Vertical Diet Log | Introduction/Overview of Goals
Why I Am Choosing To Try The Vertical Diet
I came across this diet by accident while going down a Carnivore Diet rabbit hole on YouTube, despite knowing one of my close friends was already using the Vertical Diet.
I came across some of Stan Efferding’s Vertical Diet videos, who I already know is an amazing resource of information via some of his videos from years ago that introduced me to his content.
I’ve somehow never come across his Vertical diet videos, despite having been subscribed to his channel for years.
I started watching some of them and I liked how the diet was essentially a cross between Carnivore, and what an ideal healthy micronutrient dense diet would be.
I have no known autoimmune conditions (as of now), so going full blown carnivore seemed out of the question, and I have greater piece of mind knowing I’m hitting micronutrient demands, alongside my macros each day for performance and muscular recovery.
That isn’t to write off the Carnivore Diet though, as that is something I may explore later this year, or in 2019 once I’ve given this diet a fair shake.
Honestly, I haven’t included red meat for years in my diet, and it was largely due to how calorie dense they are (I can eat more food and achieve greater satiety via chicken and egg whites), as well as a misconception behind how clogged arteries and cardiovascular disease really occur, and a lack of connecting the dots between the fact that (anecdotally) cases of heart disease “caused by red meat” are typically coupled with insane amounts of inflammation and poor gut health caused by the ingestion of processed foods and other garbage.
Gut health has become a focus of mine, and that was also what drew me in, as that is one of the things this diet seemed to focus heavily on.
The thing that pushed me over the edge and had me decide I need to try this for myself was the mental clarity that has been reported by those on the diet, as well as an upregulation in Thyroid hormone production.
I have essentially abused T3 and T4 for years intermittently to artificially maintain a high-normal borderline hyperthyroid level, but it hadn’t occurred to me that this could be interfering with several other incredibly important physiological functions my body is not able to carry out without that natural secretion and conversion from TSH > T4 > T3 occurring in my system.
There are other functions these hormones serve outside the realm of purely maintaining your metabolism, and I didn’t take that into account.
Despite my reliance on exogenous thyroid hormones, my body temperature has been running fairly low for quite some time.
Granted, I walk around at sub 10% body fat year round, but for someone who is eating 3000 calories per day, I shouldn’t be waking up with borderline Hypothermic body temperatures.
I need to try getting off of Thyroid hormones and see what my body can do naturally when it’s completely maxed out.
Iodine, sodium, and proper overall electrolyte balance have been neglected areas of my diet, and this Vertical Diet seemed to focus strongly on ensuring those are completely maxed out on a daily basis.
My diet has never been bad; honestly to the average person they would think I’m the walking embodiment of health.
I have a solid body composition (6 foot 1 · 210 pounds · ~ 9% body fat), I limit my sugar intake, I hardly ever touch junk food, I eat lean protein sources, I workout 4-5x per week, I regularly do cardio.
While this is all good, if you aren’t hitting some basic dietary necessities, you will not be able to maintain a high quality of health in all aspects.
After watching about 10 hours of content strictly on the Vertical Diet, I decided to buy it and give it a try.
My Main Goals During The Vertical Diet:
- Upregulate thyroid function as much as possible
- Monitored via regular waking and midday body temperature readings, blood work, hair shedding (I can tell when there is even a slight shift in regards to this), and overall energy levels.
- Enhanced cognitive function
- Avoiding intense blood sugar fluctuation induced mental comas and hitting micronutrient needs should take care of this, but this remains to be seen
- Optimize gut health
- Pretty easy to monitor how well my body is processing foods. I will be also looking at inflammation levels in lab work to see how I respond internally to these foods
- Hit all micronutrient needs
Secondary Goals:
- Increase HDL cholesterol
- I have low HDL levels. I’ve had low levels for a couple years now actually, and I’ve just left it completely unaddressed. Adding in Citrus Bergamot and Cardio only helps so much when you’re on TRT and genetically predisposed to crap HDL levels. I’m hoping the diet can fix this. I will determine this by comparing mid-diet blood work to my baseline blood work.
- See how optimal sodium, potassium and water levels will impact body composition, performance and overall recovery.
- Sodium and Potassium are two parts of diet that I’ve never measured. I also never knew how misguided some of the information is on sodium. Much of it coming right from our own Government.
- I will be consuming 8 grams of sodium a day alongside my regular 1+ gallon of water I drink per day and monitoring changes closely
- Decrease resting heart rate and blood pressure
- My resting heart rate is about 65-70 right now. I would be a lot happier if it was closer to the high 50’s. My blood pressure averages about 125/75, although sometimes it goes as high as 129/80 at rest. I want to try and bring this down, and am hoping that proper mineral/electrolyte balance, HITT cardio, and the other parts of the diet will help accomplish this.
I am hoping that these secondary goals will be accomplished as a byproduct of accomplishing the main goals.
I have already taken baseline blood work, grocery shopped, and have started the diet.
I will be making regular updates here, and will keep you all posted on my thoughts as this diet progresses, and eventually post an overall review of my thoughts and if I was able to accomplish my goals I set in this introduction post.
The Vertical Diet Download:
If you want to try out the Vertical Diet for yourself, you can download it here: Vertical Diet & Peak Performance Detailed Program Notes 2.0
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