Paleo Diet - Day 105

Well, as with last week, I have some mixed results this time, also. On the good side, my weight is down by 4 lbs from last week, to 183 lbs. So, my total weight loss, so far, is now 50 lbs. That, in turn, brings my BMI down to 24.8, which puts me into the "normal weight" range. Even so, I will be letting the paleo diet run its course until I am no longer losing weight and my metabolism has stabilized and I'm no longer in ketosis. That will happen naturally, as my bodyweight reaches its "set point," or equilibrium, the point at which my weight is natural for my body. Whether that turns out to be 175 lbs or 160 lbs, we'll see, but, based on the amount of fat deposits I have left to burn off to reveal my abs, etc., I'm thinking my "ideal" weight may even be closer to 155. After all, I was a skinny kid and a slender young adult and remained so until I "bulked up" with strength training in my forties. Even then, I was still rather slender and my weight was in the 190s.

On the blood sugar front, I still haven't completely sworn off the weekend midnight snacking, so, of course, the consequence is that when I awoke at a bit after 10:00am, my blood sugar was still at 110. That's within 3 points of the top end of normal, though, so it is an improvement over last week. Even so, I need to discipline myself not to eat after 9:00 or 10:00 pm, even if I'm not going to bed until 2:00 am.

Where my blood pressure is concerned, it's still in the same general vicinity, at 128/81, which is pre-hypertensive. But, the good news is that my systolic pressure is down a point from last week and the diastolic is only up by one point. So, it looks like a minor fluctuation and not a growing trend, as I had thought it might be. Still, both figures need to come down and, quite a bit if I'm ever to quit using my blood pressure medicine and call myself "cured." I figure that won't happen until the paleo diet has run its course, by sometime in early November.

Meanwhile, after my post last week about the hidden sugars in Natrol's Cinnamon Extract supplement, I've checked the labels on all the twenty or so supplements I've been taking for years and found that all of them contain hidden sugars, salts and harmful chemicals! So, as of a week ago, I have completely discontinued use of them and I am now living supplement-free. So far, I have noticed no effects, good or bad. It is my opinion that I probably won't unless I start feeling better and my weight, blood pressure and blood sugar begin coming down more easily. Then I'll know I've done the right thing. After doing some further reading (I recommend Mike Adams' book, Natural Health Solutions), I'm convinced that most of the supplements we all take daily are not only not doing us any good, they are actually harming our health.

You can look forward to an upcoming series of articles exposing more of the lies the supplement industry (which is completely unregulated) have been telling us for decades. It is quite naive to assume that the people who make these products are any more honest and concerned for your health than the people who make harmful prescription drugs. In fact, in some cases, it turns out some of them are the same people. Think about it. Why would the FDA, which is unquestionably in bed with Big Pharma, keep its hands off the regulation of supplements? The FDA is paid billions per year by Big Pharma and it's no stretch of the imagination to suppose that the supplement industry's lobbyists are also paying big bucks to the FDA to keep them out of their business.