Health Thread

[BF004]

Almost everyone i know that has gone on Keto has lost a lot of weight and then regained most of it when they are off the diet.

Any diet.

My wife, who works in bariatric surgery and does weight management and tobacco cessation counseling, said something to me once like 10 years ago that always stuck. And sure;y tells all her patients. But just 'So what is your plan after the diet?'. Always made a lot of sense to me, more about making lifestyle changes. Small little repetitive permanent changes, changing habits.

I am by no means thin and in shape, but I also don't work too hard at it. I mostly try to avoid diets.

However I've done keto before a few times, just to do it, sometimes I just feel like I could use a good 2 week cleanse.


Intermittent fasting is my jam though, just normally, maybe 2-3 days a week I'll hit a good 14-18 hours without trying. I just feel better when I basically skip breakfast, feel like I have a clearer mind for work. Hard though to do it more when making breakfast for 3 little kids and they don't finish stuff, and to not just grab a quick bite or two or if I make extra pancakes/waffles or whatever. But when I want to get back to my normal weight if I'm going in the wrong direction, I'll probably do it more like 5-6 times a week, can usually cut 5 lbs in 2 weeks just doing that and nothing else.

But anyone thinking about fasting, it takes a little practice, but your body will get used to it. So just keep kind of stretching that breakfast time to 9/10 am +, maybe having something real small. I remember it being tough in the beginning. Probably takes a good month of practicing till you get used to it, then it's absolutely nothing once you got it. Even if you don't do it for weeks or months, I find I can just randomly get back into it whenever I want and I honestly don't even notice I missed breakfast. Just get to enjoy that autophagy.


And I feel like fasting is kind of a cheat code for those doing keto. First time on keto, we actually got the urine strips so we could test our ketone levels. Little cheats I feel like could knock you out of ketosis for a day or two. But when you throw in fasting, you can really almost break for a day, have like 5-6 beers (light beers aren't actually horrible, like 3 grams per), then with a fast, you are immediately back in it the next day. Just as long a you don't like have like 5-6 IPAs and a piece of cake or something, lol.

[Labrev]

I am an "ectomorph" to the N'th degree; this body just refuses to put on extra weight, good or bad -- it is a gift and a curse.

I do a bit of everything. I lift somewhat. I don't care about "getting big" anymore and I am stronger than I look but upkeep is necessary, and it helps me stay toned. I do some cardio because it kicks my ass more than anything else -- breathing hard, working up a sweat, etc. I don't find it very pleasurable, but it wakes me up, and alleviates my mood disorders quite effectively (anxiety/depression).

I have been getting more and more into flexibility stuff, though, namely Yoga. Pilates is good too. I am kind of weird in that in some areas I am pretty flexible but in other areas I am very tight. But I feel great afterward, largely in the same ways I feel good after lifting/cardio but for far less work. That's more my thing vis-a-vis health.

[BF004]

Welp, got ketones in my pee again

Been in ketosis for a few days now, now I’ll hit a few good fasts and let some autophagy do it’s thang.

[wallyuwl]

Had Lasik yesterday. So far I am seeing 20/20 based on my day after optometrist appointment this morning. He said everything looks good. Vision will keep getting better as it heals. Lots of blood vessels broke on my left eye so really red (some in right) because the suction cup apparatus they use didn't hold well in that eye (something with my pupil apparently) and the surgeon had to redo it 5 or 6 times until it stuck. Vessels should heal in a couple weeks, it is like the eye is bruised is how it was described. Some halo effects but those usually go away in a couple weeks to a month.

Can't lift anything over 40 pounds or get eyes wet for a week. Can't rub eyes for a month.

[NCF]

Had Lasik yesterday. So far I am seeing 20/20 based on my day after optometrist appointment this morning. He said everything looks good. Vision will keep getting better as it heals. Lots of blood vessels broke on my left eye so really red (some in right) because the suction cup apparatus they use didn't hold well in that eye (something with my pupil apparently) and the surgeon had to redo it 5 or 6 times until it stuck. Vessels should heal in a couple weeks, it is like the eye is bruised is how it was described. Some halo effects but those usually go away in a couple weeks to a month.

Can't lift anything over 40 pounds or get eyes wet for a week. Can't rub eyes for a month.

I don’t know how bad your vision was but this truly the definition of magic surgery. I had it done almost 15 years ago. My vision has regressed some, but that is common. It’s still far better than my vision was uncorrected before surgery.

[wallyuwl]

Had Lasik yesterday. So far I am seeing 20/20 based on my day after optometrist appointment this morning. He said everything looks good. Vision will keep getting better as it heals. Lots of blood vessels broke on my left eye so really red (some in right) because the suction cup apparatus they use didn't hold well in that eye (something with my pupil apparently) and the surgeon had to redo it 5 or 6 times until it stuck. Vessels should heal in a couple weeks, it is like the eye is bruised is how it was described. Some halo effects but those usually go away in a couple weeks to a month.

