As always, this is not medical advice, and reading this does not form a client relationship with me - your health is your responsibility.
Today’s substack will include the following:
A final update on my six-week intuitive fat-loss phase.
Comments on the body, mind, and soul when healing.
My next plans.
Please feel free to skip to the parts you wish to read.
Intuitive fat-loss phase end of week six update.
On Monday, 7 November, I averaged 112.2lbs. So, I lost another 0.6lbs or 0.53% scale weight for this final week. That puts my overall scale-weight loss during these six weeks at 4.8lbs or 4.1% of my starting body weight, 117lbs. Dr. Layne Norton’s book, “The Complete Contest Prep Guide,” includes research showing we lose about 71.3% of weight from fat and about 28.7% from lean body mass.
4.8lbs -> 3.4lbs of fat and 1.4lbs of lean body mass lost during these six weeks
While I am proud of the result, especially given how not “stressful” this phase has been. This highlights how detrimental repeated fat-loss phases can be and why many who have been on the “diet merry-go-round” end up “skinny-fat” and need to build more muscle. Many spend most of their time in a caloric deficit instead of at maintenance. Like @wondwellness recently said on her IG story, “you are still making progress in maintenance… do not mistake maintenance with being stagnant.” My body is also ready to come out of this fat-loss phase, as my hunger signal is becoming more pronounced, and I have a noticeable response when I consume more food.
Comments on the body, mind, and soul when healing.
The primary reason behind not seeing maintenance as progress is many think they have to be “working” on their bodies, and they only equate a fat-loss or building phase as “working on or helping” themselves. Also, many have a skewed relationship with “control” - I have and am constantly fighting against this “basal instinct.” We almost look at our bodies as “misbehaving things” that we must submit to our will. This seems to come from the issue that so many are in their heads, not their bodies. Our bodies give us clues and talk to us, but often these things make our minds uncomfortable - or we do not know how to “deal with them,” have not paid attention to what a physical sensation means, etc. Then we think we cannot trust our bodies - especially if they “misbehave” to the point that we find ourselves with a “syndrome, disease, etc.” So we try to force things with our minds - I used to go all week and crash on the weekends. Eventually, my mind was unable to overpower my body anymore. I wound up with a 10-day hospital stay where I went from weighing ~130lbs to ~110lbs due to the massive loss of muscle I experienced, among many other issues like losing the ability to walk, receiving a chronic fatigue syndrome diagnosis, etc. 130lbs on a 5ft frame was already an explicit external clue that my body was not in a good state, let alone the internal symptoms of - postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTs), mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS), hypermobile Ehlers Danlos syndrome (hEDS), hypoglycemia that progressed to ketotic hypoglycemia, slipping rib syndrome (right where my current flexion-extension point is by the way), etc. Before I continue, 130lbs on a 5ft frame could be healthy depending on the fat mass to lean mass ratio - the issue is not the scale weight. Leading up to this, I knew my 130lbs composition of fat:muscle was not “healthy.” I thought the way to go about this was to lose fat first - enter ~ ten years of trying most “diets” out there and landing in a “restrict - overeat” cycle. Like many who are in this cycle, I did not overeat nutrient-dense foods, which led to a worsening health state as I continued to deplete my body of vital micronutrients, etc. - for example, vitamin B5 depletion within ~24 hours of fasting, which would explain why my fasting hypoglycemia progressed to ketotic hypoglycemia. And when I was in the restrict part of the cycle, as the calculation above showed, I lost a lot of lean mass without giving my body sufficient time to put on lean mass. The experience has left me with profound respect and reverence for my body because as I continued to try to overpower it with my brain, it held on for me. I am also amazed at the capacity of the mind to keep going when the body is struggling physiologically. I am leaving out the soul for now, but I think this is a vital part too. For many, when our minds seem no longer “sufficient” to force our bodies to be what we “think” they should be, we then go to the external world. We look for every course, protocol, mentor, etc., to tell us what we “need” and what to do. These things can undoubtedly be helpful starting places. However, I have found that the most important part is reintegrating the mind and body (also the soul). This looks like becoming interested in “symptoms” - both positive and negative. For example, if “guru x” says you should “eat, drink, or take y supplement” and you get brain fog, digestive upset, etc., after doing so, that was not what your body needed. This is regardless of whether “y” has “helped z-number” people. What matters is its effects on you. I do not subscribe to “healing crises .”I have found talking to many that they already know this intuitively. However, they seek “permission” to go about things this