L-Glutamine taken in the morning on an empty stomach, combined with plenty of hydration (mineral water, salt) is improving the quality/ consistency/ size of my bowel movements a lot.
It’s only the second day of taking it, but signs seem very promising.

I was already quite regular, but the stool shape was bad and had incomplete evacuation. With the Glutamine, it’s much better.

I would rather listen to Paul Carter (lifteunbang on IG) than Mentzer advice, if you want to maximise muscle gains. He promotes high intensity, low/ optimal volume, who seems to get it right.
High volume is wrong, but Mentzer was wrong too. The truth is somewhere in the middle.

4-6 hard sets per muscle group, to failure, per workout, twice weekly frequently will maximise muscle gains.
That’s like doing 2 exercises per muscle group, in a workout.

On a chest and shoulders workout, you’re doing 4-6 sets for chest and 4-6 sets for shoulder. A total of 8-12 sets total for a workout. That’s perfectly sustainable.

4 workouts per week is optimal, maybe 5 if you really love training. 3 if you’re doing for general health and maintenance.

First time I took Dextrose (with salt as an intra workout), I had a migraine in the back of my head. Next day, I didn’t have negative effects, just slightly more energy perhaps.
Today, I felt quite sleepy after a dose. Bit got better in the afternoon.

Are these typical symptoms?

@Androsclerozat I reduced the agave syrup and stopped eating dried dates, and I no longer have cramps. That doesn’t solve all my problems of course, but my gut feels calmer.
So it looks like fruits with high fructose: glucose ratio can be problematic for me, in large quantities.

I’ve been tasting some raw vegan cake, marketed as sugar free, meaning they don’t use refined sugar or syrups at all, just whole natural ingredients, like dark chocolate, cocoa, fruits, nuts, coconut flakes, etc

And they feel so much tastier and healthier, I can’t explain why. Refined sugar just tastes dirty, in an unhealthy kind of way, like extra sweet.

My health is getting better, Novothyral has allowed time to (partially or more) tolerate and enjoy a wider variety of foods. I handle dairy better (hard cheese, kefir, overnight oats. Some veggies, like raw cucumber and tomatoes.
Been craving cucumbers a lot last couple of day, feels like a need for hydration/ electrolytes.

I also feel like I’m at a point where I can build my microbiome diversity due to improved food tolerances.

I now have relatively stable energy levels from day to day, I can function normally, stay focused on mental tasks at my job for a couple of hours per day. 2-4 bowel movements per day.

What I still struggle with is the permanent bloating, stuffed nose and low libido. I reckon that fixing that will be the last step towards healing. No matter how regular I am with my bowel movements. The bloating issue doesn’t budge. I think that it’s an issue of microbiome, fermentation in the intestine. Hopefully it will improve with time.

Increasing protein intake over 150g/ day seems to cause lower temps, cold feet, even on over 400g of carbs / day, so a 2:1, or close to 3:1 ratio.

I tried eating a 50:30:20 macro split of carbs/ fats/ protein, at 3000 calories, and I felt worse increasing protein.
I will try 60:25:15 next.

@alfredoolivas A temporary strategy for weight loss. I think just eating low to medium protein, or an Anabology style diet would be better instead.

A very nice benefit that I get from thyroid is improved blood sugar regulation. I do much better when in-between meals, I don’t get hungry that often, and if I do get it, I am still able to function great, and not see a crash in energy levels.

@Jonk I tried NDT once from Idealabs, I did ok on it, but the benefits were not that significant. Perhaps I should have increased the dose.
I’m now happy with Novotyral and see no reason to switch.

@Korven Not prescribed. I get it from a source in my country.