Stephen’s Battle with Health Issues
My journey began as I was looking for data on the best method for weight/fat loss for a disabled and non-mobile psoriatic arthritis patient. I also have severe psoriasis, and my skin was a nightmare.
I had been a long-time martial artist with several black belts and, at one time, was a successful and healthy person.
Then I got really, really sick. Over the next decade and a half, I gained 200 lbs, lost the ability to work, and eventually lost the majority of use of my hands and feet due to the bone deformities that came over time.
My illness began in 2003 when I was diagnosed with a severe black mold infection that caused me to go stone deaf for two and a half months due to the congestion it caused in my sinuses and throat, and lungs. A couple of days on IV antibiotics and the damage was done.
I had tried to follow the dietary guidelines my doctors had provided, but they did nothing but make me sicker fatter, and less and less mobile.
On December 15, 2017, I weighed 401.6 lbs with a BMI of about 51. I could barely move, had little use of my hands, and lived on a TIGHT budget with two teenage sons, all while living on disability benefits.
I couldn’t walk more than 20-30 steps without collapsing from pain unless I had a cane, and my hands were so weak I could not pick up a 5lb dumbbell.
I decided to follow the advice I was getting from a couple of channels, but I found I was always coming back to the same sources for confirmation on what other “experts” were saying.
I also saw the Joe Rogan Experience with Dr. Shawn Baker, and I knew I’d found the right thing for me.
From Keto, to Carnivore, to Healing
I started keto/carnivory in January 2018 and have not looked back. I have switched back and forth between keto and Carnivore but only for budget reasons. I always feel my best the greater ratio of meat I eat.
I’m now up at 4:45 am daily for a 3km (2 miles) walk, then a quick, simple session at the gym for a few sets of push, pull, lift, or squat, and then home to wake up my teen sons for school.
I’m a single parent too.
I’m not going to try and pretend I’ve developed into a ripped Adonis. My skin started at <80% psoriatic coverage, so it was a ruin to begin with. That coverage is down to under 40% now. I look more like a middle-aged man wrapped in a slightly blown airbag, but time will bring that under control as well.
My weight is now 212.3 lbs as of December 31, 2018, and that’s after gaining 3.6 lbs over Xmas. I’m aiming for a final body weight of 185 lbs with a body fat of less than 15%. I figure I’ll hit that milestone eventually, but no schedules, just result as the body can make them.
Thank you for helping save my life.
Steve
PS: Keto/carnivory also helped me get out of a ten-year opioid prescription that was at over 100mg of Dilaudid (hydromorphone contin) a day.
Now I’m opioid-free. This I can anecdotally correlate with my dietary changes as the digestive horrors and nerve regrowth caused by detox and opioid withdrawal were radically reduced by the constant monitoring of my electrolytes, digestive ease of meat, and the massive reduction of inflammation.
I’d tried to reduce my meds MANY times and was almost driven insane by the pain and withdrawal symptoms within mere hours.
Not so once, I had switched my body from sugars and carbs to protein and fats.
Coupled with a dosage reduction to use only as much as needed to abate the worst withdrawal symptoms over time and the effect can’t be argued with me. That’s not to say it was easy, but it was infinitely easier with the dietary changes.
Simply put, meat does heal.
UPDATE: As of this morning, April 29, 2019, my weight is down to 179.68 lbs, and I’m feeling better than I have in years. In mid-January, I injured myself and suffered a pretty horrible abdominal tear and herniation. I had surgery.
I now have a rather large titanium mesh implant and, in the process, discovered a previous herniation I hadn’t known was there but was causing some issues. These are no longer an issue, and I have been progressing at a steady pace.
I’ve been shifting my intake across the spectrum of animal products to try and optimize my own health and keep coming back to beef, pork, salmon, and eggs as my “GO-TO” base. My sons have also followed along.
Since the surgery on March 10, 2019, I’ve increased my daily activity to a level I haven’t been capable of since my 30s. I’m also consuming between 2900-3600 Kcal/day and am seeing steady changes in my body composition as I build muscle and lose fat.
I’m not only working out 2-4 times a week with kettlebells, resistance bands, and calisthenics but go to a gym for my heavier full-body workouts and have increased my “road time” walking to as much as 8 miles in a day.
Most days, I average 4-6 miles from what started as fighting to make it 10 minutes at a time, way back when I started all this (I thank/blame Stan Efferding). If not for a really damaged foot, I would be (actually am) running these distances instead of walking, but limits are there to be surpassed.
I now get up at 4:00 am and haven’t used an alarm for almost a year now. I do 15-20 minutes of yoga, get dressed for the weather, and hit the road for a 3-6 km walk, depending on whether or not I go to the gym, grab a coffee or hit the gym and then back home so I can get my teen sons up for school at 6:30 am.
After they’re off, I do all the usual daily routines, and after getting a full meal cooked and cleaned up, I go for another walk of a few km and spend 30-45 minutes after that doing basic flexibility stretches and physiotherapy exercises for the parts of me that are still kinda broken.
The degree of recovery my body has experienced has dumbfounded my doctors. I have been able to achieve well and far beyond what they had said I would ever be capable of, and they now listen when I tell them how I’m doing it.
A nurse who spoke to me after my surgery is now going Carnivore from Paleo, and she’s having great results too. It works, and as people hear and see the truth in the US, they will be able to disregard the propagandist nonsense saturating the media these days. As Carnivores, we are N=Many.
Thanks again for the opportunity to share my story and for being a source of knowledge that has LITERALLY saved my life and restored a sick, depressed, disabled, addicted, and morbidly obese horror show back to a healthy living, clean, active dad.
Sincerely,
Stephen
In the included pictures are two current and one of my in November 2017 for my 51st birthday, and a look at just how massive I’d become in December of 2017 at 401.6 lbs. There is no comparison.
