Keep Going, Keep Looking, Keep Asking - the Answers are Out There - My Story PART FIVE
“See the Things that You Want as Already Yours” Rhonda Byrne
I did tell my husband what I was doing and apologized in advance for anything that went wrong. I told him I loved him and I was doing this for us and so he wouldn’t have a fat, depressed, unhappy, unhealthy wife. It took me eighteen days to get up enough courage to make bacon and eggs for breakfast, cooked in butter and sprinkled with salt.
January 18, 2018 I began eating what became known as “Keto”. The following six weeks I lost 30 pounds and had energy like I didn’t have in my twenties. I felt invincible and happy, productive and excited about the future for the first time in years. I had everything, everything except a doctor. I didn’t think I needed one, feeling this good, but what if something did go wrong and what was going on with my blood work?
I had decided going back to my doctor would be going backward and I wasn’t going to argue or be demeaned ever again about my health, so I was alone. The fear was disappearing with each bite of red meat and fried egg anyway.
I never let up on the research. I had committed to this way of eating as a lifestyle not a diet, not something temporary. I wasn’t “trying it” I was eating this way from now on. No short cuts or fake food, no more excuses of inconvenience or complaints of cooking taking extra time. Even if those things were true (which they weren’t) I had enough energy to cook for an army and time and energy left over to play with my dog and go out dancing. I was always full for hours after my meals and eventually only ate one meal a day. My body was telling me when to eat and in between I was busy and happy. I hardly ever thought about food anymore. I ate fat and protein when I was hungry and kept my carbohydrates under 20 grams a day - and felt fantastic.
If I hadn’t been so happy I would have been really pissed off about all the wasted years I’d lost being fat and ill. Eventually it did piss me off, but for now I was just a happy, low carb, camper.
One day while I was warily watching a licensed nutritionist interview a medical doctor about a low carb diet, I heard him saying things like “I had no problem turning my beliefs around,…this was dumb.” And “I apologize on behalf of all of Western medicine for basically a bunch of crap diet advice.” Who was this humble, open, willing to admit when he was wrong person? It couldn’t be a doctor.
I stopped what I was doing and rewound that interview and watched it again and again. It turned out not only was he a practicing medical doctor but his clinic was in the Seattle area! I burst into tears.
I would have flown anywhere in the US to go to this doctor, but here he was in my own back yard! I was freaking out. That same glimmer of hope came back and I picked up the phone to make and appointment. I was expecting him to have a waiting list and not taking new patients. But I would wait as long as it took.
The receptionist must have thought I was crazy as I sobbed between words. I was able to make an appointment for the upcoming Tuesday. More tears. It was all I could think about. I might have a real live doctor that gets what I’m doing.
I showed up at my appointment shaking like crazy. I was so excited to have help and support and so thankful not to be alone on this journey. When my husband saw how excited I was he told me not to touch or hug the doctor. So I didn’t, but I could barely speak and could not stop smiling. He probably thought I was nuts.
I told him I knew about this way of eating and how I’d already lost over thirty pounds. I told him I had watched an interview he did and I knew what he believed and how he practiced medicine, I told him about my open heart surgery and diabetes and then asked him, “What do we do now?”
“We take blood!” He smiled.
So that day was the beginning of understanding my health in a new and clear way. That day I got to not only experience all the benefits - weight loss, higher energy, better moods and so much more, but I also got to see it in black and white using blood tests how healthy I really was. This was the super proof I wanted.
Until I got those tests back I still wasn’t going to tell anyone what I was doing. I wasn’t going to share this “dangerous” way of eating until I could back it up with cold, hard facts.
My first blood tests that day came back and they were not great. I had fatty liver, high triglycerides and was still pre-diabetic. Seeing those results would have felt like major set back if I didn’t already look and feel so much better after just six weeks eating like this. And there was improvement already, I had been full blown diabetic while in the hospital less than a year before. I was in this for the long haul. This was not a “diet” or me “trying” something. This was my health and how I ate. It would take time to undo the forty years worth of metabolic damage I had done to my body.
I didn’t have to wait long, because 2.5 months later I went back for another batch of blood tests and guess what!? Fatty liver - GONE, diabetes - GONE, high triglycerides - GONE and my cholesterol even lower than usual. Not to mention another 25 pounds down. Dangerous my ass.
Until then, when someone asked me how I had lost so much weight or what was I doing, I looked so good, I had just smiled and told them I changed what I ate. Nothing more, nothing less. But now I had the proof.
With the test results right there in black and white I was ready to share the whole truth whenever someone asked about my weight.
I ate red meat, butter, salt - all the very things my doctor and health coach had warned me against. I ate real food, whole food, food full of protein and fat and I only ate 20 grams of carbohydrates a day. I ate fruit rarely and in season, I only ate a few dark green vegetables.
For a point of reference, the average American eats about 300 grams of carbohydrates a day. With all the roasted root vegetables and fruit smoothies I was drinking I was probably way over that.It took me approximately 6 weeks to become what is called ‘fat adapted’. That means my body began burning fat for fuel instead of carbs. Now instead of feeling hungry and needing food every few hours I could go all day without even thinking about food. I ate big hamburgers with cheese and bacon and a fried egg with slices of avocado. I ate steak with blue cheese and asparagus broiled in bacon grease and sea salt. I ate half a dozen eggs scrambled with goat cheese in butter. And I reversed my diabetes and lost 60 pounds in 4 months.
Why didn’t my doctor tell me to do that? Why didn’t my health coach share this way of eating with me? Why were my numbers getting worse as I ate salad after salad and crowded meat out of my diet?
Because, like I use to, they believe the lie. The lie is that fat is harmful and we NEED carbs to live. I am living proof that even after quadruple bypass open heart surgery eating fat and protein are what have made me healthier and happier than I’ve ever been in my life.
I am no longer afraid some day I will be dependent on insulin (costing $1000 a month), or have another stroke or another heart surgery (costing tens of thousands of dollars).
There is no looking back. For the first time I had hope for my health and my future. For now I continue to learn, to read and research. I have upped my protein intake and fast regularly and eat blackberries in season like a bear. I hope I never see that surgeon again, but if I do, I have some answers to share with him now.
NOT THE END…
“The Key to My Heart” by Kristin Morris
http://www.kristinmorrisart.com