Some effects of my new food protocol

I have been tracking my weight loss on my new food protocol since early April, over on the right column here. However, I haven't said much about how I'm doing, or feeling otherwise so it's time for an update.

I am now off all my prescription meds. One was for acid reflux (the dosage had even doubled from last summer to last December); another was a beta blocker and my blood pressure is staying lower, and the third was thyroid.

I was very aware I had no stomach distress (nor belching) within 2 weeks of dropping starchy carbs (mostly legumes, pasta and breads) and all sugars from my diet. However, until I recently saw a crass TV ad where the man farts loudly, I hadn't really noticed that I never get gas anymore either. That means my digestive system is processing (and hopefully absorbing) what I eat quite nicely, without having to work hard on non-digestibles.

On the days I start off with my vitamins taken just before breakfast, I have good energy all day, and sleep well through the night. Unfortunately, lately I have been getting busy some mornings and forget. I sure can tell the difference if I have skipped even 1-2 days. I take half a teaspoon or so of a butter-oil / fermented cod liver oil (it's really not too bad, more like swallowing a soft pat of butter, and I wash it down with coffee); the oil is high in natural Vitamins A and D; additionally I take another 1,000 units of Vitamin D with lunch and again with dinner. I also take 1,000 mg Vitamin C at breakfast, and 2 horse-size tabs of calcium citrate with D at breakfast and dinner.

Typical meals for a day start with 2 cups coffee with heavy cream (non ultra-pasteurized), bacon and 2 farm eggs, maybe a side of left-over veggie. A late lunch might be a hamburger patty or 1-2 hard boiled eggs, some homemade plain yogurt and a wedge of a raw milk cheese. Dinner is a portion of meat (lamb, beef, chicken, pork or sometimes trout) that I sauté in cold-pressed coconut oil mixed with organic summer butter, or in bacon fat. I have a small green salad (my tomatoes are just nubbins on the vine so far) dressed with EVOO and raw apple cider vinegar, and a green veggie, depending on what's in the garden. Every 2 weeks or so I may have a small baked sweet potato, with butter of course.

I am told to never let myself get hungry, which leads to popping just anything in my mouth, even if it's wrong. So I always keep a snack available, especially when I leave the house. I keep some good cheese, yogurt and hard boiled eggs in the fridge all the time.

Amazingly, I didn't miss sugar after the first week. Bread was a lot harder! I do eat a small bit of fruit, like berries from my garden, but my endocrinologist wants that kept to a bare minimum until we know more about my thyroid triggers. (Fruit is very high in sugars, same for milk but I can have fermented milk products like yogurt and kefir because the sugars have been converted into lactic acid.) I drink lots of water with fresh lemon, all day long.

I don't eat anything processed nor packaged (except butter and milk which of course come in a 'package'). My skin is healthier-looking, even with my 70-year old wrinkles. I need to walk more; the only exercise I get is gardening and it isn't enough.

I have blood work scheduled July 7th, a complete lipid panel, so I'll know about cholesterol levels. Unfortunately, my doc forgot to order the lipid panel in March just before I started this protocol so I don't have a good starting point. Ten years ago my cholesterol was almost 400.  My doc at the time started me on chloresterol-lowering meds when it was near 400, but I turned out to be allergic to all the meds;  after switching to just butter and EVOO, it dropped to around 220 in less than a year. I doubt it was much lower when I started this, as I had no idea how many bad fats (partially hydrogenated soybean and other vegetable oils, plus trans-fats) were in the fast foods and prepared foods I was eating.

For only a scant three months of eating this way, I must say I feel a lot better. Not 100%. I only wish someone had clued me in about this when I was 50!