OK. Just to add to the above post. I'll be recording resting blood pressure and pulse rates weekly.

Starting at 123/70 and pulse rate of 67

I'll be sending in relevant blood test results every three months or so. I'll be concentrating on normalising my cholesterol and LDL levels over the coming months.

Previous diet has been as bad as it's possible to be with very high refined carbs and processed foods, so I must thank excellent genes for keeping me out of the danger zones so far. Can't rely on that forever though.

Here's my starting results:

Your Total Cholesterol of 210 is BORDERLINE

Your LDL of 138 is BORDERLINE

Your HDL of 57 is NORMAL

Your Triglyceride level of 75 is NORMAL

RATIOS:

Your Total Cholesterol/HDL ratio is: 3.68 - (preferably under 5.0, ideally under 3.5) GOOD

Your HDL/LDL ratio is: 0.413 - (preferably over 0.3, ideally over 0.4) IDEAL

Your triglycerides/HDL ratio is: 1.316 - (preferably under 4, ideally under 2) IDEAL


With thanks to Hugh for basic analysis

http://www.hughchou.org/calc/chol.php

The paleo diet will help with the depression, especially if you read up on the effects of a ketogenic diet on emotional balance and mood.

This.

I found that double doing on fish oil pills of liquid for the first month really helped get the weight loss going good.

And this can also help a lot with the mood.  It's difficult to overdose on fish oil; I've seen recommendations as high as 1 gram combined DHA/EPA per pound of body weight. 

For seasonal depression, also look into light therapy:
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/light-therapy/MY00195

If it's late summer where you are, this is a good time to get the jump on the seasonal affective disorder. Starting light therapy before the days get too short helps me avoid the energy slump during the fall and winter.

Quote from: CaveManJim on August 04, 2011, 06:05:04 AM

The paleo diet will help with the depression, especially if you read up on the effects of a ketogenic diet on emotional balance and mood.

This.

Quote

I found that double doing on fish oil pills of liquid for the first month really helped get the weight loss going good.

And this can also help a lot with the mood.  It's difficult to overdose on fish oil; I've seen recommendations as high as 1 gram combined DHA/EPA per pound of body weight. 

For seasonal depression, also look into light therapy:
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/light-therapy/MY00195

If it's late summer where you are, this is a good time to get the jump on the seasonal affective disorder. Starting light therapy before the days get too short helps me avoid the energy slump during the fall and winter.

Hi Sparrow,

And thank you very much for reminding me to dust off my old light box. It's something I know should help, but I get lazy about using it. This year I will. However, my seasons shifted as a result of using certain classes of antidepressants over the years, so I'm only a month out of the last down phase. I don't know when to start using it as I won't come down again until January.

Light is only part of the answer for me though. Before meds I used to spend half of every year in bed thinking of nothing but how to kill myself. It was severe endogenous clinical depression, and the nearest thing to hell on earth. After two decades of that, I would have happily ended my life if it hadn't been for my child. The meds stopped the suicidal thoughts, but could only do so much, and all the other symptoms still remain, albeit in a slightly muted form. But no matter how bad it gets, I always know that there are six months of happiness ahead, and that keeps me going. Some people never feel happy, so I'm lucky. I just have to pay for mine in advance 

As for the fish oils, I will look into upping my dose after reading what you said.

I remember an orthodox professor of nutrition giving a lecture on fish oils. He was all in favour, but did offer one note of caution. He said that an Inuit on a traditional diet would never die of a heart attack, but if you cut him he'd bleed to death 

Always best to tell a surgeon if you're on high doses so he can be prepared, he said.

Thanks again, Sparrow

CF

Sounds like a real solid start.

My sister has also started the diet, and has been astounded at losing 4 pounds the first week.

After a couple months your cravings for your old cheat foods will go away altogether, and you will get sick when you eat them.

Go slow. I got where I am without really running or doing any sort of calisthenics, just good old fashioned walking, and slow walking too!
Do try to find some hills though, that will do a lot to get your overall fitness level up over time. As you get thinner it's inevitable that you will want to do more.
JIM

This has been a testing week. It is also the week when I drop my fear of stigmatisation and come out, so to speak

In the year 2000, after decades of being labelled as having Seasonal Affective Disorder, and with the help of an online friend I was able to get myself correctly diagnosed as being a Seasonal Bipolar II.

