Hello, my name is Dan. I would like to share with you my journey to a carnivore lifestyle. I am not a doctor or therapist; I am simply a man sharing my experience.
In this instant information age, many lies we have been told our entire lives will be revealed. They couldn't hide UFOs anymore, and I see and suspect other things are coming to light as we speak. This will lead to new species being admitted and nutrition as we know it being taken apart. We live in a world governed by corrupt and greedy leaders. That is no secret; money and power overrule the righteous and moral for a strong and intelligent society. I see a change coming, and the wave will be vast.
One of those changes is the carnivore community. This lifestyle I stumbled upon will help improve the world. Now, how do I know it's a growing community? Well, that's easy. I just joined, so that's one new member they didn't have this time last year. The facts will add up, and the testimonials will prevail, which I suspect will lead to more research, so I decided to share my experience. I suspect you are also ready for change if you are still reading this.
I will share a little about myself to begin. I am a 50-year-old male, and I have started caring for my health after a lifetime of not being conscious about it. I always thought I had a high metabolism and would "burn it off." Never really aware of my sugar addiction or what it was doing not only to my weight but also my blood pressure, glucose, and even perhaps breathing.
I developed asthma very early on in my life and have always struggled with breathing difficulties and lower back pain. Even as a small boy, my father tells me I couldn't run for long without being out of breath and wheezy. With the inhaler, it can be managed. Still, I have been hospitalized 5 times due to this, with the latest one upgrading me to COPD and pre-hypertension. When I turned 50 last year, I started to take notice. I had a growing fear of heart attack or stroke with growing chest pains both in intensity and frequency. I also noticed I was gaining a huge belly. Always attributed that to the whole "dad bod" thing.
Before my lifestyle change, I would eat what I wanted when I wanted, and only a little thought was put into food as fuel. Eat green, fat-free, low-fat, heart-healthy foods, they say. That was my food of choice, along with snacks, sweets, and milk, which were all addictions to me. If you knew me then, you knew I always had something to snack on and was always eating. Subsequently, I would always feel bloated and "full" but never really satisfied. In fact, I would eat until my stomach hurt, then wonder why I still craved food. I now feel that high carbs were a significant source of that.
One of the first changes I made was several years ago when I almost completely stopped with the soda pop. That was an easy way to reduce my sugar intake. So water and milk were my new drink. Luckily, I was never addicted to coffee or alcohol. I felt this was enough. Haha. Let me clear this myth up. That reduced my sugar, but in the grand scheme of things, "very little," I would discover. When I started reading labels and what they put in food, I found it is in almost every processed food I ate.
When I stepped on the scale on January 3rd, 2024, it was 194.6, and I vowed to myself to never let it reach 200. I began to use YouTube to learn about healthy habits. I found a Doctor I really liked and could believe. His name and Channel are Dr. Allen Mandell @motivationaldoc. This was my first step in the right direction. I started taking a couple of his elixirs with a noticeable difference. I was introduced to chia seeds as food for the first time, and I now use them daily. The more I listened to his channel, the more others would show on my feed. That led me to a video from the Steak and Butter Gal channel. It had an insane title that drew me in.
That first video would change my lifestyle forever. I knew I didn't want to "diet" because that always implies temporary; I needed permanent. The video was about eating one stick of butter a day. My first thought was, what the heck? I "had" to watch or rather listen to this. While at work, I listened to the presentation and was utterly blown away by the revelations it brought with it, leading me to Doctor Brite and Doctor Ken Berry. I'm jumping ahead, so I will get back to them soon. In this video, "Eat one stick of butter a day," I was convinced that I had been lied to about nutrition my whole life. The proper butter is not only a healthy fat but also regulates your cortisol levels and thus helps me manage depression and lift my mood. Who would ever believe that?
Here is why I can trust YouTube: the comments and support from others who use this lifestyle and their vast and impressive results, combined with the knowledge that there was only one way to see if it worked for me, and that was to try it.
It really worked for me. At first, I was scared to eat more significant amounts of butter, but that soon left me with this revelation. The proper butter only contains cream or cream and salt, which I prefer. My butter is the Kerry gold Irish butter in the gold package. I didn't jump right to the whole stick a day, but I am definitely on the way. Remember, this came with a particular fear as well since we are constantly warned of heart attacks and clogged arteries. But I was sometimes using a gallon of milk a day. So, how can churning it make it more damaging? I had never thought or pondered that before. So, I took the leap and started to increase my butter intake. I decided then to listen to my own body and adjust accordingly. The more of these shows I watched and listened to, the more I began to trust my body and gain confidence. The first video was predominantly about women's health, and I highly recommend it. However, it also opened my eyes to a few things for men. Such as the Iodine that I never knew I was deficient in for prostate health, but now I take it as well.
