[Isabelle]

I have been taking the hops in cereals and milk for weeks now. That digests xanthohumol to 8-prenylnaringenin. Xanthohumol is an anti-androgen and decreases IGF-1. 8-prenylnaringenin is the strongest phyto-estrogen in hops.

I've had a few small pimples, and lost some hair, judging by how much is in my hair brush. I promised myself to keep my program steady, and to repeat the flax experiment two weeks from now, but it's very tempting to up the hops now. I just took 2,500 mg instead of 2,000 mg.

Other things I could do is add another anti-androgen, or digest less of the hops by having some of it as tea on an empty stomach. The latter option is not attractive, since it would also decrease IGF-1, and then I would have to add something like L-arginine for Human Growth Hormone, which would increase IGF-1 again.

So I'll just spike hops to 2,500 mg a few times in the next weeks. If androgen symptoms get bad, I still have a stash of anti-androgens I never used. Everything else stays the same. My breasts look better than ever, so I'll stick to this program

[Isabelle]

Yesterday, I upped hops from 2,000 to 2,500 mg. Maybe that's too small a change to expect any immediate effects, but I'm a bit surprised that the effects are opposite to what I would expect from increasing phyto-estrogens: libido is more than good enough, I think clearly, and don't feel depressed at all.

OK, the sun is shining, and I'm one happy father today. My younger daughter, who had decided years ago to be a child for a little while longer, suddenly became a girl yesterday. She has a halloween themed party tonight. I helped her choose a dress and shoes, and helped her learning how to walk on heels. I also told her the tranny trick for a halloween party: while all the other girls are using their make-up skills to look horrible, be the one who's looking good. Halloween is the night when all the cameras are around

Halloween is 10 days from now. A 15 year old girl can achieve a lot in 10 days

[itsjust4fun91]

Lol, I must be a tranny at heart then.... give me heels, glitter, and fake lashes any day rather than green face paint!

[Isabelle]

Hi Mel,

Heels, glitter, and fake lashes: I bet you'd do great as a faux queen

It's 5 in the morning here. Woke up at 4. Maybe I'm more worried about the little girl than I thought

My mood and libido and thinking are all right though. I ventured up to 3,000 mg hops yesterday. So far, so good. But it's time to go down again. A few peaks over the next week will probably do more good than staying at 3,000 mg.

Today, I'm helping a friend move house. That's good exercise: lifting a box moves the tension high up in my pecs, near the breast bone. A question on PM got me thinking about my exercise routine. I see many women on the forum work out a lot.

"Long or strenuous" exercise, that is anything longer than half an hour, or heavier than walking, increases cortisol. Cortisol builds a "spare tyre" around your waist. Biking and pushups (no more than 10), swimming and yoga, Pilates and tai chi are OK. Running too, if that means jogging. Women who sprint or run long distances never have a wasp waist. Women who lift weights don't either. Some heptathlon athletes and 400 or 800 meters runners look good.

Cortisol is the stress hormone. The higher up in the organization, the bigger the "spare tyres" bosses have, regardless of age. In 25 years of living at the gym, I also found that the more I worked out, the bigger my waist got. So exercise is good, but sports isn't all it's cranked up to be. Once cortisol is up, it takes a three weeks vacation to get it down again. And it only takes an hour of weight work to get it up. I ran the Amsterdam marathon: I can tell you that's a stressful experience too.

The women in the thread "The Maca Root Users" on the forum of blackhairmedia.com
http://forum.blackhairmedia.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=148128&title=the-maca-root-users
do a lot of glute exercises, like squats, lunges, and donkey kicks. Those are OK, if they are not part of a long, heavy workout. Better still: use the stairs instead of the elevator. Any exercise at high intensity increases cortisol. Being fit and healthy is more about reducing the number of sedentary hours, than about top sports.

John Pilates found that if you want a muscle to grow, you have to work it again between 48 and 96 hours later. I assume the same goes for NBE, because you do the exercise for Human Growth Hormone. So I schedule 4 walks of half an hour every other day (get off the bus a stop early). On the days in between, I do things that work other muscles, like helping a friend move, or gardening.

