Female recomposition with IF - TMAD instead of OMAD - depending on your age/health?

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omad
tmad
female-if
edema
#21

You’re very welcome!

Yikes - sounds like you’re dealing with quite a huge hormonal/detox uproar and it’s worse than a little human emerging from your pelvis. I believe you, and you deserve a gold medal!!! :1st_place_medal::1st_place_medal::1st_place_medal:You’re birthing a whole new you. Some women on this forum - of differing ages - have reported severe bleeding during the first few months of keto. Just for the first few months, not longer than that.

All kinds of things are going on, including excess estrogen getting released from some changing fat cells and flooding your glandular system, gut bacteria changes, and detoxification of who knows what. This can wreak havoc temporarily (meaning, a few cycles). There’s also the chance you’ve got a fibroid?

Yes, there are herbal allies and foods and other remedies that can powerfully help you through this.

Good thing you raise pastured cattle - you must normally have decent iron levels with your intake of red meat. And right now you need plenty of iron. Floradix, the Swiss herbal iron supplement is also strong and great.

Yes, daily liver capsules can help you a lot - you need the renewed strength and energy that liver (and other organs too) gives. Even better would be your own farm’s raw liver, blended up/hidden in some kind of tasty smoothie (chocolate raspberry with all real ingredients?). Apparently raw liver does not have a strong taste and can be blended. I bet a few tablespoons of it daily would heal some of your symptoms real quick.

Conventional treatments for your symptoms include non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medications (NSAIDS), oral progestins, oral progesterone, hormonal contraception, and tranexamic acid (all awful imho).

Whereas the superfood Ginger is a potent herbal anti-inflammatory, an NSAID on par with prescription strength Ibuprofin. Works fantastic for severe pain as well as aches - and it facilitates functional circulation and moves the dysfunctional so the body can help itself. For severe symptoms, 2 capsules 3 x day a day is considered a safe dose according to many published studies on dosages.

Here’s a study on about Ginger and menorraghia:

http://herbalscienceresearch.com/abstracts/effect-of-ginger-zingiber-officinale-on-heavy-menstrual-bleeding-a-placebo-controlled-randomized-clinical-trial/

And this one is handy too

And, IF you have someone to help you and you’d like the TLC - hydrotherapy is a simple but powerful help for moving pain & toxins/congestion through functional circulation. A very warm footbath/soak for 15-20 minutes, whilst seated in a comfy chair, wrapped in a blanket and with your head covered to be as cosy as possible. Using a roasting pain usually works, and having a kettle of hot water very near by to top it off as the water cools so you can stay immersed for longer. Another option is to do hot/cold/hot - follow it with a colder water immersion, then do another warm water soak to create a huge flush that rebalances all your processes. You can also use essential oils in the water, or drops on a hankie that you inhale directly - Rose and Sandalwood cool and soothe the sensitive uterus and glandular system.

My own experience has been very different - my cycles got regular like clockwork for a couple of months in early keto, and were symptom-free - before the menopausal rhythm returned. Maybe because of having detoxed a lot over the previous years of sweat and mind-body routines, I don’t know, but it’s been a healthy and pleasurable experience (unlike my teens and twenties!). My own mother had her uterus removed at age 40 due to symptoms like yours - but she didn’t have keto or Ginger or bone broth! :purple_heart:

Wishing you any support you need on all levels!!! :crescent_moon::sparkles::sun_with_face::sunflower:

#22

OH MY GOSH!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! I am going out to get the ginger today! I have to say, the fasting, fish oil, and extreme Keto must have done something good too. Three days into the current period, the flow is half of what it was. After the last three months, I hadn’t dared to dream of being able to go outside the house for the first few days! I’ve gone out every single day. I think the ginger will help on multiple levels.
The cramps are almost non-existent, except for the right ovary area, which seems to be subsiding now. Didn’t even get a migraine—which is highly unusual.

Maybe though, its the adjustment to Keto- like you said. A few bad months, then things level out. I’m going to keep the fasting going, implement the ginger and see what happens.
Thank you so so so much for the articles and all that wonderful encouragement! What a tremendous blessing you are!!!

#23

You’re welcome so much! And - sounds like the wise body is sorting itself out just fine.

