What prompted my sudden decision to change my life? First, I’d like to say I never thought I had any hormone issues like low T - that was just something I had my doc check since I didn’t want anything hindering my progress. I’m glad I had the forethought to do that.
Honestly, the change occurred when I no longer had the mobility/flexibility to keep proper hygiene after using the toilet without having to take a shower after. The first day at the gym that problem disappeared. It was literally not a problem after my first workout and stretch.
Of course I’ve done half-hearted efforts at doing this change several times in college and before, but I always ended up over-training and getting shin-splints, going just a couple times a week and lifting too much weight.
One thing helping me is I don’t consider what I’m doing as being “on a diet”. I decided I was just going to eat as healthy as I can, feeding my muscles what they need. For lunch I went to a Mexican restaurant and I ordered Ceviche de Camarón and two shrimp tacos. I had the tacos and less than half the Ceviche. Had a few chips and a few saltine crackers in addition to the two tortillas the tacos came in. All in all I probably had too many carbs for my liking, but it had a TON of protein and was absolutely delicious. Its all about eating the best you can in the situation you’re in, without starving yourself.
Another requirement is preparation. I keep a lot of greek yogurt in my fridge in case I don’t get a chance to cook something and to add to my meals. This way it holds me over until I can get something substantial and I don’t have to get fast food because I’m starving.
I’ve never been much of a soda drinker so I have no problem drinking just water all the time. I felt like having a Monster the other week so I had one… no shame. Just be conscious about what you’re putting in your body.
Soda is probably one of the worst things you can put in your body because it is absolutely useless and provides no nutrition at all for the calories it contains. “Diet” soda is worse - tricking your insulin system somehow with chemicals. I try my best to avoid any processed foods with unnatural ingredients: this on its own is a great way to select food since it is already healthier than what most people eat and is (for the most part) naturally more nutritious.
[quote]vinny536 wrote:
First, I want to say thanks for sharing. I’m a little older but the same size with similar T levels and other health concerns. I’m still working through the stickies and not totally prepared to share my story here, but please keep this thread updated so I can watch your progress and learn from your journey. Good luck!
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Thanks Vinny. Go ahead and start your own thread/case after going through the stickies. If you’re shy about it don’t worry, you’re writing under a screen name and none of us know who you are. Good luck to you as well!
Felt good throughout the day, still do. Had a GREAT workout.
While doing HIIT walking/running on treadmill my boys decided to go hide as best they could… definite shrinkage and some aching. Not as bad now, but a bit troubling regardless.
Good amount of blood in my recent BM, nice and red so not too worrisome - maybe a broken vein or hemorrhoid I didn’t know about? Wondering if it might have anything to do with my Rx’s and supplements, especially the huge increase in iodine.
Currently taking:
Phentermine 37.5mg/day
Clindamycin 300mg 3x/day
T Cyp 50mg E3D
Anastrozole .25 EOD
Iodine 2.025mg/day
CLA
Fish Oil
Vit D3 50,000 IU per week
Mega Men daily
Have you started to have any side effects from the phentermine yet? I used that a few times before, and the side effects were horrific for me. No sleep, burned like hell to pee and sex was off the table because that hurt worse. On the up side it helped me drop huge amounts of weight in a month and I never felt tired. But that’s what amphetamines do.
If this is the first time taking it be sure to step off SLOWLY! For me I would half my dose for the last week and take my last pill on a Friday morning. I would pretty much spend the entire weekend crashed and exhausted in bed, but by Monday I was OK. The first time I took it I went from full doses to none and had to take sick days, I was falling asleep at work.
And i’ll be sure to tell my story, but it’s going to be a few weeks. My doctor keeps telling me that I don’t need the bloodwork I’m asking for. I’m working on finding a younger, sharp doc that isn’t looking for an easy road until retirement…
oh, almost forgot. Since I’m the same size, I know how painful the treadmill can be. Or chairs with arms for that matter. I find that body powder helps immensely! I like the non-medicated gold bond. I think it’s called “comfort plus”. It’s in a white bottle at most pharmacy stores.
