I feel like shit

For the last 6 months or more I’ve been feeling crappy – no energy, need a sleep at lunch time, everything aches, my skin is getting thinner and a heap of skin cancers that I’ve been meaning to get looked at and I’ve noticed muscle wasting and lots of loose skin, particularly on my arms.

Big Belly

I’d been saying for a while, “I really should go to the gym”.  The night I really noticed my flabby arms, I decided that was it.  The next day (23/11) I signed up at the gym.

Not having been to the gym for years, I started doing some research on safe exercises for fat old guys like me.  In researching exercise, I came across this Keto diet thing.  I spent the next few days researching it and on 1/12/2018 I started a Low Carbohydrate High Fat Diet (LCHF).  I also started Intermittent Fasting (IF).  Typical me, I went balls and all.  No sugar, no carbs (except from Vegetables and dairy), 100-150 grams of protein (from meat and fish) and lots of leafy green vegetables every day.

I thought it was going to be hard – I live in Vietnam so EVERY meal has rice, noodles or bread and everything has sugar added.  The Vietnamese (in the South where I live) love sugar.  So, I mainly cook at home now, although my 1st meal (between 10 and 11am) is normally out because I am teaching.  Truth is I have taken to it like a duck to water.  I haven’t missed carbs at all and the food is great.  Low fat diets can be pretty boring – high fat means I can eat butter, coconut oil, full cream – my meals are delicious.

To understand what I was feeling like, I’ll give you a short history of my life over the last 20 odd years.   I’ve always been a little fat – even as an active teenager I always carried a weight, especially around the belly and chest.  By 2001 I was 130kg (more than carrying a little weight!).  I’m only 5’11” (183cm) so I was fat.  I went through a really nasty divorce and major traumas.  In 2002 I had a stroke – I lost the use of the right side of my body, had trouble speaking and basically was in a fog mentally.  So, after thinking I was going to die, I decided to change things up.  Over the next 2 years I lost 38Kg, I was running 7km a day, stopped eating junk food and soft drinks, even gave up my beloved rum and coke – the nectar of the Gods!

I believed I was eating well – I followed the “food pyramid”, eating lots of grains, moderate carbohydrates and very little fat.  I even saw a nutritionist to make sure I was eating right.  I’ve never in my adult life been able to break 92Kg, no matter what I did.  Running 7km 6 days a week, I was still 92Kg.

I managed to keep most of the weight off, although lately I gained 2 kg, so when I started keto I was 94kg.  Within 4 days I went off all medications – my blood sugar was a little high, but not too bad, but I started getting a little dizzy occasionally.  I live in Vietnam, so I don’t have easy access to an English speaking doctor and definitely don’t have access to a doctor that understands Ketogenic diet, so basically I self diagnose.

As of today, my blood sugar level, 1 hour after eating dinner was 5.6.  Perfect!

After a little less than 2 weeks, I feel great.  I’ve lost 3kg, I have 1000% more energy, I’m never hungry even though I only eat 2 meals a day now, almost all of my aches and pains have gone (still a little pain in my right shoulder which I think is a calcium spur) and my skin is improving daily.

I have learnt so much about my body and nutrition in the last 2 weeks it’s scary.  Instead of sitting on Facebook all day, now I’m constantly watching videos on diet/nutrition, liver function, adrenal glands, hormones, ketones , metabolism, minerals, cell rejuvenation and more.

I owe a lot to Dr. Eric Berg.  He’s an American Chiropractor who’s spent the last 20 years studying nutrition.  If you haven’t already, I strongly suggest you check him out.

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