Takes a blessing to know a blessing, as they say! :star_struck:

(Jocelyne Slattery) #24

OMG, thank you! I have to look into the swelling more! Everyone keeps telling me to up my salt intake but I am feeling horrible! My ankles are NO LONGER ankles but rather extensions to my my calves. I tried drinking more water, less water, more salt, less salt! I am 51 and completely stalled for the last 8 months and I know I am doing this right. The whole protein thing has been eating away at me! Goodness, any -ANY advice you can give me will be welcome. I coach a few people and I am the one who is stalled. Again thank you!!!

(Jocelyne Slattery) #25

OMG, thank you! I have to look into the swelling more! Everyone keeps telling me to up my salt intake but I am feeling horrible! My ankles are NO LONGER ankles but rather extensions to my my calves. I tried drinking more water, less water, more salt, less salt! I am 51 and completely stalled for the last 8 months and I know I am doing this right. The whole protein thing has been eating away at me! Goodness, any -ANY advice you can give me will be welcome. I coach a few people and I am the one who is stalled. Again thank you!!!

#26

Well, in my view, there is no such thing as a stall. SO MUCH is going on under the surface (including bone density repair and microbiome increase - which mean gaining lean weight).

Yes, the water changes of keto combined with midlife female hormonal changes and possibly weather conditions (humid heat, etc) can make for sloooooow water clearing. It’s a unique process that will and does get better at rebalancing - at least it has for me, and I’m almost at the two year point of keto. It was wonky with enormous change the first 9-12 months though.

In addition to Ginger, helpful diuretics that move water are of course daily caffeine (I’ve consistently drunk either strong fatty espresso or fatty oolong tea), celery/parsley as part of meals or juiced and taken daily as a tonic, Butcher’s Broom capsules, and/or… white wine diluted with ice cubes or water and sipped before and during meals (an ancient diuretic).

TMAD + IF can also be very beneficial for helping maximize the body’s self help via hormone balancing.

And, when in doubt, remember what Nurse Cindy says about fat cells :smiley: :

Hope that helps!

(Jocelyne Slattery) #27

Thanks for the information. So true about healing, I tend to forget it :thinking: I have been at this almost a year and have stopped all meds for fibromyalgia. Focussing on the important stuff is important to remember. I do IF and some EF also. Again, thank you for the share.

#28

Wow, you’ve stopped all meds for fibro? That’s HUGE.

Sparkling-You-Rock-Graphic

(Jocelyne Slattery) #29

Yes it is HUGE. I am really happy and I know that this is SO much more than about weight loss.

(Kath Galvin) #30

It took almost a year for my body to consistently get into omad. I think I just had a lot of other healing to do. Now after 14 months, I feel like I went from being diesel to solar powered! Everything is getting easier.

#31

I’m trying OMAD now and willing to be patient to get used to it. Can you elaborate on what adjustments you saw over the 14 months?
Right now I’m loving it but my sleep is disrupted kind of like it is when I fast, so I’m up at 4 every morning, feeling very adrenaline-y.

(Kath Galvin) #32

I’m not sure what the adrenaline means. I started to stretch the hours of eating to a bit earlier each evening and later each morning. I now keep tea on hand if I get a hunger pang an hour before bed. I start my day with keto-aide (Water with 1 tbsn of ACV, 1 tspn pf magnesium calm, 1 tsp of salt, 1/4 tsp of no salt and a bit or lemon or lime juice).
Eventually I got to one meal, or sometimes one and a half meals a day. Building the omad muscle slowly to avoid pendulum swing of overeating has worked best for me.

#33

Thank you!

(PJ) #34

Mary, I’ve been reading on fermenting veggies and just got the stuff to start this. Something many people ferment is peeled ginger root. I just thought I would mention this, since it would bring your supplement into real food, plus fermented, kind of hit three ideals in one food, if you were interested. :slight_smile:

PJ

(PJ) #35

On the crazy heavy periods: my friend had this, and did a fairly massive ongoing dosing of evening primrose supplement, and said it helped. I know nothing else and am not recommending it, just thought I’d mention it in case a web search turns up more for you.

