Day 6

I thought I was back to normal-ish after last night's "fun," then I felt a certain tingle on my lip....
Shit.

Every so often I get a fever blister. Mine are triggered by stress and thankfully "treatable" with lysine. If you're not familiar with cold sores, they need arginine (an amino acid) to activate themselves and reproduce. Lysine (another amino acid) and arginine take up the same storage space in the cell, but arginine can be made by the body. Lysine is essential (can't be made by the body), so cells will kick arginine out of the cell to store more lysine. No arginine in the cell = the fever blister virus returns to dormancy.

Here's another beautiful thing about an all-animal product lifestyle: Beef, heavy cream, cheese, etc. all have a "high lysine ratio" (more lysine than arginine in them), so I no longer have to worry about dietary factors. Coffee is high in arginine, though, so I'm guessing yesterday's coffee fiasco + MCAT stress was enough to set this off. I've learned to keep 500mg L-Lysine tablets around the apartment, so as soon as I felt the tingle this morning I took 4 tablets. This evening I'll take another 2, and I'll keep taking 2 every morning and night until it's gone. The duration of my fever blisters is usually halved when I catch it early like this -- let's hope that stays true.

Breakfast
Bacon nom nom nom nom. What else?
~2oz heavy cream

Lunch
2 half-pound oven-baked hamburgers with cheese

Dinner
Man, they should prescribe MCAT studying for insomnia. I curled up on my couch for a "quick brain rest" after finishing a chapter of physics, and woke up 3 hours later. Oooooops. Anyway, right now, it's 9pm, and I'm still not hungry after the hamburgers (eaten at 4pm). By "not hungry," I mean "I'm still very full from lunch." 5 hours and I'm not even *close* to needing to eat -- if high-fat meals last this long, it'll be perfect for my eventual surgery days. Shweeet!

Midnight study snack
Sausage. While on the SCD (specific carbohydrate diet -- also for Crohn's; see intro post), I learned what seasonings to put in ground pork to make it taste like sausage. This Friday is break-from-MCAT-studying day, and I plan to post several recipes/how-to's of what I've been eating so far (examples: no-mess perfect bacon in the oven, college-student-budget "steaks" from bottom round roast, etc.). My goal for this blog is to make switching over to a meat diet as easy and foolproof as possible for anyone, even super-picky eaters (like me) or people who've never cooked a meal in their life.

Drinks
2, about 2oz servings of heavy cream
Water
Selzter water (ingredients: carbonated water)

Energy level
Back to normal. Well, the new normal, which is awesomely high and probably how 21-year-olds are supposed to feel.

Cravings
When I was preparing my hamburgers for lunch, I had a split-second non-specific desire for something "sweet." I think I miss the indulgent feeling of settling down with a box of cookies and a movie more than I actually miss the cookies. Weird.

Overview/Crohn's symptoms
Fever blisters suck, but my Crohn's seems to be fine. Excess lysine can cause stomach issues, so that might cloud my overviews for the next week while I kill this stupid cold sore.

I'm amazed at how affordable this diet can be. Example: the bottom round roast that I made "steaks" from? That was about $10, or $3.33/day [I ate on it for 2 full days and 1 night]. The heavy cream? $2.50/pint [lasted 3 days = 0.83/day]. Bacon? $3.25/package [lasts 4 days or more = 0.81/day]. Adding it together, it's about $5/day. Wow. So much cheaper than my days on the SCD.