it here but the work computer won't let me. Um, if you go looking for Ripped Body whey protein articles you should be able to find it. I'll link it here when I get the opportunity.

 

Edit: Opportunity! https://rippedbody.com/bcaa-vs-whey/

 

20 hours ago, Treva said:

You sound like you're kicking ultra butt on your workout program!!!  It's so nice to hear you having good positive progress on your workout regimen.

 

Thanks! Yeah, it feels good to get work done and things feel mostly back to normal.

 

3 hours ago, Urgan said:

Good old genetics. If she's maintaining there, then has it been deemed normal for her?

 

Yeah. Her doc's not worried about it, but like you've observed, her doc's probably got a long trend of data to observe. And if the tests show that I have the not-so-bad LDL, then I imagine it'll help put my doc's concerns to rest.

 

*

 

Monday was a day. We wound up with a couple of players peaceing out for the night, so we worked on building new characters. My new one is a crippled archer, but his dex is off the charts and he's also a really good cook. He also rolled Sex Mania as a psychological quirk, but he's got a high control factor assigned to it because he's also a good person, and he's all about positive and ongoing consent.

 

Anyway, that wound up running late. I got home and stretched, but couldn't get down as early as I wanted to. I wound up coming to work later to make up for it. I'm cool with it.

 

Tonight will be S&S and Karate. Hamstring is feeling really good. It's still feeling kind of tight compared to the left one, but it's enough for me as far as being healed enough to work on. As long as I'm not stupid in my training going forward, I have a good feeling about this.

[Kishi]

Tuesday down and in the bag. Not a whole heck of a lot to say about it - S&S with the 70. It went pretty much according to plan. I did push harder into the swings, but I can't say I had a particularly hard time.

 

Karate was good afterward. Sparring was rough, but those happen from time to time. Psyched myself out of fighting. Not good, but what can you do? Get good or get rekt.

 

The Chipotle near where I stay is proving to be a struggle - they don't seem to understand my orders, and they never quite seem to get that I'm looking for double portions of things. I wound up having to stay up late to cook extra food after dinner, because as deep as the cut's become there was no way I was going to go without food if I didn't have to, and that just defeats the entire purpose of trying to save time.

 

I am tempted by the idea of using the IP as a slow cooker, but that means prep time in the morning, and that's kind of at a premium right now too, so. I dunno. I'll figure it out.

[RisenPhoenix]

On 3/28/2018 at 9:25 AM, Kishi said:

I am tempted by the idea of using the IP as a slow cooker, but that means prep time in the morning, and that's kind of at a premium right now too, so. I dunno. I'll figure it out.

 

Prep it at night.

 

The number of times I've pre-set a crockpot meal (pulled pork or chili or whatever) at night because the morning was going to be insane is innumerable.  Mix everything at night, place in fridge, and toss into the cooking device in the morning.  There's an argument for cooking the food over night, but sometimes I don't want my food cooking for 24+ hours.  It's no different for the most part than if you were marinading things overnight before tossing them into the crock pot.

[Kishi]

4 hours ago, RisenPhoenix said:

 

Prep it at night.

 

The number of times I've pre-set a crockpot meal (pulled pork or chili or whatever) at night because the morning was going to be insane is innumerable.  Mix everything at night, place in fridge, and toss into the cooking device in the morning.  There's an argument for cooking the food over night, but sometimes I don't want my food cooking for 24+ hours.  It's no different for the most part than if you were marinading things overnight before tossing them into the crock pot.

 

So even starches and such like that? I guess I'm kind of worried about burning rice or something, but if I could just throw everything into a Tupperware container the night before, then chuck that shit in the IP in the morning, that wouldn't be bad.

 

*

 

Wednesday went sideways. I had a friend who needed some emotional support, so I elected to be there for her, and while I did get to go do push ups (and achieved progression standards!), I ultimately finished too late for it to be worthwhile to go to dojo.

 

Today was a day for celebrating our unit personnel which I was put in charge of. Weighed and measured myself this morning - weight and gut measurements are up. Body y u do dis.

 

Looking at the original protocol, I noticed that the nutritional advice was given in the context of someone who strength-trains three times per week along hypertrophy protocols. Um. That's not me.

 

Fortunately, though, I've got a small tweak in mind, basically to up the protein and to rebalance the energy macros in favor of a more even split. I've had good results with that before, and it won't necessitate a cut. It does mean upping my fats a bit, but if I get those from unsaturated fats, the research doesn't seem to suggest that it should negatively impact my blood numbers when I go back.

 

Essential Strength and Karate on the docket. Quiet day tomorrow, but Saturday looks like people are trying to get together. Need to know when - may be able to go train, and maybe not.

[RisenPhoenix]

2 minutes ago, Kishi said:

 

So even starches and such like that? I guess I'm kind of worried about burning rice or something, but if I could just throw everything into a Tupperware container the night before, then chuck that shit in the IP in the morning, that wouldn't be bad.

 

I mean, I don't see why not.  If you're just tossing raw ingredients in until they get cooked the following morning, it really shouldn't be an issue.  Presumably you'd end up adding water in the morning if you had rice as a component.  Or just leave it out and cook the rice on its own the following evening.

 

You're over thinking this, man.  Prep food at night, cook in morning, eat following night.

 

Worst case scenario is you're left with one less than ideal meal.  You now have the means that even crappy meals can be easily covered, should they be so terrible you need to order a pizza. (Sayeth the man who once grumbled when a friend married to a lawyer commented that if she screwed up cooking dinner they would just order pizza, and my poor ass at the time couldn't imagine wasting/tossing $10 of bad food by buying a $10 pizza.)

[Urgan]

I'm on Team Keep Rice On Hand. Toss it in after the rest is cooked, boom done. 

[Teirin]

Rice on Hand is a lifestyle.  Seriously.