Yeah, but doesn’t mean it can’t contribute to them too. Will be interesting to see what happens if/when you stop.
And I used to drink quite a bit of diet soda a day too, so I can relate.
I got a fitbit and it is really cool.
Um, that would strongly seem to indicate they’re at least partly tied to caffeine withdrawal.
I don’t think so - I go anywhere from six months to a year and half between outbreaks. When they first started becoming a problem (about 15 years ago or so) I thought I had a sinus problem, but eventually I was diagnosed with them by a neurologist. The caffeine in the energy drink just allows the Excedrin/Aleve to act faster (that or the Taurine in it helps for some reason.) Unfortunately there’s no “do this” for cluster headaches since people react differently to different treatments. I developed my routine in dealing with them after years of trial and error (Red Bull? No. Ice Coffee? No. Indomethacin? No. Etc.) And I’m really sorry for the derail.
I suffer from migraines, but cluster headaches are their own beast. They are something migraine sufferers look at and say, “wow, at least I’m not that guy.” They can go on for hours, even days at a time. They are debilitating in a way I wouldn’t even want to think about. I have a coworker who suffers from them and even watching his routine kind of scares me. A lot of it is intranasal injected, just to speed up how quickly they jump on trying to stop it. Otherwise they miss a window and can be in pain for days. I wouldn’t doubt caffeine helps that, though I’m not a doctor.Caffeine can be bad for me with migraines, and for normal headaches, to a point. But even there, it’s one of the more common drugs added to “migraine” style OTC medications.
@MrGrumpy I wish you well on the diet, and here’s hoping that weight loss affects your condition in a positive way.
You mention they tend to occur around solstices. Seems like they must be related to day night cycle in some way. I wonder if melatonin might help…
My personal migraine story is that I almost completely stopped getting them when I stopped drinking coffee and started using eyedrops on the regular (I now actually know what dry eyes feel like, which for me is usually a light tension headachey thing). I still get very little sleep, drink a ton of caffiene (black tea), and pretty much make all the bad choices I used to, but between those two things (who knows which one is more responsible), I’ve gone from having one maybe once a week or two to once every six months.
Some have reported positive results using melatonin - didn’t work for me, but it’s been a while and probably worth trying again.
Thank you! I’ve dropped five IBs (real pounds) since I began so I’m very encouraged.
A question if you don’t mind: You said you keep your HIIT separate from lifting; do you alternate days? Also, any days off?
I do not do HIIT on separate days. I do 3 days a week, period. Mon-Wed-Fri, or Sun-Tues-Thurs. Sometimes I double day due to scheduling. It loses the day off, but it’s better to keep at the gym than nothing. On days like that cut things to a percentage of normal weights on my lift.
The best advice I read was thus: abs are made in the kitchen, muscles are made in the gym. If you want to lose weight, consider your gym time as … gravy. Don’t count it. Consider it a bonus, but don’t figure it into your daily calculations. Yes, we all know it matters, but if you look at it as a bonus, you’re more likely to stop that bonus when you get to your goal or lose a few pounds, etc. Consider it as something like work. You do it, from now until whenever. It’s part of your life, not part of your diet.
Anyways, three days of week lifting for approx 35-40 min, followed by 15-25 minutes of HIIT on a cardio machine I can grab, usually elliptical. There are a multitude of programs out there for HIIT on cardio machines, but basically I started with my out of shape butt doing 2 min slow, 1 min max rate, really huffing. I’ve shortened my 2 min down a bit and lengthened my 1 min, but it’s basically a hack on your body. HIIT tricks your body into burning more during less time by making it think you were high intensity the entire exercise time. Doing it at the end of my routine means it’s when I’m normally lower energy, so be warned it can be tough.
If I was smart, I would do cardio on off days, but as it stands, three days a week for me at the gym is a good time trade-off.
In which Armando shamefully notes he can’t really operate an elliptical for more than about 3 minutes straight without dying.
Hey, we all start somewhere. At first I was just walking at work, then I decided to get a gym membership, and I started not even lifting, just getting on the elliptical for 10 minutes. If you go slow, you can do it. And they are a good workout, as there is both arm and leg movement on those things.
Baby steps.
But your diet is a part of your life, not a job. It’s a life style adjustment, not a bandaid on a wound that you can tear off in 8 weeks when you’re “all better.”
