This week was more challenging coming off the holiday weekend. It was nice having some time off with my wife. We just spent time together. I liked it. The weather seems to be changing to fall, which is my favorite season. The weather is comfortable, and we can wear sweatshirts again.
Source: The Longevity Diet – Victor Longo PhD
Lesson: There’s likely benefit from fasting or mimi fasting on routine intervals.
I really struggled with the tenets of this book. Bottom line – he is promoting a limited protein diet until around age 65-70 to avoid sarcopenia. His thinking was more in line with the American College of Lifestyle Medicine and Dean Ornish. Both really promote a “plant based” diet, but in reality they promote almost no animal protein intake. As I’ve been reading through Sacred Cow you find data that contradicts this. Weston Price long stated that the healthiest cultures relied on animal meats. My bias is I’m into the performance world and strength training. To promote an anabolic or growth state there is a necessity in increasing muscle protein synthesis. One of the pathways that does this is mTOR and this can be stimulated by the Leucine rich amino acid complexes. Leucine in isolation is not optimal nor is it the only thing that stimulates mTOR. The question that comes out of reading this – Am I reducing my lifespan with my current dietary decisions? Is it the food, is it the way we eat, is it the perception of what we eat, is this all mitigated by our activity? Does this diet translate across all cultures? What’s the optimal dosing of these fasts? I think his thought process that sicker people need more frequent fasting periods is probably correct. I also think this becomes increasingly challenging with the introduction of medications that replace insulin or promote insulin production and the risks of hypoglycemia. The popularity of time restricted feeds (intermittent fasting) as popularized by Jason Fung (Diabetes Code) antidotally seems to be beneficial. I’m not certain of if it’s better to used intermittent fasting/time restricted eating, water only fasting, or a fasting mimic diet in isolation or in combination with one another.
Other lesson: The failure of not reflecting in real time.
Not being intentional about the goal for a day and then taking time to reflect on what was learned can lead to a massive loss of productivity. Absorbing information passively will lead to growth over time, but probably at a much slower pace than taking the time to plan, hunt, then discuss the hunt. The purpose of these reflections was to take some time and think about my reading. I’m realizing that I may need to back down my goals for my off days as I’m currently falling short of my own expectations. This is also leading to a cycle of guilt and frustration.
Goal: write down my goals for the next day the night before.
Seeking Progress 