way. So take this as me permitting you to do so - listen for those threads your body gives you and slowly start unwinding them. At first, because we have been so “externalized,” this looks like just coming back to your mind - what are you thinking (try to separate what is you and what is external to you), how are you spending your time, etc. Then you will notice almost whisper-like feelings in your body. As you pay attention to these whispers, they will eventually grow louder until they guide you. I have found the limiting factor is choosing to trust them or not. Eventually, there is a balance between mind, body, and soul. For many, this may sound too “woo-woo,” unscientific, simple, choose your resistive response, etc. I understand; as I said, I used to look at my body as something I needed to control vs. something that was “me.” I used to think “I” was my thoughts, choices, etc. I was missing the other two vital pieces of “me.” If you are not “there” yet, please do not use your mind to berate yourself - many will go the route of demanding their body start “talking” to them vs. noticing the whispers, etc. Some things I have found to help reintegrate:
Lifting - not because you are trying to force your body to look like someone else or to escape what it is feeling (this is crowding out the noise), but to feel your body move.
Dance
Supine breath work - full inhales and exhales (especially without crunching other parts of your body - at first, I would tense my shoulders, legs, etc.) This is a component of flobility. If you are not ready to dive into flo, progressing to something like the stomach vacuum to strengthen your transverse abdominis (TVA) would be helpful - especially if you have: low back pain, are post pregnancy (especially if you have diastasis recti), hernia(s), a pooch belly/ a belly you think is too “large” for your scale weight, etc.
Keeping a food, supplement, medication, and “symptom” journal - you can use pictures, an app like cronometer, a list on your phone or in a notebook, etc. Note what you ate or took and about what time. Also, note any symptoms and the time they came on. After doing this for a few days, try to correlate what seems to be causing what and experiment with removing it, taking/ eating it at a different time, etc. I recommend adding things like where you are in your menstrual cycle, sleep duration and quality, steps, etc. You do not have to do this every day. And as your “body voice” becomes “louder,” you can “ask it” (you will understand what I mean when you are there).
Self-lymph massage, dry brushing, gua sha, etc.
Pay attention to where in your body you feel - emotions (name then when you do), music, etc.
List what you have overcome in your life.
Sit in silence with yourself - differentiate what your mind is saying and what your body is.
My body forced me to listen to it by “putting me out.” I have cried, yelled with rage, etc., during these experiences. They are difficult. Journaling, having someone to talk to, yelling into the abyss of nature, etc., to help “let these things out” are worth considering too. Also, consider the correlation to your prior experiences and where symptoms manifest in your body. Or where emotions and associated symptoms seem to be “blocked” in your body. The above discussion is not meant to minimize why many of us “leave our bodies.” There could be many reasons, from a significant illness where you think your body has “turned against you” to assault, etc. Overall, my experience and working with many is if these things are not “worked through,” eventually, the body will force you to work through them. As such, I recommend taking the proactive track, recognizing that the road may be rough and slow, but the journey is a worthy one.
Intuitive Maintenance.
I am going back to maintenance now that my fat-loss phase is over! Maintenance is my favorite place to be in if you have not realized it. I expect my scale weight to bounce back into the high 112s to low 113lbs due to increased water, glycogen, adaptive thermogenesis, etc. - this expectation is missing from many who go through a fat-loss phase. After, they see the scale jump a pound or more (depending on body size). This jump causes them to “freak out,” and they immediately jump back into a fat-loss phase. In my experience, the scale does come back down again and eventually settles around your new average. The same occurs when we “eat off plan,” etc. - we see an initial scale jump, then once we return to consistency, that drops back down to our average. Of course, we will always have normal fluctuations around our average, especially depending on where we are in our cycle. I will be at maintenance for at least a year. My overarching goal during this time is to progress more with flobility and build more muscle. Now for my long-awaited intuitive maintenance “guidelines” (most will look similar to my fat-loss phase “guidelines” ):
NEAT (non-exercise activity thermogenesis) - many have asked me why I tracked my steps, given this is about being intuitive with my body. This is a fair critique, and I will not be tracking in this maintenance phase. I will continue to be purposeful with walking and crawling. This includes a nightly walk with my family and different crawling variations with my son. The crawling has been great for reinforcing the access to my ribs after doing flo.