Because I had never been manic, and my highs were productive and creative times, all the docs had just assumed I was suffering from unipolar depression. This led to me being given every kind of antidepressant for over twenty years, which is exactly the wrong thing to do for Bipolars. Far from relieving the symptoms they made them much, much worse, year by year, and on top of that, each different kind gave me side-effects like vertigo, confusion, drowsiness and blurred vision to deal with, and all made me put on the weight I am now, finally, dealing with.

When I took my self-diagnosis to a psychiatrist he agreed and put me on lithium eleven years ago. Very quickly this affected my thyroid gland and I’ve had to supplement with thyroxine. I’ve been on lithium alone ever since and never missed a dose, though the experimental reduction last year took me back to the old days of endless suicidal thoughts etc. so I’m glad to be back on the original dose now.

At first, I was very scared and much against the idea of taking lithium, but my online friend, also bipolar, had convinced me that a mood stabiliser was vital, and she was right. Within a very short time of taking it all my suicidal thoughts disappeared, never to return again (until I dropped the dose last year). It also made my down times much more bearable.

However, I went through a long period of mourning for my creative highs as lithium largely put paid to those too. I can still be creative verbally, but it makes it hard to be creative visually, as I used to be. I also suffer short term memory problems  and difficulties on concentration along with a number of other cognitive side effects.

I’m relating all this now as I want to record how the lacto-paleo diet I’m on affects someone like me with Bipolar II as I go through the seasons.

This week has been a challenge due to personal problems. Although I no longer have real life relationships I occasionally become fond of a friend met on a creative forum I frequent. But I don’t have deep feelings and like to keep things light (which I state from the beginning)  and if people get involved and ask too much of me, it can be a hard to deal with.

This week I have been writing emails for many hours a day in my efforts to try and  sort  things out. I’ve not been getting enough sleep, been neglecting the things I love to do, especially getting out on my bike, and not making sure my fridge was stocked with the right foods. As a bipolar I am prone to obsession, and this can be either good or bad, according to what I’m obsessed with. And being obsessed with a person is definitely bad for both parties involved.

The good news is that last night we have finally released each other without malice, and I can get right back on the road again

I didn’t do too badly this last week. I finally started to get low carb flu. I ate lacto-paleo every day, only weakening on the last two days when I ate six ounces of milk chocolate each day, partly self-destructive because I felt guilty, and part comfort eating. As it turned out I didn’t enjoy it half as much as I used to, and felt terrible the following mornings. It won’t be any sacrifice  to give that up again now that the crisis is over. If I’d had my fridge fully stocked with the right foods and hadn’t let myself get hungry, it wouldn’t have happened. I should have listened more to Jim on that one.
 
So. In spite of what happened I still consider this week a victory. I did not let the comfort eating escalate into a full-scale binge, I strictly avoided all grains and processed foods (apart from the chocolate). While I didn’t lose any weight I didn’t put any on. And I’m fired up for getting back on course this coming week

I’ve learned that aged cheeses are not good for me moodwise. Possibly the tyramine content. I’m going to stick to fresh cheeses from now on, and will make my own paneer for Indian dishes from our local A2 cows. I might try making other kinds of cheeses at home too.

My coffee consumption is now down to one cup of instant a day. I only needed it to give me energy, and the diet is starting to take over that role, so I soon hope to give it up entirely.

Weight loss maintained at: 206 lbs


Resting BP at start: 134/71

Resting BP week 1: 116/61

Resting BP this week: 130/75



Resting pulse rate at start: 75

Resting pulse rate last week: 70

Resting pulse rate this week: 58

So after eating those large quantities of milk chocolate my pulse is down and my blood pressure up again. Interesting. I'm going to see what a week of 'perfect' eating will do to those readings next week

Cheers,

CF

Hello again

Anyone wishing to avoid the ramble and get to the results is invited to scroll down to the summary at the bottom

My recent silence has signalled treading water, and not failure.

After the 'homemade bread' incident, I haven't touched any grains at all. And I've eaten no tinned or otherwise processed foods at all. Everything fresh and produced as close to home as possible. I'm currently giving in to cravings for large amounts of 'allowed' veg.........and the occasional potato......I'm half-Irish, for goodness' sake, and no saint!

