Protein “bread”

So part of this anti-inflammatory diet is avoiding wheat/gluten (although rye is allowed) and increasing protein. My cousin passed along a recipe for “protein bread” for me to try. No wheat, just cottage cheese, oats, eggs, baking powder, salt, and pepitas or sunflower seeds. 

“Protein bread”

This is not bread.

It is heavy and dense in the worst way. Even toasted, it is still depressing. You have to put a lot of peanut butter on it to make it edible.

I put it into Cronometer, as I do with everything, and It doesn’t even seem remotely worth the effort in making it and disappointment in eating it?

Nutritional content of protein “bread” 

I have also gone back to sourdough, since fermented foods are a thing, and long-fermented gluten is supposed to not cause the issues that regular gluten does. So I also put a recipe for real bread with sprouted rye into Cronometer.

Nutritional content of homemade sourdough with sprouted rye

Bear in mind, that’s for two lovely, normal-sized slices, vs two sad wee slices of the protein “bread.” A lot less fat, and 3g difference in protein is not worth crying over—for the difference in fat, just have three slices of real bread instead of two. I will take the real bread any day! 

Massed Practice vs Planned Rest Days

So a while ago I was falling asleep, when the phrase, “massed practice,” popped into my head.

It’s from the Norman Doidge book, The Brain that Changes Itself, which I was somewhat obsessed with when I read it years ago. One of the case studies was an older man who had a stroke. Conventional therapy—one hour a week—was doing nothing for him. But working at it like a job, 8 hours a day, he got all his abilities back. The concept is  “massed practice”—continually working those neurons is what builds them up. Like any kind of exercise, I guess.

And when I go full-on with my various therapies, it is a full-time job, or more. The problem is, after a day or two, I crash, hard. I get nauseated. I lurch around with that on-a-boat feeling. I get brutal headaches. I just can’t keep going.

Part of it, I think, is that I’m a bit underfed—I’m trying this anti-inflammatory diet and between being restricted from things that I love and being bored with things that are allowed, I end up in a calorie deficit a lot of the time.

But maybe I just need to be more deliberate about planning rest days?

Weekend was busy; moved kid home from uni. Monday I did a lot, in terms of all my rehab stuff. Crashed late afternoon. Tuesday (yesterday) I did not do much (mainly walking and tai chi, and my vestibular stretching). Today I feel better, back to my full regime, and went just a lil bit farther and faster on the treadmill for my sub-symptom threshold cardio. Maybe yesterday’s rest is the key to today’s success?

My current daily checklist 

Weight thoughts

Okay it’s been a long while since I posted. I had a little break from routine due to minor surgery (again); maybe I’ll go back and fill in the blanks, but here’s a little update.

My DNS chiro has me doing some (very light) weights for strength and stability. Still working on my core moves (3-month supine with heel touches, 7-month quadruped planks), but adding in a minute of stationary marching while holding a 6kg weight to my chest, followed by walks alternating between a farmer carry (equally balanced, one 8kg weight in each hand) and suitcase carry (weight in one hand only, alternating between right and left). The idea is, you get your body accustomed to being balanced (marches, farmer), and then try to maintain form while being unbalanced (suitcase). I am not terrible at this, and have gotten a lil better with fewer crossovers (imagine walking a straight line; if you’re doing it correctly your feet each stay in their own track, but if you're me, they sometimes cross the line into each other’s tracks when I’m off balance).

Meanwhile, I recently came across this article on how strength training correlates with cognitive health:

After six months, some in the weight training group actually performed slightly better on memory testing compared to initial evaluation. Using MRI, the researchers also observed that compared with the people who didn’t do weight training, the exercisers showed changes suggestive of healthier brain neurons and less brain shrinkage in regions typically affected by Alzheimer’s disease. This implies that weight training may help delay the progression of dementia, according to the researchers.

Um, wow!

Of course, they don’t know yet why it’s happening, but it seems like worst case scenario, you end up physically stronger even if there aren’t cognitive gains. Sounds okay to me!