Phentermine: No side effects for me, I hardly notice when I don’t take my dose for a day. The effects just don’t really do that much, except maybe speed up my metabolism a bit. Maybe I just got used to it and it takes longer than a day to get out of the system. Maybe you had a UT infection, possibly due to not enough water? I’ll be sure to taper it off though to avoid any potential crashes, thanks for the tip.
I use the medicated gold bond currently, never knew they had a non-medicated one I’ll have to check that out.
Note: last bloodwork (2nd draw listed on first post) for Testosterone, Serum (which was reported at 32) was incorrectly reported. This number was actually the Free testosterone reported with the wrong test name and wrong range (do I smell free labwork in the future?). Not sure what the actual Testosterone, Serum lvl was.
Got the labs back from last Saturday’s draw - can’t read most of it (was scanned and e-mailed to me by the doc’s office) but I’ll post what I can read and repost when I have a readable copy.
From Quest
TSH 2.46 (???)
T3, Total 73L (???) marked out of range
Testosterone, Total LC/MS/MS 186 L (???)
Testosterone, Free 32.0 L (???)
Free test is unchanged from 2nd draw (see correction in my update above this post), though it is two different labs and at least one week between draws. My first draw showed 189L (241-827 ng/dL) for total testosterone and this one shows 186 L. I guess this is the ballpark figure where I’m at naturally.
I can barely see the E2 test result on this pdf but I think it might say 24, maybe 34 - either way its not too bad for no meds, but I’d bet it would be much higher on TRT if I wasn’t taking Anastrozole.
TSH 2.46 (0.40-4.50 mIU/L)
T4 (THYROXINE), TOTAL 7.0 (4.5-12.0 mcg/dL)
FREE T4 INDEX (T7) 2.2 (1.4-3.8)
T4, FREE 1.0 (0.8-1.8 ng/dL)
T3, FREE 3.1 (2.3-4.2 pg/mL)
T3, TOTAL 73 L (76-181 ng/dL)
T3 UPTAKE 32 (22-35%)
PROLACTIN 16.3 (2.0-18.0 ng/mL)
E2 34 (< OR = 39 pg/mL)
TESTOSTERONE, TOTAL, LC/MS/MS 186 L (250-1100 ng/dL)
TESTOSTERONE, FREE 32.0 L ( 35.0-155.0 pg/mL)
VIT D, 25-OH, TOTAL 34 (30-100 ng/mL)
VIT D, 25-OH, D3 34 ng/mL
VIT D, 25-OH, D2 <4 ng/mL
So, looks like my prolactin is still high but not out of range - MRI results expected soon.
Estrodial is high, this was pre-anastrozole - currently taking 0.25 mg EOD
Both free and total Testosterone are low, but not as low as the last test led me to believe (they reported my free T as total T). Hopefully my E3D 50mg T Cyp injections are raising this value.
Let’s see what happens with your TSH now that you’re taking care of your iodine intake. It looks to me like your thyroid panel is shaping up nicely. Great news.
Prolactin is routinely driven high by high estrogen, so everything is making sense here, both for your previous and present result.
I reduced the kelp intake to two tabs/day (225mcg each) as a knee-jerk reaction to blood in my BMs but that is more likely from hard stool, probably from antibiotic and other meds. I started back up on my Metamucil to help things out and no blood yesterday. I’ll keep at the two tabs for a few days and bring the dosage back up if everything normalizes.
What condition are you treading with the antibiotic?
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Just trying to get rid of a couple deep, persistent cysts/folliculitis on inner thighs. Just finished the script off yesterday I’ll probably have to switch over to a different script to kill 'em off.
I’m ashamed to say that I fell off the wagon after getting laid off in April 2015. I moved and started a business and it is currently doing ok with 7 employees. Haven’t really worked out since the move.
I restarted trt early February. Taking losartan for hbp and test c 200mg/ml SC .25ml EO3. Not much effect noticed since then and blood work came back at 277 which is an improvement, but not by much (I think it was 214).
Will restarting Anastrazole increase testosterone results on its own or should I increase test c dosage too?