Week #3 of The Hormone Diet Exercise Prescription (a few days late)

I kept up the exercise program through the day after Christmas.  Then, a trip to Iowa for my family Christmas kept me away from the gym for a few days.  I also experienced a flare in my arthritis on the last day of the trip.  Whether it was from not exercising, the foods I ate, or forgetting to bring my arthritis medications along, I'm not sure.  Probably the combination wasn't good.  I've decided to make today my "rest" day, where I only do some gentle exercise like a slow walk, then start over on Day 1 tomorrow.

Week 3 - no weight loss, but I did measure a 1/4" reduction in my waist measurement.  My shirt fit looser than it did in Week 2.  As I said, the joint pain was minimal after 3 weeks, although it came back in force after taking 3 days off.  I've been feeling very strong and healthy.  Getting a massage helped the soreness that had been developing in my hips and low back.  I'm enjoying the workouts, too.  Although I still can't figure out how to do a lot of the exercises with the ball without worrying about falling off of it.  I guess just learning to balance is good exercise, too.

The Hormone Diet Exercise Prescription - Checking In - Week #2

I finished my second week of the Exercise Prescription:  3 days of strength, 2 cardio with intervals, and one day of yoga.  I've been doing my exercises first thing in the morning, which keeps me from being "too tired" or "too busy" to do them at the end of the day.  However, I sometimes feel like I need more exercise at the end of the day.  I'm considering adding in a short walk at the end of the day to help me relax for the evening.  

Weight - down 0.2 pounds

Waist and hips still measure the same

% body fat is down

% body muscle is up

I think my posture looks better, and I'm feeling a little stronger.  I'm feeling a little sore, too.  I've scheduled a massage for my sore muscles next week.  My weight was actually down another 1/2 pounds halfway through the week.  I think my episode with the low blood sugar from the Bulletproof Coffee made me overeat that day.  

After making my list yesterday of the "don't eat" foods, I've realized that, although I'm doing pretty well, I am still eating a few things I shouldn't.  We've slacked off on getting higher quality, grass-fed, antibiotic-free meat, and have gone to whatever Sam's Club is selling.  This is due both to budget limitations and time limitations, but I am resolving to make the drive to the store that sells the healthy meat from now on.  

Grass-fed meat is preferable because 

1)  It is lower in calories

2)  It has more healthy fats

3)  It has more conjugated linoleic acid (that is supposed to be good for your heart)

4)  It has more antioxidants (Vitamin E)

(Source:  Mayo Clinic)

Week 1                                                                     Week 2

Foods to Avoid - Various Resources

As I mentioned, I've been reading The Hormone Diet.  I've also recently read Meals that Heal Inflammation and The Immune System Recovery Plan.  I've glanced through dietary recommendations for The Virgin Diet, The Bulletproof Diet and Paleo Diet.

All of the above eating plans are purported to be more natural and less toxic that the Standard American Diet (SAD).  They are written as lifestyle changes, not as temporary weight loss recommendations.

Below is a chart comparing their "don't eat" lists.  The results are surprisingly (or maybe not surprisingly) similar.  They also include most of the foods a lot of people eat daily.  The biggest differences appear to be in the amount of grains and starchy vegetables recommended.  The Paleo Diet does not allow any, while other diets allow them entirely or in moderation.

In the near future, I'll post a list of foods that are recommended as 'good' by these various sources.

I have been primarily following the Meals that Heal Inflammation recommendations.

