I Can't Believe My Eyes

     Had a very risky moment with my mom today. She tried walking out the front door to go find her brother (me) down the street in her house. Yes, I know that sentence doesn't make sense, but that is what sundowners is all about. I talked her out of it, and changed the subject to going to a movie next week. We are going to see Abominable. I have to pick movies that are family and actually kid friendly. The will entertain her and make her smile. I've been giving her MCT oil in the morning and I'm thinking about switching it up to evening so that she can get some brain stimulus from it. What is MCT oil you ask. Well its basically coconut oil that has been broken down a little more so that it can be easily converted to ketones. Ketones are a great source of brain food, one of the many reasons a ketogenic diet is great for your brain health. Before you start, I don't have my mom on a ketogenic diet, I have her on a keto like diet. Moderate carbs, no sugars, whole foods, moderate healthy fats, and moderate protein. She is taking to it rather well, and I have seen some cognitive improvement, but there are still lapses. She has eaten a carb/sugar heavy diet for a great portion of her life, so there is a lot to repair. Do I think it will repair everything? No, I do not, but I do believe it will help relieve some of the confusion that she goes through and minimize the sundowners. For some reason her doctor won't give her medication to treat her dementia, so I'm going the healthy food route, and giving her some relief.

     Here is an example of her cognitive improvement. I took her for her hair appointment today. While she was there, she recognized all the woman that took care of her, and asked them question about their kids. Not just how is your kid doing, but how is your daughter, and how is your son, and is he still working at that job. She had definitive recognition, which I think is outstanding. She is there, she is just locked behind a door that now has a window in it. I don't think she will ever recognize who I am ever again. I am lost to her, but she is much calmer and the violent episodes that she was prone to have stopped. She still has some feisty moments, but she doesn't get violent anymore.

     On a different subject. I got a good look at myself in a mirror today. I don't really look at myself, which is why pictures are so jarring to me. The day spa where my mom gets her hair and nails done has large mirrors, and as I walked by one, I caught a glimpse out of the corner of my mind and I was floored. I know this is going to sound incredibly conceited, but I looked really good. My arms had a great shape, my gut wasn't leading the way, it was falling behind, my chest is coming to the shape that I want it to be. I had one thought, my hard work is finally paying off. I'm getting the body I always wanted to have and it is all to eating healthy and learning about my body and myself. I'm still not where I want to be, but I'm getting there. I'm finally in the teens when it comes to body fat percentage. My weight is at the lowest it has been in over 20 years, and the body I have now would have been something I would have killed for in my 20's. I'm going to do better, and I'm so happy about it.

      I'm taking the night off from my evening workouts, but I'm going to test a few things with resistance bands to get ready for tomorrow night's workout. Yeah, those are the kinds of things I do now. If I learn a new training idea, I give it a try as soon as I can, so that I can incorporate it in my next workout. Oh, I have been using resistance bands a lot lately, since I can't make it to the gym. This isn't an excuse, lately my mom has been waking up at odd hours, and if I'm not her when she has a freakout session, I don't know how bad it will be. The last few nights she has been sleeping through the night though so maybe tomorrow I will be able to visit the gym late at night. Her new workouts and sleepy time tea, I think have been helping. The great thing about those resistance bands, is that I can get a weight lifting type or experience with some simple bands. I didn't use them until about a week ago. They came with the dip bars that I got, and I really didn't know how to use them, but I found a few videos recently that have shown me the light, and my home workouts have been outstanding with them.

     I have been sticking to my mostly vegetarian diet this week an I'm feeling ok, but my body is starting to have some troubles. Nothing too bad, but the extra fiber is not agreeing with me, if you know what I mean. I did try something yesterday that doesn't have anything to do with that, but it was a massive protein boost for the day. Remember how I said I was going to do that collagen drink once a week? Well, Wednesdays are the day that I've chosen, so what I did, was mix it with my Warrior Blend protein shake. The mixture of Tahitian vanilla collagen and chocolate protein shake was freaking fantastic. I'll be looking forward to that every Wednesday now. Just thinking about it has my mouth watering. No, I can't have it now, I'm done eating for the day.

     There has been this thing happening to me lately. It is more a mental thing and a wondering if I have the right to speak to people about a certain thing. Today was one of this moments. The woman that was cutting my mom's hair was a rather large woman, and I could see that she was having some discomfort because of her weight. The thought that runs through my mind is, I could help her, if I could just talk to her. Since I am a deeply shy person (yes it's true, I don't go out of my way to talk to people), I always hold my tongue. There is also a secondary thought of, do I even have the right to bring that up to someone. Someone's weight can be a really touchy subject and I don't want to offend someone, when I really just want to help them. That is part of the reason I started howuketo.com, people can come to me rather than me going to them. What do you think? Would it be rude to ask someone if they wanted to hear about the benefits of a ketogenic diet and how it could relieve them of inflammation and soreness, and basically change their life. Yeah, I know that sounds like a pitch from a Jehovah's Witness, but that is what I feel about the Keto Lifestyle.

     The 72 hour fast is approaching and I'm really looking forward to not eating for 3 days. I still don't have anyone that has reached out to tell me that they are doing it with me. The few people that wanted to, have decided to do it at a different time to fit their schedules, and have decided to be accountable to themselves, so I'm happy I gave them some encouragement to do it, but I'm bummed that I'm not in the loop for it, to keep pushing them to keep up what they are doing. I've been wanting to do a long fast for the past two weeks, but I don't want to burn myself out before I do the 72, so I've only done 1 24 hour in the past two weeks. I'm thinking about doing a 36 either in the next couple of days, or sometime in the middle of next week. I'm ready to get into some autophagy, and destroy and rebuild some cells. I'm planning on a follow up article to give everyone that reads the website on what to expect during the 72 hours and why it is important to do 72 hours. Here's a hint, that word autophagy is a very big part of it. I'm not going to explain what it means here, but I will in that follow up article.

     I only have 2 articles for this week, the first was about the waist to height ratio, and the second was a 100 days update. I think I did a good job with them, and I know that a few people didn't know about a couple of things, and they learned something new. Remember kids, learn something new each and every day.

     Oh yeah, before I go I should share a picture of the collagen I take. It's really good, so if you are looking to increase your collagen intake, this is great way, and no I'm not being paid to say that. If I was I would tell you, because I would be excited that I was actually making money.

     Oh yeah again. I'm still not taking any photos of myself yet. I'm not where I want to be for that, but when I am, you will probably be incredibly sick of them when they come. That's it for tonight, peace in and goodnight.