Chirp! 

March 8, 2004

I Put on Weight
    Last Friday morning, my weight unexpectedly hit 127.5 pounds. I was a little surprised, and decided that I would hold my weight for a few days to find out what it takes to settle into a maintenance diet rather than a weight loss diet. 
    I didn't exercise Friday or Sunday, although I ran two-and-a-half miles on Saturday. Saturday, I had a "blah" day... the first in months  Saturday night, my stomach even felt a little queasy... in retrospect, probably because of the three-week-old salmon salad I ate. (It had been refrigerated, and it smelled Ok and it tasted OK, but it probably wasn't OK.) So Friday, Saturday and Sunday, I ate a little more than I've been eating... not much, just a little. This morning, when I weighed myself, I weighed 131.5 pounds! Part of it may have been my water table, but part of it may well have been weight gain. What's significant about this is the extremely low calorie intake that it's going to take to maintain weight.
    Today, I've resumed a weight-loss diet, at least until I can determine where things stand.
Does This Mean That the Resveratrol Is Working?
    This raises the question of whether or not the resveratrol is causing a caloric-restriction metabolic response independently of the fact that my weight is about 30 pounds below my natural "set point". I would have thought that I wouldn't have put on weight again until I ate significantly more than the minute number of calories I've been eating., but maybe the resveratrol is enforcing this low-caloric intake requirement.
    Today, I received in the mail a free copy of a new book entitled, "The Anti-Aging Pill:  Is the 125-year Life Span About to Become Common?   Scientists Find the Genetic Switch for Longevity and a Natural Molecule that Turns it on.", by Bill Sardi [Here and Now Books, 457 West Allen Avenue #117, San Dimas, CA 91773], price: $19.95. It's an interesting book, with a lot of factual information. Mr. Sardi is a health writer who published an article about the Sinclair/Howitz paper in the August, 2003, issue of Nature describing the role of resveratrol as a caloric-restriction mimetic. He then contributed to the founding of the company, Longevinex, which is packaging and selling the new, biologically active resveratrol capsules. I was among the first 1,000 customers for these new resveratrol capsules, and Mr. Sardi graciously sent us free copies of his new book.
Problems?
    Three weeks ago, when I began jogging, I developed some discomfort in my left shoulder. By now, it's acting like arthritis in the shoulder joint. I developed this problem in 1992 when I was swimming a mile a day, and it soon went away after I quit swimming, so maybe this problem will also clear up, but I need to mention it. 
    Something I've been taking has been giving me intermittent diarrhea. It disappears when I change my diet. (Right now, it's gone.) It's looking as though it may be caused by eating too much fruit. (With a low caloric intake, "too much" can be somewhat less than it is on an "eat-everything-that-doesn't-get-out-of-the-way diet.)
Jogging
    Today, I jogged two-and-a-half miles again. I didn't push, and it was almost ho-hum easy. I'm running every other day because, as healthful as exercise is, it boosts your metabolic rate, and generates a lot of free radicals. Running hard every other day should maintain cardiovascular fitness, and at the same time, shouldn't be too counterproductive.
    My temperature today, just after jogging, was 94.1, or about 4.5 degrees below 98.6.
    So that's the latest word from Starvation City. (Just kidding! I'm not hungry.)