* Note: I will continue to update this blog with new information.
Previous logs will be "greyed" out (like this).
Date: 2008/04/08
Workout: Lower Body Weights @ Gym (2hrs)
BCAAs: 15g (after workout).
Results: Recovery was phenomenally fast. Usually with these huge heavy weights I do I'm dragging my ass for a week but with this, I was up and running in two days. I was amazed that I didn't have the usual "hangover" after the workout. It was first time to purchase and use.
Side Effects: Don't recall as I wasn't thinking about it at this time.
Date: 2008/04/11
Workout: Pilates Lesson 1.1 (1.1 = 1st week, 1st exercise) (1hr)
BCAAs: 15g (before, during, after workout).
Results: Noted increase in workout energy. Sweat more than usual.
Side Effects: Dehydrated mouth feeling, cotton mouth, restlessness at night.
Date: 2008/04/13
Workout: Upper Body Weights @ Gym (2hrs)
BCAAs: 20g (before, during, after workout).
Results: Huge increase of energy during workout, no fatigue at all. Copious amounts of perspiration compared to ordinary times. Recovery was fantastic, and felt "normal" in 2 days instead of exhausted even at 5.
Side Effects: Dehydrated mouth feeling, cotton mouth, restlessness at night, weird dreams.
Date: 2008/04/14
Workout: Pilates Lesson 1.2 (1.2 = 1st week, second exercise, etc.) (1hr)
BCAAs: 15g (before, during, after workout).
Results: Noted increase in workout energy. Sweat more than usual. Recovery was rapid, did not get sleepy at all afterward.
Side Effects: Dehydrated mouth feeling, cotton mouth, restlessness at night. Weird dreams.
Date: 2008/04/17
Workout: Pilates Lesson 1.3 (1hr)
BCAAs: None
Results: Noticeably Less than with BCAAs. Typical "instant sleepies" after workout. Tired next day, more sore than with BCAA, recovery slower.
Side Effects: No dehydration, no dry mouth, no strange dreams; i.e. no symptoms similar to carb overload.
Date: 2008/04/19
Workout: Mountain Biking 24km, 500m elevation (1hr 40min) / Pilates Lesson 1.4 (1hr)
BCAAs: 10g before, 5g during pilates
Results: No crash, extra energy when I thought it was time to give up the climb. Recovery was great as witnessed in tomorrow's ride.
Side Effects: Quite dehydrated while riding with metallic taste in mouth. Strange dreams. Cotton mouth next morning.
Date: 2008/04/20
Workout: Cycling 35km round trip to Starbucks in Fukui (2hrs)
BCAAs: 15g
Results: Lots of energy, with little to no fatigue from yesterday's exercise. I was surprised.
Side Effects: So far, dry mouth...
Date: 2008/04/21
Workout: Pilates Lesson 1.5 (1hr)
BCAAs: 15g
Results: Heat, sweat, energy
Side Effects: Dry mouth
Date: 2008/04/22
Workout: Gym 2hrs, heavy workout
BCAAs: 15g
Results: Heat, sweat, energy
Side Effects: Dry mouth, thirst
Date: 2008/04/23
Workout: Pilates Lesson 1.6 (1hr)
BCAAs: 5g
Results: Heat, sweat, energy
Side Effects: Dry mouth, thirst, very tired the next day (maybe from 4/22 workout)
Date: 2008/04/24
Workout: No workout. Testing BCAAs on passive day
BCAAs: 10g
Results: Rapid recovery from earlier fatigue.
Side Effects: This is very interesting... I feel quite hungry (which is a side effect of eating carbohydrates as well), and am finding that I need to urinate a lot as well. The guy at the gym who also takes this stuff told me that he feels he needs to go to the bathroom a lot when he takes BCAAS and that he always gets hot, and sweats profusely. The excessive insulin production can likely devour the sugars in my bloodstream causing me perhaps to have a "sugar slump" which might activate my body to want food. I crave meat and cheese and stuff like that, not sweets, etc. like most people because my diet has changed. But still, to feel hungry like this just 3 hours after a very big lunch of ground beef, vegetables, cheese, eggs, and salad is extremely unusual...
Date: 2008/04/26
Workout: Cycling with Masaki (100min up a mountain, along a ridge, and down to the cars)
BCAAs: 10g on empty stomach
Results: Lots of energy on the ride to keep me going. Core heated up.
