Newbie to the Forum & to Carnivore

#1

Hi y’all. I’m so glad to be among likeminded people. I’m starting this thread as an introduction as well as journey into my new lifestyle.

Almost 20 years ago I started eating the Adkins lifestyle and I was very successful at it. I lost 50 pounds in one year. My energy was over the top and maintenance was easy. I hit the gym three days a week and my waist and weight were down to what they were when I was in the Army.

Then after 12 years of Adkins my back started to go. It got so bad that it ended my workouts. With no activity I started putting on weight until I was right back to where I was before. A laminectomy and diseconomy helped my back but it will never be right again. So for the next 10 years I went back to being inactive, fat and not really liking myself too much.

Then four years ago I developed AFib. I don’t have the type of AFib that just sits in the background and is usually just detected on a ekg. Mine is a door kicker that slams me outta nowhere like a swat team in the middle of the night. My heart jumps up to the high 180’s. My heart just quivers and I can’t get any oxygen. I can’t get up without collapsing and I grasp for air like a fish outta water. I can barely make it to the ER and then it’s several days in ICU.

After my last attack, about two months ago, I decided it was time for a change in my life. That’s when my son introduced me to carnivore. He approached me with, “Dad? I know this may be shortening your life and I’d like to keep you around a little bit longer so if you would be willing to listen to what I have to tell you, with an open mind, I believe with all my heart that I can help improve your life.”
He gave me links to all the top doctors involved with carnivore and after he explained what he knew about eating a Proper Human Diet and then doing my own research, I came to the conclusion that it all made perfect sense.

So, May 9, 2023 I started my new lifestyle.
Since that time the inflammation in all my arthritic joints has gone down tremendously. I’m able to walk distances again. In fact I’m walking two miles every other day and I’m exercising with my resistance bands every other day also. Even my bad back feels much better and more flexible.
I have IBS, no gallbladder and have recently diagnosed with a touch of crohn’s. For two years my stomach has been having severe stabbing pain’s several times a week followed by severe dietary indiscretion. (Diarrhea)
Now? All of that is gone.

Energy is way up and I feel five years younger if not more.

And as a bonus, I’ve lost 21 pounds.

I’m really loving how I feel now and I’m really glad to have found this group.
Thank you for all your support.

(Peter - Don't Fear the Fat ) #2

Hi There and Welcome to the Forum. It’s a little quiet atm … when US and Aussies come online you’ll see a few more.
Anyway, I love to hear success stories. :blush:

(Joey) #3

@Geezy Welcome! Great to have another early success story shared on the forum. And you’ve just gotten started, no less …

Sounds like you’re doing awesomely well. Kudos for turning things around as you have. :vulcan_salute:

#4

I appreciate it @Pjam & @SomeGuy.

(Rossi Luo) #5

Welcome and I’m pleased you decided to trust your son to give the diet a try while I’m also sad that my mom not trusting me to make changes to treat her severe type II diabetics.

(Alec) #6

Geezy
What a fantastic story! Welcome to the community, this is one of the best (if not THE best) places on the internet for ketovores and carnivores. There is a wealth of experience and knowledge on here, 2nd to none… we don’t always agree, and there are lots of opinions, but all with sound motivation and experience to share.

I started carnivore some 18 months ago, and absolutely love it… lots of minor health ailments (compared to yours) fixed up and gone away, 80lbs down, and running 5ks in half the time I started.

Sounds like your health has improved dramatically as well…. This is great, just another great example of the power of carnivore. The countless stories of dramatic health improvements is no longer a surprise to me. It just works.

Keep it going, enjoy the journey, and enjoy comparing experiences with the other carnivores on here… there are quite a few of us.
Cheers
Alec

#7

Hi Geezy. Welcome.

I’m interested about the AFib. It can show up on a ZC carnivore diet if you are not watching and adding your salts and electrolytes. Well, that’s my experience. The AFib I experience knocks me over, but I punch it back with some electrolytes, and I can flip back into normal rhythm at home. It’s worse since I had COVID a year ago. But manageable.

Does you AFib respond to salt and magnesium? By the sounds it needs the drugs in hospital. Just saying I know the feeling.

I can drag you in deeper about AFib and oxalate dumping. But to start enjoy your browse around the forums. There is a search option up the top in the right side corner.

:joy: :australia:

#8

I’m sorry to hear that your mom isn’t willing to trust you.
In my case, my son approached me with a sincere, heartfelt concern for my quality of life. He didn’t just talk to me about carnivore but showed me the proof from doctors around the world. I suppose it boils down to what doctors we’re willing to trust. I even got off of the Statins that I was taking for borderline high cholesterol after listening to a podcast of the Joe Rogan show with a cardiologist.
Im usually pretty good about approaching things with an open mind and looking at both sides of an issue and then making up my own mind based on the evidence.
Good luck and I hope she comes to understand how much you care for her and that she’ll turn it around so that she can enjoy a better life through diet.

#9

@Alecmcq, this is one of the things I love about carnivores, no judgment. We may not agree but we all have a similar goal…better health through a proper human diet.
Thank you for the welcome.