#36

Yes, it’s powerful! Maybe someday I’ll try it… :sunflower:

#37

Hi @SlowBurnMary, I have read with great interest, a few of your posts where you mention that you eat resistant starch. I have reached my goal weight and want to maintain now but terrified to start upping my carbs to 50g - 100g (scared I will regain lost weight). I have made up my mind to start maintenance today! I know that I should increase carbs gradually which is my intention and I would love to add in resistant starches - I bought a bag of basmati rice today (never cooked dry rice in my life). When you say 2 tbsp rice is that dry or when cooked? Also, I read that oats are a great RS but not when cooked? Do you know if Porridge would be RS If cooked, refrigerated overnight and heated up the next day? Also, is oat bran a RS? And then there’s dry pasta, is it the same principle as rice (cooked, cooled down and reheated? Sorry for all the questions and any advice is very much appreciated :blush:.

#38

Extra support for pre-maintenance and long term maintenance can also be found in the books Protein Power (by the Drs Eades), The Hormone Fix (Anna Cabeca, MD), The Art & Science Of Low Carbohydrate Living (Phinney & Volek), and The New Atkins For A New You (Westman, Phinney, Volek).

For RS, there’s 4 kinds (various posts on it here in the forum if you use the search bar). The 2 Tblsp I started with for RS was cooked basmati, then chilled, then fried in ghee. It MUST be chilled in order to harden/seal the starch, then it MUST be fried to further seal it so it resists the HCL in the stomach and makes it to the intestine. I chose basmati because I eat lots of Indian food and sweet ghee-fried basmati goes really well with any curry :slight_smile: I’ve also found that keeping my fibrous veg or modest fruit intake up is more support as veg/fruit fiber is a form of RS. I was sort of scared of backsliding when I started, as I love fried rice - however I love my LCHF/keto gains MUCH MORE, so I’ve had no trouble limiting my servings of RS (which is nowadays is usually 1/2 cup - a few days a week). I stay away from oats and wheat as I can’t imagine having tiny portions of it (I used to eat Papa-sized bowls of porridge, according to the Goldilocks tale lolol).

Study up on RS before you take the plunge. I think any ketoer/LCHFer who does it has to be 100% fat-adapted and have already broken any food addiction tendencies, etc. In addition, a number of paleo folks have gotten into gut trouble by wrongly supplementing with raw potato starch, etc. Also, some folks w/ autoimmunity issues or SIBO don’t have the right bacteria to break down the RS, so they have to weed and seed first (dietary changes and usage of probiotics/prebiotics) - some others consider RS an anti-nutrient.

Grace Liu PhD, in her How To Build A Warrior Gut work, has pointed out that RS’s good bacteria-feeding supports waaaaay more butyrate for the brain than merely eating pats of butter (which are only about 1/4 MCTs) - and that makes a lot of sense to me personally. It nurtures the growth of Clostridia. And apparently, butyrate production within the colonic environment reduces ammonia as well - which is beneficial for cellular health as it also facilitates apoptotic deletion of genetically damaged cells in the colon. Only horrible animal studies have been done on that front though. Colonic biology is very interesting, that’s for sure! https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15287679

The gut health RS fosters is such that may well be able to rid the body of cholera even! Oral Rehydration Therapy is used when people get cholera to rehydrate the patient until antibiotics can kill the pathogen. However, if you add RS to the Oral Rehydration Solution, the cholera often subsides on its own. This has been done historically with rice and corn starch, and goes back to pre-industrial medicine in some parts of the world. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1183348/

The science on the subject is still in progress etc - after learning from Dr. Liu and Dr. Cabeca on the powers of alkalinization and RS, I just rely on my n=1. I LOVE the noticeable mental & emotional boost when my lower gut good bacteria is happy - it’s not just mental equanimity, it’s emotionally supportive too in my experience (but is not a carb/sugar high type of thing). Being that we’re composed of 96% bacteria (or something like that) - makes sense that nourishing Clostridia can make a huge difference, especially in the complex and change-oriented female hormonal profile! Hope this helps :sparkles:

#39

I am your kindred spirit in relation to this :blush:

I will definitely do some research before taking the RS plunge, anyway I think I should start gradually increasing carbs from veg etc before adding in RS. Thank you so much for your detailed and informative reply and for giving me your time! I truly appreciate it :blush:

#40

You’re so welcome Gillybean! :blush: