It’s Friday, everyone! And that means another Primal Blueprint Real Life Story from a Mark’s Daily Apple reader. If you have your own success story and would like to share it with me and the Mark’s Daily Apple community please contact me here. I’ll continue to publish these each Friday as long as they keep coming in. Thank you for reading!
My journey started with a diagnosis of Diabetes (type II) on November 17th, 2008. I had some blood work done and the #’s looked like this:
My doctor couldn’t even put a sentence together to explain how unreal these numbers were. So of course the doctor just wanted to medicate the crap out of me and told me to get used to it because I would be on medication for the rest of my life. I left the office feeling as if my life was basically over. I felt immediate depression set in.
When I awoke the next morning I decided that I was going to try to figure out how to beat this or at least live a productive life with diabetes. On to the internet to solve my problems. I was lucky enough to wander upon Dr. Eades’ site and started to identify with what he was writing about in his blog. I was also learning about why my body was reacting the way it was and there were actually people who were able to get healthy again. Well one site led to another and I was convinced on what I had to do.
I also learned of the paleo diet and started a hybrid low-carb paleo way of eating. I went into this with the hope of fixing my blood sugar problems and getting my lipids straightened out. I started that day and after a few days of my body adjusting I started to feel better each day. Oh and I started losing weight and my fasting blood sugar went down immediately. Encouraging signs and I just felt better. I was eating very low carb at this point because I became deathly afraid of anything carb. I was very strict with myself because I knew how easy it could be to fall off the wagon and start chowing Doritos and all that other crap. I watched my fats and started cooking just about every meal I ate. I was working out in some form about five days a week, mostly weights and walking.
I had great success as well as the weight kept coming off and I became more active and had an incredible amount of energy. Like has been said before I started to become more active as I lost weight. I, in the mean time, found Mark’s Daily Apple. I really enjoyed the way you put the information out there. It was easy to understand and was also fun. So March rolled around and it was time to go back to the doctor.
When I had last left the doc I had about four different prescriptions and a not so good outlook on life. Oh, and some really bad nutritional advice (lay off the animal fats). So I rolled into his office weighing in at 190 and excited about life. My blood results from blood given two days prior
Doc was excited to see improvements as was I. Still not where I wanted to be, but a lot better than four months earlier. He then patted himself on the back and said well I guess the medications are working for you but your cholesterol is much higher than I’d like so I would like you to start taking some statins. Well I was armed with knowledge this time and said no freaking way am I taking that crap! And by the way I stopped taking all my medications after the first month.
The look on his face was priceless.
He then wanted to review the medications I was taking and I told him none. I was simply living primal. He shot me a look of confusion and so I started to explain and he said my cholesterol was suffering for all the animal fat I was eating and that I should really cut down. I was a little frustrated by that comment but thought it was just par for the course for the medical community in general.
I went straight to my parents house to tell them my great results at the doctor.
I should add that my parents were behind me all the way from the beginning of my new lifestyle, saw the success I was having and became fans of it as well and are now living a primal life with me. My mom had been a vegetarian for as long as I could remember and now eats a piece of meat at every meal. Makes those family meals that much better.
By this time I was sold on my lifestyle and wanted to tell everyone. I was surprised by the reactions I got. I think people were starting to think I was crazy. I was touting saturated fat and trying to tell anyone who would listen. I grew up in a small town near Rochester, NY and now live and work in that same small town. So I am well known in the community. Being that I am now 38 yrs old, people had gotten used to me and now I was changing in front of there eyes and quickly. People that I have known all my life now did not recognize me and patients at the office I work at (eye doc) who hadn’t seen me in a year or two did not think I was same guy.
I soon learned not to tell people about this life unless they asked because I just didn’t want to deal with the conversation. Ignorance on their part made for some tough explanations.
So June came around and time to go see the doc again and test that blood.
I now weighed 175 lbs.
Doctor practically gave me a high five when he entered the office. Said he had never seen anybody with these kind of improvements and was down right giddy. He then asked me what meds I was taking and I once again told him I was taking nothing. He just shook his head. He also said that he has never heard of anyone being cured of diabetes but… Unfortunately still not sold on my eating choices but couldn’t argue it because of my results.
So that is the short version of my great new Primal lifestyle. I could not be happier with my work in progress. I still tell everyone I know and hand out your Grok flyers to anyone interested. Your site is named great because it really has become my daily apple. I now just do stuff that I would never have done nine months ago. Hiking, sprinting etc. I now look at playgrounds in a whole new way. I pretty much eat what I want (Primal of course) and just listen to my body.
Socially it can be a bit tough but that is okay with me. I now see how lazy people are and it can be tough to find people who can keep up with my energy and good spirits. If you are contemplating a lifestyle change I would say being Primal is a great way to go. Jump in with both feet and live life, it’s great. The community on the internet is a great place to gain knowledge and get different ideas. Part of the fun is trying these things and then figure out what works for you.
Grok on,
ChuckyZ
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