Slowly getting into CR

[Ari]

Alright, after having been interested in it for a long time, sort of forgotten about it for some time, and recently getting my interest up again, I'm going to start some measure of CR to see how I like it. I'm currently 36 and have never been overweight, though I'm not extremely skinny, either. I'm non-American, so I'm using SI units, and by that measure I'm 176 cm tall and weight somewhere around 75-80 kg. I don't have a scale, but when I hang from the pulldown exercise machine at the gym, I pull down 75 kg but can hang freely from 80 kg. Maybe that's not an optimal way of measuring?

I've been interested in longevity for a long time, so that's definitely part of my motivation. Another part is that I have contracted, since about a year and a half back, an inflammatory bowel disease. Still waiting on a diagnosis, but something like Crohn's disease. So, lots of inflammation in the colon, and since CR is anti-inflammatory, I'm hoping it will help with this.

I'm not sure I'll have the patience to keep measuring my calories, so to some extent I'll use blood tests to keep me on track. I took one a week ago and uploaded the results to labtestanalyzer.com. I'm generally healthy, most values in the optimal range, but signs of inflammation can certainly be seen. Maybe I'll post some actual values later.

I'll start to slowly decrease calories and take regular blood tests to track any changes. At some point I might also try some supplements. I've been interested in Alive By Nature's NAD+ Defender, which should be anti-inflammatory, to see if it helps me, but I think I'll start with CR and see how that affects me. I don't want to confound my variables and not know what is actually helping.

I have a background in engineering, so I'm analytical but not well versed in metabolism and biology, though having an interest in life extension has led me to at least some basic knowledge. The purpose of this thread is basically to log my progress and hopefully get some tips from more experienced practitioners. And we'll see how successful I will be on the whole "log my progress" thing ...