Food -
Prioritize protein - this looks like having protein with every meal and snack.
I do not let my hunger signals build up so much and eat until I am full (not stuffed).
I am present and mindful when eating; I chew my food.
I will continue to eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner and add a snack when needed.
Most of my increase in food will come from carbohydrates. This is something everyone needs to experiment with for themselves - some do better with higher carbohydrates:fats and other higher fats:carbohydrates.
Zone 2 cardio - one 45m bike ride a week. I will do more if I feel like it, but this has been the “norm” for me.
Movement -
Flo.
Lifting - I jumped into Paul’s most recent garage gangster’s meso because we are running a DC cycle.
Some primal movement and PA.
The most important part about my daily moving is having my son do it with me. Because if this, I regularly “miss” some of the above. However, it has been a significant piece of our relationship, and I want to instill in him the importance of being active and taking care of his body, even when life is stressful, etc.
As you can see, I prioritize the basics - there is nothing “special” that I do; daily consistency got me to where I am now and was truly lacking before I got really “sick.” Some have asked about some of the other ~daily “wellness” things I focus on:
Sunlight -
Morning sun in my eyes before the UVA rise.
Some sun around solar noon.
Evening sun as the sun is setting - this usually coincides with our walk.
And whenever my son and I want to go outside, to the park, etc.
Supplements - I get many questions about what supplements I take. This is incredibly individual and what I take now is not what I used to take. As I have said, supplements pulled me from “very bad” to “poor” health. These other things are what has given me my life, and I now only use certain supplements based on what I need. I “knew” I was healing when I could go longer between taking certain supplements. This is especially true of the B vitamins - I used to take pantethine at least once to three times a day (I was not able to drop dose) because I would wake up feeling like “I was hit by a bus” (a phrase my husband used to hear daily from me and was a metric for determining I was healing) and this is what resolved that. I have already discussed the rapid drop off in B5 levels when fasting, the need for B5 to not waste ketones, etc. I no longer take every supplement daily, yet the ones that I end up using weekly are:
Mushroom tinctures from Lifeblood (KATHLEENSTEWART for 10% off). Some days I will use progesterone and vit K2 as well.
Organ capsules from Life Giving Store, ancestral supplements, and heart&soil.
Cell salts
Honorable mentions are: Jarrow pantethine, Desert Harvest B complex - I drop dose this in water (dark container and away from the sunlight), tremella and Cordyceps Sinensis, pearl powder, collagen, etc.
Skin -
Body - Leven Rose Emu Oil, Organic darlings, and Kossma tallow.
I am trialing Saturee’s “skin care” line.
I hardly wear make-up, but when I do, Araza’s sample-size products have been great!
This list will seem like a lot for someone who needs to do more of these things or is not consistent. I always recommend choosing one or two things and doing them until they become a “habit” - that looks like incorporating them as another part of your day without much “conscious” thought in doing so; if you “have to do it,” then you’re not “there yet.” Also, the above may seem like a lot, but I stack many of these things. For example, we will eat, walk, move, etc., outside. Also, I do these things at home, so it does not take time to drive to a gym, etc.
Regarding supplements, I check in with myself throughout the day to see if I need to take anything. When I do use supplements, I typically do not take the entire “recommended dose.” Lastly, I do not always do everything above every day. Some days my energy is more “to do” and others “to be.” There are days my son and I spend hours in our “makeshift tent” talking. The overarching theme is that your body will guide you, so allow it.
Please let me know if you have any thoughts or questions about the above! There is so much more to say about the mind-body-soul; again, this, while “simple,” is not an “easy” process. Look forward to chapter 2 of Dr. Gilbert Ling’s “In Search of the Physical Basis of Life” next Wednesday!