How’s it going everyone? Time for part 4! My crazy experimentation with diets!
If you haven’t read my other posts leading up to this one, I suggest you do that first!
Here are the 5 posts should you need to navigate them:
1.) My Endeavor For Health: The Backstory
2.) What I Found Out About My Genetics
3.) Supplementing Bioavailable Forms Of Vitamins, Electrolytes & Minerals
4.) My Experimentation With Diets (You’re reading this one)
5.) Maintaining My Physical & Mental Health
Diet sure was the missing link and I cant wait to tell you all about it.
First, some background though.
The Standard American Diet
I started where everyone starts. The typical and infamous standard American diet. (SAD)
At first, I just figured food was food. A calorie was a calorie. I ate until I felt ‘stuffed’ and that was that.
I felt like my life was being drained from me every single day. It was hell on Earth.
I had no energy, no motivation, I was stressed out, an insomniac and constantly anxious.
Needless to say, it put an enormous damper on my mood.
The problem with the standard American diet is that it is heavy in carbohydrates, plant oils and sugars.
The excessive amounts of carbohydrates put you on a blood sugar rollercoaster so to speak. I felt like I constantly had to eat to maintain my energy levels.
It was just constant ups and downs with my energy.
The plant oils (Canola oil / Vegetable oils) found in the Standard American Diet encourage inflammation in the body due to high omega 6 content.
Throwing off your omega fatty acid ratios results in inflammation and other ailments.
The SAD is lacking in essential omega 3 fatty acids.
Particularly Eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA); both of which are crucial for brain development and inflammation.
This is why I now supplement with Cod Liver Oil.
I always felt achey. My back was achey from a young age and my nose was always stuffy like I had a cold or was sick.
Worst of all, I noticed I was starting to get psoriasis (runs in the family) on my abdomen and bicep areas. Believe it or not, this actually came about as a result of eating ‘healthy oats and grains’ like buckwheat.
I knew SOMETHING was wrong so I had to try something new.
The Vegetarian Diet
This was the first actual diet I decided to pursue. I would constantly hear it from people, the media and other sources.
I decided why not give it a try? Of course, if it didn’t work, I could always revert back to another diet.
Long story short, I lasted two weeks.
I was at the gym and after my workout I decided to take a shower.
In the shower, I nearly felt like passing out. I got dizzy and felt extremely weak.
Many vegetarians will tell you this is a normal part of the ‘detox process’ but let me tell you: FEELING LIKE YOU ARE ABOUT TO PASS OUT IS NOT NORMAL.
I disbanded the idea immediately and reverted to my normal diet in search of another to try.
After doing some more research, vegetarians rarely get enough B12 so they need to supplement it.
How can a ‘healthy diet’ require supplementation to satisfy dietary requirements?
Even according to my genetics, certain nutrients like vitamin A in the form of Beta-Carotene (which plants contain) does not get converted as well as the vitamin A (Retinyl Palmitate) found in animal products.
Obviously, the vegetarian diet is not a diet optimal for health but more-so one of ideological subversion that people follow due to animals being slaughtered inhumanely and other reasons.
Unfortunately, when you stop eating meat and animal foods, you sacrifice human health for it.
Moving on.
The Paleo Diet
The next diet on my radar was the paleo diet. This included things I liked to eat like salmon and I found it fairly easy to follow as well.
I remember my first day starting like it was yesterday.
I cooked up a nice filet of salmon with some olive oil and lemon pepper seasoning. I ate it outside in my backyard.
After ingesting it, I felt so much better.
I did not know why at the time but as I thought about it, it was the same feeling I get from fish oil when I supplement it.
I must’ve been deficient in omega 3 fatty acids I thought.
Anyways, I went about the next few weeks eating like this but my anxiety and moodiness persisted.
After a month or two, I was not solving all the issues I had hoped to solve with this diet.
I kept researching and stumbled upon yet another diet that actually made sense to me after reading up on it.
The Ketogenic Diet
To start, there are many misconceptions about the ketogenic diet (as well as the zero carb / carnivore diet) about vitamin C (Ascorbic Acid), cholesterol and more.
I will be covering these Misconceptions About The Ketogenic Diet in a later post.
As of now, I will just go through my experience with it.
This diet was definitely a step in the right direction.
Starting off, there were a few things I had to deal with as I became fat adapted such as Electrolyte Imbalances, Carbohydrate Withdrawal and Fat Adaptation.
I started by restricting carbohydrates to less than 20-30 grams per day.
Initially, I lost around 8-10 pounds of water weight off the start.
Then, about a week in, my legs felt weak.
Almost like they were made of rubber.
This was due to my body being optimized for glycolysis (energy from carbohydrates and sugars) instead of fat.
This only lasted a few days as I supplemented with electrolytes and became more fat adapted.
To become fully fat adapted took me around 4-6 weeks of strict adherence.
I noticed that I was not as hungry when I got fat adapted.
This was because I was easily able to tap into my stored body fat for energy instead of getting it from external sources.
The first thing that led me to believe this was the optimal diet was that my anxiety slowly faded away, my brain fog cleared and my moodiness stabilized as well as my energy levels.
I was stoked. I knew I was onto something even when others said I was crazy for doing it.
I feel like ketogenic diets get a bad reputation by people who are misinformed, have not tried the diet or are simply biased from following other diets that they believe is best.
I continued this diet for about a year but still felt that my energy levels were not at 100%. Maybe 90% at best.
I knew I was on the right path so I decided to go extremist with it and experiment with another ‘crazy’ diet.
The Zero Carb / Carnivore Diet
This was the last diet I’ve tried and the only diet I will follow for the rest of my life. Though, I do enjoy occasional cheat days (1-2 days per month).
After cutting out all carbohydrates (all plant foods) from my diet, I felt 110% with my energy and motivation.
No anxiety, no stress, just level-minded focus. I felt like I could do anything.
This diet sounded insane to me at first but after reading into it more and more, there are many populations that subsist themselves on a carnivorous diet. (The Eskimos for example)
The fact that I felt better than I ever had in my entire life led me to believe that this was the way.
I have now made it my mission to help others that unknowingly fall victim to the propaganda about ‘healthy grains, fruits and vegetables’ and other misleading claims.
To be quite honest, I did not realize how sick I actually was until I was healthy due to this diet.
This will be the case for most people. They believe their health is intact but they fail to realize how much better it could be.
Let me just tell you, this diet WILL make a VAST difference in your life.
True health is something that seems to be hidden from us.
Likely for reasons of profit via the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries.
Anyways, without the zero carb / carnivore diet, I would not have had the power in myself to start this blog and help others.
That’s the stone cold truth.
And there will be many more truths that will come to you through this blog.
Cheers guys.
Until Next Time,
Frun
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