Jim, stroke survivor, improves health on carnivore diet

Jim was 47 years old when he suffered an ischemic stroke leaving him paralyzed on his left side. The standard American diet for the first three decades of his life was the beginning of his slow decline in health. To improve his health, he switched to a vegan diet and lost some weight as well as some strength and his energy levels dropped. Jim added some animal products back into his diet, however he followed all the standard recommendations. He only consumed lean meats, used the recommended “healthy” plant-based oils, and included whole grains. After years of eating this way, Jim gained back all of the weight he lost, not much of it being muscle, and ultimately suffered a stroke in January of 2016.

Three weeks in rehab. Hospital with only 3 hours of daily therapy leaves one a lot of free time to contemplate life choices and question the conventional wisdom they have been following. Plenty of patients before Jim worked as hard as he did on rehab, but no one worked harder than he did. Jim is fortunate to have a nice home gym set up, unfortunately he had not been using it consistently. He went to Craigslist and hired a trainer while still in the hospital so he could continue his recovery as soon as he came home.

He also started studying diet and nutrition, the more he learned, the more he began to shift his diet from the standard recommendations to a ketogenic diet. He wasn’t perfect but was consistent enough that the weight started to drop. As Jim continued to study and learn he heard more and more about the carnivore diet. He moved from keto to keto-carnivore and continued to see improvements in body composition. It seems that the standard recommendations were all wrong and if the same people pushing the standard recommendation were against the carnivore diet, it must be the correct thing to try.

At 55 years old, Jim is probably in better shape than since his early teens and is probably stronger than 98% of men in his age range. Most people guess his age at way younger than he is and he credits this to regular strength and cardio training, fasting, daily meditation and the carnivore diet.

Jim loves the simplicity of the carnivore diet. If he is in a hurry, he can turn on the Otto Wilde grill as he walks in the house, melt a little butter on a plate, grab a steak out of the refrigerator, slap it in the butter, add a little salt and stick in the grill for 1.25 minutes per side and is eating within 5 minutes. One plate, one knife, one fork and a set of tongs. Combining fasting and carnivore save hours per week that would have been spent shopping, eating, driving to eat and cleaning up.

While not an environmentalist, eating carnivore has a way lower impact on the planet in terms of the number of dishes that must be washed, trash created, etc. not to mention the impact of driving to the store on a regular basis to pick up fresh fruit and vegetables.

Jim eats primarily carnivore and stays away from sugar and processed foods. He does still enjoy some red wine with his wife on the weekends. He is embracing the wearable technology and is wearing the Whoop to track his sleep and a CGM to monitor how diet, exercise, sleep and stress impacts blood glucose. Recent labs are some of the best he has ever seen and prove to him that carnivore is healthy and safe. He never liked vegetables and can’t believe that he waited so long to find the perfect diet that is simple, healthy, and delicious.