It's hard to get enough exercise, given the above limitations. That's why I schedule 4 walks in a day. But I'm afraid my favorite workout, Les Mills' Bodypump, is over, if I'm serious about slimming my waist.

There is a way out, for those who love both NBE and working out. Insulin and cortisol can create an upward spiral that ends in obesity. So in theory, people with low insulin can tolerate more cortisol. So a low carb diet and working out can be a good combination. Herbs that increase insulin sensitivity help too. I believe goat's rue is more effective than fenugreek at keeping insulin low. I may try nigella sativa too. I know one of those will help me to get more exercise, without growing a gut like you see them in strongmen competitions

[Miss Vanity]

Phew! I got scared for a bit. So a somewhat intense workout is ok as long as you keep your insulin down?

[Isabelle]

Hi miss Vanity,

Grab the tape. Measure the smallest size around your waist, and the widest size around your hips or butt. Divide the waist size by the widest size. That's your waist Hip Ratio (WHR). If WHR is below .7, you're OK. If it's above .7, you need to do something about either insulin or cortisol.

[Isabelle]

Today, I dropped my hops dose to 2,000 mg again. I did take a much higher maca dose than usual, because I had trouble waking up after being awake for 22 hours yesterday. Libido went sky high, and I'm still awake. I want to normalize my rhythm as soon as possible.

I drove my elder daughter, her boyfriend and a friend of theirs to my favorite oriental supermarket. A Russian supermarket opened right next to it. They sell an oil from badgers - the animals - as a supplement, no idea what for. We also went to the Islamic markets across the street. Lots of new herbs and supplements I didn't know about yet. My daughter's boyfriend could spell out for me that "vingrik" probably means fenugreek (fenegriek in Dutch), and I could tell by the look of the seeds that it does.

Maybe I should just ask those people what herbs are used for NBE. Some herbal knowledge just hasn't reached the web yet.

[Isabelle]

I have low energy this morning. I went back to my normal dose of maca flour: one heaped teaspoon. Yesterday, I took four. I hope the energy level sorts itself out now.

But it's also OK to be tired after the two days I just had: helping a friend move and taking three students shopping in a street full of exotic supermarkets. Relaxing is probably the best thing to do now.

The experiment before the increase of maca was the increase of hops. That went a lot better. There are more and more indications that increasing phyto-estrogens would work well. As soon as the energy is back, I'll try again. I didn't measure, but my breasts felt fuller. See if it happens again

[Isabelle]

Nothing like some dance practice to get my energy up again. And some good music (why is there no Gemma Ray recording of "Please mr. Jailer" yet?)

So I just upped hops from 2,000 mg to 2,500 mg again. Next Monday is tape day, so I have time for two more phyto-estrogen peaks, upping hops to 3,000 mg in two steps of 500 mg, and dropping to 2,000 in one day.

Pansy Mae experienced tingles on both the upward and the downward slopes of estrogen peaks she created with PM cycles. I never feel much unless I massage or exercise, but maybe there will be something the tape measure can pick up on.

[Isabelle]

I upped hops to 3,000 mg. Again, increasing it makes me feel the opposite of what I expect. I went up to 2,500 yesterday, and my libido is good, energy is high, I think clearly, so no signs of estrogen dominance at all.

I'm careful not to take too much maca and fenugreek. Both 2,000 - 3,000 mg. But those two balance each other, since fenugreek is my only source of progesterone, and maca must become estrogens, since I take enough anti-androgen with the hops.

The only conclusion that seems to come up every time is that I can handle more phyto-estrogen. I'm cycling hops for now, and after next Monday, I'll try flax again, and maybe soy. I have milk thistle and panax ginseng here already, and eventually, I'll try PM, if Dargona and Hanah continue to do well on the combination of hops and PM.

If I want to learn something, I can't change too many things at the same time. I still want to experiment with L-arginine. But there are enough other forum members starting experiments with that now. Anastasia is among them, so I trust we will have a sound assessment of what L-arginine can do, maybe by end December already. That's still early enough for me to add it if the dark months are stopping my growth.