Food	Hormone	Inflammation	Immune	Virgin	Paleo	Bulletproof
Processed meats	Avoid 100%	Harmful	Avoid	Avoid	Not allowed	Avoid
White flour	Avoid  80%	Harmful	Avoid	Avoid	Not allowed	Avoid
Gluten grains		Harmful	Avoid	Avoid	Not allowed	Avoid
White rice	Avoid 80%	Caution			Not allowed	Caution
Other grains		Some good/some caution			Not allowed	Rices/quinoa/oats are caution foods
Sugar	Avoid 80%	Harmful	Avoid	Avoid	Not allowed	Avoid
Potatoes	Avoid 80%	Caution			Not allowed	Caution
Trans fats	Avoid 100%	Harmful	Avoid	Avoid	Not allowed	Avoid
Vegetable oils	Avoid 100%	Harmful			Not allowed	Avoid
Peanuts	Avoid unless organic and toxin free	Harmful	Avoid		Not allowed	Avoid
High fructose corn syrup	Avoid 100%	Harmful	Avoid	Avoid	Not allowed	Avoid
Artificial sweeteners	Avoid 100%	Harmful		Avoid	Not allowed	Avoid
High-mercury fish (tuna, shark, sole)	Avoid 80%	Harmful		Avoid		Caution
Farmed salmon	Avoid 100%	Caution		Avoid		Caution
Artificial colors, preservatives, sulfites, nitrites	Avoid 100%	Harmful	Avoid	Avoid	Not allowed	Avoid
Dried fruit	Avoid unless eaten with protein					Caution
Non-organic meat/meat from corn-fed animals	Avoid as much as possible	Harmful - prefer grass fed organic	Avoid	Avoid		Caution
Non-organic coffee	Avoid 80% only drink coffee before noon	Harmful – freshly ground organic is caution	Avoid	Avoid	Mixed - caution	Avoid
Dairy		Conventional dairy – harmful; Organic - caution	Avoid/may reintroduce	Avoid/may reintroduce	Not allowed	Avoid – except butter
Soy		Harmful	Avoid/may reintroduce non-GMO	Avoid/may reintroduce	Not allowed	Avoid
Corn		Caution	Avoid/may reintroduce organic corn	Avoid/may reintroduce	Not allowed	Caution – avoid if not fresh on the cob
Eggs		Organic-good conventional - caution	Avoid/may reintroduce organic	Avoid/may reintroduce	Allowed	Avoid conventional; pastured is good
Shellfish		Caution	Avoid/may reintroduce		Allowed	Caution
Nightshade vegetables (potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant)		Caution	Avoid/may reintroduce	Avoid/may reintroduce	No potatoes; rest are allowed	Caution
Beans/legumes		Mixed			Not allowed	Caution
Alcohol		Wine/saki caution, limit; others are harmful	Avoid	Wine okay in moderation	Not allowed	Caution

Revisiting the Bulletproof Coffee Experiment Once More --What went wrong?

The experiment:

Drink Bulletproof Coffee for breakfast - nothing else.  Eat a regular lunch and dinner.

Bulletproof Coffee contains fats (butter and MCT oils) that are purportedly healthy and help you improve your metabolism.

The theory (in brief):

By consuming fats and not eating carbohydrates or proteins, your body will utilize stored energy from fat for fuel.

According to what I've read about Medium Chain Triglycerides, the MCT oils cause the pancreas to produce insulin, lowering blood glucose.  The liver then should respond by breaking down stored glycogen to glucose, maintaining the blood glucose levels within a normal range.

So, what went wrong?  Why didn't my body compensate for the lack of nutrition by creating glucose?

I've done some research, and the answer I've come up with is:  I don't know.

Possible answers:

1)  My body, although healthier now that it has been in the past, is still suffering the effects of years of the SAD (Standard American Diet) and my hormones may be imbalanced and not working altogether the way they should.

2)  Everyone is different genetically, and what works for one person may not work for another.

3)  Women are biologically less likely to benefit from fasting.  (Mixed results in the searches I've done here).

4)  I have been essentially caffeine-free for several months.  The addition of significant amounts of caffeine caused a signal to my adrenal glands that I needed adrenaline (a stress response).  If my adrenal glands are lacking, due to adrenal fatigue and stress, they were unable to produce sufficient amounts of adrenaline to raise the blood sugar, resulting in hypoglycemia.


