Slice of Chaotic Life

The daily life of a celibate middle-aged man.

Archive for the ‘Food’ Category

More excessive Ingressing

Posted by Itlandm on June 23, 2013

Traipsed around from portal to portal for about four hours yesterday, an hour and a half today.  I guess four hours is a bit excessive even for me. Tonight my left foot hurts a little, perhaps it is related. Also, I have been hungry much of the day, getting hungry shorter time after meals than usual.

I suppose it is the human condition for most people, to have a hard time stopping when they are full. But for me this is most pronounced when I am physically active.  Well, perhaps I should eat something less delicious, that would help me stop as soon as the hunger is stilled. I’ve eaten a lot of fruit yogurt lately.

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Mysterious illness – over?

Posted by Itlandm on October 10, 2012

Took a half-hour walk with some short jogging today, and my pulse is within my normal range (and well below normal human range). It came down a little slower after jogging than usual, but  that’s pretty much it.

I also think I may have found out what triggers the sudden and exaggerated bowel activity. It seems to happen a while after a quick carbohydrate meal: A large box of fruit yogurt or two cups of chocolate pudding is sure to trigger it. Judging from the delay I would guess that there is a sugar spike followed by an insulin spike, and the latter is what causes the symptoms. But I may be wrong. It fits the timing though. I can avoid it by walking for half an hour after the meal, as predicted by science.  (Physical activity, even very moderate, prevents the insulin spike: The body simply feeds the excess sugar to the muscles in favor of all other energy sources.)

More intriguingly, the symptoms seem similar to my fat poisonings, or “darkening” as I used to call them before I discovered the trigger. I feel cold from inside, but only like my bones had been stored in a fridge rather than a deep freezer. I shiver, but I don’t shake uncontrollably like someone left outside in a blizzard. My bowels start moving, but they don’t twist like a dying snake. I am overwhelmed by a feeling of malaise that does not let me concentrate, but my intelligence is not reduced to half and I don’t panic (at least so far).  At the end of the attack I am tired, but not suddenly overwhelmed by sleep. And making the room really warm can pretty much eliminate the attack, rather than just reduce the severity.

Well, that would be interesting if my hypothesis was true. Neither fat nor large amounts of sugar? I would become unbearably healthy, I guess. ^_^ Although I seem to be able to ingest lots of sugar if only I portion it out. I can drink about a liter (quarter of a gallon) of Pepsi over the course of the workday, by not drinking more than about a third of a glass at a time, and then stay off until I get the sugar craving again. So I don’t think I risk starvation because of this.

 

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Weight loss with migraine!

Posted by Itlandm on June 9, 2012

Well, yesterday’s migraine was good for something: My weight actually crept below 84 kg this morning. That is rare. I am losing weight quite slowly and irregularly, barely noticeable over the random fluctuations in water weight. Eat a little more salt, and the body retains more water, and the weight seems to go up. So it is changing very slowly. The thinner I get, the hungrier I get too, but losing weight so slowly I hope will not trigger the kind of extreme hunger I had in 2005 only slightly below this weight. But yeah, I’m wearing trousers I have not been able to wear since that year, and before that … 1985 perhaps? No, I don’t throw away clothes if they are whole, thanks for asking. I know that my weight may fluctuate for whatever reason if I live long enough. I keep all my clothes from my heaviest years as well, although it is now over 7 years ago.

Exercised for about an hour. I moved slightly faster than I have done before, since my pulse was low and returned very quickly to low again when I slowed down. It seems it was mostly oxygen-driven today, which means my muscles and liver have taken the opportunity to stock up during my day off. Migraine might shave a little weight off, but it does not stop the muscles from recharging, it seems. Your migraine may vary – I hear some people take days to regain full strength.

 

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Tooth smell

Posted by Itlandm on May 8, 2012

The smell of tooth bacteria, dental plaque, caries, that kind of stuff. Don’t know how it smells? Rub one of your teeth with your finger before you brush in the morning and sniff it. Icky! How do I know? Well, for one thing, I have been shoving the loose tooth back in place when it tried to fall out for two days now. Also, this smell now fills my nose, especially when I swallow, all day since sometime at work. Probably related to the previous problem, but somewhat disturbing in itself.

Probably related to these: A light headache (I would guess the bacteria have crept up in the lower right sinus again) and a feeling of lump or swelling near the top of the throat, also on the right side, probably also courtesy of our bacterial visitors. Luckily it does not seem to impact breathing at all, neither through the nose nor mouth. But quite distracting anyway, especially with my history when it comes to breathing.

