User ivan - PaleoHacks.com

Has anybody here tried Seriphos?

2011-06-14T03:00:39Z

Disclaimer: I am not a salesman of that product.
Background: Very sleepy during day, but feel good during the night and most of the nights I have disturbed sleep. Going paleo helped a little bit, but I was still very sleepy during the day. Sleep doctor after multiple sleep studies told me its idioipathic hypersomnia. Basically he couldn't figure out what the problem was and told me I could take nuvigil. I refused. Life was getting miserable since I had to join internship at a new place and just couldn't stay awake during work, including the first day. They were taking us around and when I got a chance to sit down, I fell asleep. Had to do something.
I always suspected its a cortisol issue but the doc had brushed it away. Then I found this product called Seriphos which is supposed to contain Serine/Ethanolamine, no idea what it is. After reading a surprising number of positive reviews, I decided to try (mostly because I was desperate for help). I took one pill in the night but couldn't sleep well, it was clear it was stimulating me. So I started taking it in the morning and I notice that it makes a big difference, I am alert during the day and feel really good (sometimes too energetic), no more sleepy and I can 'think'. So my questions are:

Has anybody tried it?
It is supposed to reduce excess cortisol, but I thought my cortisol is low during the day and taking this seems to help me feel better?
Any problem if I take with coffee?
I generally take during weekdays and then stop during weekends, seems to work well this way. Should I instead be taking daily?

Why do some people have sweet tooth?

2010-12-11T19:18:40Z

I don't have a sweet tooth. I don't crave any food. Given a chance, I would choose spicy food rather than sugary ones. But what I don't understand is why some people crave sugar so much. Yesterday, while at the grocery store, I overheard a girl saying she came to the grocery store the previous night just to buy orange juice, and finished it in her car. I couldn't really believe it (I am male/24yrs). Is this genetic, or the way you grow up, or something else? My dad is similar to me, but my mom would enjoy an ice cream any day. One more observation - I always see that women crave sweets more than men. Why? (as I said I am just stating my observation).

What about Lactaid milk?

2010-11-15T02:22:39Z

Given that it doesn't give any digestion problems, how about drinking Lactaid (100% lactose free) milk to get some calories? I am consistently losing weight (and strength) and I want to get back my PRs and gain some weight..

How do you know you are in Ketosis?

2010-10-28T19:24:02Z

Its almost two weeks now but I never experienced any so called ketosis symptoms like 'metallic taste, tiredness, bad breath odor' etc. (don't know how many of them are true). So I am starting to wonder whether I am in ketosis at all!

Started off with very low carb (no fruits) for almost a week and since I have high cortisol, I figured out that medium carb intake is better. But till now haven't experienced anything weird. Life is just normal.

Do you know exactly what happens when you eat non-paleo food?

2010-12-22T20:27:18Z

I have been experimenting a little bit. I used to have two issues (among others) earlier when I was non-paleo. I used to wake up many times during the night and would feel extremely drowsy during the day. And I would also experience shortness of breath sometimes. After going paleo, these two problems slowly disappeared, with the exception that nowadays I seem to wake up few times in the morning around 6am. Once, I accidentally introduced gluten and the same night I woke up many times. I tried this once again (controlled cheating!) few days back with the same stuff happening again. So here's my list.

Gluten: Waking up during the night! (though no immediate digestion problems)

Diary: Shortness of breath! (nowadays I am trying to be paleo+lacto because I keep failing short of calories, but whenever I drink milk or eat yogurt I experience this immediately).

Rice: Stomach pain due to constipation! (this one's recent and is scaring me).

Note: Sometime back I had to eat rice when my friends had come and was traveling a bit, and slowly I started to get stomach pains. I then cut back all kinds of meat etc, and then started eating rice+yogurt+banana as bland foods. The pain kept going on for 10 days. I finally went to a doc and he told me this point: what happens when rice/bread is put in water? - it absorbs it! That was the reason for my stomach pains! Without realizing it himself, he told me to avoid all the non-paleo food items and he told me I could eat meat/fruits/veggies etc - basically the paleo template. Immediately I went home and prepared some ground beef and ate it even though my stomach was paining - the pain stopped that day!

I think the lesson is to know what exactly happens to your body when you eat food. Share your experiences so others might be able to keep an eye of whats going on with the food and their body!

