Day 10

Yesterday's post was short and sweet -- sorry. My MCAT study schedule is rather brutal. Isn't it kind of sad that I'm three months out and already studying like mad?

Anyway, two major notes and one personal "hmmmm, I wonder?....":
1. My fever blister has already healed. It was at its "goopy" (ewwwww!) healing stage by Thursday, had a nice scab yesterday (Friday), and was loose and ready to peel off around 11:30pm. That's less than a week with a cold sore -- I've had them about once every one to two years since I was three, and have never had one heal this quickly. Playing the doubting game: the immediate lysine dosage might have helped. But I've used lysine for quite a while, and fever blisters still usually take 2 weeks to clear up. And if the lysine was responsible, then eating an all-animal-product diet -- a diet high in lysine and low in arginine -- may be enough to permanently suppress the fever blister virus.

Now that would be an awesome and completely unexpected benefit to this new way of eating.

2. Apparently, I'm allergic to something in my old diet. My vote is on polysaccharides (complex carbs). Why? I (used to?) have horrible nasal congestion whenever I laid down, to the point that I needed "Breathe Right" nasal strips (they look like this) in order to breathe through my nose at night. After a few days on the SCD, I could breathe clearly; post-SCD, I was back to nasal strips. Day 4 on this way of eating, I noted that my allergies seemed to be getting better. It's not dairy (I drink cream now), and it's not just "sugar" (SCD allowed monosaccharides and select disaccharides -- honey/fruits/veggies/nuts), so I'm guessing I'm allergic to long-chain carbs. Interesting.

3. Personal musing: If fat allows you to go for hours between meals without being hungry and without experiencing any energy drops (see Day 6's lunch + dinner), I'm thinking this animal-product way of eating will really help on the MCAT. Theoretically, I'll be cruising through the 5-hour test with steady blood sugar and a body capable of going long periods without eating, while traditional eaters will be tossing back Red Bulls and munching on granola bars to try and keep from crashing. Wonder if it'll play out that way?

Breakfast
4 strips of no-mess bacon + grease
A "perfect" cup of coffee

Lunch
4 "Brown & Serve" turkey sausage patties. MCAT studying = too lazy to cook. =P

Dinner
7 oz hamburger

Hanging out with friends
2 hot dogs. I'm not even going to try and claim these are healthy, but they're better than donuts (I think?)
Drip coffee

Drinks
Selzter water (ingredients: carbonated water)
Water
Whiskey (shots)

Energy level
MCAT studying puts me to sleep. But see overview below for how I'm really feeling.

Cravings
Peanut butter. I used to live on Krema peanut butter. The only brand that tastes better in my mind is Jif, and Jif has sugar + a lot of outside oils in it. Krema is just peanuts.

Overview/Crohn's symptoms (done on Sunday the 15th)
MCATMCATMCATMCAT. Oh, I'm sorry. Physically, I feel wonderful. I was up until 4:30am hanging out with friends, playing video games + watching Burn Notice, and am amazed at how much more energy I have right now. The energy is hard to explain: it's not that I'm "hyper" (how sugar makes you feel), it's that I'm just..... not tired or worn out. Maybe it was the Crohn's draining me before, or maybe it's the fat giving me more energy (nerd note below). Either way, I'm loving it. I've also had no cramping, pain, headaches, lethargy, anorexia (not the eating disorder anorexia nervosa, but the plain anorexia where you just don't want to eat. it's a side effect of Crohn's), heartburn, bowel issues, stomach issues, or "issues" of any kind.


Nerd note: Each molecule of glucose (a carbohydrate) gives ~36 ATP. Each molecule of a 16-carbon chain of fat (palmitic acid, the most common kind your body creates) gives ~106 ATP. You can't look at the numbers directly and go "oh hey, fat gives three times as much energy" since there are other factors involved, but it is possible and entirely scientifically correct to say fat is a better source of stored energy than carbohydrates.