Side Effects: Consuming then riding on an empty stomach (i.e. bypassing lunch and riding during that time when I had breakfast 5hrs earlier) was a mistake. I could feel the hunger and the sugar drop kick in as I was driving to meet Masaki. I felt some agitation and weakness as well but the "energy" was sustainable. It was interesting. We stopped along the way and I ate two franks and then was fine for the rest of the ride. Had lots of energy to do a ride that I haven't done since Autumn. Surprised myself when the ride was done that we finished in our "fast time range".
Date: 2008/04/27
Workout: Pilates Lesson 1.7 (1hr)
BCAAs: 10g on full stomach
Results: Core heat, sweat, energy. It was a good workout (bodyshape is definitely changing from this pilates).
Side Effects: I had no strange crashes I guess because of the food I consumed first. I feel better (so far) with 10g than the recommended 15g.
Date: 2008/04/28
Workout: Gym Upper Body (2hrs)
BCAAs: 10g on full stomach
Results: Core heat, sweat, energy. Quick Recovery
Side Effects: Weird dreams, dehydration, lots of urination, cotton mouth.
Date: 2008/04/29
Workout: Pilates Lesson 1.8 (1hr)
BCAAs: No BCAA
Results: Didn't notice much, but not as internally hot.
Side Effects: No dehydration, no cotton mouth, no weird dreams, no extreme thirst.
Date: 2008/05/01
Workout: Mountain Biking up my backyard mountain (1hr)
BCAAs: 10g BCAA
Results: Did well, got tired but got second wind that took me to the top.
Side Effects: Dehydration, cotton mouth, weird dreams, extreme thirst, quick recovery.
Date: 2008/05/03
Workout: Mountain biking with Masaki (2.5hrs)
BCAAs: 10g BCAA before, 5g after
Results: Had a lot of energy for climbing, and only crashed once, denting my shin on the single track that was too technical for me and my bike, but perfect for Max and his downhill bike.
Side Effects: Dehydration, extreme hunger (didn't eat lunch first), cotton mouth, weird dreams, extreme thirst, quick recovery. Gave same to Masaki and this is the first time ever that he experienced my "so hungry I'm going to puke" feeling. All he could do was think about food the entire time. In fact once I even heard him saying to himself (and he never talks to himself, unlike me), "Mmm... I love the smell of green. I wonder what kind of food green would be?" He was also saying things like my legs looked like very long sausages, and that he wanted to eat meat, any kind of meat. It was really funny because he isn't used to that, while I have lived with it for decades. Very funny. But as soon as we got back and had something to eat, that "puke hunger" immediately disappeared.
Date: 2008/05/05
Workout: Pilates Lesson 1.9 (1hr)
BCAAs: No BCAA
Results: Didn't notice much, but not as internally hot.
Side Effects: No dehydration, no cotton mouth, no extreme thirst, yet.
Date: 2008/05/09
Workout: Pilates Lesson 1.10 (1hr)
BCAAs: 10g BCAA
Results: Internally hot, plenty of energy for workout.
Side Effects: dehydration, cotton mouth, extreme thirst, very weird dreams...
Date: 2008/05/11
Workout: Cycling to Starbucks (2hrs round trip)
BCAAs: No BCAA
Results: It was windy and it was tiring, and it was cold....
Side Effects: No dehydration, no cotton mouth, no extreme thirst, but also very wiped out the next day.
Date: 2008/05/12
Workout: Gym Lower Body (2hrs)
BCAAs: No BCAA
Results: I was tired during the workout and got quite sleepy. This workout is "shorter" than the other one in duration, but takes just as long as the weights are much heavier.
Side Effects: No dehydration, no cotton mouth, no extreme thirst, but very tired. Had some trouble driving home.
Date: 2008/05/15
Workout: Pilates Lesson 1.11 (1hr)
BCAAs: 10g BCAA AFTER exercising
Results: Exercise went smoothly without but felt like it's been a while... has been! Almost a week!
Side Effects: We shall see ...
Date: 2008/05/17
Workout: Hike & Bike (Lake Biwako 4hrs)
BCAAs: No BCAAs
Results: This was an exhausting hike hauling our bikes up four mountains and then riding a few minutes between each where we could. I was totally exhausted when we got home, but didn't take any BCAAs. I expected leg cramps at night, but had none.
Side Effects: Tired, but not tired enough from preventing me from riding the next day. No leg cramps at night, no weird dreams.
