I'm Back.

 
  Well, the two weeks is up, and a lot has happened. I did miss writing this and there were several times that I wanted to just come on, and write about what had happened that day. I decided that I would stick to my two week sabbatical and stay away. It worked, I feel refreshed and reset. It was kind of like a mental recharge

     Let's start with Baby Girl Gauge. She had her surgery and she is still recovering. Today was the final day of her pain killer, which turns out is a power opiod. She is wrapped up and ready for the next stage of her life, which will be with very limited (if any) hearing. She hasn't eaten much, and I have to hand feed her most of her food, since her equilibrium is off. When she bows her head down to eat she gets dizzy, and wobbles. She is getting better each day, and that wobble is less and less. The first day, she couldn't even walk it was so bad. I had to carry her in the house. After about 6 hour she hopped up in my chair with the last of her energy for the day.

     That picture was taken right after she got home. She is currently sleeping right now. That is mostly what she has done and I completely understand. When I don't feel 100% I want to sleep the whole day away as well. She did come into my room the first two nights, which was quite the accomplishment considering it was the middle of the night and she weaved and wobbled the whole way. Tomorrow she has to go to the shelter to get her bandages and drain removed. They will redress her and then go over what the next steps are for her recovery.

     My mom has been up and down. Today is a not so good day, but she is out with my nephew now, so I have a little time for myself, which is why I'm writing this now. The new diet has been going well, but the one big problem is, that I have no control of what she eats when she goes out with someone. A friend of hers took her out for ice cream last week, which is pure sugar, and it led to a bad sundowner session that evening. Today is due to her not sleeping well last night. If you don't think that can't have an enormous impact on your mental state, then you need to load that stuff up. I'm hoping that she will get a bit of a reset with my nephew today. When she hears or sees someone that she does recognize, it opens her mind up, which is why I am so upset that the family member that claims they are going to take care of her, can't even call her on a daily basis. Those calls help, but what do I know.

     Yesterday was a very good day, and she even had some self recognition that something was wrong with her mind. I explained to her that she had dementia, and that she would forget things from time to time, but on some days, she would remember. She was upset by that, but it was a comforting form of being upset. She finally had an idea of what was going on. Of course, a sleepless night destroyed all of that, but it may come back. I just have to stick with the plan.

     There has been a difference in her diet the last two days. She wanted this breakfast bread that our grocery store make, so I got it. It is loaded with fruit and nuts, which shouldn't be bad, but maybe that extra sugar is causing a problem. Lately her sugars all come from natural sources like fruit. She only drinks water, tea and coffee, and has eaten mostly whole foods. We do have the occasional Quest pizza, but that is sugar free and in line with keto. Once again, she is not on a ketogenic diet. She is on a keto like, low carb moderate fat, moderate protein diet. It is a slightly different version of what I eat. I just keep some of the fats from her meals, and allow her a few more carbs. The only reason I'm not doing a full on keto diet with her, is because I don't want her to go through the keto flu. I know how to avoid that, but it would require her taking some supplemental vitamins to make up what she isn't getting from the extra foods that I have her eating right now. She doesn't not like taking her medication as is, so adding a few extra pills in the way of vitamins won't go over well. That being said and the sleepless night last night, she has been doing very well up to the point of the ice cream visit. I have seen a big difference in her mood, and her sleeping. Until last night, she was sleeping through the night and late (for her) into the morning. One morning she even slept until 8 in the morning. It gave me a ton of time to read and just relax in the quite morning light.

      With everyone else covered. Oh, Morty has been Morty and is doing great. I should cover how I've been. The short answer is things are going great. The longer and much more interesting answer is, that I have had a few breakthroughs this past two weeks. I'll get to the health stuff in a second. I did also have something incredible happen last week. A buddy fo mine texted me to ask if I had finally got what I needed to build the outdoor pull up bar. I hadn't. I still haven't felt comfortable with getting 10 foot 4x4's in my car, so I haven't done it, not to mention that I have to keep a close eye on money. The supplies aren't expensive, but I need to do things in small dozes. He offered to get the stuff and drop it off by the house since he was in the area. I let him get the boards, because I could fit the rest of the stuff in my car, and I could get that stuff next month. I now have two 10 foot 4x4s sitting in the garage, waiting for me to put them to use. This was a huge deal and helped me out tremendously. I will get the other supplies in a couple of weeks and I should be doing pull ups soon after.

