July 2024

I returned from traveling late last week. It was a wonderful trip. Good good, better friends, and some improvements for the next one. (For the record, the next big one is planned for 2025 to Essex, Massachusettes, where Becca and I met almost a decade ago—2025 will be a decade since we met.)

I took two week’s worth of seeds and protein bars with me. When we returned, I had about 4 day’s worth left. This was not only to save money on food while traveling but to ensure I maintained my protein levels and whatnot via MacroFactor. I’m still working through the expenses for the trip to see how much that possibly helped.

My body definitely didn’t appreciate being in the car for the longer stretches of time there at the end. (Becca was also feeling less than stellar, but these are mainly about my physicall health and wellness.)

Outside of non-exercise activities, there was a lot of sitting, standing, and lying down. According to WHOOP, I was pretty messed up. From July 3 to July 18 (15 days), I had 3 red recoveries, 7 yellow recoveries, and the remaining were green. Of the 180 days I’ve been monitoring things, I’ve only had 6 red recoveries, and 3 (half) of those were during this trip.

Since returning, however, I’ve had nothing but green recoveries, 9 in a row as of this writing.

Things that have changed:

1. I stopped sleeping under the blanket. Instead, I sleep under the top sheet (starting to change my stance on the utility of top sheets).
2. I haven’t taken any of the pill-based supplements I normally do. I was planning on starting again on Sunday (July 21), but with consistent green recoveries, I don’t want to reintroduce them quite yet.
3. I eat first meal shortly after the shower, and second meal is smaller because,
4. my new target weight with MacroFactor is 200 pounds, and I’ve reduced the quantity of seeds consumed.

As a result, I’ve been noticing that my stress level before bed is lower compared to when I would have the berry smoothie, some seeds, and a protein bar as second meal. Further, my stress while asleep rarely goes above 0.5.

This change in routine gives WHOOP a different set of variables from a journaling perspective, which is changing the insights regarding what contributes to recovery (positive and negative).

As of this writing, gluten-free and dairy-free are positive contributors, and meat is negative. Prior to the trip, turmeric and fish oil were listed as having a negative impact, and I stopped taking both. Fish oil shows it may have a slightly positive impact (plus 2 percent) on recovery, while turmeric still shows a substantial negative impact (negative 5 percent) on recovery. So, we’ll see what WHOOP Insights has to say when I no longer have a green recovery.

There are others (a lot) based on my journal entries, but these were the ones that stood out as interesting to me.

Becca and I are traveling.

We started from Louisville on July 3rd. We stayed at an Airbnb in Columbus with Katrina until the 8th. We did an overnight in Cleveland before heading into Toronto for another overnight. We stayed overnight in 1,000 Islands before heading to Montreal for Mysterium. We’ll head from here to New York, then West Virginia, before returning to Louisville.

I’m physically feeling pretty amazing. I need to keep an eye on my sweating and electrolyte intake. I’m also appreciating Canada a great deal.

Both of my big toenails are continuing to flatten out. Having said that, the toenails on the big toe, along with the second and third digits on my right foot, are pretty misshapen. I’m hoping it’s mainly caused by any fungus freaking out and splitting the toenail along the layers.

I haven’t experienced any more collapses.

Feeling good all around. MRI didn’t show anything unusual. EKG was also fine.

So, we’re chalking it up to vasovagal syncope.

I decided to get the HPV vaccine, given this is the final year I can do that. It might be overkill as the CDC says most folks 26 or older have been exposed; however, I don’t tend to appreciate this line of thinking as it’s not verified (or verifiable in some cases). None of my current or previous partners, to the best of my knowledge, have tested positive for HPV. As a male, I can’t be tested. And, as far as I can tell, there’s no antibody test. The vaccine is good for 5–10 years. So, if nothing else, I am hoping to raise awareness and maintain demand because, capitalism or not, humans are a use-it-or lose-it species.