I suspect is may be a combination of health and heredity.  In any case, it will be a long time before I want to try this experiment again.

My husband, on the other hand, seems to be doing okay with the plan, although he does still get hungry by lunch time.  He has been drinking coffee after I quit coffee, though, so there may be some differences there.

Bulletproof Coffee - Day #3 - Yep, blood sugar crashes

After yesterday, I decided to actually measure my blood sugar before and after Bulletproof Coffee.

Upon rising, my blood sugar was 119.  After measuring the glucose, I drank my coffee and did 1 hour of yoga.  I was lightheaded and sweaty after yoga.  I had my husband measure my blood sugar then, and it was 76.  This means that the coffee mixture dropped my blood glucose levels by 43 points in 2 hours.

My symptoms today were not as severe as they were yesterday.  76 is still considered in the "normal" range for fasting blood sugar. 70 is the threshold for low blood sugar.

However, I suspect that my levels would have continued to drop had I waited until noon to eat, as is the recommendation with the Bulletproof Coffee.  I know that with my levels that low, I would not be feeling the wonderful, energetic, healthy feeling that was promised with this eating plan.

So, my conclusion for me:  Bulletproof Coffee - NO.

Now, yesterday, in my searches regarding this coffee mixture, I found a recipe for "Better than Bulletproof Coffee."  It adds some natural sugar to the mix, and uses cream and coconut oil instead of butter and MCT oils.  It also adds gelatin, but I'm not sure why.

Here's the crux though:

"Now, here’s the most important part of my recipe—drink your coffee along with some food!Granted, this coffee is at least a much more balanced beverage than the original “bulletproof” coffee, but it ain’t no meal, honey. Eat. The food. Your metabolism will thank you."

Tomorrow, I am going back to having my breakfast smoothies.  

Bulletproof Coffee Day 2 - Crash and Burn!

I got up at 7:30, drank my coffee and then went to work out around 8:30.  By 9:30, my hands were shaking, and my body was getting kind of lightheaded and hot.  Signs of low blood sugar.  I ate an apple and some almonds, and am starting to feel better.  It appears that my body needs some food in the morning, at least if I'm going to exercise.  Tomorrow, I'm going to have my husband test my blood sugar levels to see how this coffee is affecting me.  Right now, I feel like I probably am going to give this experiment a thumbs down (for me, at least).

In an internet search this morning, I found several blogs that were critical of the Bulletproof Coffee breakfast.

Butter Believer claims that having only fats for breakfast, even healthy fats, is toxic, pulling endotoxins out of the intestines and stressing the liver.  This blog also claims that eating fats without other foods is "a recipe for disaster," because it causes a major stress reaction.

In a blog about Intermittent Fasting, which is the point of the Bulletproof Coffee for breakfast plan, there is a warning that it can cause hypoglycemic reactions.  This blog notes again that letting your blood sugar get super low is stressful to the body.  This blog notes that some people can do this, while others cannot.

So, I'm going to give this one more day, but I am thinking my body may be one that is not prepared at this point to do the Bulletproof Coffee plan.

On the other hand, one thing I have learned is that, even though I usually have a bad reaction to dairy products, it appears that grass-fed butter does not cause digestive issues!!

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I found another article that focused on the sex-specific effects of intermittent fasting.  Looking at the available research, it appears that there may be much less benefit and much more risk involved for women than for men.  While men (and male rats) tended to improve their health indicators, women (and female rats) tended to have worse glucose tolerance, and a stress response that affected sleep and other behaviors.  This author's opinion is that women need to be cautious when attempting this type of diet.

Interval workouts - Outdoors

(Not a picture of me)

My Hormone Diet Exercise Prescription calls for the cardio workouts to be intervals (alternating high and low intensity).  Last week, the weather was awful, and I did my cardio in the gym, where I could just set the exercise bike or treadmill on the "interval" setting and go.  Today the sun was out, and I wanted to walk outdoors.  I needed to find a way to set the pace and time the intervals without having to use a stopwatch or look at a clock every few minutes.

