Hi all,

It's been a long road, and I have been very vigorously trying to solve my problems for over 10 years, with a concerted, dedicated focus towards getting to my best. I will keep hammering and I am grateful to have a great resource to learn from in Dr. Kruse's work.

Key Info:
Location: UK (Cloudy and cold, working on 4/5 month break in Spain)
Age: 29
Height: 6 ft 5
Weight: 248.8 (Goal - get back to 200lbs)

Areas for Development:
-Poor brain function / Thinking / Brain Fog
-Anxiety
-Weight loss (Will be working on losing close to 50lbs!)
-Poor Sleep
-Low energy levels

Current Protocol

-Light Management1) Blue blockers in the day-time (Safetyblue Day range), and then when the sun goes down, switch to my pair of Sleep Saviour's, (2) Watching Sunrise & Earthing: 10 Mins upon rising, (3) Heat lamp: I also use a red light in the day, (4) Environment: When the sun goes down, I put my blackout blinds up, and maintain a dark environment.

-Diet: Introduced more seafood. Broadly aligned dietary principles with the Leptin RX.

-Cold Thermogenesis: 20m cold bath 4-5 per week (this has been AMAZING and has truly helped with brain function)

-Infrared Sauna: 20mins 3-4 per week

-Buteyko Breathing: I have been practising this for years and it has helped me greatly. I do it every day, 4 sessions.

-Exercise: Resistance training 30 mins 3 x p/w, jogging (outdoors) 3 x p/w.

-Sleep: Consistent bed/rising times, to bed at 9pm, and up at 6am. Trying to improve this, the goal is to be able to sleep until 7am. I generally wake up feeling tired, quite rough and mostly wake up 1-2 times per night. However, sleep has gotten better than it was, and I have had a night or two where I woke up feeling good.


Big Picture:

I want to make a change in my life. The challenges I've had with health have really held me back from what I want to do in my life and the kind of contribution I want to make. There is still time, but I am serious about making a change. My career has gone OK, I've been making steady progress, but I know I can do so much more, and anxiety and brain issues weren't always a factor for me, I performed well in school and University, and I suppose I just want to be able to function like I used to! Which is understandable.

I have some big dreams and am willing to do the work to get there. The work I have done to improve my condition has been intensive, daily (hours and hours every day for the past 6 years), and I am a very determined and stuborn person when i want to get something done. I will figure this out.

"If you're not good enough for yourself, you're not good for anyone"
-Dr Jack Kruse

Function comes first. Then, when I'm right, there are a lot of things I will get done.

Best wishes,
Ravi

 

Great job Ravi! I love your commitment and desire and drive.

You will get there!

Do you have Jack's book? The Epi Paleo RX

 

Thank you Caroline, I'll make it work! I do actually, I have it on Kindle, and am making my way through it.

 

Updates:

Purchased 23&Me test.

Will writeup health history, as well as that of my Mum and Grandmother, and will post on here!

Best wishes,
Ravi

 

I love your commitment to yourself Ravi.

Follow UK Sue ....she is making it work for herself.

 

Hi Ravi and welcome to journal land

As its very unlikely I'll be able to travel abroad for another year at least, its about squeezing the pips from the low hanging fruit in the UK even more.

"-Sleep: Consistent bed/rising times, to bed at 9pm, and up at 6am. Trying to improve this, the goal is to be able to sleep until 7am. I generally wake up feeling tired, quite rough and mostly wake up 1-2 times per night. However, sleep has gotten better than it was, and I have had a night or two where I woke up feeling good."

For me, its the quality (how I transition between the different stages of sleep during 7.5 hours of sleep in mid summer and 9 hours in mid winter), that's important. With roughly 90 minute sleep cycles, I aim for 5 in summer, and 6 in winter. My goal is to to fall asleep easily, wake for the sunrise, no wake ups, or needing to get up in the night to pee, waking feeling refreshed, remember dreaming, and good dream recall.

