Vitamin D For Allergies.. ..Or Am I Putting On Muscle, Or Enough Muscle The Right Way

If there is one part of the year where it would be ideal to gains massive amounts of muscle, it would be the Holiday season. 

Since about October--the Holiday season, in my household, starts in October--I have been ramping up my weight training activities. I have been more strict with taking supplements. I have been lifting heavier weights, and I have added 10-20 minutes to my resistance training workouts. I have scaled back my mobility training workouts, and I have pretty much stopped going to the sauna/hot tub.  

My primary goal is to see how much muscle I can create. I have been fasting more, which means more HGH, and I have been getting good use out of my resistance bands. I have added 5-10 minutes of resistance band training four to five times per week, to my weekly workout regimen, and I am experiencing some gains.

Here are some differences I am noticing:

• my joints feel better, much better
• I have a better range of motion in one of my shoulders 
• the last time this shoulder dislocated was probably about ten years ago, and it did not heal properly back then
• I can breathe through both of my nostrils     
• Since my earliest memories, I have not been able to breathe out of both nostrils at the same time. In the Fall of 2019, I was battling seasonal allergies, so I started consuming honey from local bees and taking more Vitamin D to help me deal with the allergies.
• In addition to mouth-taping while I sleep, I have recently added a daily dose or two of Zinc to my list of go-to supplements. I get the feeling that taking Vitamin D and Zinc together may work wonders for some in helping to reduce inflammation.
• I have started to reverse some injury-related muscle atrophy in one of my calf muscles
• I have reduced the amount of muscle inflammation in one of my hip joints, which I feel is due to carrying my phone in my back pocket. I have stopped putting my phone in my back pocket, and my hip pain and inflammation have gone way down.
• I feel stronger. Usually, when I attempt to gain muscle and end upwards of 195 lbs, my muscle strength declines, and my joints ache. Currently, I do not feel as if I have lost any muscle strength or aches in my joints and bones. This holiday season has been pretty good to me.

So, if my levels of inflammation are going way down, does that mean my ability to gain muscle is as good as it has ever been? I feel stronger. My upper body looks as big as it ever has. My shoulder joints no longer ache. My range of motion has improved, and I am sleeping much better. 

For years, for as long as I can remember, it has been hard for me to wake up most mornings without feeling groggy. Unless there is a road bike, helmet, beautiful sunrise, and a fantastic 25-mile bike ride in my immediate future after I wake up, I would rather stay in bed for another sleep cycle or two. 

I have solved that problem, though. I am overcoming my groggy morning tendencies. I have noticed that if I consume dietary fat before I go to sleep, I wake up way more refreshed. I recently discovered that if I rely upon a serving of hard-boiled eggs or a serving of walnuts before bed, I often wake up ready to go--even these days, when I am not logging 200 miles per week on my road bike and 20+ miles of running. I am beginning to feel that it is due to the presence of omega-6 fatty acids in those foods. I am not 100% sure, so for me, the next few months, I will be doing more research and trying more omega-6 rich foods to see what is working. 

The amazing thing to me, though, is that Vitamin D is good for allergies. One thing I learned along the way is how important electrolytes become when you scale up your daily Vitamin D consumption. Before now, I have never fully understood that certain nutrients can work together. Before now, I never really understood how adding one supplement to my daily nutrition regimen, might disrupt my body chemistry equilibrium enough to cause me to be slightly deficient in other nutrients.     

I am feeling like I am reaching a significant plateau of my fitness journey. Thanks for joining me this far.      

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