On the bright side, it got better after slowly consuming a cup of tea with honey. Mm, honey. Presumably good for your health, recommended by Solomon. Our natural source of fructose. Don’t eat too much of it, says Solomon. I think it was Solomon, it is definitely from one of his books in the Bible. Jonathan, King David’s BFF, also discovered the benefits of honey during protracted battle. Unfortunately he had to die, but for most of us honey is likely to prolong the life.  Besides, it is tasty and filling. And it smells better than teeth.

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Influenza is the new normal

Posted by Itlandm on March 16, 2012

I refer you to my visit to the emergency room a week and a day ago. The doctor concluded that it was the influenza which rages around here at this time of the year, even though I have certainly never heard of anyone having influenza symptoms like that, and even though I have had influenza many times and they never were anything like that. Still, the lady has quite a bit more education and practice with these things than I, so I did not entirely exclude the possibility that she might be right.

She was totally wrong, I think we can safely say by now. Unless influenza lasts for at least 8 days without getting better, worse, or different in any noticeable way.

That said, I have definitely changed in some way from before. I am just not sure whether I changed on that particular day, or earlier, or gradually.

For years and years, my temperature has followed a certain day rhythm: It started at 36C (96.8F) or a little lower in the morning. It increased gradually until around midnight, where it reached or slightly exceeded 37C (98.6F). Well, those days are over: Now it starts at 36 in the morning, rises to 37.2 or 37.3 after work, and falls back to 36.8 at bedtime. So the max temperature is almost the same or perhaps half a Fahrenheit more now, it just falls at another part of the day. What’s up with that?

***

I am definitely stiffer and more achy than I used to be in muscles and joints, and I was already unpleasantly stiff and achy as it was. I assumed this was due to old age. Generally I ignored it, and kept going about my life, including my exercise. The exception was biking, which caused unreasonably much stiffness and ache for so little exercise.

The last few days, I have taken half an hour’s walk after I came home. This fits nicely with the daylight, which now lasts for about that time. My pulse varies from day to day, but only one day (three days ago) was it so high that I decided to go home after barely ten minutes. It was not critical, but 20 beats above normal, so I decided to let my body do whatever it was doing in peace. The day after, the pulse was back to the lower range of what it was before. Next day, in the upper range of the normal. Today, I may well have set a new personal record in  low pulse compared to walking speed. That does not sound like influenza to me, either. I extended the trip to 50 minutes and toward the end got back to more normal pulse. Normal for me, that is.

Something is weird, but I know not what. I think we can write off influenza. The question is, will exercise heal me or kill me? It is all too clear that asking a doctor is utterly pointless. While they do have equipment I don’t, such as the EKG machine, they simply have no experience with treating mutants.  Or whatever I am. Why do I have the pulse of an athlete and the lung capacity of a smoking couch potato? Why do I have high blood sugar but low blood pressure? Why do I become violently ill from eating fat? Why am I usually ridiculously happy unless I have some acute illness at the moment? I don’t think doctors can answer things like that. They have to concentrate on the average person, and I am nothing like that.

Unless something exciting happens again (Light send it doesn’t), I will assume the “influenza” is the new normal, and go back to my 700 calories a day exercise habit. I may also ask my regular doctor whether I can get a prescription for blood sugar measuring equipment now that I have pre-diabetes. It seems a bit absurd to have to wait with checking one’s blood sugar until it is too late.

***

Finally (this is getting too long) I opened the box of fructose today. This hotly debated sugar is sweeter than ordinary sugar, has a low glycemic index (meaning it does not cause a spike in blood sugar) and is the only sugar that is converted efficiently into fat.  That may sound like a bad idea, but remember that I cannot eat fat except just a small taste without falling ill. I do not know whether the effects come from the fat in the bloodstream or in the digestive tract. If I gradually start taking more fructose, I should find out, since it is sugar while in my stomach but is slowly converted to fat in the liver. I habitually warn against fructose, for that exact reason. But fat is not my problem. Blood sugar is.

See, most type II diabetics are fat, to put it bluntly. In a few it is not visible, they contain it inwardly. But in my case, it seems likely that my pre-diabetes comes from eating large amounts of carbs, flooding the body with sugar faster than it can get used or stored. And I intend to continue that way, because eating fat makes me horribly sick. But if I can replace some of my other carbs with fructose, I may maintain my weight (and thus avoid constant hunger and reduced metabolism) but with lower blood sugar.

 

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