First turkey, Thanksgiving 2014

Two year ago Catherine and I ate Thanksgiving dinner at our favorite restaurant, Cafe Flora, and I felt like hell.  I’d been dealing with gut issues ever since August when I took some antibiotics for a prostate infection.   After doctors were no help I self diagnosed it as a candida problem so we celebrated Thanksgiving and then went on a hard-core candida cleanse the next day so I had a month from Thanksgiving to Christmas.   It helped but I ended up really sick after Christmas which began my whole journey into the world of SIBO.  Last year at Thanksgiving I was still not too well and had just suffered another relapse.   Still, compared to 2013 I was doing a bit better after finally getting a diagnosis, totally changing my life and treating SIBO for about 4 months with herbals.

Continue reading →

Back when I started Operation Bradley Cooper in August I had set an interim weight goal of 160.  Today I finally crossed that goal for real, my first morning weigh-in above 160!   This is huge, I dropped below 160 way back in January of 2014 and never got above it until today.   It is good to see a steady climb since July in my weight.  Now I just need to keep eating well, working out and things should settle out in the next few months to where my new normal weight is.   Hoping I can get enough muscle to get it back up to around 165, just want to avoid putting it all on my belly.

During my whole SIBO journey I did two stool tests to see what the heck was going on in my colon and I know all of you are curious about that too.   The tests I did so far were the Genova GI Effects Stool Profiles which are not cheap but were useful since the one in Sept 2014 identified the fact that I had a blastocystis homins infection, a moderate imbalance with too many pathogenic bacteria, too few beneficial bacteria and too low of levels of butyrate and short chain fatty acids (SCFAs).   I had almost no Lactobacillus or Bifido species and way too much m.smithii, e.coli, and a few other nasty critters.

Continue reading →

I just got back from a week of vacation in sunny Southern California where I took advantage of the perfect weather and did a LOT of walking and running.   I managed to run three mornings in El Moro Canyon for a total of 15.5 miles, Catherine and I did several long beach walks at Crystal Cove clocking in 22 miles and then just normal life and playing  with the niece and nephews on the beach or at the resort got us another 5 miles per day for a total of about 67 miles for the week.  I figured that I was probably going to come home down 3-4 lbs after my experience in OR and the North Cascades but I got home and weighed in at 161, up 2 lbs from when I had left.   It’s not like I pigged out while in SoCal either and I really didn’t have lunch the day we traveled home so to me this is a good sign that my weight issues are behind me and that I can just continue eating a good Paleo diet and probably keep slowly gaining until I hit my real weight somewhere around 165.    On top of that I made it through the week w/o any symptoms and even dined out at restaurants a few times during the trip and ate onions every morning with the breakfast hash I made.

Continue reading →