Cortisol and low-carbs

2010-10-25T01:52:49Z

I started Paleo last week and apart from losing some weight, I don't feel any difference at all. I used to be sleepy all the time and I still feel the same. I am 24yr old male. I really think my cortisol levels are jacked up high

Sleepy throughout the day and sometimes feel very fresh before going to bed. I wake up multiple times during the night. I don't remember sleeping well and waking up refreshed ever in my lifetime, not even during my childhood.
I gained a lot of fat during my bulk, all in the abdominal region. Also I tend to lose strength and muscle rapidly.
Too much stress and poor stress handling ability. I constantly feel overloaded and so tend to skip social stuff to catch up with work.
Mindfog and verbal memory problems. I forget lots of stuff - names, places, stuff to do etc.

So I am assuming that my cortisol levels are high even though I didn't get them measured (but my sex appetite is fairly good and probably my glucose levels are good when measured last year).

I know it might be too early to judge any difference due to Paleo but I am mainly concerned about the carb intake. I have been doing pretty low-carb to begin with to accelerate fat loss (but I notice that I have lost some muscle too) but I read at few places that its not really good for people with high cortisol. So if anybody can help me: - Should I stop low-carb? - How to de-stress? I always have some nagging sensation in my mind, some sort of burden. - How do I even know I am in ketosis? I never felt any change when I switched to low carbs. To begin with, I was eating lots of lean meat but now have started limiting them and intake lots of fat.

Idiopathic Hypersomnia!

2011-05-04T00:47:47Z

I have always complained about feeling sleepy all day long (but somewhat fresh in the night) for almost ten years (I am male, 25 now). When I am sleepy, I just cannot control it (but I don't fall down like narcolepts). I thought that may be its a cortisol issue (high in am, low in morn). However I don't feel tired during the day, but plainly sleepy and my libido is pretty good. But there were other cortisol symptoms like I gained too much weight around the waist last time I tried gaining weight (while doing starting strength workout). So its confusing whether its cortisol or something else. After going paleo, I was somewhat better, but not fully cured. I finally took a few sleep studies and found out that I sleep well in the night (no apnea) but daytime sleep study revealed that I am just idiopathic hypersomniac, somewhat like narcolepsy. They made me sleep 5 times during the day for 20 mins each and each time I fell asleep within a minute. So the doc thinks its hypersomnia and I asked him about cortisol issues, but he brushed it out saying my electrolytes will be wacky if i had cortisol imbalance. So my question is, is there anybody with narcolepsy here? Is it worth taking medication? How far paleo has helped and what other change would you recommend? And could this just be a cortisol issue?

Answer by Ivan for Im too skinny! Is it possible to gain heathy weight on paleo?

2011-09-13T01:04:25Z

You sound like me. If you are very skinny but already have a spare tire, cortisol imbalance is very likely. You have a few options ahead - first fix cortisol issue completely, and so your spare tire will disappear, after which you will have to work towards gaining functional weight. But cortisol control is very tricky and generally tough. Otherwise another option is to start gaining weight (working out + bulking) while trying to keep the fat gain minimum. Yet another option is take it all slowly by just eating paleo and hoping that your body fixes itself, but I think that option is risky and too slow to remain motivated. I would personally prefer the second option, since its fast and gives a lot of confidence. I am assuming you will work out, because that will be a good way to gain muscle, and an excellent workout regimen would be to do Starting Strength. Robb Wolf had suggested in one podcast to do Starting Strength while trying to do GOMAD (probably a lot of whole milk, but not as high as 1 gallon a day, though I don't what he said exactly). I would highly suggest SS and milk+paleo to gain like 1-2lbs per week. You may want to keep track of your spare tire and other body measurements along with your weight gain. Then after a few weeks if you think your spare tire is too big, just try to cut your body fat a little bit and keep doing the cycles. At the end of the day you will have to figure out what works for you and it may be different from what works for me/anybody else.

Weird sleep problem

2010-12-26T17:39:08Z

I tried searching for this problem but couldn't really get to anything, so posting here. Whenever I am very excited or go to a new place, I cannot fall asleep. But that sounds normal, however sometimes, when I am very much involved in doing something and do it for several hours, and when I sleep, I can fall asleep but I keep getting in dreams what I have been doing. For example, if I play a computer game, that keeps repeating in the dreams. Some times I end up getting facebook or even math in my dreams. The same thing just repeats on and on and on and its very frustrating. As a result I keep waking up many times.

I never got it diagnosed (never saw a point) but I feel like I have symptoms of ADD. Most of the time I cannot concentrate well, keep switching around and stuff like that but when I am into something, the concentration is intense. That may be great, but I can't sleep well that night. Yesterday was one of them.

I know drinking chamomile tea or relaxing might help, but I never know when this thing is going to happen.

What is the greatest thing since sliced bread?