Can't lift anything over 40 pounds or get eyes wet for a week. Can't rub eyes for a month.

I don’t know how bad your vision was but this truly the definition of magic surgery. I had it done almost 15 years ago. My vision has regressed some, but that is common. It’s still far better than my vision was uncorrected before surgery.

Both eyes were around -4.25. A little degradation but fairly consistent over the last decade. Started at -1.25 in middle school (made sense why I couldn't hit a baseball anymore).

I was stupid and without even thinking about it rubbed my eyes yesterday. Habit.
The rest of the day the left eye seemed irritated a little more than prior, but things seem fine this morning. Trying to keep them closed still as much as possible, within reason.

If I need a touch up at some point it is half price. Free for the first year or two, forget exactly how long.

[NCF]

I was stupid and without even thinking about it rubbed my eyes yesterday. Habit.

Throw some sunglasses on. That will help remind you and catch yourself in the act.

[wallyuwl]

I was stupid and without even thinking about it rubbed my eyes yesterday. Habit.

Throw some sunglasses on. That will help remind you and catch yourself in the act.

I had them on, then took them off to rub my eyes. Lol. Just habit and didn't catch myself. I think everything is fine, though. Things feel pretty good today. A halo effect around lights but that is common and may take up to a month to go away.

[Cdragon]

Almost everyone i know that has gone on Keto has lost a lot of weight and then regained most of it when they are off the diet.

Any diet.

My wife, who works in bariatric surgery and does weight management and tobacco cessation counseling, said something to me once like 10 years ago that always stuck. And sure;y tells all her patients. But just 'So what is your plan after the diet?'. Always made a lot of sense to me, more about making lifestyle changes. Small little repetitive permanent changes, changing habits.

I am by no means thin and in shape, but I also don't work too hard at it. I mostly try to avoid diets.

However I've done keto before a few times, just to do it, sometimes I just feel like I could use a good 2 week cleanse.


Intermittent fasting is my jam though, just normally, maybe 2-3 days a week I'll hit a good 14-18 hours without trying. I just feel better when I basically skip breakfast, feel like I have a clearer mind for work. Hard though to do it more when making breakfast for 3 little kids and they don't finish stuff, and to not just grab a quick bite or two or if I make extra pancakes/waffles or whatever. But when I want to get back to my normal weight if I'm going in the wrong direction, I'll probably do it more like 5-6 times a week, can usually cut 5 lbs in 2 weeks just doing that and nothing else.

But anyone thinking about fasting, it takes a little practice, but your body will get used to it. So just keep kind of stretching that breakfast time to 9/10 am +, maybe having something real small. I remember it being tough in the beginning. Probably takes a good month of practicing till you get used to it, then it's absolutely nothing once you got it. Even if you don't do it for weeks or months, I find I can just randomly get back into it whenever I want and I honestly don't even notice I missed breakfast. Just get to enjoy that autophagy.


And I feel like fasting is kind of a cheat code for those doing keto. First time on keto, we actually got the urine strips so we could test our ketone levels. Little cheats I feel like could knock you out of ketosis for a day or two. But when you throw in fasting, you can really almost break for a day, have like 5-6 beers (light beers aren't actually horrible, like 3 grams per), then with a fast, you are immediately back in it the next day. Just as long a you don't like have like 5-6 IPAs and a piece of cake or something, lol.

Yeah, I think anytime you call it a diet you are setting yourself up for failure since nobody stays on a diet. They hit their goal and go right back to the stuff that ruined them in the first place. Or more often they just fail out right. But if it is a lifestyle, that's something you can sustain.

Intermittent fasting is the big gun. I try to throw in a day where I actually eat a breakfast, lunch, and dinner just to mix it up and not get my body locked into any pattern. But it just seems like I'm always at 16 hrs and I usually figure I might as well wait. I'm starting to throw in some carbs now and then to keep from getting Carb intolerant.

Trying to get more organic stuff into the diet. Hopefully the autophagy will tear down the kidneys and set them up for a rebuild.

60 pounds down and counting.

[APB]

I was stupid and without even thinking about it rubbed my eyes yesterday. Habit.

Throw some sunglasses on. That will help remind you and catch yourself in the act.

I had them on, then took them off to rub my eyes. Lol. Just habit and didn't catch myself. I think everything is fine, though. Things feel pretty good today. A halo effect around lights but that is common and may take up to a month to go away.

Not to get too personal, but did insurance cover any of the costs? Percentage?

[NCF]

Throw some sunglasses on. That will help remind you and catch yourself in the act.

