The Leptin Reset: Week 1 Results

As usual, I’m experimenting with ways to improve my health.    Over the next month or so, I’ll periodically cover my results from the Leptin Reset as described in Dr. Jack Kruse’s   It’s my July Health Project, with an option for the August Health Project.  If you’ve never heard of it, check it out at http://jackkruse.com/my-leptin-prescription/–he gives the details far better than I do.

Experience has taught me NOT to leave my health in the hands of physicians…even well-meaning ones who don’t accept “gifts” from pharmaceutical reps, a practice that in my career field would be considered unethical.  Even great doctors miss things–especially when their PPO’s or HMO’s expect them to listen attentively and  render a diagnosis process patients in 2 minutes or less.  With only 2 minutes to hear all the symptoms and make a decision (this according to physicians I’ve dated in the past), it’s just too easy to

pick the most likely cause and write a prescription.  If I’d not railed against flippantly distributed prescriptions in the past and doctors who were too busy running off to their next patient to hear what I was telling them, I’d be on multiple damaging prescriptions for the rest of my shortened lifespan and feel like crap every day.  Instead of medicating symptoms, I’ve gone after the causes, and that takes a whole lot more effort than writing a prescription or filling it or swallowing pills every day.  The result?  I’m feeling pretty danged good and my “numbers” back it up.

Of course, I don’t want to stop there.  I feel good and want to keep feeling good.  I also want to find ways to improve on how I feel and continually improve my quality of life.    At this point, I am already gluten-free, sugar-free, weight is stable,  BP in the 105/63 range, pulse steady and down.    And as long as I stay away from gluten and dairy, I feel daily as though I’m guzzling 5-Hour Energy drinks.    So what to do to improve next?  I’m still working on balancing hormones–particularly insulin.

For all my life, I have had to eat every 2.5 to 3 hours or else I turn frantically in need of food and allllll I can think of is food.  It’s a blood-sugar/insulin problem.   I’m always hungry and always fighting cravings.   So to reset and get rid of cravings, I’m following Dr. Kruse’s “Leptin prescription” for the next month or so to see if I notice any changes.  The foods are very similar to my current diet–mostly protein, healthy fats, and veggies but the difference is in the timing.   No more 6 little meals a day!

In fact, most of this week (week 1), I’ve eaten only two meals a day:  the Big Ass Breakfast within 30 minutes of waking and the Big Ass Supper around 4  PM.  I’ve done similar protocols before but I’m noticing a difference in following Dr. Kruse’s prescription more rigidly.

Here are the biggest differences after 1 week:

1. That Big Ass Breakfast (usually 10 ounces of grilled salmon or grass-fed ribeye) holds me well into the afternoon.  I am NOT even mildly hungry for 6 to 9 hours–and that’s a far cry from the I-will-eat-my-colleagues-if-I-sit-in-this-meeting-one-minute-more need to eat every 3 hours or having nausea and the shakes at the 4-hour mark.
2. I have few to no  cravings all day.  I am still getting some minor cravings around 11 PM if I stay up too late. I’m not craving sugar or carbs, though.  I crave protein or macadamia nuts.  This is the one place I haven’t been able to adhere strictly to the reset prescription yet and have on 3 nights of the past week had an ounce of nuts or 2 ounces of baked chicken.   Yes, I need to force myself to go to bed on time and I need to get through this night-eating practice that has for years meant keeping my blood sugar even and my morning fasting glucose lower.
3. I am surprisingly able to hold out on two meals a day (big-ass meals) or 3 if the breakfast if big and loaded with protein and then the lunch and supper are very light.  With the next work week being a stressful and busy one, I’ll need to take time out for a very light lunch and then make sure I leave work on time (even if I have to back later) to have my light supper 4-5 hours before bedtime.  No more waiting until 8PM to eat because I’m too busy at work.
4. I can tell a shift in my hormones.  Let’s just say I’m feeling ooh, so much friskier this week!  I’m also having crazy-wild dreams that I used to get when I was pregnant or otherwise hormonally challenged.
5. Other than the fact that dream-life is pretty vivid and that my 100-ounces of water a day means I MUST wake up for 2-3 minutes about 5 hours into my bedtime, I am sleeping very soundly and feeling refreshed in the morning.
6. I am having a slight headache, but I’ve had that for over a week.  This may simply be a result of the weather and mold-count (I tend to have allergies, though very manageable since I ditched gluten).  I also wonder if there’s pollution in the air from the Colorado wildfires as I had similar allergy issues when oil from the BP spill was burned at sea two years ago.
7. My blood sugar has been steady and close to my preferred range.  Morning sugar is still higher than I like.  Working on that.
8. I am down an inch in the bustline and in the hips in the last week.    When I showed up for my weekly TRUE BLOOD date with my buddy Tonya, she said I looked like I’d been deflated.
9. My weight is not only holding steady but I am down 2 pounds in the last week.
10. In the early afternoons, I am feeling a little tired.  That’s a surprise.  I’ll need to watch that.
11. My mood has been steady and happy all week.  See the picture from my mood app?  All those oranges are for excellent moods.   The one day with the yellow was for “okay.”  The external events of the day were frustrating emergencies in which the people I needed to be at work to get the job done were off celebrating the Fourth of July with family or friends.  It could have been a very stressful time, and while that particular day wasn’t euphoric, it WAS …”okay.”    Right now, my family life, my work life, my relationship, my social life, my home life, my creative life, and my spiritual life are all going just fine.  Perhaps my moods would be swinging wildly if they weren’t.  Or maybe I’m just feeling steadier.  We’ll have to watch this one.
12. My exercise has been relegated to casual walks and stretching/yoga for now.  It’s way too hot outside this week to do much more than leisurely walks.  I have done some gardening and furniture moving, enough that I’m sore.
13. I have three bruises, which is unusual for me.  One happened on the first day of the reset when my doctor accidentally gave me a black eye.  Another was from moving furniture and another from gardening.    These may be more klutz factor than anything to do with my eating habits.
14. I’m getting lots more light during the day and after sunset, turning down the bright lights in the house.  This does improve my desire to sleep…even if I still find great reasons to stay up and do stuff.

Bottomline, I am seeing some positive changes even after a week and some other things to be watchful of to see if they improve.   All in all, I am happy with the results after one week and most happy with not feeling like a slave to my food cravings from 9 AM until midnight every freaking day.