2010-12-06T03:11:02Z

I feel amused whenever I see that idiom. So here you go - whats the greatest thing since sliced bread? ;) [I know Paleo diet is a good answer, but post something else!]

Abdominal Swelling and elimination diet

2010-12-25T20:52:04Z

I probably have a distended abdomen, at least it looks like that to me. It looks ok as soon as I wake up but later on during the night it looks really ugly, as if I am pregnant (I am male, 24yrs). Also I keep getting problems with my stomach all the time. Was tested negative on celiac, but even before paleo, going gluten free was helpful, but didn't solve all problems. I am mostly fine for few weeks or months but once now and then my stomach gets really bad. Two weeks back I was having severe stomach pains which was due to constipation and I was eating rice but now I am back on paleo + lacto (lactaid milk) but again I am having some trouble for the past few days (slight diarrhea). I thought my sleep problem was fixed, but nowadays I keep waking up every two hours (and then fall back to sleep immediately). Also have very dry skin + lots of dandruff. Based on this suggestion, I feel I might have overgrowth of bacteria, especially because I keep having troubles with my stomach. So I am wondering whether I should start eliminating veggies? Does anybody have some guidelines? If I have to eliminate vegetables, can i include onions and sweet potatoes?

EDIT: I am still gluten-free and paleo (no rice). Just drink lactaid milk and eat cheese (recently). I would really like to use at least onions for my ground beef! Would that be fine? The first month of paleo was totally strict, no diary too, but the problem didn't go away.

Answer by Ivan for What is the biggest downside to being Paleo?

2010-12-23T05:59:58Z

Socializing and the lack of freedom to eat anywhere!

I want to eat to live but not live to eat

2010-12-17T01:52:00Z

I don't want to be constantly thinking about food all the time. Earlier when I was trying to put on muscle, I just used to eat all the time or think about what to eat, when to eat and stuff like that. At least now after starting Paleo, I don't freak out if I miss my lunch. But I still don't like to constantly plan about what to eat and cook it. I am a student and want to spend a good chunk of my time doing something I actually love doing (math!!). Sometimes it becomes very hectic and when I am in the middle of something, I don't really like to go home and cook dinner. IF would be great but I cannot stomach all the calorie requirements and I end up dangerously under-eating and losing weight. Ideally I would like to be able to eat outside and so I will have to include other food varieties. Unlike many of you, I don't live with my family and so most of my social life, which involves eating outside, is already cut off and I don't really feel happy about my status right now. Its a no-brainer that I should avoid gluten but what other ideas do you guys have?

Answer by Ivan for Modern paleos: How important is money to you?

2010-12-13T20:52:54Z

Its better to spend the money on good food than medicines! What say you?

Answer by Ivan for LDL goes rampant after 2 months paleo

2010-12-13T06:29:53Z

The following is just my experience and probably not an answer to your question. I am 24 male. Before starting Paleo, I realized I have high cholesterol, especially high LDL around 150. It looks somewhat genetic. As usual most of the people on the net say fat has nothing to do with cho blah blah but I did a low sat fat diet and my LDL dropped. Then I introduced eggs (not the free range though) and ate 3 per day for two months. Guess what, my cho was back to being high. So I found a direct correlation between my sat fat intake and cho levels. Now note that people here will tell you sat fat is good as long as they are healthy, so take all the advices with a pinch of salt and do some independent research and 'listen to your body'.

I am somewhat scared how my numbers would be now after more than a month of Paleo.

Answer by Ivan for Workout regime for a beginner

2010-12-11T07:28:24Z

"STARTING" STRENGTH. Period

Answer by Ivan for How many meals per day is optimal?

2010-12-11T07:27:05Z

0-10 meals per day

Answer by Ivan for Is spending too much time on the internet making you less paleo?

2010-12-10T07:59:11Z

Good point. Many people here on this forum, I hate to say, overemphasize on minor issues - like how to make the room 100% dark even though it is 99% dark and then spend two days researching over the internet for that. I have been there too. I say get the main idea and move on. Sure everybody is different and they have different problems for which I think doing some research may be great.

In the end it all contributes to stress, without knowing it. You always think about a minor problem and try to solve it, while missing the bigger picture and fun in the life.

I went to a doctor asking him to check my cortisol levels. He asked whether I have been doing lots of internet reading. I said yes and he told me to stop it since its not meaningful to read the internet one night and do the job of a guy who has had years of formal training. Whereas it might have been beneficial for me to have my cortisol tested, what he said definitely made sense. I have been trying more and more to drift towards a 'normal' life - to do my work better, spend more time in my hobby and friends etc.