     Now for the health and the breakthroughs. First off, I decided not to go vegan keto, for a couple of reasons. Through my research I found out some troubling information about protein. The absorption rates for plant based protein is rather poor. You can get your protein from plant based sources, but in order to do so, you have to eat a lot of it, and that just won't fit in with my way of eating. The other is the militant attitude that a lot of vegans take. I've seen it first hand and all though not all vegans are like that, I don't want to ever be that person. I will still look for plant based options, and I have cut down on my meat consumption considerably in the past few weeks, so although I am not vegan I am much more plant based. I also make sure my meat sources come from responsibly farmed livestock. The feed off that land and don't destroy it, which is the main reason I was going to go vegan. I want sustainability in my food sources, and the big farming industry in both livestock and crops destroy the land and strip if of its nutrients. That is why all the veggies I buy are organically sourced as well.

     Enough about my soap box. The other breakthrough I discovered, I kind of fell into. It has to do with my workouts. I am of course still doing my morning cardio as per the 100 Days challenge, but with my nightly cardio, I have switched it to a slightly different time. I was doing it right before I went to sleep, which was fine, and worked great. What I did do was switch it to incorporate it into my evening workout. What I'm saying is, that I do my evening workout, and then do 10 minutes of cardio at the end of it. This has had a profound effect on my body. The common believe is that cardio kills gains. I have found that to not be true at all. I'm seeing more muscle growth in the two weeks that I have been doing it, than I saw the previous two months with not doing it. My weight is still coming off and I'm gaining size at the same time. Oh, and no I won't share a picture with you. I'm still holding a moratorium on photos of me until I hit my goal look. The picture above is the one I took just before taking the two weeks off, and I quite frankly don't look like that anymore.

     I had someone tell me this past week that I didn't need to lose any more weight, otherwise I would start looking unhealthy. Before I get into what I said to them, a little background on statements like that. The last time I lost a lot of weight a few years ago, which was 20 lbs, a bunch of people started telling me how gaunt I was looking and that they were worried about me. That led me to spiral into the weight that I was. If I didn't look good with the weight off, then I had to look good with the weight on. That was horrible thinking on my part. This time when the person said that, I told them, "only if I do it wrong". I still have fat to lose, and I still have a goal weight in mind, which I will hit, and then reevaluate whether I have more weight to lose. I am current 3 lbs away from that goal weight. I did hit it briefly at the end of my 48 hour fast, but I knew that was mostly water weight. The goal of that fast wasn't weight loss, it was more for autopahgy and resetting my cells, which is what the 72 hour fast coming up this next weekend is all about. I'm planning on going back in time, at a cellular level anyway. Oh, I should explain autophagy. That is when your cells are starved of their fuel source and begin feeding on one another. That sounds way to vague. Basically you have cells of varying ages in your body. The older cells don't do much, but they still require food sources to exist. Autophagy takes care of that waste and allows healthy cells to eat the damaged cells. That leaves you with healthy cells. Healthy cells mean a much healthier body. You begin seeing autophagy at the 24 hour mark, and it continues until around the 72 hour mark, where it peaks, which is why a 72 hour fast is so great. You get the benefits of your body cannibalizing itself for fuel (burning body fat for fuel), but you get a cellular rebirth of sorts. This leads to healthier skin, better mental cognition, and just an overall feeling of better. Yes, I said better. It's the best way to put it. Here comes the plug, make sure you check out the 72 hour post on the website so you can do it as well.

      I mentioned before taking my break that I was going to be eating that certain breakfast most of the time, and I have. This has also lead to an overall feeling of better.

     That is basically what I have had every day for the past week, with the exception of 1 day. I do have bacon and eggs with walnuts and macadamia nuts and almond milk once a week. I have added some blueberries the past few days, since they were available in the grocery store. I do think I'm going to omit the kale, due to it's heavy metal content, and just stick with arugula and spinach as my leafy greens. I switch up the protein shake each day, so depending on what I have, it will either be complete vegan or just vegetarian. It is really good and satisfying, and I think you should try it. You won't be disappointed.

    That's all I have for today. There is more to talk about, but I'll just keep all that to myself for now. I will be back on the normal schedule starting today. I have a great song for Favorite Song of the Week coming up on Tuesday so look forward to that. Peace in and goodnight.