Date: 2008/05/18
Workout: Road Cycling (2hrs to Ishikawa Kenmin no mori)
BCAAs: None
Results: I was quite tired after this one. I came home, did calf raises in the evening on each stair (total 150) on the way up to bed and my legs went crazy in the night. Must stop calf raises before bed!
Side Effects: Very tired the next day, but no "sugar side effects".
Date: 2008/05/23
Workout: Ura Yama mountain biking (1.5hrs)
BCAAs: None
Results: Cycling up my backyard mountain, and through the landslide areas. On the way down I stopped at a concreted area and slept in the sun for 30mins, out like a light! Very tired that evening.
Side Effects: No insulin-induced side effects, but very tired Saturday.
Date: 2008/05/25
Workout: Pilates Lesson 1.12 (1hr)
BCAAs: None
Results: Got very hot, and it was tiring, but perhaps because it has been over a week since I last did it. I love how that little bit of workout positively affects my body so greatly and throwing in the aerobic part of the circuit between the pilates mat work, is brilliant! One minute of "stop-frame jumping jack squats" X 6 and my thighs and my cycling leg muscles are screaming! It's unbelievable how much that has developed my scrawny (but strong) leg muscles right around the knees. I have muscling down there that is usually only developed after a season of hard and frequent mountain biking!
Side Effects: No insulin-induced side effects, did meditation afterward for 90 minutes and probably was sleeping for at least half of it..., ergo, I was tired.
Date: 2008/05/26
Workout: Ura Yama mountain biking (1 hr)
BCAAs: None
Results: Cycling up my backyard mountain. Did not go through landslides, but came back because it might rain. Beginning was exhausting and breathing hard, but once I moved into a continual stream of "presence in the moment", the time and distance were eaten up smoothly.
Side Effects: No insulin-induced side effects. Feel good
*****************************
End Research Data Collection
Conclusion: Branched Chain Amino Acid supplementation provides me with energy and recovery (maybe muscle building) while at the same time seemingly activating my pancreas to excrete insulin which gives me all of the bad side-effects that I have been attributing to the sugars in carbohydrates over the years.
This helps me to understand my body even better, possibly making a connection that nobody has yet done, and I plan to find some way to pursue this in the future and see if I can develop something positive out of it to benefit people in some way.
I will be continuing to take these BCAAs until the container is done, but not on a regular basis; only with the intense exercise that is followed by days of exhaustion. I also know that I must eat beforehand to prevent the "sugar nausea" that goes hand in hand with copious quantities of coursing insulin. And most of all, I will be careful. I don't plan to purchase it again.
Thank you for popping in and sticking with me on this.
I love you!
Cam
Whew!
ReplyDeleteI'm tired just reading this.
Good luck with your experiment, although i'm not sure what the expected findings or outcome is.
Do you intend to continue the BCAAs even if the side effects of restless sleep and dry mouth persist?
Also i'm curious to know if you've asked someone from the gym who uses it if they have experienced any of the same side effects. Are they common or is it just you?
This is interesting, Mou. Hope you'll be fine on this new regimen.
I love you!
Jen - Thanks for your comment. I am approaching this with an open mind and do not want to predetermine the outcome by expecting anything. I know I sensed some strange happenings that made me sit up and pay attention. I will continue with this long enough to be able to determine if the things I experienced can be repeated reliably with and without excercise. I don't plan to mention it to anyone at the gym yet as I have not collected enough data to conclude that the things I experienced are definitely due to the BCAA. I may have had a weaker constitution on those days, or maybe coffee or food disagreed with me, or whatever, I cannot say. But I do want to approach this professionally and not "jump to conclusions".
ReplyDeleteI have a feeling that when I ask at the gym there will be two schools of response. One will be the majority who are so oblivious to the fine tuning of their bodies because they consume carbohydrates in large quantities "for energy", and because they have followed the misinformation of nutritionists to the point where they cannot see anything else. When you "overdose" on carbs (and nearly everyone overdoses these days but doesn't realize they are) your body builds up a "resistance" or takes on a "memory" that becomes the standard so you don't realize what the actual potential is. It is like the medieval kings taking poison to build up resistance to being poisoned. It doesn't make them stronger really. This camp will probably not even notice any of these things I talk about because they simply don't pay attention to what their body is screaming, or their body is so drugged out from the sugars, that it is numb, like an opium addict, to any real sensation.
The other group will likely say, "oh, well, you just have to put up with that". I've heard that before. This is a smaller group, but they do exist.