I know this doesn't exactly answer your question but I wanted to put down this rant for sometime now.

In the end its all about the balance - don't get bogged down with minor details but instead go out there and play your game. Good luck.

Stomach pains (and relief from rice)

2010-12-03T02:12:26Z

I didn't have a single GI issue during the first 30 days of Paleo. To be honest, I didn't feel any drastic improvement like people claim here (and I didn't cheat). Towards the end, my stress levels from work were really bad + slight depression caused a bad stomach upset. (I have had exactly similar issues before due to stress). Its been almost two weeks now and the GI problems persist. Lately I have started to get stomach pains and it sometimes wakes me up in the night. So I did what I used to do before - give the stomach some rest. I ate rice + yogurt (low fat + easy to digest) yesterday and the pain pretty much disappeared (shocking isn't it?). I again started eating meat today and the pain is back. Could be that I am not able to digest fat. Digestive enzymes didn't help much. Basically I am looking for stuff to eat which is very easy on the stomach and do some fasting kind of gig to give my stomach some rest. Muscle loss is a concern for me so it will be great if I can get back on track quickly.

Answer by Ivan for is crab considered paleo?

2010-12-03T02:17:10Z

Yes, crab is Paleo.

Not satisfied with the results. What to do now?

2010-11-15T06:41:40Z

I have finished 30 days of strict Paleo diet but didn't really see the changes I wanted to see.

Sleep: Overall its better but I still keep waking up few times every night. I used to feel very drowsy during the day, now I do feel drowsy but not excessive. (I don't have sleep apnea). Possible cause could be high cortisol (I have lots of fat around my stomach too), but my libido is pretty good, so not sure whether thats the case. Some days I feel really drowsy after lunch even if I don't eat carbs. I don't handle Magnesium well..
Lost a boatload of strength and some fat. I used to squat around 185lbs (PR was 205lbs) and after dropping about 12 lbs of BW, I had to struggle at 115lbs today.
Bloating: I thought bloating will go away once I am gluten free. In the pm, my waist is like 2inches bigger than in the am.

I did Paleo to primarily fix my sleep and lose fat without losing strength but now I am stuck.

Paleo has also killed my appetite :( and made me extremely lactose intolerant. Earlier I could get away with some milk but today after the gym I tried half a scoop of whey protein and my stomach didn't like it.

I do consume nightshades like tomatoes and eggs in moderation but eat nuts daily. Should I cut that too? What other changes should I make? I eat 5000IU Vit D, my room is 98% dark and I sleep around 10-11pm and get about 8-9 hours of sleep. Few of the foods (like the nuts) have allergen information that they are packed in a facility that handles wheat. Should I be bothered with that? I didn't cheat even once.

Any help will be appreciated.

EDIT: I always had issues maintaining strength unless I overfed all the time. After switching to paleo I was mostly eating lean meats for sometime and then started adding fattier meats. Nowadays I just eat 80/20 ground beef. Also I have started with the eat grass-fed varities recently. Because I had many of the cortisol related symptoms I assumed I may have high cortisol and so didn't go very low carb. And I eat a bit of carbs in the evening (but it hasn't made much change to my sleep). My Squat form is pretty much good, I have had it evaluated many times before. I do starting strength but then recently I wanted to destress and so started taking things lightly and would go to gym may be 1-2 times a week. So definitely no overtraining. May be this contributed to loss of strength. Also as I said I wouldn't want to eat much so mostly have been going a bit low on calories which is another reason for the strength loss. But I am concerned nevertheless. And I forgot about DRY SKIN! It didn't change a bit (I don't take hot showers), my skin gets super dry and I have lots of dandruff. I thought it will get better but no luck with it..

Probably we evolved?

2010-11-08T19:19:49Z

I read a very interesting article about how, over a period of few centuries, the fishes living in caves of Cueva del Azufre have developed resistance to a particular toxin that was released every year for some ritual. They evolved over a period of few centuries but not over million years. So probably we evolved over the last few thousand years? I just want to know whether it is just 'assumed' that we didn't evolve.

EDIT: I am not suggesting we could have become fully adapted to grains, but I am just wondering whether we became a tiny bit more better suited to various foods..

Answer by Ivan for Need a Mentor for my Paleo Journey

2010-11-06T15:40:15Z

http://everydaypaleo.com/

Do the UVEX glasses really work?

2010-11-04T23:50:21Z

Do they really block blue light 100%? After searching through the website, I see that some users have merely mentioned that they have bought it without saying anything about whether it works or not. In contrast users talking about the glasses from lowbluelights.com have mentioned that it works wonders (here and here).