I had them on, then took them off to rub my eyes. Lol. Just habit and didn't catch myself. I think everything is fine, though. Things feel pretty good today. A halo effect around lights but that is common and may take up to a month to go away.

Not to get too personal, but did insurance cover any of the costs? Percentage?

It did not for me, but was allowed for flexible spending benefits.

[wallyuwl]

Not to get too personal, but did insurance cover any of the costs? Percentage?

Kind of. It was $2020 per eye (get it, 20/20). My eye insurance covers 15% off regular price, or 5% off promotional price. Some places will advertise a price but it is a promotional price. This was their regular price. But, the eye place had a $700 discount (total, not per eye) if you brought in a Toys for Tots toy from like mid Nov to mid Dec (not to be combined with insurance). So it was a little cheaper to bring in a toy and a good cause.

[Cdragon]

Closing in on 80lbs lost in 5 and a 1/2 months. I'm in HS territory now. Never could have imagined getting this far this fast.

[Waldo]

Pictures say 1000 words. This one is about a month old.



It is my history in myfitnesspal, going back to my start date of 9/11/11. There are some data gaps, but I've been at it, more or less, for >10 years. Keeping it off is a neverending challenge. I've also been strength training and doing cardio through most of that time to some degree, and have gained a good bit of muscle mass (that low point in 2017, right in the middle of the bottom chart, is the leanest I've ever been, not the lighter weights of 2011 or 2013, though 2013 was close). I'm a straight up calorie counter using myfitnesspal; it works like a charm.

Right now I'm about the same weight as I was when I made this collage, as I took a diet break. I'm getting to the leanness zone where breaks are needed for hormone control. Restarting an undulating diet (1" off the waist (abt 3 wks) followed by a weeklong diet break, rinse repeat). Plan is to rock a solid 6 pack around the time its not too cold to jump in the neighborhood pool with the kids (first couple weeks parents all just sit around and drink beer, talk about how crazy the kids are), so around late May. I've been here before and know the numbers I need to hit on the tape measure (tape around the waist is the way to track progress, not the scale), even though its been a while.

Both big data breaks in my history are when we had kids. That first year just didn't go good for dad's fitness.

I've been running since late 2011, 2 times a week typically, but there are some breaks, and I'm not by any means a tryhard runner. I enjoy an easy pace (and really enjoy getting super baked first, lol) and don't go real far. But I do it. But I've had injuries, and don't like running in winter.

I've gone through 3 distinct strength training phases; heavy calisthenics at home (11-15), weights in the work gym (16-18), weights/calisthenics in the home gym (19-present). The gov't shutdown of '19 is when I decided to start investing in the home gym, been adding since, though I'm finishing a pretty big spending blitz to "finish it off." Last step will be when I reach my ab goal, replace my garbo barbel with a new Rogue Ohio bar.

Some food for thought:

We are designed to gain weight at a slow and steady surplus. Why? Because food scarcity at times has been a thing for all of human history. Before refrigeration, people naturally dieted in the winter. Its just how we are programmed biologically. And that's ok. We just need to recreate the periodic scarcity. It really is no big deal.

I think one of the biggest mistakes people losing weight make is the belief that at the end of the rainbow is this steady maintaining state bound by guardrails and good habits. This is the B side to the thinking "I'm never going to have to do this again". Plan to diet regularly. Its ok. Dieting sucks when you're spending many months doing it, esp as you're figuring it out and worried it isn't working. When its old hat like riding a bike for a couple months, its pretty easy and doesn't take much motivation; it just has to be part of the plan.

[wallyuwl]

Found a great diet. Norovirus. No need for a 30 day cleanse, this is a 10 hour cleanse of just about anything in the digestive system. Started to feel queasy early yesterday afternoon and it was in full force by about 7:00. The next five hours after were not fun. About 80-85% today, mostly just a little tired and weak. Slowly adding back easily digestible foods.

[Waldo]

Found a great diet. Norovirus. No need for a 30 day cleanse, this is a 10 hour cleanse of just about anything in the digestive system. Started to feel queasy early yesterday afternoon and it was in full force by about 7:00. The next five hours after were not fun. About 80-85% today, mostly just a little tired and weak. Slowly adding back easily digestible foods.

I do believe I am just coming off of that, or something of the sort. 4 days straight of digestive system cleansing over the weekend, "eating" only limited amounts of soup and ice cream.

[BF004]

[wallyuwl]

About an hour after first feeling not great Monday I had some potato soup, made it much worse. Probably will do some chicken rice today and maybe some English muffin with peanut butter. Feel pretty good right now; energy mostly back even.

[wallyuwl]

I might give up the electric shaver and try this. Best commercial since... maybe ever.

https://www.jeremysrazors.com/

[NCF]

I might give up the electric shaver and try this. Best commercial since... maybe ever.

https://www.jeremysrazors.com/

I enjoyed it.