Today, Phocion Timon shares a success story. If you would like to share your own story, click here. These will be published on Fridays as long as they keep coming.
Mr. Gunnarsson requested a guest post from me after I commented on his post concerning food addiction and moderation.
My comment is at the bottom of page 2.
In 2009 I was diagnosed with very high blood pressure and pre-diabetes.
Oh happy-happy-joy-joy.
After whining for a few days I started researching methods to reduce the high blood pressure and the pre-diabetes and I was not encouraged.
I could reduce my blood pressure by deleting salt from my diet but doing that is impossible on the Standard American Diet (SAD).
The pre-diabetes solution was even worse. If sugar/refined carb intake was responsible for diabetes, why do the diabetes experts publish recipes using refined carbs?
Of course everyone advised exercise but when one weighs 290 pounds, one has a tough time getting out there to “just do it.” Everything I read was either nonsense or contradictory.
Holy moly, now what?
Well, I stumbled across Mark Sisson’s website and oh boy, what a difference. I immediately ordered his Primal Blueprint book and it changed my life.
My college years involved a few classes in anthropology and I knew exactly what Mr. Sisson was saying, even occasionally knowing what he was going to say before he said it.
I read the book non-stop. Fascinating stuff, boys and girls. (Also the books by Gary Taubes – Good Calories, Bad Calories; Dr. Weston A. Price – Nutrition and Physical Degeneration; Dr. Bernstein – Diabetes Solution; and a truckful of others.)
Actually I was paleo-ish. I tended towards “moderation,” eating baked potatoes, sweet potatoes, fruit, dried fruit, artificial sweeteners, etc. I would have a cheat day, a la Tim Ferriss, to the point of illness.
I did this for two years, losing about 25 net pounds, but with large fluctuations.
Well, a net loss is preferable to a net gain but two years? Sheesh, many of the success stories I read involved losing twice as much weight in half the time.
Obviously I was doing something wrong. But what? After a split-second of light thinking I knew it was the carbohydrates. Moderation was not working.
The solution was obvious but could I give up my drug of choice? Yepper, no problem. I have a mild case of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), which I am usually able to control, so I turned the dial to “high” and let the OCD have its head.
At 8:30 a.m., September 15, 2011 I weighed 277 pounds, a net loss of only 13 pounds after large weight fluctuations over the previous two years.
My blood pressure was 129/106 (slightly down from the high of 140/110). My blood glucose was 121, not bad but not where I wanted it. Okay, OCD, do your thing.
I stopped eating carbs that day. Discounting the trace amounts in all foods, even meat, I have been 99% successful at avoiding carbohydrates.
I don’t count carbs so I am guessing my intake is less than 15 gm/day, some days zero due to eating only meat and fat. (Two to four days per week I use one scoop of Mark Sisson’s protein powder containing 5 gm of sugar per scoop.)
Within two weeks — two weeks! — my blood pressure went down to 115/80 and another month saw 110/75. Cool.
My blood glucose almost immediately dropped to 90. My weight was down a few pounds but at least it was only dropping instead of also up.
This morning, one year later, my weight is 231 pounds, my blood pressure is 109/67, and my blood glucose is 79 (it ranges from 76 to 88, very rarely getting to 90).
For those interested, my blood ketones were 1.5. (Yesterday I returned from a 10-day vacation. Today’s weight is a loss of two pounds.)
What do I eat? Steak, ground beef, several offal meats, eggs, bacon, butter, grass-fed tallow, skin-on chicken, olive oil, green leafy vegetables, carrots, tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, coconut milk, coconut oil, coffee, etc.
Breakfast this morning was coconut milk, a scoop of Sisson’s vanilla protein powder, a bit of coconut oil, two raw egg yolks, ground nutmeg, and cinnamon.
As I type this I am drinking Bulletproof Coffee, a mix of strong coffee and salt-free butter.
Supper tonight will be ground beef smothered in sautéed mushrooms and onions, topped with a butter sauce. The veggie will be mashed cauliflower flavoured with whatever cheese I might have, (Daisy Brand) sour cream, butter, salt and pepper, and an herb or two. (My high-fat morning negates a middle-of-the-day meal.)
I have done the opposite of the advice given out by the government and other equally qualified experts.
Taking a wild-assed guess, my fat calories are about 75% of my daily intake. My wife says I am a lot friendlier than I was at the beginning.
I am walking/jogging 2 to 3 miles several days per week. I have not had the flu or a cold in three years. I no longer snore. I am losing weight.
In other words, I feel fine and the experts can go fly a kite.
I am always asked about my triglycerides, my cholesterol counts, etc. Feh. I don’t care.
There is too much available data for me to think my diet is bad. Besides, the doctors here in south-west Texas are too provincial; I would have to spend time justifying myself and I am not interested in arguing with them.
I do not have any before-and-after photos. I could publish today’s photo but without a comparison photo, what’s the point?
Moderation does not work. Period. End of discussion.
If someone wants to lose just a few pounds, maybe moderation works but if one is truly fat, forget it. It is a black-or-white argument, no gray area.
You either quit your drug or you sicken and probably die.
Phocion Timon
P.S. If you liked this article, then you're going to LOVE my free online weight loss course.
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