Gut week — #biotracking

Continue a series of weekly posts about my health and so called biohacking routines and insights i’m getting from mindful approach to my health

Disclaimer #1: purpose of this post series is fist of all to create a weekly routine of self-reflection for myself. Secondly it also might be seen as a way of sharing insights i’m getting from following longevity and biohacking routines with my friends. I’m practicing mindful approach to my health for a while already and recently realised a need in tracking and capturing insights as well as some mean of sharing it

Disclaimer #2: I’m not an medial doctor and all my practices, insights and recommendations should be taken with a bit of scepticism and even suspicion ;)

Disclaimer #3: Each post in this serious consists of 3 parts: (i) 3 reflections on week past — my health performance and fulfilment of past commitments (ii) 3 insights (iii) 3 actions for the coming week

(i) Last week. Diet: Relaxed intermittent fasting protocol followed: 1 day — 24+ hours, the rest of the week 14–16 hours of fasting daily. Diet heavy in fiber and healthy fat. Stable sugar measured 24/7: 3.8–4.1 mmol/L in the morning and only few spikes around 6 with a very quick normalisation (within 1–2 hours max). Couple of days with some alcohol intake (quality red wine only). Activities and mindfulness: 7 days of mediations 15–30 min a day Including 2 days following not only morning but also evening evening routine. 6 days of workouts with 3 days of really intensive training. Sleep quality is still around 80 measured by Oura ring despite good sleeping hours (around 7 hours per day) with serious drop after evening alcohol — to 69. Metabolic flexibility rate 13.7/20 measured by Lumen — not perfect.

(ii) Weekly insights:

• (a) 24/7 measurement of blood sugar gave me some better insights into how my body react to different exposure and first of all food. Even tiny amounts of bread give me major spike in glucose as well as sweet fruits. Other foods and even carbs have a very moderate impact on my blood sugar. Red wine turned out to reduce my blood sugar.
• (b) Constant 24/7 tracking of glucose turned out to be quite easy and educating. All results are very much expected but quite insightful to see and understand precise reaction of your body to different exposure. This is something I’d definitely recommend to do to understand yourself better. I personally plan to repeat over time — each tracker lasts for 14 days. Making it every quarter makes a lot of sense.
• (c) Fiber heavy diet looks very promising — feels great for gut, have a very good scientific support (really recommend to read “10% Human: How Your Body’s Microbes Hold the Key to Health and Happiness” introduced to me by Alex Pustov). In the end it tasted also amazing — i’m even wondering if my tiny friends from the gut are making me craving for raw broccoli ;)
• (d) Even thought alcohol (red wine) does not influence my blood sugar — impact on sleep quality and energy level the next day is devastating. Safe dose of alcohol is almost zero.

(iii) Next week commitments

• (a) zero alcohol week — not like i drink often and majority of weeks are zero alcohol anyway. But looks like it’s time to start to cut it completely
• (b) reduced coffee consumption — want to limit 1 of cup a day. Should be bulletproof.
• (c) recurring commitment on improve sleep quality: experiment with air in the room/ timing/ coffee consumption