I decided to give it 90 days. It has now been six months, and there is no sign of stopping.
On January 3rd, I was 194.6. I started watching many videos, and at this point, I began using Chia seeds. During the first month, I also took shots of olive oil, but this did not continue once I started learning about the oils we eat. Dr. Berry said something I never thought of in one of his videos about olive oil. How many olives would you have to eat to get that amount? It seemed unnatural. It probably is healthy, and I am not knocking it at all. I just don't need it personally. I also began drinking an apple cider vinegar drink for the first month or maybe 2, giving it up for cost savings.
So, I began to change the way I eat as well. I scheduled a time for a 12-hour fast and started eating two meals most days. I used to always snack and have something I was eating throughout the day, but I cut way back on that in the first month. It is 14 hours most days without food, which is not hard to do. I have set a rule since I work nights, and my schedule is always off. I eat nothing between 10 in the morning and 12 am on my first break, and my meals are usually at 2 am and 9 am. I eat until I feel full. Now, there are days when I snack. Every day, I eat 2 boiled eggs or one yogurt at midnight when I feel hungry. The first 2 months, I also always had beef jerky that I made at home.
This gives me at least 12 hours every day without food from 10. am to 10 pm. To help me achieve this, I also utilize the chia seeds. I always have a tablespoon soaking in about a cup of bottled water. I pour it into my day's drink, then mix the next batch for about 12 hours. One is in the morning, and one is in the evening, so only 2 tablespoons are in one 24-hour period. They expand in the water and help me feel satiated, giving me something small to chew on and feeding my gut biome. Then, if I feel hunger, pain, or extreme discomfort after 10 pm, I will snack lightly between 10 pm and midnight. For the first two months, I would use a few pieces of jerky and a spoonful or two of peanut butter with only salt and peanuts. This is accompanied by little pieces of butter I slice and put in my lunch. Some people may find that disgusting, but it tastes good to me with the Kerrygold in bite-size pieces. It is essential to use the correct butter; nothing with added oils or tons of ingredients; only one or two is best. After the first two months, I dropped the jerky and may decide to make it occasionally still as I continued to lose weight and only dropped it for cost.
Okay, so what are these meals? My new foods are beef, butter, bacon, eggs, and dairy. I can still eat fish and poultry without worry, but I haven't very often. For simplicity, I like to cook up batches of food for the week. So, on my days off, I will boil 12 to 14 eggs with my egg cooker, which makes up to 7 each. Every day at midnight, it's two boiled eggs or one Greek yogurt for nutrition. That is enough to get me through the next two hours. Some days, I will mix up two pounds of hamburger and about 6 sausage patties for my base. Then I eat it just like that or add a pound of bacon, with salt and pepper to taste. Some days, I may make it into taco meat, or others may add pizza sauce. I still eat a few carbs in the form of seasoning, sauces, or the few snacks I sometimes eat after work with a movie. So this batch will last a couple more days if I double that. If I make the pizza mix, I will put it in a casserole dish, top it with mozzarella like a pizza, and eat it like that. It helps me not miss pizza much. For the tacos, I will just eat meat with cheese and sour cream. I still occasionally eat tortillas. Only 2 packs in the six months, and virtually no bread at all. I had one can of biscuits in the beginning as well.
Another thing I do a lot is buy a chuck roast, butterfly it, and cut all the pieces into steaks. I get six steaks from each one. They are fatty and delicious. I love other steaks, and ribeye is my favorite, but this is the cheapest way to eat healthier. I live a single life, so I pay all my bills and every penny counts.
Other foods I have eaten in the last six months are three boxes of macaroni and cheese mixed into beef, a box of frozen blueberry waffles, and two smaller boxes of crisp rice cereal. I have not eaten any other bread or noodles. I have occasionally eaten popcorn with butter and salt. That is pretty much it. I eat a ton of eggs and meat these days.
