Gene’s Difficult Childhood and Struggles with Alcohol
Gene had a rough life before his carnivore conversion. As a child, he had ADHD and anxiety, making school very challenging. He did not get good grades and said, “At one school, they just kept me in a closet because I couldn’t interact with other kids. I was the first kid in my school in both the gifted and learning disability programs.”
Gene struggled to maintain consistency in his work as an adult and turned to alcohol abuse to numb his emotions. When he turned 40, he weighed over 200 pounds and found himself “living in an apartment by myself with no real relationships.” His depression deepened, and he drank one to two bottles of wine every night as he watched his waist expand to 39 inches.
When Gene’s dog died, he had to decide whether to allow the emotions to flow or continue drinking and suppressing them as he had before. He decided then that he would stop drinking completely. Eight months after quitting alcohol, Gene gradually stopped eating vegetables because he “didn’t feel a need for them.” He first learned about the carnivore diet in 2015-16 on Reddit. He gradually slipped into Carnivore “almost accidentally.”
Improved Mental Health and Physical Fitness on the Carnivore Diet
He didn’t notice until later but notes that, in hindsight, he passed through the paleo and keto stages yet didn’t see his intrusive thoughts stop until he stopped eating all vegetables. Gene began to feel strangely better, and he “Realized one day ‘I feel really good!’
I haven’t had an issue with intrusive thoughts about death in months, which is something that had just been a normal part of my life; I had kind of accepted it. When I realized that kind of thing wasn’t happening anymore, work was easier. Everything was easier. That’s when I realized that I should actually be Carnivore as a lifestyle rather than just simplifying things.”
“I really found not thinking about what I was going to eat to be relaxing.” Gene saw his weight drop from 205 down to 175, which fit his 5′ 7″ frame much more comfortably. His waist also went from 39 inches to 32. That is a life-changing improvement in visceral fat, which is the type of fat that causes inflammation and metabolic disease.
“ADHD, depression, all of that stuff got better, including enabling me to go to college, which is something that I had tried several times and was just never able to sustain because I would get overwhelmed almost immediately.”
“Now I manage a team of engineers and technicians doing research and development; I’m controlling this whole group of people, assigning tasks, and deciding where we’re going, and that’s not stuff I could have done five years ago.”
Gene participates in CrossFit, running, mountain biking, and Spartan races, all without any carbohydrates. He never experiences the pain and soreness that running used to cause.
“I’ve set PRs for every lift I’ve kept track of and 10k, 10 miles, and half-marathon runs in 2022 at age 45.”
