In 2002 I was diagnosed with a grade 4 spondylolisthesis. I saw a specialist and surgery was discussed. I decided against surgery since I found the prospect quite scary, I had 3 children to look after and didn’t fancy taking the risk. It was agreed that I be put on medication, 1600mg of brufen retard daily along with 150mg of ranitidine daily to protect me from side effects of the brufen.
Dealing with Spondylolisthesis
So that was my life, for the past 16 years I have taken the brufen and ranitidine daily. The brufen helped with my inflammation, I was able to get up out of bed in the morning without too much pain anymore and so long as I didn’t lift anything or stay on my feet for too long, or sit for too long, or lay flat on my back or try to exercise then I was ok, the pain was manageable. I was basically the sort of person that wouldn’t do ANYTHING for fear of setting off the pain.
Managing Pain through Medication
When I hit 30 I decided that I wanted to exercise, so I began experimenting with what I could do. I bought a crosstrainer & I joined a boot camp, I found that so long as I performed exercises correctly and controlled with little weight then I could cope with the back pain afterwards, sometimes I would take extra brufen to help me to get over working out.
Starting to Exercise
Upon being diagnosed with spondylolisthesis I was also advised to ‘not get fat’ in case this added more pressure to my already weakened spine. So over the past 16 years my eating habits have changed a lot from a junk food diet to basically starving myself and ‘surviving’ on diet pills to then eventually following a low fat diet with lots of veggies and quorn.
Changing Eating Habits
I’ve never been vegetarian but I did believe that steering away from animal protein was the healthiest option. Mixed in with this was my insatiable appetite for sweet food, especially chocolate, along with the belief that all calories are equal… I would often substitute a day of eating meals for a day of eating absolute junk. These days would be followed by days of guilt and self loathing in which I’d starve myself or stick to ‘healthy’ low fat food.
Discovering the Carnivore Diet
In January 2018 I began looking into keto and through my research I came across Danny Vega who spoke about the idea of eating an all meat diet, straight off I thought it was crazy but after trying keto for a month or so Carnivore became more and more appealing, I didn’t enjoy counting macros, I found that my binge and emotional eating did not change and I would feel so guilty and down on myself when I went over my calories… plus, who really likes eating veg when you can eat as much meat as you’d like and not worry…?!
The Benefits of an All-Meat Diet
I decided to go for it and on 28 February 2018 my life changed for good!! I ate all the meat, I didn’t count a thing and I’ve been feeling more amazing every day. Within 10 days I was completely off the 1600mg of brufen retard (and the ranitidine) I’d been taking daily for the past 16 years! Since then I have not needed to take the medication despite increasing the amount of weight lifting and general exercise I now do, I quite literally never get back pain anymore!!
The Freedom of the Carnivore Diet
It’s been 5 months so far and I know this is it, I will never go back. Aside from the miracle of no longer suffering the back pain I’ve had to medicate for the past 16 years I also feel so amazing mentally, calm, happy. I’m leaner, my body composition has changed, I feel so healthy. Another absolutely awesome thing about being on this diet is the overwhelming feeling of freedom.. I love that I no longer feel guilty about what I eat or how much I eat… when I’m hungry I eat, when I’m full I stop.
I can’t believe it’s taken me until I’m 41 to find a diet that works for my entire body & mind… Carnivore quite clearly is THE diet we should all follow.
Thanks again!
Vanessa
