Fat, Dumb, and Happy: Day 4

After my usual infusion of coffee and cream as my breakfast, I didn’t eat until after 3pm – I wasn’t hungry. Yeah, I know, there’s plenty of people who say you should do this but then there’s this quote: The biggest liar is ‘they say’. I tend to use a definition of Zen as my dietary advice.

If you know anything about Zen, it has a sense of humor about itself. There are myriad stories in the literature that tell what Zen masters say when people ask: what is Zen? The answer to the question I use as my dietary advice is: “When hungry, eat. When tired, sleep.”

Whether or not this is good diet advice *or* a good answer to ‘what is Zen?’ I truly don’t know.

Anywho, I had another one of those roast beef and cheese rollups for lunch and as usually happens at the beginning in ketosis is afterward I get a feeling of heaviness. It’s not debilitating, but it is certainly noticeable. I also always notice stomach rumbling way down low – the type that usually comes before a sudden dash to the bathroom – but it almost never comes to that.

I imagine the carb-loving gut bacteria, getting notice from the stomach that a meal is coming, suddenly gets the meal it doesn’t want and riots: “We demand carbs!” They picket and protest and overturn cars and set trash cans on fire (in my overactive imagination), but all I hear is an ominous rumbling that goes away after a time. Perhaps they sign petitions that get sent to my brain via the vagus nerve that connects the digestive system to the brain that say: ‘tell him he wants pizza!’ or something like that.

Meanwhile, the other fat and protein-loving gut bacteria see their standard of living go up, buy houses, raise kids, and slowly but surely watch the carb-lovers numbers diminish. More room for *their* kids. I’m sure they don’t mind – and neither do I.

I’m interested in what’s really going on down there in the trillions of bacteria that not only digest my food but might also affect my mood. I read that 90% of us is not ‘us’, but rather the bacteria that coexist with us. One scientist I believe referred to humans as hotels for other organisms.

Your hand sanitizer is useless.

7:20pm

Just got home and took my stats – the few things I’m monitoring. Ketosis? Yep – the test strip was very dark. Weight? 219.2 – first time I cracked 220 in a month – not that I stayed there all that long at any time this year, however.

What I ate for dinner sounds odd – but I always eat odd. I’ve been really digging this drinkable plain yogurt from grass-fed cows. It won some award for taste – and I don’t doubt it a bit. I had the last out of the bottle – about a cup with 4 drops of the EZ_Sweetz. That was great, but the problem is the bottle: there’s more in there – you just can’t get it out. I add some water, more sweetener and shake. Another glass – not as thick – but just as good,

I saw 2 avocados looking a bit aged so I opened them, scooped out the contents in a bowl and hit with about 10 dashes of Tabasco sauce. This I ate on some pork rinds. After that, 2 glasses of almond milk with more sweetener.

I was thirsty – more so than usual – perhaps I lost too much water?

Not to long after the ominous rumbling in the stomach began – borborygmi for those of you who are fond of obscure words. This was upper – not lower. Nothing will come of it –  more kvetching by my digestive system that didn’t get to eat the donut lying in plain sight when I got home.

Still thirsty, I drank a few cups of water. I doubt the scale will be as low tomorrow as it is now as I imagine at the end of day 3 it is busy retooling for what it expects will be at least a while in this carb-deprived state. It held out hopes I’d stop this damn foolery earlier – now it’s buckling down for the long haul.

Also – right before bed I had 2 small grass-fed burgers with cheese and low carb ketchup. Perhaps I was hungry or perhaps this was to blunt the appearance of a fresh, crunchy baguette on the counter when my wife and kids arrived home. The eyes told the brain to send a message via the vagus nerve to the stomach about the baguette. In turn, the message was sent back: “Get us some of that!”.

Didn’t happen – this time. I even cut some for the kid.

Friday, March 14, 2014 – 221.4

As expected, the weight popped up a bit. It was expected. It’s OK. This isn’t just about the scale – it’s about how I feel – and I do feel better psychologically. There might be more to this than just the types of things psychotherapists deal in – have you happen to read ‘Grain Brain’ yet? I hope to discuss this book soon, though my haphazard approach to this narrative might mean I don’t get to it. You might want to check it out.