For a year now, I've combined the advice of Dr Sarah Myhill of the UK, and Sally K Norton, MS in Public Health in the US, and I'm getting so much more
energy.
Dr Myhill has an entire
wiki with published papers from herself & team, with many
books. Sally K Norton has a great
website that can get anyone started, with a
book from a publisher, with more e-books available on the website, like her new Oxalate Listing guide.
I'm in my sixth year eating a "high animal foods diet" because people understand that better than they do carnivore. So I have a whole new picture of what I call the "torpor" of overweight. It's no wonder we so easily slip into what looks like depression, sloth, and laziness.
But it's because we don't have the energy for
anything on top of the bad sleep, poor stress handling, and constantly nagging hunger.
Living on carbs does it to us.
The most recent revelations that two mental illnesses known to be difficult to treat with current pharmaceuticals have an 80% good patient response, and a high rate of actual seeming
remission, simply by following a species appropriate diet. Which is not the kind our authorities recommend we eat.
If a drug had such a response, France would run out of champagne. But I hear a lot more about the drug, because we let drug companies advertise in this country. No wonder so many people
trust drugs more than food.
But then, the first thing I noticed on Atkins after only a few days in, that I was reliably able to avoid fighting off a nap after lunch. I not only fought it off with ease, by the end of a week I wasn't even getting that feeling.
This whole journey has taught me that brain and body can't function without the other, it is the same thing, and metabolic hits everything.
So, the steps I took are as follows, in case anyone needs a tip or three:
- I live on animal fat and animal protein. I eat my healthy weight (dr and I like me at 130) in grams because if I don't, I stay hungry. But I put the animal fat first since keto macros are at 80% if I remember right, but I'm off instrument flying now. So I seem to eat a ridiculous amount of pure fat, like cream cheese and sour cream, but it does make me feel better. Because that is what I RUN on, even with some additional carbs to take stress off my liver while I'm so concentrated on healing. Every time I try to cut back on my favorite fats, I get hungry.
- Fermented foods are so good for digestion. Yogurt and cheese are fermented foods and are the most versatile part of my diet. They go well with eggs in things I can make in the microwave. Naked Whey protein powder for smoothies with 50 grams of protein and the only sugar from the Greek yogurt and the fruit, if added.
- Pork rinds are my baking mix. Full of fat and protein, crushed to different textures, and combined with sour cream and eggs. Fried in butter or -- coming soon -- baked in things I'll try when winter comes again. Because I have the energy. And let me tell you, the interest. I developed this from a block of cream cheese and a teaspoon of jam with pork rinds to actual grilled cream cheese sandwiches.
- Animal fat builds hormones. Protein builds neurotransmitters. Providing these two things in sufficient quantity gives me optimal functioning. I know the feeling of struggling so much when I was "thinking on carbs."
- I have OTC estrogen and progesterone NOW, but spent years propping up my own shrinking supply with pregnenolone and high animal fat content. (The pills worked for a week and then my body rejected it.) These two "tricks for menopause" are something I had to come up with myself. More people should know.
- Sleep hygiene is more than a shower before bed. Healing, and energy, can't happen without it. From blackout drapes to weekend camping, you can get sleep again. You have to disrupt your whole approach to sleep, perhaps, but there are non-negotiables with our body. Like the way melatonin support stops working and gets worse because we just convinced our body there is enough melatonin and now it is making less... let me just say no one online adds this and everything is fixed, and it can become a crutch, then a trap. I keep it alongside the valerian root for emergencies and high stress situations, since pharmaceuticals don't work and I'm not taking the new sleep drugs like Ambien. These are all short term solutions I see my friends relying on. More and more.
- Of course I have a special supplement recc
focused on energy. BENFOTHIAMINE is a process which skips body steps. It's already fat soluble. Thiamine is what our cells are likely deficient in, and struggle to heal themselves. Send a ship to that harbor and dump in the "Benfo." Also, biotin. Thing is, none of this works for long, or reliably, unless the food is doing all the heavy lifting. - I spent five months on bed rest, which helped. I have concluded that when the body is ready for exercise, it will tell us. "Try and stop me" becomes the prevailing mood.
I am fortunate to live near lots of lovely wilderness areas. A hiking path goes straight through my small town, and I have easy -- flat -- access to it. I can then climb a hill, to a path, to a walk around a lake and then a climb to a mountain.
That's the mood I'm in. But I will work up in literal steps.
Mind you, this is a "lunch hour" mountain in local parlance. Among trail runners. It is a new experience to crave hiking the way I do now. I always loved it, but now I have the energy to match my ambition.
ENERGY and metabolic healing
With an easy analysis of diet macros, whether it is Atkins or the newer PE diet, it all primary focuses on Protein now. That 1 gram of Protein per Pound of ideal body weight leads to good health. When we "were thinking on carbs", it was all about carbs and fats. Fat is a lever to personalize your goals. You have been healing and at times underweight, so that percent of fat is perfect for you. To stay lean I need to use less fat but the satiety from protein, fermented foods, optimal micronutrients, etc. all offer that same energy you now enjoy. Congratulations on your regaining energy and metabolic health! 
Linear Mode