Yup! I started with 15-20 minutes on the elliptical, then added in my wife’s little baby weights (she has some really tiny dumbbells from PT.) As with most things, you start off not doing much because you’re level 1, but as you gain XP and level up, it gets to the point where you don’t get killed by a stray kobold, and you can really start to take on tougher challenges, like staying on the elliptical for 1/2 an hour.
Absolutely. It’s competing against yourself. Getting started is a huge accomplishment, regardless of what level.
EJ, I think that’s what I meant to say, but not in a good way. My implication was, “don’t just exercise (and diet) to reach your goal. Do it as part of the rest of your life.” Not a job per se, but it’s not like something you stop doing if you expect long term results.
A good read on that is here:
https://www.amazon.com/Diet-Fix-Diets-Fail-Yours/dp/0804137579
I dunno if I’m at kobold level yet, but I’m gaining training levels so that I don’t have to have a follower carrying my burdens.
I’m doing these two every morning (I do them at 5:00 a.m. I’m useless after work even though I’m sitting at a computer all day.) And yes the first one really is “moms into fitness”, but don’t laugh - when you’re level one you’ll work up a sweat. On the 2nd one i substitute burpees for the frog jump. I also added some medicine ball exercises and at least a farmers walk so all told it’s about 20 minutes to a half hour depending on how I feel. I found a 7 minutes HIIT workout I’m going to add tomorrow. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jru5B044HOs&t=193s) I
I also bought a medicine ball, bench, gym matt and two 20 LB dumbbells. (Turns out that’s a little heavy for my left arm, oops.) I also have a stationary bike where I do 2 minutes sprints flat out, rest, then 2 again (for 8 minutes) but I don’t do those every day. I have to figure out how to put this all together. I’m going to be moving everything into the basement so hopefully I can find a timing app for the kindle (40 seconds/20 rest)
If you are looking for a home workout app, you should try the new Nike Training Club app (both ios and android). It has plenty of good workouts and an interactive training plan too, that will grow with you. It has beginner, intermediate and advanced workouts. Most require no gear either (or minimal gear).
I am biased though, as I work on a very small piece of those apps.
Hey thanks I’ll check it out.
This seems to be the latest related thread, so here it goes…
I had my yearly physical coming up and was starting to get nervous because last year my fasting blood sugar went over 100 for the first time. The vast majority of the time since then I’ve eaten way too many sweets, chips, etc… Almost all of my meals are healthy - whole grains, fruit, vegetables, proteins but I overindulge with sweets. It isn’t unusual for me to eat 3 donuts, eat 16 servings of Lindt truffles over the span of 2-3 days, etc… Over the past year I’ve fluctuated between being about 25-42 pounds overweight.
Well about a week ago I decided to cut the garbage out. I can have a normal (moderate) serving of a treat each day instead of the 3-5 I’ve probably been averaging. I’ve only had 1 normal serving size of chips, which I may let myself do 1-2 times a week.
I’ve also been walking much more. I started having edema last year from sitting and standing in the same position for too long, so now every hour or so I get up and walk for 5-15 minutes very briskly. I also try to get a more intense cardio workout in 3-5 times a week (which I haven’t done for 3 weeks since I pulled my back). I’m also drinking more water.
Well, a week from Monday I weighed 214 (I usually weigh myself each morning first thing). I didn’t for a couple days and was 210. I thought, cool I’m probably carrying less food in my system since I’m eating less, maybe lost some water weight from less salt. Since then, I’ve been losing about a pound a day and was 205.6 pounds this morning. This is the lowest I’ve weighed in 6-10 years.
My edema has also been better. My guess is that by cutting out salt and sugar my body is retaining less water, and therefor I have less edema. I read that excess insulin in the blood from eating too much sugar causes more sodium to be retained, which causes more water retention. Still, I was concerned by dropping 9 pounds in just over a week without sweating out a ton of water.
I had my physical yesterday and got the results of my blood test. My doctor had added some tests because he was somewhat concerned with the rapid weight loss and a couple other symptoms I’ve had during the past year. Luckily they all came back normal and my blood sugar was the lowest it has been in 8 years at 93. Since that is supposed to represent the 90 day average, I’m hoping that if I stick with this I can drop it down more. In addition to cutting out sweets, I’m trying to be more aware of which “normal” foods have too much sugar and salt in them.
Sorry for the long post, but I was pretty excited not to be moving towards diabetes. I’ve been worried about that. I feel excited and motivated to stick with my change in eating habits and hope it lasts this time. I haven’t seen the less than 200 pound mark in over 10 years for sure and now I’m so close.