Hello from the Andes mountains in northern Chile.
First, I want to say that I love your YouTube channel. I appreciate your frankness and that you do not pretend to know everything. That you understand that there is still much to learn.
I wanted to tell you my journey to carnivory. You inspired me to give it a red hot go.
In 1999. I was 270 pounds. I tried all sorts of diets, especially the calorie restricted diet. As a scientist, I was a firm believer in the calories in, calories out model. After all, that was what I was taught. Who was I to question the “experts”?
I went to my internist for help. She put me on Lipitor for my cholesterol and an 800 calorie low fat diet.
I followed it religiously. I kept gaining…and gaining. My cholesterol became worse. I had an adverse reaction to the Lipitor and stopped taking it.
My doctor continuously accused me of cheating on my diet. I was not. God knows I wanted to because I was so effing hungry all the time.
By the end of that year, my weight was north of 350…I didn’t know for sure because the scale didn’t go past that.
I was living in Manhattan at the time and I saw something about Dr Atkins on the news and it was a very negative piece about him and the diet that would kill people.
He rebutted and what he said made sense.
I bought his book and made an appointment with him.
Jan 2000, I started eating low carb.
The results were dramatic and by August, I had lost over 100 pounds, hired a personal trainer, and went to my internist for what I knew was the last time. She was so impressed and congratulated me for finally sticking to my diet.
When I told her what I was doing, she did an about-face and said that the diet would kill me. I fired her that day.
Eventually, my weight loss stalled so I bumped up my ratio of fat like Atkins recommended.
It took 2 years to reach my goal weight of 135.
I still didn’t feel great. I never associated my aches, pains, poor sleep, and allergies with the grains, legumes, or vegetables that I was eating.
Recently, the keto diet came to my attention.
I tried it. Eliminated all packaged food. I started feeling better. Better, not great. I was still suffering from severe depression and was still having bouts of constipation and diarrhea.
Then I saw something about carnivore.
I watched a few of your videos and started researching.
Then I decided to try it for a month.
I hated it–at first. I missed veg. Despite the fact that I was feeling fantastic (no arthritis pain, no more allergies, great sleep), when I did my next shop, I loaded up on leafy greens.
What a disappointment. They didn’t appeal to me. Except cauliflower and cabbage. What I really craved was meat.
So, aside from a small bit of cabbage or broccoli (once or twice a month), I eat meat.
I will tell you that I am almost 60 and currently run 6 miles each morning with my dogs. I do a lot of physical labor as I am now a goat and sheep farmer (chickens and rabbits, too). No modern anything, except my cell phone and a very small solar energy system. Running water goes out often, so there are times when I have to haul water from the river to the animal pens (more tha 100 yards away). I have to cut and haul alfalfa every day to feed them. I work about 12 hours every single day.
I have never felt better. My life has been transformed thanks to this way of eating.
Thank you.
Danica