Early in my journey (after years of insomnia) I posted that I had woken up feeling happy for no reason, and Jack said it was a good sign. So its good you're now starting to experience that. Having moved forward from my initial gain, my experience is that aiming for a fixed wake up time isn't necessarily the best goal in a country that swings between 16 and 8 hours of daylight. Sleeping in until 7 a.m. will miss the sunrise and a lot of early morning hours for a proportion of the year. As we are heading into summer, those extra morning hours outside are a low hanging fruit.

 

I have been listening to some previous Optimal Klub calls, and have noted that people in the UK have been advised to get to the Canary Islands. I am rearing to go and will move there for the rest of the year (I work remotely) and will just get a place there as soon as borders open, as travel outside the UK is currently banned. Sucks but I will do whatever I can here.

Over the weekend, I will read Epi-Paleo RX in full. I'm new here but am doing my best.

I will also take notes and put down some actions in relation to Dr. Jack's recent podcast on crypto and health.

Hi Sue! Thanks for the warm welcome, much appreciated.

Oh tell me about it, don't I know about squeezing the pips from the UK - it is tricky but we can only do our best.

These are great points on sleep, and I think you are correct here - I go to bed at 9pm and wake up around 5/530am anyway! So there is no use in wasting time which could be spent outside. I am still waking up at least once per night, this will have to improve over time.

Best wishes,
Ravi

 

Health history writeup as mentioned above will be here Friday.

Got up at around 545, watched the sun, did 10 mins of earthing in my garden, had breakfast and went for an hour walk. Was able to listen to MP3s of previous Optimal Klub calls which is always super useful.

Back in now, got my red light on , day-time blue blockers on (safetyblue) and working at my laptop, I will take my laptop to my garden and work there for as much of today as I can.

When the sun goes down I'll come back and finish up what I have to do. I use blackout curtains in my room so it is pitch black when the sun goes down (I use candles).

Thanks,
Ravi

 

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Height: 6 ft 5
Weight: 248.8 (Goal - get back to 200lbs)

200# - 160#
===============

 

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@JanSz: My deepest gratitude for you sharing your knowledge, experience, and insight. I am currently in my back garden happily working away on my laptop, I might even start having my meetings out here (lol), but I am so serious about improving health that I reduced my hours and have Monday and Friday off until the end of my contract which is July. All remote working.

On Friday, I will post the health history which @caroline suggested will help me piece together a picture, and also, I will spend time reading your posts above, breaking them down, setting myself actions and items for further research - we'll get there!

Other great news, I have found some incredible place to stay for an extended period in the Canary islands, only a 2 hour flight from England, and wow what a climate - latitude of 22 I think, beats England which is in the 40s.

I have enough savings from work and other projects to just charge on the beach on the Canary Islands for 6-8 months (been working my ass off for many many years and am very frugal/live a simple life).

I know that I will get this together.

Sincere thanks for the contributions you all make.

Best wishes,
Ravi

 

MY HEALTH HISTORY


I was an unhappy child, amd was born into a strange and difficult famial environment whch did go on to become mindbendling stressful. I was anxious and phobic early on, crying a lot, not wanting to go to school when I was around 5-6. Mostly, my parents just left me infront of the TV. That was about all they ever did with me.

Around 7 or 8 I developed bad asthma and was hopitalsed twice. I was then put on inhalers, steroids, and other stuff for allergies – I had hayfever every year. The breathing difficulties would ONLY come on when exerting myself, running etc, and otherwise they weren’t a factor,

I made friends as a young boy and then calmed down, did better in school, and began to function more normally, though I was constantly worried, thinking about the future, was just am

an anxious kid. Final exams came around (age 11) and I threw myself into study, and did really well. Teachers were surprised because I was always crying when I was 5/6. “Wow, he grew out of it!” they would say, but inside, I knew I was not easygoing and calm like the rest of the kids. I also became a gamer when I was around 9 or 10. Parents just left me infront of it, there was nothing else to do. This was very primitive gaming before the internet, PS1 lol.

