Another New Member Intro

[Guest guest]

Hi, everybody--

My name is Liz and I'm new to this group. I've been CRONing for about

two years, but didn't know what it was called or that other people

were doing the same thing. I had spent many lonely hours plugging away

on Medline, trying to design an ideal anti-inflammatory diet in hopoes

it would help with my recent-onset severe asthma. And boy did it! I'm

in complete remission, taking no medications, for the first time in

over 3 years.

Then I in my searches accidentally stumbled across some CR web sites,

and realized: D'oh! I had done all that work just to reinvent the

wheel. Anyway, I'm really happy to discover fellow travelers.

I'm especially ecstatic to learn that low white blood cell counts are

a normal par for the course thing with CR. For several years, my

doctor has been watching my WBC count drop below 3 and lower, and

although the differential count remains normal, she's been

increasingly concerned and had me worried it might be something like

Lupus or a lymphoma. Even though I'm healthy as a horse and other than

the asthma, never get sick. This is such a relief, and such good

information.

I currently weigh in at 106 pounds, 5'4 " , 14.6% body fat (I get it

measured with a Futrex 5000 at the gym every 2 months). I lift weights

mainly for the sheer pleasure of getting stronger every day, but in

the process I serendipitously manged to correct a severe scoliosis by

building up the muscles in my back. I also dance, more for the joie de

vivre factor than the exercise, and because it's a great way to

structure an active social life that doesn't revolve around food.

I eat between 1100 and 1600 calories a day, depending if I'm in a

cutting cycle (losing fat) or bulking cycle (adding muscle--this is a

weight lifter's way of life). I'm constantly revovling through ~2-week

cycles, with a week or so of maintenance (1300-1400 cals.) in between.

I eat at least 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight except when

I'm cutting; then I kick it up to 1.5 g/lb in an effort to minimize

muscle loss (a " protein sparing modified fast " or psmf).

I had noticed that my asthma always got worse during bulking cycles

and better during cutting cycles, and that's what got me researching

the effects of diet on inflammation. I've tweaked my ratio of omega-3s

to omega-6s and added a rainbow balance of antioxidants and other

anti-inflammatory foods, and the results on my asthma have been simply

astounding to me. But there's still more tweaking to do in search of

that ultimate goal of " optimal. " I find the science stuff fascinating,

and the challenge of it all really fun.

Anyway, that's me. I'm enjoying reading all the intelligent

contributions here and slowly figuring out who's who. I've started a

fledgling blog called " See Spot CRON " at:

http://seespotcron.blogspot.com/

Cheers,

-Liz