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So, interesting notes...
Oct. 8th, 2014 08:53 pmOne of two things is happening. Either a ketogenic diet is helping, and getting a few too many carbs hurts... or it's not really helping, but my occasional slips are causing me to have too many variables to measure.
One of my favorite meals is a set of chicken breast strips with wing sauce from Buffalo Wild Wings - some of the best wing sauces I've ever had, period. They've spoiled me for wings from most other places I've tried.
Trouble is - breaded chicken strips have bad carbohydrate profiles. Some of the best have 3/4ths as many grams of carbohydrate as protein. That's a lot for ketogenic diets - which try to keep you under 30 grams of carbohydrate a day!
So: I'm forcing myself to stay ketogenic for a few days. I need to be absolutely sure. (I need to find a good way to make actual chicken wings, I suppose. They're low carb!)
But it's not easy. Do you know how few snack foods there are with nearly no carbohydrates? And my work place has a candy bowl - I can't even afford a mini Almond Joy (9 grams of carbohydrates). Sigh.
I've been on the carb wagon for two days, and I've been doing mostly okay. But I want to keep it up for two weeks or so, just to make sure I see the pattern.
I talked to a doctor, and realized something is wrong with my descriptions. He's a friendly, outgoing guy, and asked why don't I try something like kayaking! Well, that would be fun and wonderful, but ... jeezus, didn't we go over my history? Exercise can make me feel hideously fatigued for *days*.
But I was lucky today - I came across an old friend, a description of narcolepsy. (Um. Is it clear that the "old friend" was the actual description of what narcolepsy is like?) I want to forward it to my doctors. Not because I have narcolepsy (I probably don't - but we should probably rule it out, I never have had a sleep study) but because, oh, my lord, it included the description of how narcolepsy can destroy your work, home, and social life. Yes. Yes. Yes. When you're so zonked you can't go anywhere because you'll be some oddball bump on a log who can't hold up his end of a conversation. And even if you're having a good day, you're not sure you should go out because you might end up like that!
Sure, it would work if I had a bunch of friends who gathered from time to time, people who were like "oh, John, yeah, he's okay - but he's got this funky illness that makes him zonked. Someday you'll see him feeling good, you'll see why we like him (or maybe you'll need something he can help with - and you'll definitely see why we like him, fucker'll walk over broken glass for a stranger if he's the only one who can help)." But when you're trying to forge those bonds? Well, tiredness isn't good. It's too damn easy to get marked as "that oddball who did that weird thing that day...". Plus, if you're too tired to engage, you're not having any fun you're just doing work.
Okay. But: I'm talking to my docs about provigil on Friday. I'm getting tested for epilepsy in early November. I learned a new breathing technique that helps wild emotions.
(Take a deep breath in your belly - engage that diaphragm! - And then blow out - but through pursed lips. Make the breathing out work. This (so my source says) engages your vagus nerve which seems to activate the parasympathetic nervous system. Is it amazing? No but it's good - and it's been "enough" for me once or twice.)
There's progress, and a bit of hope.
One of my favorite meals is a set of chicken breast strips with wing sauce from Buffalo Wild Wings - some of the best wing sauces I've ever had, period. They've spoiled me for wings from most other places I've tried.
Trouble is - breaded chicken strips have bad carbohydrate profiles. Some of the best have 3/4ths as many grams of carbohydrate as protein. That's a lot for ketogenic diets - which try to keep you under 30 grams of carbohydrate a day!
So: I'm forcing myself to stay ketogenic for a few days. I need to be absolutely sure. (I need to find a good way to make actual chicken wings, I suppose. They're low carb!)
But it's not easy. Do you know how few snack foods there are with nearly no carbohydrates? And my work place has a candy bowl - I can't even afford a mini Almond Joy (9 grams of carbohydrates). Sigh.
I've been on the carb wagon for two days, and I've been doing mostly okay. But I want to keep it up for two weeks or so, just to make sure I see the pattern.
I talked to a doctor, and realized something is wrong with my descriptions. He's a friendly, outgoing guy, and asked why don't I try something like kayaking! Well, that would be fun and wonderful, but ... jeezus, didn't we go over my history? Exercise can make me feel hideously fatigued for *days*.
But I was lucky today - I came across an old friend, a description of narcolepsy. (Um. Is it clear that the "old friend" was the actual description of what narcolepsy is like?) I want to forward it to my doctors. Not because I have narcolepsy (I probably don't - but we should probably rule it out, I never have had a sleep study) but because, oh, my lord, it included the description of how narcolepsy can destroy your work, home, and social life. Yes. Yes. Yes. When you're so zonked you can't go anywhere because you'll be some oddball bump on a log who can't hold up his end of a conversation. And even if you're having a good day, you're not sure you should go out because you might end up like that!
Sure, it would work if I had a bunch of friends who gathered from time to time, people who were like "oh, John, yeah, he's okay - but he's got this funky illness that makes him zonked. Someday you'll see him feeling good, you'll see why we like him (or maybe you'll need something he can help with - and you'll definitely see why we like him, fucker'll walk over broken glass for a stranger if he's the only one who can help)." But when you're trying to forge those bonds? Well, tiredness isn't good. It's too damn easy to get marked as "that oddball who did that weird thing that day...". Plus, if you're too tired to engage, you're not having any fun you're just doing work.
Okay. But: I'm talking to my docs about provigil on Friday. I'm getting tested for epilepsy in early November. I learned a new breathing technique that helps wild emotions.
(Take a deep breath in your belly - engage that diaphragm! - And then blow out - but through pursed lips. Make the breathing out work. This (so my source says) engages your vagus nerve which seems to activate the parasympathetic nervous system. Is it amazing? No but it's good - and it's been "enough" for me once or twice.)
There's progress, and a bit of hope.