I am overweight and have arthritis in my knees, so alternating running and walking isn't an option.

Thanks to Google, I found a solution.  A 30-minute interval walking workout I could download for $2.24 (on sale from the regular price of $2.99).  I chose the 30-minute basic intervals, but they also have a 20-minute basic, a 20-min supercharged, a 30-min supercharged and a 45-min basic workout.  Maybe when I get good, I'll upgrade to the supercharged one.

The file is an mp3.  It took 45 minutes to download to my phone, and I've had a hard time trying to figure out how to download it to my computer as a back-up.  The website is really slow, and I'm not sure why.  But, I did get it to work, and stuck in my headphones and went for my walk.

There is a woman's voice telling you what pace to go at, counting down the time, and giving encouraging advice.  The music is non-offensive and sets a good rhythm to keep you moving at the right pace.  The 30 minutes went by fast, and I felt like I was working pretty hard.  My knees and ankles were only a little bit sore, so I don't think I am going to hurt myself with this workout.

If you want to check these out, they are available at the Rodale Store.  Rodale is the publisher of several fitness-related magazines.

For people who don't need music to set the pace, I also found several free Android apps that would just give you a notification at intervals, so you would be able to change up your workout.  Some even let you mix in your own music.  I wasn't that ambitious, I just wanted to click and go.

More about Bulletproof Coffee ....MCT oils

Today was Day #1 of Bulletproof Coffee for breakfast.  The recipe:  2 cups Upgraded Coffee, 2 tbsp grass-fed butter and up to 2 tbsp of Upgraded MCT Oils. Blend together and serve.   I started the morning with only 1 tbsp of MCT oils, but went ahead with the full 2 tbsp of butter.

Flavor:  I'm used to sugar in my coffee..this was a little bitter, but not awful.  I went ahead and added a tbsp of unsweetened cocoa to mine to make an Upgraded Mocha.  Tomorrow I might try adding vanilla for a sugar-free "sweetener."  It didn't taste oily or greasy, like I thought it might.  The "texture" is similar to having a little bit of cream in your coffee.

My husband, the coffee "snob" said it was good.  He didn't want chocolate in his.   He thinks the coffee tasted creamy and it was full-bodied.  He says the coffee is as good as any he's tried.  While he's still trying to wrap his head around the idea of butter in his coffee, he says the taste was not in the least offensive.

I decided to try this Bulletproof Coffee thing after listening to the inventor's talk on The Gluten Summit.  Today, I did a little research on MCT Oils to see why it is they are included in this recipe.

MCT oil (Medium Chain Triglycerides) are a type of dietary fat that has been found to have a number of health benefits.  Here is a summary of what I found out from the Nutrition Review article:

1.  MCTs help lower blood glucose.
2.  MCTs help increase metabolism.
3.  MCTs help control appetite.
4.  MCTs may help reduce the incidence of autoimmune disease.
5.  MCTs help provide more energy.
6.  MCTs act as antioxidants, possibly reducing the risk of atherosclerosis.
7.  MCTs can help rebuild muscle after workouts.
8.  MCTs have fewer calories than other fats.

Besides this upgraded MCT oil that I bought, you can get MCTs from butter and from coconut oil.  This Upgraded MCT oil is supposed to be six times more concentrated in MCTs than coconut oil.

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Quick update:  my husband is diabetic.  He checked his blood sugar before and after the coffee.  His blood glucose dropped 10 points!  Coffee with cream usually raises it.

I do not know if the effect would be the same for someone who is not diabetic.   The inventor of this recipe claims it will prevent the sugar lows, so perhaps the effect is more one of stabilizing versus just lowering.  I did get hungry after 4 hours and a 30 minute workout, but I don't think that would be unusual.