Anyways, when I know for sure that there IS or IS NOT an effect on my body from these BCAAs that seem to correlate with similar reactions to when my body tries to break down the carbohydrates, then I will make my conclusions, and take the proper steps. But I don't want to shotgun panic either and just "assume" that these possibly random incidents were caused by the BCAA, and immediately reject it. It might actually work.
Or it might not. But when I paid the price for the container, I decided I would stick with it long enough to decide if it works for me.
Thanks for showing interest, Jen.
I love you!
So will you be trying a week without a workout while you keep using the BCAAs for comparison?
ReplyDeleteI don't know if I want to do an entire week feeling starving like this... But I will be throwing this in on the odd non-workout day... And probably also right before another heavy workout where I have had a good four days to recover. The day after the big workouts my body is in recovery mode, so I can't be sure I'm not hungry and craving meat because my muscles want the protein to build, build build!
ReplyDeleteSounds like you've got it figured out
ReplyDeleteI know we've already discussed this... but I think that raising your insulin levels like this for a long period of time could be dangerous. Hmm I wonder if you can do some research and find out how likely huge body buliders are to develop diabeties? I wonder if there would be a connection with them taking the BCAA and developing the late onset of the disease? Hmmmm (again) I know that body builders always 'carb up' before a competetion... I wonder if that has the same effect as the BCAAs, ie- raising the insulin levels, producing more sweat, the dry mouth.. etc etc.
ReplyDeleteInteresting.
Today was a weird day because after taking the 10g and no exercise I entered EXACTLY the same "situation" experienced when I carb-up now.
ReplyDelete* I couldn't concentrate.
* I wanted to do several things but accomplished none of them.
* I had a definite feeling of constant hunger for about five hours and couldn't stop thinking about food.
* I had the "so hungry I'm going to puke" feeling (still do even after a high protein dinner with lots of natural fat).
* As I was cooking dinner I went into that sugar low feeling where you start to get really tired, sluggish and actually sleepy.
* I was feeling frustrated and grumpy by the time Mayu came home.
To be aware, and present during this experience is very empowering because usually it just happens and you get lost in it. Eventually since we are now so aware of our bodily reaction to (I used to say sugar, but now I believe it is the insulin spike), we can catch ourselves, but usually it isn't to this extent.
I felt like there was another me able to watch me go through all of the side effects. It was very interesting.
I plan to do some research on bodybuilding, diabetes and the like. I also think it would be interesting to check out marathon runners because even though they may need more sugar than us normal people because they are overexerting their bodies for a prolonged period of time, just because they may require more sugar, does not mean the pancreas is going to work less. I think it will probably continue to function as it should, by pumping out the insulin, whether the body utilizes the simple carbs as sugar or not.
It is getting more and more intriguing as I look at this closely. This reminds me of the experimentation I did on myself with the EFAs at the very beginning nearly a decade ago. Fascinating...
Oh, another side effect... ever get this one: metallic mouth.
I seem to be doing that a LOT lately....
ReplyDeleteI'd be interested in learning more about that as well - I know most marathoners in the US carb-up like crazy, though I'm not sure about the Kenyans....
ReplyDeleteI'm done with my experiment. The results are consistent and when I don't have the BCAAs, and don't have the carbs, the body is healthy, active, yet gets wiped out from the heavy exercise.
ReplyDeleteConclusion: Branched Chain Amino Acid supplementation provides me with energy and recovery (maybe muscle building) while at the same time seemingly activating my pancreas to excrete insulin which gives me all of the bad side-effects that I have been attributing to the sugars in carbohydrates over the years.
This helps me to understand my body even better, possibly making a connection that nobody has yet done, and I plan to find some way to pursue this in the future and see if I can develop something positive out of it to benefit people in some way.
I will be continuing to take these BCAAs until the container is done, but not on a regular basis; only with the intense exercise that is followed by days of exhaustion. I also know that I must eat beforehand to prevent the "sugar nausea" that goes hand in hand with copious quantities of coursing insulin. And most of all, I will be careful. I don't plan to purchase it again.
Thank you for popping in and sticking with me on this.
I love you!
Cam
I have to admit, I'm kind of relieved that you won't be getting more - while it does seem to help your recovery, the way the BCAAs make you feel has been making me nervous!
ReplyDelete*hugs!*
Thanks for caring. Now if only Mr. Foreman cared that much!
ReplyDelete*wink*
*grins sheepishly*
ReplyDeleteDoes Mr. Foreman like sheep, too? Hmmm...
ReplyDelete