#10

@FrankoBear, my AFib brother, I’m willing to listen to anything you have to say on the subject. The reason for this big change in my life was because I’m so sick and tired of what this affliction does to me when it hits. It sux’s big time. I’ve collapsed twice now in the emergency room parking lot trying to get help. It’s terrible.
Anyways, I haven’t started taking any magnesium but my son did get me started on electrolytes. Im using the Primal Edge brand.
I’m taking Fleconide and Metropolol (sp) twice a day and I carry one pill each with me if I’m away from home.
My latest visit with my cardiologist was very positive. He is very supportive of my diet change and says that reducing the inflammation in my body is very beneficial to the heart. He is encouraged by my progress and says that in three months we will look into reducing my medication with the goal of possibly getting off of them all together.

(Marianne) #11

Welcome! I’m so happy to hear that you discovered keto/carnivore and have taken to it so well. As you are seeing, the benefits are amazing and not just confined to weight loss. My husband and I love the what we eat. Is it limited, yes, but our meals are so rich and delicious, I don’t have any of the cravings I did when we were eating a diet of carbage and because of that, I don’t find it difficult to maintain. I don’t cheat at all because after all these years, I know what that will lead to. Also, I lost sixty lbs. without exercising (other than yardwork). I may decide to become more active at some point, but it was not a requirement to my losing weight and feeling better.

I had serious a-fib and wound up having a heart ablation just before I started keto four and a half years ago. For me, it worked but is not something to be taken lightly. I often wonder if it would have resolved after being on clean keto/zc for all this time. Good luck to you. I hope you find that the severity of your episodes decreases and becomes something you can manage with medication. Hope to see you around the forum! :hugs:

(Geezy) #12

Thank you for the kind words and welcome @gingersmommy.

I assume Ginger is your pup? I also have a Ginger. She’s rotten and I love her dearly.

#13

Hey Geezy. I’m in Afib right now. It knocked me over this afternoon while I was wood chopping and planting trees. I’ve been treating it for 3 hrs now and it’s settling down. It’s still chaotic but settling down.

For me, it is a lot about the electrolytes. Great to hear they are in your health mix. That includes standard salt and then some other minerals. Potassium, for example, is good at slowing a heart beat. But too high a dose can stop a heart. Magnesium is safer. But don’t take magnesium at the same time as calcium, or calcium rich (dairy) foods, as the calcium competes for uptake from the gut with magnesium. Beef bone broth will have a mix of minerals, and maybe some competitive calcium.

Yes, the doctor and cardiologist advise and prescribe metoprolol and fleconide for me. They call it ‘pill in a pocket’. I tried the metoprolol for a few days but I felt terrible as it dropped my blood pressure so low, even on a small dose. I have not used the fleconide yet. The ER doctor warned that in some people there can be a side effect of it increasing the HR further to over 200+. If I’m going to find that out, I’ll do it in the ER.

So I take the magnesium as magnesium citrate. I take it with water every 20 minutes in an episode. But each hour I have a cup of salty bone broth and no magnesium. I take a 300mg aspirin as there is a high risk of having a stroke during an AF episode, and repeat that after 3 hours. I find a long, hot shower is good, and part of getting ready to go to hospital.

Dr. Stephen Phinney, for as long as I can recall with keto, including keto-carnivore, has a daily bullion cube drink for maintaining his body salt levels.

Yep, keep those electrolytes adequate as you progress, I reckon.

Update: heart correction achieved. Feeling good now.

(Marianne) #14

Hahaha!!! I get it!

Yes, Ginger was our dog. She passed in 2022. She was a spoiled rotten cur and completely indifferent to me, except when she was being a snark. :laughing::smiling_face_with_three_hearts: She adored my husband and the sun rose and set over him.

(Geezy) #15

@FrankoBear, I hope you get it under control soon. I absolutely hate how it makes me feel and I’m sure you are no different.
Thank you for the supplements suggestion. I’ll definitely pick some up for future episodes. It sounds like you’ve got a pretty good regiment down.
Those pocket pills I take are twice a day as well as carrying some in my pocket “just in case”.
Prayers for you buddy.

(Geezy) #16

@gingersmommy, sorry you lost your pup. She sounds very much like mine. Mine is a border collie, cur cross on the dams side but the sire is unknown but I suspect coyote, lol! She adores me as well.

#17

So many Gingers :slight_smile: Mine is a little kitten but very lovely. Always wanted a ginger tabby except when we already had 3 girls. But she refused to stay away and who am I to let such a dear one starve? Lil willfull blighters, cats. I am willful too but I was torn. Ginger tabby!!! :heart_eyes: No regrets but we are full now.

(Geezy) #18

@FrankoBear, are you doing ok now? It’s been a couple of days now since we talked but you’ve been on my mind every day.

(Geezy) #19

So it looks like I’ve stalled out at 206lbs. Still happy with what I’ve lost so far, (I started at 225) but I’m not giving up. It’ll happen in time. I have added a little more fat to the diet so we’ll see how that works out. In the meantime I still feel great. If this turns out to be my optimal weight then so be it, the healing is still worth it. But, considering that my weight in my youth and when I was on Adkins was 183-185 then I believe 206 is not my optimal weight.

#20

Your looks matter, not your weight, per se :wink: Just saying.

Of course your health and how you feel matters even more, the above is just about fat-loss in the end (or lack of it).
Our body change and we may be fine with a way higher weight than what we had before. Maybe it isn’t true in your case (it’s more like for people who get more muscular I suppose… but there are other possibilities) but I still couldn’t help to point it out.

It’s good you feel great and you are happy with your loss instead of being impatient :slight_smile: