I’m healthy, happy, lean, and strong, but that wasn’t always the case! This is my story on why I’m a carnivore, and the amazing benefits this way of life has given me and could give you, too.
Sickly Childhood
I was a C-section baby to very young parents. Mom was 21, and my dad was only 17. They didn’t know much about nutrition or how to be healthy, but they tried. I was formula-fed and given low-fat yogurt and grains by 6 months. I was a sickly baby and child.
Struggling to Find a Solution
As an infant, I would never sleep through the night, projectile vomit multiple times a day, and was colicky. I had many ear infections and antibiotics throughout my childhood as well. At the age of 2, I was diagnosed with asthma and allergies. From that point on, I was on daily rescue inhalers, prednisone, respiratory machines, and steroid puffers. I was also admitted to the ICU multiple times a year.
By the age of 4, I started vomiting in my sleep and having bowel pain. It turned out that I had to have abdominal surgery to fix a hernia, that my bowels were starting to pass through. (Not sure if that was diet related) so they patched up my hernia, and that healed well, but I continued to have random bowel pain that would leave me incapacitated for hours. This, plus my asthma and constant colds or ear infections, left my parents at a loss.
For a few years, we just got by until one day, I had a little brother come along. Luckily he was much healthier than me. Soon after that, my parents split, and my mother had 2 young boys and little income.
Discovering Bodybuilding
She was trying her best on a budget, as she couldn’t work because I was too sick. She turned to the food pyramid and made sure that we got lots of grains, breads, and pasta, and some frozen veggies, bananas, low-fat yogurts, and the little red meat we did have was lean.
At this point, my health started declining again, and I wound up in the ICU even more. 6-10 times a year, for up to 2 weeks at a time. This is when my family doctor told my mother that I was the worst case he’s ever dealt with and informed her that I was going to need to be put on the transplant list for lungs and heart if my asthma persisted.
This was the same year I was put on life support over the Christmas break. I was so sick at this point, 8 years old, that I accepted I was sick, and I made peace with the fact that I was about to leave this life. 3 times, I can still remember that year, leading up to this, I would think that there was nothing we could do, and I was working my way to coming to terms with death.
At this point, my parents decided to move me to my father’s where the climate was much drier, and I moved from the east coast of Canada to the plains of Alberta!
Switching to Paleo and Keto
The climate there was much drier and it did help with my breathing. I was still taking all of the same meds, but managed to stay out of the hospital for a few years. I felt a lot better, but still had breathing and bowel problems. I also gained a lot of weight from all of the medications I was on. At this point I started taking allergy shots. Getting them weekly for a couple of years. I don’t think they worked, but at least we were trying something new. This continued until my teenage years.
Struggles in Teenage Years
Once those awkward, interesting, and fun teenage years started, new problems arose. I started having migraines, muscle cramps, anxiety and anger issues. My bowels and asthma were still constant, too. By the time I was 17, I began having GERD, stomach pain, and loose stools. Standing at 5’9″, I weighed only 109lbs. I was diagnosed with IBS and an Ulcer and I was put on drugs, low fat, limited diet, and was sent to a shrink for my anxiety and anger.
Finding Bodybuilding and Limited Diets
For years I followed this new limited diet, and continued with my asthma regiment. This kept things tolerable, and livable for years. But I realized that non of this was right, and I must be doing something wrong. So I started reading as much as I could on diet and health… let the research begin!!!
For the next few years I studied everything I could on diet, exercise and health. I would make tweaks here and there and started doing some cardio and calisthenics. This helped a bit, but I still didn’t feel right. I was still feeling pain and having breathing problems
By my early 20’s I found bodybuilding, and adopted that way of eating and training. One thing I quickly noticed about this way of life was the amount of time spent in the gym, the large amount of food prep and the crazy amount of small meals to eat (6 a day!).
Experimenting with Different Diets
I soon found I was having energy problems and getting colds every other week! I was also getting flabbier. But I continued, because it’s what we are told is healthy.
Gladly a year or so later, I found the paleo and ketogenic diets. I did my research and moved to a paleo way of eating and a more paleo style lifting regime. I continued this for years, while experimenting with keto, low carb paleo, and at one point vegetarianism (bad idea).
While doing all of this, most of my bowel and migraine issues went away. My asthma was still there, and so was my energy issues and random bouts of anxiety. I was also gaining weight for some reason.
This continued for years.
Discovering the Benefits of Ketogenic Eating
In my early 30’s I decided to buckle down and do strict ketogenic eating with intermittent fasting and a healthy carb up once or twice a week (CKD). This helped even more, and I got down to a healthy weight, with decent muscle mass. It’s funny though, I looked good, but I wasn’t that strong. During this keto phase I felt better, but still not great.
I remember almost every day on my walks home, thinking about asthma and wondering why I was still using my inhalers so much… I was also wondering why my bowels would hurt and why I would have bathroom problems after my carb ups? I also noticed that I had toenail fungus in a both of my big toes!
Switching to Carnivore
Around this time, I found Vince Gironda workouts and his steak and eggs diet. It instantly made sense to me and I dove in to the meat and dairy research! I read anything I could on this subject for about a year, until I found Zero Carb Zen, then Principia Carnivora and Zeroing In On Health. Read all of the testimonies and talked to a few people online, then decided to jump in cold turkey.
I was a rough 2-3 months of adaption, I felt horrible, but pushed through. The first year or so was a little rough for me as my body adapted, and healed. I also had to figure out how much food I needed and when to eat it. Once I worked all of that out, it’s been amazing!!
My bowels no longer have any issues, as long as I stick mostly to beef and avoid teas and coffee. No more headaches, my energy is good, my anger has subsided, and I haven’t taken my asthma meds in 2 years! I stopped my puffers the week I started eating just fatty meat!!!!
It’s amazing what can happen when you figure out the proper human diet! I am now stronger, I’m a butcher and can carry around 100+ sides of pork, and lift/carry side of beef at 220+lbs, and I weigh 140lbs. I can run, keep up with my 3 beautiful children, workout 2-3 times a week and walk 5km to and from work daily, in all weather, while maintaining 8-10% body fat, eating 3+ lbs of fatty beef a day! I’m not supposed to be alive today, and since going strict carnivore, I now use no medications, my lungs function at 92% of a healthy adult male, have the energy I need and the body I want with little to no effort.