I'm continuing with lacto-paleo, and the 'lacto' part has been of immense use in helping me keep to the 'paleo' part As you know, I'm under docs' orders to keep off nuts and other oxalate-containing foods because of the recent kidney stone episodes, so dairy is the most convenient way for me to get calcium to my ageing bones. And since it gives me no side effects, I'm continuing to enjoy it.

I've been through an extremely stressful few weeks, and when needed, milk chocolate has remained my drug of choice, but nowhere near as much as I used to eat, only every few days, and I've lost an actual craving for it.

And through what feels almost like narcolepsy (but is really just old-fashioned lack of sleep) I'm continuing to drink two weak cups of instant coffee a day (no sugar, of course).

In the end my email relationship had to end. My obsession petered out very quickly due to discovering his uncontrollable rages. His obsession did not wane but grew. Anyone wanting to love a bipolar woman has to be a lot more stable than that, and his lack of understanding about my condition caused even more stress. He thought it was a matter of will and psychology, rather than an hereditary illness as real as any physical one. So I ended it. He's a wonderful person, and I hope to become friends with him again at some point in the future. When I was younger I would have relished all that Sturm und Drang, but I like safe harbour and quieter waters now

So, being back in the relaxing but stimulating company of my male and female friends has made me feel much more stable and able to get back to losing weight and getting fit.

Another stressor in my life has been a rather pleasant one. In line with changing myself I've also been changing my entire home. When I went down as usual last year my house was in disorder and that made me feel even more depressed. So this year I'm using my up time to spring clean and reorganise everything.

My bedroom is being recreated as a winter hibernatory nest containing everything I need to comfort me during those agoraphobic months. I'm making an art/photographic studio, and collecting hundreds of my favourite books there too.

When in deep clinical depression very little seems worth doing, but it can be made a bit easier to achieve things if everything is to hand and organised. But if too far down, then all you want to do is try to sleep as it's the only thing that provides escape from the terrible thoughts that constantly invade your mind and can't be got rid of by willpower or therapy. Medication helps, but cannot cure, so I'm hoping so much that paleo will make a difference, no matter how small. (And I will have given up on the chocolate and coffee long before January )

So, in January, when I feel the first stirrings of withdrawal from the world this welcoming den will be waiting for me The only stressful part of this has been that the house is upside down with the contents of cupboards etc, all over the place while I clean shelves etc. But that's boring stuff, so I'll stop now

I've never been focused enough to prepare like this before during my up times, so I see this as a sign that the paleo diet is helping me to be a bit more sensible and less hedonistic

I've also recently started to learn more about astronomy and am also spending more time in my wildlife garden - both very satisfying and calming activities.

And as the nights are drawing in, I'll be starting to use my light box just as soon as my den  is complete

I don't expect many people to read this journal as it's only really relevent to bipolars like me who are going lacto-paleo, so I won't apologise for writing so much each time as it's a bipolar thing. 'Pressure of Thought' it's called, my PDoc says, and it almost causes me physical pain to edit . Talking and writing too much are my worst 'symptoms' when up. It's my downs that are the killer.

_______________________________________________

So. After those mid-up-time ramblings I'll give a summary:

I've lost another 2 lbs and am now at 204 lbs. Losing 9 lbs in 5 weeks is fine by me

My blood pressure and pulse are still much lower than at the beginning.

I've been getting out for walks and cycle rides, but not as much as usual as I've been spending more time and energy shifting furniture, running up and down stairs and doing hard gardening. I reckon that's fair exchange

I finally started lifting free weights at home again and was horrified to discover how much strength I'd lost in my upper body during the 6-months' inactivity of my last bad downer. I had to change the weights to much lighter ones to avoid damage. But at least I'm on the road again

No matter how many times I stray off the road, I'm not giving up, and will get there in the end. Maybe just not as quickly as I thought I would

I think that many of us start off on a new regime for life imagining a future where there will be no stresses. It would be so easy then. But in spite of cheats along the way, I'm finding that it's my ability to keep on with paleo eating and exercise even through the worst outside pressures that gives me strength and convinces me that I'm going to succeed. I have a deep and comforting feeling that I will eventually lose all the weight and reach maximum fitness for my age, no matter how long it takes.

CM