Relearning Old Lessons

I like to think that I'm living during the peak of human civilization. We have ready access to plenty of good food, high quality water, literature, communication, technology, health care and face little threat of acute disease, predation, starvation and isolation. We've controlled our environment and our collective living conditions to create communities which preserve our continued well-being.

However, from time to time, it becomes necessary to look back on the lessons we've learned either individually or collectively, and consider how we achieved this state of being.

Recently I've had to revisit some work that I had done several years ago. This is an opportunity for me to augment and improve the conclusions derived from this work, but I've been stymied at the start of this re-visitation because I trusted someone else. Years ago, I learned an important lesson about how best to do what needed to be done, but in this effort, I deferred to someone with more experience than myself to assist me. For the last several days I've invested a ton of effort for no return because of this trust. I knew that my system worked, but the recommended changes to my protocol would conserve precious and costly reagents. So by embracing the recommendation of a more experienced individual, I figured I could be more efficient in my work. Unfortunately, the recommendations caused my efforts to be in vain resulting in depression, frustration, stress and ultimately more incurred cost. I knew what I needed to do but listened to someone else who, even though my best interest was in her heart, made a recommendation that resulted in failure.

A similar lesson can be learned when considering my experiences trying to find a diet and exercise regiment. When I was a child growing up in a Catholic household, we had fish on Friday throughout the year and attempted to fast on Fridays during Lent. From a dietary point of view, both fish intake and intermittent fasting are things I've come to embrace as part of my primal/ paleo lifestyle. Similar to Jewish Kosher Laws which were developed to prevent food-born disease, these Catholic traditions, if embraced fully, can improve health and longevity, but have fallen from consciousness as society has secularized. As we've embraced the land of plenty, society has grown obese and suffers from many more health problems than we did historically. Could this be because we've forgotten the lessons we've learned on how to live a healthy and productive life? Could we be better off if we embraced to lifestyles of our grandparents who were generally lean and healthy until late in life? Some lessons are only learned by listening to our bodies, paying attention and experimenting with what makes us ultimately happy. This makes me wonder, are there other lessons which should be embraced despite the prevailing opinions of society or experts?

Life Changes and Re-dedication

It's been a while since I posted anything on this blog, but that doesn't mean the wheels haven't been turning. In the last year I've taken greater consideration of the impact of my life on others, and the impact of others on myself. I've made some substantial changes in the way I live and relate to others, but as always these things are a work in progress.

One of the biggest changes I've made is a substantial change in my diet which has effected my overall health, well-being and happiness. I've been a member of an organic farming co-operative for the last several years and have enjoyed fresh seasonal, organic produce throughout the summer and early fall months. I noticed that not only did I feel better when my diet was rich in vegetables, I no longer suffered what could be described as pre-diabetic symptoms that had plagued me through the winter months when my diet relied on oatmeal in the morning and pasta, rice or bread-based dishes throughout the day. Through on-going reading and searching for recipes I found a wonderful set of blogs associated with the low-carb community and espousing the "primal" lifestyle. Both Mark's Daily Apple and The Blog of Dr. Michael Eades have become daily readers for me. Both advocate for a low-carb, high-fat diet with intermittent fasting to achieve insulin balance in the body. MDA is more of a lifestyle blog that appeals to the Primal lifestyle which I'm adopting over time. Eades' blog appeals to my scientific side as his discussions can be both technical and intellectually stimulating. In his rigorous dissection of data, I find a kindred spirit.

My experience following the dietary recommendations of the Primal/ low-carb community has changed the way I function on a daily basis. The most obvious expression is the weight I've lost. In 2009 I topped the scales over 355 lbs had significant problems with lethargy, sleep apnea, and allergies. I found that I couldn't have a carb-heavy meal then have enough energy to even do the dishes. I was always hungry, I was on a insulin rollercoaster from the moment I woke up to the moment I went to bed. By cutting back on the simple carbohydrates I ate, I lost 30 lbs in 2009 without changing my daily routing substantially. My lethargy has been replaced with seemingly endless energy, my sleep apnea has disappeared and my immune function has improved (my allergy season has yet to occur for 2010, but I've been sick less this winter.) I'm no longer suffering from chronic dry-mouth and not coughing up dry brown mucus every morning (yeah, disgusting, I know.)

The changes I've noticed based on my experience have changed the way I think on a much larger scale. Combining my understanding of primary literature on caloric restriction, the role of micronutrients in the body and the biology of sirtuin proteins with the obesity epidemic in the US, the prevalence of Type 2 Diabetes, and my interest in sustainable, ecologically-sound, food production I've developed some concepts which I hope to develop further on this blog.