Women talk a lot about the menopause lately, which is good, I guess. However, I am noticing a distinct pathologising of a biological process which doesn’t need to be much more than ‘now you can’t naturally have a baby’. And ‘hurrah, no more periods to deal with!’ I went into menopause when I was 39 or 40, so I’ve been menopausal for nigh on a decade. After the initial shock of mortality, I can’t say I have experienced any particular issues as a part of menopause. Aside from the cessation of my periods, I have never had any of the symptoms listed on the NHS page for menopause. (Or, to be more specific, I’ve never had them as a consequence of menopause.) I suppose the biggest symptom I have had, is a general feeling of gratitude to be rid of something which was always superfluous to requirements: I have never needed
On this week’s edition of Tank’s Continuing Dietary Adventures, I have good news to report. I mentioned back in September that I had started a strict ketogenic diet, as my HbA1c result still had not improved. I made the switch to keto on August 21st and by 1st September, my long-term (i.e. over a year) achilles tendinpathy had resolved itself. I can now run, jump, do the boingy-boingy exercise, and so forth, with no issues whatsoever. Unexpected win one for the ketogenic diet! (I haven’t actually had my blood glucose tested again, but I assume that’s fine now.) Another unexpected positive result relates to my neutrophils (a type of white blood cell). These have been on a downward spiral since at least 2015 when they were 1.8; by August 2023, they were down to 1.25 (the reference range is: 2 – 7.5 x 10^9/L). I just had them retested and they
I got some blood tests taken again to see if I had managed to improve my fasting glucose and HbA1c since my last test. Despite not having eaten a single grain of wheat, rice, oats, rye, amaranth, etc. for about nine months, neither metric had improved. I was still at the top end of a healthy range and was advised by the (private) doctor interpreting the results that I might be on my way to developing diabetes. The GP at my surgery just told me that I should lose weight and exercise more, which shows you how useless the NHS is, since I work out 4 times a week and am 171cm tall and weigh 54kg FFS. Anyway, this made me decide to follow a ketogenic diet: high fat, low carb, moderate protein. I am back on cronometer weighing my every ingredient which is annoying as hell, but is helping as I
I really cannot express the depths of my love of pig fat. I eat enormous quantities of crackling and would eat more if only I could get more of it. If you can sell me some pasture raised pig skin, please do get in touch. Weirdly, I do not like to eat pork itself, aside from some bacon with my liver and caramelised onions. Anyway, lard. Yum. Delicious and (if you buy pasture raised pig fat which I do) nutritious, as it’s also chock full of vitamins D, E, and A, and omega 3 fatty acids. Despite loving crackling (aka pork rinds) more than even lamb fat (*gasp*), it never occurred to me to do anything with it other than eat it. I use the rendered lard from my crackling to fry just about everything bar beef and venison steaks, as I think they taste better with butter. However, this left
Earlier this week, I was helping a woman with some basic calisthenics exercises in the park. She saw me doing some bar work and asked for help. She is eight years younger than me, and started exercising this year. She runs 4-5 times per week, including the park run, but she isn’t getting the results she wants, both in terms of how she looks and how she feels. Aside from the fact that she is running too much and needs to concentrate more on strength training to build muscle mass, the crazy thing is that she knows exactly why she is failing to meet her goal: her diet. She knows very well that you can’t out run a bad diet, but yet she still can’t stop herself eating loads of cake. (Her words.) Then she said that I must have good willpower. This really stuck with me as I don’t perceive