Hi Dave!
By way of introduction I am a Buteyko Educator and Vice-chairman of the Buteyko Breathing Educators Association. I’m glad you started with Buteyko as the symptoms you list are mostly consistent with the types of problems we deal with. Allow me to address some of your concerns.
It seems you are working Buteyko on your own without a registered educator assisting you. You noted you are only practicing Buteyko once a day and it appears you CP is below 20. When you CP is below 20, you need to do Buteyko breathing exercises for at least 90 minutes a day; it’s better if the exercises spread throughout the day and not all at once. If your CP is below 20 seconds, you will only see modest and temporary relief of symptoms. You should see longer lasting symptom relief when your CP goes through 20 seconds.
If I am understanding you correctly, you feel you have to go hours without food after doing Buteyko exercises. That is not how I and most educators would proceed. I encourage my clients to eat when hungry but try to do their Buteyko exercises prior to eating; best done on an empty stomach.
I’ve tried to find links to Eat the Food to see what the diet consists of. All though a secondary factor in why we over-breathe, food plays a huge role in breathing with highly processed foods or sugary/starchy foods contributing to over-breathing and the resulting loss of CO2. An alkaline diet is the best for breathing.
I would recommend you speak with a registered Buteyko educator, have them evaluate your breathing and review the Buteyko exercises you are doing. You can find one in your area at the following website. http://www.buteykoeducators.org/ If there isn’t an educator in your area, many will do visitor or SKYPE sessions with you.
You may also want to do a formal training with an educator. Some of the exercises are a bit tricky to do correctly and there are a number of other components, breathing mechanics, posture, source of the breath, etc., that are important to address. Learning how to do exercises and other factors properly truly helps the process.
Let me know if I can answer any questions. I hope you continue with Buteyko as it is a most powerful modality. In my case, my asthma, allergies, chronic bronchitis and Raynauds (cold hands and feet) were relieved in about 10 days of doing Buteyko. I’ve been over nine years now without any symptoms and use no medication. My website is http://www.TheBreathingGuy.com and my email is don@CascadeBreath.com
Good luck!