Since my last post, I've maintained an oil free, plant based diet (no meat, eggs, dairy, fish, nuts, or oils of any kind). For Omega 3's, I have flaxseed daily. For Omega 6's, I eat whole foods which contain more than enough to prevent deficiency. For B-12, supplements are cheap and healthier to eat than the animal products that contain them. I also ingest a multivitamin to prevent miscellaneous deficiencies of other vitamins and minerals.
On top of these nutritional supports, I've eaten only the following: leafy vegetables with a preference for greens, fruit, beans, and cereal grains. These ingredients, eaten separately or mixed together and topped with soy sauce, pepper sauce, mustard, raw sauerkraut, lemon juice, or apple cider vinegar are more than adequate for physical energy with no adverse health effects. My sole focus has been learning and maintaining a HARMLESS diet. Given the ingredients I've listed and the empirical literature repeatedly demonstrating the healthful effects of these foods, I can confidently say that this diet, when supported by B-12 and plant based Omega 3, is at least not going to worsen my condition.
That's more than I can say for the Keto diet charlatans who often don't even make money encouraging people to become nutrient deprived, atherosclerotic, and physically weak. I guess fitness buffs in their 20's have managed to prove that you can eat essentially anything before the age of 30 and lack obvious issues, at least for another decade. In my case, faithfully following keto for only 2 weeks was enough to have me suffocating in my bed. Plant based eating has SLOWLY reversed those symptoms, indicating I have an underlying problem that was objectively worsened by my insistence on bacon, cheese, and brussel sprouts as a sole energy source. Further, the whole point of going keto was to lose weight. Interestingly, the past 8 weeks on plant based nutrition have allowed me to lose 20 pounds while eating until my stomach is physically incapable of eating more, which is better results than I've ever maintained on keto, where I was always hungry, never full, and rarely sustained weight loss.
I have also become impatient with relying on merely food. I looked into nattokinase and serrapeptase, 2 enzymes that reduce thrombus formation in the arteries, thin the blood, and reduce existing blood clots. Along with these, I consume 6 grams of food source Vitamin C and 6 grams of l-Lysine per day to rebuild arterial collagen ala Dr. Pauling. I have felt occasional stabs of pain when a clot has come loose, followed by a few days of dull, healing pain. This has happened while resting, spontaneously, in different spots around the body that I remember being tender years ago, and may be a sign of slowly healing arterial damage I've inflicted over many years through intense exercise followed by an inflammatory diet. I've been lucky enough to start addressing the problem now.
Healthwise, consultation with medicine has revealed no signs of congestive heart failure in the blood, no electrical abnormalities under stress testing, and good blood oxygen under exertion. However, my blood pressure readings differ greatly across arms, indicating possible arterial dysfunction, and my heart rate takes an unusually long time to return to normal when elevated. I will be pursuing an echocardiogram to see if the heart is physically sound, and follow up with a pulmonologist and artery assessment as well in the next months.
Concerning martial capacity, I'm doing my minimal part. Given bouts of light headedness, I have been driving on surface streets and not carrying firearms, which is fine, because my knives will serve me fine if needed. My training has declined in severity, but I have focused more deeply on technical refinement. Further, when stress testing, I maintain similar output of power and have even beaten prior records. However, exercise is a different matter.
No matter how one eats plant based nutrition, it is not optimal for muscle maintenance and development. The body sheds any muscle not used in at least 2 days, and workouts feel more strenuous than ever. This is due to a vast reduction in protein intake. For the muscle that is retained however, it is a great diet for maintaining energy during exertion and reducing inflammation. I have developed a proportional physique for my frame with the minimal amount of musculature required to sustain my efforts, but workload has been drastically reduced due to easier exhaustion, and also due to precaution in the wake of the aforementioned arterial pains. Therefore, I now perform a kicking and 50 pushup workout Mondays, eating the Army for Breakfast on Tuesdays (100 squats, 50 pushups, 50 situps, running), hand balancing and kick balancing on Wednesdays, Bodyweight rows and hip bridges on Thursdays, and resting Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I also walk/run 3 miles at least twice per week and train at least twice per week. For the average person, this would appear more than adequate, but for me it is a drastic reduction in training volume and has cost me strength, size, endurance, and power. I have been forced to abandon overhead pressing, pullups, dips, and weight lifting, all of which used to trigger severe shortness of breath that could last up to 2 days. I've been resigned to only the movements I mentioned for symptom management and keeping barely adequate strength.
I will be maintaining the current regimen until December 22, when I will stop to evaluate my health and consider adding small amounts of meat in the form of infrequent weekend meals. The reason for having absolutely no cheat days until then is to give the diet and supplements the maximal impact on my health in hopes of avoiding further medical intervention. The data I've reviewed give me optimism that this approach may fix and protect far more than my initial symptoms, but it will need to be evaluated over a long time.
Update: Dr. Greger's Daily Dozen with the addition of cooked mushroom and raw onion is my current diet and is supported by empirical studies as a life extension diet.
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