The Lowdown on Tweak Week

As mentioned in my previous posts, I've decided to tweak my diet to see if it has any effect on what I suspect may be the start of osteoarthritis. Although a week is by no means a long enough time to tell if I can delay onset of full-blown osteoarthritis in a decade or so, I have already noticed a few interesting things.

My fingers feel better, but still feel a bit swollen in the morning. I use my hands for various gardening tasks that I am not entirely used to yet, so the lingering stiffness could be a result of that.

Food-wise, I have been completely compliant with one exception. For pappa's birthday, I made chocolate mousse with cream and dark chocolate (and eggs and orange peel, if you must know, and it was absolutely divine). I probably had the equivalent of 50 ml of cream and 20 g of chocolate, so not a huge amount. But I woke up with a slightly painful middle finger the next morning. Who knows, I might have been busy sleep-walking and giving the neighbours the finger, but my guess goes with the dairy. I am steering clear until my cousin's wedding in two weeks to do another experiment (assuming that cream is served, that is!).

Fasting for 16-18 hours, ie between an early dinner and a late breakfast/ early lunch feels ok, energy-wise. Going for walks, sprinting, working out and gardening before breakfast went well, although the heavier exercises were perhaps a bit slower than usual. Also, there were some issues with crankiness before brunch was served up, so perhaps 15 is the sweet spot. Or maybe maybe it's a matter of getting used to.

I have lost a bit of weight, around a kilo. Obviously, eating twice or at most three times a day will do that to you. Especially since my sweet/ snacking tooth disappeared with the dairy fairy. However, I still weigh more than I've ever weighed in my life, just 6 kg less than pappa (ah, the awesomeness of working out less and still adding muscle...).

I have a funny taste in my mouth, but I guess that is the usual early sign of ketosis.

I had some skin blemishes that disappeared within the first two days.

My belly is happy. Enough said.

So overall I'd say it's well worth prolonging the experiment to see how things develop. Luckily, both my parents are extremely indulgent, happily joining in the intermittent fasting and phasing out all non-organic meats and vegetables. I'm impressed with their patience. :-)