I choose to focus on my carb intake and the foods I eat. I have adopted a very low-carb lifestyle. Okay, this brings me to sugar and the infamous sweet tooth. Let's face it: sugar is an addiction in our lifetime, probably at an all-time high. We crave sugar, cakes, candies, pastries, pies, cereal—the list is endless. Even the drinks are packed with sugar. I also struggled with this, and here was my solution: I use sugar-free flavor packs in the water I drink. As my treat, I would keep a quart of strawberry cheesecake ice cream for the first two months. Always ate smaller than usual amounts, and that worked fine. Then I found some dessert-flavored Greek yogurts that were sugar-free and low-carb and replaced the ice cream, so I bought three quarts and then stopped that. What I discovered next, which I now use quite often, is a whipped dessert that I make that is good and versatile. I take a room-temperature block of cream cheese and whip it with a mixer for about two minutes. Mix one cup of heavy whipping cream for about three minutes until fluffy. I then dissolve one package of sugar-free Jello in one-half cup of hot water from the microwave or stove. I also like lime occasionally, which is not sugar-free. Once dissolved, I whipped everything together and portioned it into 4 different sealed containers for the week. I eat about one-half of each meal. Very low carbs yet sweet and tasty. I also have a recipe for a blueberry cheesecake whip on my Pinterest that led me to this new base I make. It was also perfect; it was low-carb and had real blueberries.
I titled this my journey to Carnivore because I am not quite there. I enjoy fruit and nuts, so I may never be a true carnivore. However, I do adopt a mostly Carnivore way of eating, and here are my results so far.
I realize they may not be your results as well, but you will get out of it what you put into it. I have read many testimonials and encourage you to do the same research. This is why I decided to add my testimonial. I am aware it has only been six months, and many may feel there are long-term side effects of not eating a balanced diet; I will cross that bridge if it arises. As of now, I am feeling better than I have in many, many years. That speaks volumes to me. My body, and yours, speaks to us. I had been experiencing chest pains and legs going to sleep, and that has all but stopped. My breathing is getting better, and I have fewer needs for medicine. I believe I had a build-up of visceral fat around my lungs as well as around my midsection. Continuing on this lifestyle may further heal that. As of now, I still need my meds once in a while for breathing, and I have not had chest pain in a couple of months, and that has been an enormous stress relief. My legs never fall asleep on the toilet anymore, and that was the case daily before. I can not stress the butter enough because I genuinely noticed a difference within days with my depression lifting. No joke, this alone gave me confidence in the butter I now eat daily.
So here are the numbers,
January 3rd, I weighed 194.6
Began measuring my belly and waist per Dr. Ken Berry's video on
February 3rd 179.5 waste 38in belly 44in
Cut most sugars and implemented the Carnivore living out after
March 3rd, 177.9 forgot the tape measure this month.
April 3rd 171.9 waists 37 bellies 40
May 3rd 169.7 waists 37 bellies 40
June 168.1 waist 36 belly 39
July 3rd 165 waists 36 bellies 39
August 3rd 160.7 waists 35 bellies 38
The grand total is nearly 35 pounds, which is a lot of weight. To give you an idea, next time you are in the grocery store, pick up a 10-pound log of hamburger meat and imagine three and a half of those in your gut. I was amazed when I picked it up and thought about that. No wonder my body constantly ached, and my feet hurt after work.
I wish I had taken a picture before, but I never expected this to work as well as it has.
Christmas 2023, I was getting a huge belly.
Now. August 9th 2024
As I mentioned, I have breathing difficulties some days, so exercise is difficult. My job is fast-paced and high-energy, so I am often exhausted.
Last year, I suffered a shoulder injury and needed physical therapy. During this, I discovered electro-shock therapy, which does wonders for me. Because of how it felt, I bought a home omega tens unit for myself and recommend them to anyone who is always sore. I use it to aid in my sore muscles daily. Still, I have also begun using it to help gain an abdominal workout without leaving me winded and out of breath or wheezy. I simply put the probes on my abs and set the timer for 20 minutes. Then I lay flat on my bed with my feet on the floor, and every time it pulses, I do a crunch, lifting my feet and head up. It lasts about 10 seconds, then there is a rest for another 10 seconds and lasts for 20 minutes. I next plan on adding ankle and wrist weights to that. This is the only added exercise I have used so far. However, as I regain my health, my regime will increase. I have begun to notice my six-pack abs returning; as Dr. Berry said, "We all have them."
If you have made it this far, Good luck. I am confident you will achieve your goals if you strive for results. Thank you for reading my work as I continue on this often scary but also rewarding journey into the carnivore lifestyle.
I will continue updating my journey.
Dan Leaver
Comments