My Diet/Fitness/Success

[dale0607]

I was diagnosed in February of 2005. I was put on Asacol with frequent flare ups requiring prednisone cycles. In October of 2008, I deployed to Iraq. I know there's been frequent questions on here regarding working out, eating, fitness, etc and I've always been on the sidelines until I thought I could share something of value.

I'm 5'9 and have always been 160lbs through high school and up until 2008. I got into body building while I was in Iraq, taking a Nitrix Oxide Supplement, protein supplement, multi-vitamins, etc. I was able to reduce my 12 pills of Asacol a day (3600mg daily) to just 6 pills a day with my adopted lifestyle of fitness. I was feeling amazing. 1 year later when I left Iraq I was 200lbs of muscle with about 7-8% body fat.

After I left Iraq though, sadly, I was unemployed for awhile, started drinking and just stopped taking care of myself. My UC got worse and I had to start taking 6MP along with my asacol in order to get stable.

In October of 2011, I deployed to Afghanistan where I still currently am. I still take 75mg of 6MP a day with my asacol, however I have noticed that by getting back into the lifestyle of fitness and eating right that things are a lot better.

Another contributing factor has been a book by Dr. D'Adamo called Eat Right 4 your blood type. The combination of eating the foods that are beneficial to O Blood Types & my vigorous workout regimen. I'm back to feeling great. I contribute a lot of this to the Eat Right 4 your Blood type book because it also goes in to say that for my blood type, I need lots of physical activity to keep my levels of stress down, to elevate my mood and just have an overall good feeling.

I'm going to try to be more active on these forums to share my experiences and to maybe pick up things from other people in our situation. Please feel free to ask me any questions about anything. I normally don't buy into these books because they always have a "Flavor of the Month" feel, but this science just makes sense to me and it works.

Thanks

 

[Beach]

I've seen a few articles about the idea of eating for your blood type, but have not read a whole lot about the idea. I guess I could pick up the book for myself and learn how it works, but do you recall the basic concepts and how the author came to the conclusions that he did?

Congrats on the weight lifting gains by the way. I'm hoping this summer to hit 190lbs through lifting. Figure if I'm able to keep the diet I'm currently on working that shouldn't be a problem.

 

[optimusmog]

It's so good to hear that exercise and diet CAN make a difference. Congratulations on getting back into a better place physically. If physical activity can help you manage your stress and control your symptoms while deployed in Afghanistan I think we could probably all take a cue from you.

You said you were taking supplements and vitamins before - are you back on those? What was/is working for you? Did your eating program suggest anything like supplementing certain vitamins or minerals? I ask because I'm always sure I'm taking the wrong vitamins or supplements or whatever.

And of course I have to ask - did you find the diet hard to follow at first?

 

[dale0607]

Beach -
Well the basic concepts are different for each blood type, I'm O+. The O Blood Type is oldest blood type and dates back to Cro magnus. The Cro magnus was a hunter gatherer so red meat, certain fish, no breads, and certain fruits/vegetables are very beneficial for my blood type. What's your blood type and I'll type a run down for you on the do's and don'ts. The science behind it was just the history of man and how it coincided with blood types and technology at the time (hunter/gather, farming, etc).

Thanks, I intend to keep making gains and see the full potential I can do. I'd love to be about 200lbs.


optimusmog -

It gave me a lot of relief too when I saw my symptoms were dissipating without needing to increase my meds. It really surprises me that in the middle of being in a combat zone I was able to really influence my stress levels to drop because of my workouts. It goes back to being an O Type. Physical activity is required to keep stress levels low and to just have an overall good feeling. The supplements and vitamins I take are in my signature block. I don’t buy into the whole GNC garbage or “One A Days” they’re not a very efficient multi-vitamin in my opinion for what my body needs as a body building. I take Orange Triad by Controlled Labs, it supplements my joint, digestion, & immune system. I take 6 pills a day and I got it on special from bodybuilding.com for a buy 3 get 4 free so I’m set for a while. I notice a big difference with it especially being in Afghanistan where there’s crap everywhere. For my protein supplement I take Nitro Core 24 by Optimum Nutrition, 10 different protein sources for slow to fast burning proteins. I love it for the fact that I can mix it with water instead of milk and it still tastes amazing. Great for pre and post workout as well as to satisfy a chocolate or a sweet desire. One supplement I will be taking shortly, which I took in Iraq and had not been taking it here was Nitrix Oxide from BSN. It helps with blood flow and getting oxygen all over your body ( which is vital for being in Afghanistan where I am because of the high altitude ).

With any eating program, it takes getting used to the idea watching what you eat, but after reading the book ( I also have a mini-book to carry with me that’s a quick pocket guide for O types ). A lot of the foods I already loved eating, I’m a big red meat guy so when I found out that red meat is beneficial for O Types, I increased my consumption of it and noticed a big difference in my overall health. With having Ulcerative Colitis, I always figured red meat would be the worst for me because it’s said to be harder to digest. Not for O Types, we thrive on red meat and the evidence was apparent.

Coffee is bad for O Types, but that’s my one vice, I love coffee. I’m sure if I cut it out and went to green tea I would improve even more, but I’m not ready to give it up at this point, lol. So to answer your question about following a diet, I don’t really feel like it’s dieting. These foods are beneficial for O Types so they work as a medicine and a guide to getting your body in sync with what it’s made to do. As with everything, too much of anything is bad but there’s enough variety to not make you feel like you’re cutting yourself short. Lots of choices for meats, fishes, etc. All good stuff. My only challenger, being in Afghanistan, is that I don’t have access to the foods on a regular basis that I’d like, so I just have to make do. So I imagine when I get back to the States and I control what’s in my fridge, my health will improve so much more because I’ll be consuming all beneficial foods for my blood type. Just to give you an idea, I consume about 3000 calories a day to meet the demands of my bodybuilding work outs and I’m planning to increase by 500 calories to get bigger gains on my work out.

Hopefully this helps and answers your question, please feel free to ask 

 

[Beach]

Beach -
Well the basic concepts are different for each blood type, I'm O+. The O Blood Type is oldest blood type and dates back to Cro magnus. The Cro magnus was a hunter gatherer so red meat, certain fish, no breads, and certain fruits/vegetables are very beneficial for my blood type. What's your blood type and I'll type a run down for you on the do's and don'ts. The science behind it was just the history of man and how it coincided with blood types and technology at the time (hunter/gather, farming, etc).

Thanks, I intend to keep making gains and see the full potential I can do. I'd love to be about 200lbs.



Interesting, it appears we share the same blood type and eat a similar diet. I'm O+ I believe also. You'll have to forgive me, I'm not making fun of the mention of cro magnus or mention of past diets of our ancestors. When asked what diet I follow I often mention to others that I eat a paleo diet. I joke to myself though that this is not entirely true. I'm more of a modern man and eat a neolithic diet since i enjoy cheese quite a bit. :biggrin:

Along similar lines, as an April Fools gag Dr. Guyenet had a post saying he was introducing the Eocene diet as the optimal diet for humans to eat. :lol2:

"The Eocene Diet"

http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/2012/04/eocene-diet.html

It is interesting though on how people have been looking to our ancestors past, eating what they did, and finding relief from medical conditions. It seems paleo eating is the hot diet out there due to that, people finding solutions to chronic medical issues, heart disease, diabetes, depression, hypertension, obesity, bowel problems, etc. I guess it could be said that we are not only what we eat, but what is optimal for our health is what our ancestors ate also.

Thanks for the information. I'll have to pick up a copy of Dr. D'Adamo book and give it a read.

 

[dale0607]

Haha, the Eocene Diet. Also known as the Bear Grylls diet