And how about cocoon glasses. One of it has 100% blue light prevention but only about 34% (one third) total light is allowed. Anybody has any experience with that?

Skewed cortisol levels

2010-11-02T17:23:18Z

I think I don't have chronically elevated cortisol levels but its low in the morning and high in the night. Essentially I feel very sleepy during the day and fresh during the evening. So should I not try to increase my morning cortisol levels and possibly decrease the evening cortisol levels. Taking steps to just reduce the cortisol levels overall don't make sense to me. I am in my third week of Paleo but don't really feel any change in my morning-grogginess and still keep waking few times during the night (but is probably shifting towards morning hours). Any tips?

Help me eat Beef..

2010-10-31T21:33:39Z

I used to be a vegetarian few years back. Then slowly started with chicken, fish and turkey. But most of the time I just eat turkey/chicken and so I am not able to get enough fat. Of course I eat guac etc but I would prefer animal fat. So I want to eat beef. Could anybody tell me which cut I should buy and post some very tasty foolproof recipe (so that I stick to it better)? By the way I have tried ground beef and found it was good, but don't want to be eating the same thing daily.

Answer by Ivan for What's your fantasy paleo halloween candy?

2010-10-31T17:44:27Z

Sorry but nothing.

Food related documentaries

2010-10-29T03:53:46Z

I just saw this another thread about paleo related movies and got me thinking about other movies, but in general related to Food.

The first that comes to my mind is Food Inc. which blew me away. Supersize me was iffy. I am going to rent King Corn and probably will see Babies if its any relevant. Throw in other documentaries/movies that you enjoyed seeing..

EDIT: I could compile the list below:

Answer by Ivan for How can we promote Paleo's health benefits in the public sphere?

2010-10-25T18:30:44Z

Paleo Hikes, Paleo Walks and Paleo Sprints (instead of marathons).

Should I look at the Allergen information?

2010-10-24T19:22:55Z

This is my first week of Paleo. I am not allergic to gluten but of course I am avoiding them. My question is whether I should avoid products that contain allergen information like 'processed in a plant that also processes wheat/soybean/milk etc??'

Comment by Ivan

2011-10-17T22:23:33Z

What did you tell your doctor to get the cortisol test? Did he/she just agree to do it when you asked?

Comment by Ivan

2011-06-14T03:26:46Z

Sleep was restful, but I think the effects seem to fade away and so after 5 days I stop it during weekends and start during weekdays. I think the combination of Seriphos at 9am + coffee + skipping breakfast has been a 'life saver' to me, for the past three weeks!!

Comment by Ivan

2011-05-04T15:56:25Z

no, nothing like that.

Comment by Ivan

2011-05-04T15:55:46Z

Thank you! Yes, he didn't say its narcolepsy, because I don't have cataplexy and he said I was not dreaming during the naps (though I was!). In any case, he suggested I could take nuvigil.

Comment by Ivan

2010-12-27T03:20:35Z

I am completely gluten-free.

Comment by Ivan

2010-12-27T01:38:41Z

ha, yeah sometimes I get too excited and can't sleep many days. Sux sometimes..

Comment by Ivan

2010-12-27T01:37:00Z

I now feel its pretty tough to keep traveling! Good luck!!

Comment by Ivan

2010-12-26T17:21:51Z

Thanks, but I thought Apple Cider Vinegar is just a myth!

Comment by Ivan

2010-12-26T17:21:29Z

I don't know man, it doesn't matter now. But yes, I might have additional allergies which is something I have to work on. But I have to disagree with your logic, if something quacks like a duck, it doesn't have to be a duck! ;)

Comment by Ivan

2010-12-26T02:48:07Z

no i was diary free for the first month of paleo but the problem was still there. I don't take any probiotics. But I eat yogurt these days..

Comment by Ivan

2010-12-25T22:28:26Z

oh I never stopped! I am still gluten free and paleo..

Comment by Ivan

2010-12-25T20:19:22Z

20 rep squat is not really great for mass gain. 5 rep heavy squat + deadlifts = ultimate mass gain. Also check out starting strength. Its the best, but not really suitable if you are going to do IF.

Comment by Ivan

2010-12-23T20:06:01Z

Exact same problem here, more pronounced in the winter!

Comment by Ivan

2010-12-23T20:05:38Z

for me its more time cooking!!

Comment by Ivan

2010-12-23T19:44:19Z

I am looking at 1000 or 2000 calories more than what I eat, so eating fat just won't solve it. I already eat 80/20 ground beef, use coconut oil etc.