I then went to Secondary School, and had good friends, graduated on to the PS2 (newer games consule, but again, pre-internet) and kept up the gaming, and mostly felt and functioned OK. I was very creative and enjoyed reading, writing, and drawing a whole lot. Alongside gaming, writing and drawing were my main hobbies and I was good at them.

At the age of 16, we got our first internet connection in the house – 1mb broadband. I started using the internet a LOT. However, after a few months, I decided enough was enough, and I decided to stop using all technology to allow me to focus on my final exams.

I studied my ass off, did nothing else apart from 1 hour of TV in the evening. Stopped gaming and turned off the computer entirely. Did great at my exams! Schooled very very well.

Then, at 17, I got heavily into browsing the internet, staying up late, constantly using forums. After a year, I developed an anxiety disorder. I was always an anxious person but I never had full on anxiety symptoms until now. They were frickin murderous and I couldn’t focus, concentrate, learn, or feel good anymore.

Again, I did what I did at 16, I turned off the technology and studied hard. After a while my mind began to perform well! Anxiety was there but reduced, and did well in my exams and got into an exvellent University

At University, my anxiety and cognitive difficulties just kept accelerating. I got my degree and scored well, but it was brute force effort, and life was absolutely shit. My anxierty made socialisng so so difficult, my self-esteem dropped to nothing (and still is nothing now almost 10 years later), life was so stressful.

I had tried so many things to help myself at this stage, diets, exercise, supplements, meditatiion, counselling, none of it helped. I bit the hullet and was prescribed medication for anxiety. After over a year, I couldn’t take feeling like a zombie anymore and my Dr weaned me off. Well, once I stopped entirely, I felt good for about a week, and then my anxiety returned far, far worse than EVER. I had just graduated and now was in anxiety hell, just when I was about to start working!

Many difficult years followed, trying different approaches. I got stabler and fought with every ounce of strength I have to keep progressing in life, keep working, keep doing well, God I white knuckled it every day for years through sheer brute force and an unstoppable will. Through deep insomnia, insane anxiety, panic attacks, fatigue, and poor brain function, I kept working, got 2 promptions, completed several certififcations, and kept trying to improve myself and my health.

Now, I’m 29, and have tried so much. I do feel better than I did a few years ago but am now where I want to be in my health. I am still quite anxious, still don’t have great brain function, and still struggle with low self-worth, self-esteem and have had issues really getting the life I want. Note that I have worked my absolute ass off since I was 11 (had 5 paper rounds at 11, worked 2 jobs at 16, worked through University and have taken less than 10 day off in my healing and improvement journey in the past 10 years).

There has to be a breakthrough at some stage. I will keep going with all I’ve got.

Mum’s Health History

She is from a small village in North India. She is a Punjabi lady and was really healthy and fit her whole life. She met my Dad (a British-Indian guy) when she was 22, got married and moved to the UK. Within a few years of moving to the UK from her small Punjabi village, she developed seriously poor health, she developed ulcerative colitis and almost died several times. She had major surgery a few times. Note thay I am extremely close to her, she is the person I love more than anyone else in the world, so watching her go through these surgeries as a small child made me the tough and resilient man I am today. She never quit no matter how bad things were, and they were bad I tell you, so I will never quit in my journey. She is an amazing person despite her poor health and it has been challenging for her for decades (she is 54 now).

Grandmothers Health History

My grandmother is awesome. She is almost 80. She’s from the same place as my Mum, and lived there until about 10 years ago. She left India to live in California with the rest of my family. She is on a few medications: arthritis, hypothyroidism. She has not had major health challenges like my Mum.

Curious side note: my brother is 5 years younger than me and has never had any health problems at all, is lean and fit, and doesn’t have a care in the world. He has a totally different personality to me, he is quite lazy and doesn’t have the drive I do, but is mostly calm and composed, whereas I am intense and always firing on all cylinders.

 

Looks like it would be worth looking into some testing. What tests would you think someone like me could prioritise?

I have got a 23%Me coming, hope that gives me something useful to work from.

 

Save $$, do not do 23&me until you have what I posted.
Or just forget 23&me if you are tight in cash.