My year-long Keto journey
Let me start my story with a little background. Every since my Sophomore summer, when I grew 7 inches, I was a slender man. When I joined the service I was probably 175 pounds and 6’ 1”. I met what was then the standard for a healthy height/weight combo. The service, however, put some meat on my bones and hardened me a bit.
Through this process and the 25 years that followed, I developed an internal image of myself as a strong and capable man. One that was fit and dynamic aside from smoking nearly a pack of cigarettes a day. Which had been a constant companion since the early age of, let’s be conservative and say, 11 years old. Everyone is known for something, I was the smoker. But I was fit, I played on softball teams and volleyball teams. I went on long distance backpacking trips with friends and by myself. I was always unstoppable, indomitable.
When I was 46 years old I decided to quit smoking at the behest of all my loved ones, but mostly my constantly dogged daughter, Samantha. It wasn’t an easy road, but I prevailed. As in most things, I refused to fail permanently. This, and my now near 15 years of working a sedentary job started taking its toll on my body and fitness level, even though I spent a great deal of time golfing. No, not riding in a cart, but carrying my clubs on my back and walking the 7+ miles. It was such a gradual, almost imperceptible process, I didn’t even notice. In fact, my own internal image of myself had remained unchanged.
The awakening came during the summer of 2016. Just before my daughter Samantha’s 25th birthday in May, I asked her, “If you could have anything for your birthday, what would it be?” Now mind you, in my genetics lies a small unusual defect that has been the death of my father, his brother Ray, and their father Lloyd. It is to this point unknown exactly what it is, as the three led vastly different lives, as have I. But, the three of them died instantly from cardiac arrest at the age of 54. My father having recently, within 6 months, been given an A+ rating on his Cardio Pulmonary workup. My next birthday was my 54th, this probably added to her impetus.
Her answer was simple, “I want you to take me into the wilderness, to those magical places you have told me stories about my whole life”, this was very emotional for me. We had gone on adventures before, this would not be the first. But, it had been a long time since she had shown an interest in the wild and it stirred me greatly that she wanted me to take her there.
We had a bit of time to prepare, sort our gear, and plan our meals. It was exciting! We were going on a grand adventure into the wilderness that I had called home so many times. It is there that I truly feel at peace, it is there that I belong. My internal self-image, you know the one I mentioned earlier, failed me at this point and I did little physical preparation. After all, I was a strong and capable man! This was my folly.
Our adventure started with the excitement that is usual for such an endeavor. We laughed and talked excitedly about the days ahead and the wonders we were anticipating. When we got to the ranger station to get our passes we were blindsided and found that what we thought we needed to do to get the permits for where we wanted to go, was totally wrong, and we wouldn’t be going there. But, we found an alternative, and after much grumbling, and a few tears, we set ourselves against the adversity and made the best of it. But, that is another story.
Through this adventure, my internal self-image was destroyed. I was humbled and humiliated by my sheer lack of fitness and my inability to perform at the level I was used to. My will had not suffered the same fate as my physical ability and I managed to push through, but not without a large serving of embarrassment. I was supposed to be this larger than life man of the wilderness taking my now grown daughter out to show her the wonder that I was fond of. Instead, I was this broken down old man that was having difficulty keeping up. Barely managing not to be a burden on her and the others. It was a rude awakening, one I don’t care to have again.
When we got home from our adventure, which turned out to be wonderful, despite my failures, I resolved myself to fixing this problem and getting myself realigned with my self-image. I was not ready to acquiesce to the ravages of time and accept my lot as a broken down old man. I spent the next 6 months trying to find my way back there with little or no progress. Until March of the next year when I was watching a live feed from ReadyMan and Josh Tyler was talking about how he used a Ketogenic diet to maintain his muscle while burning the fat, all while eating bacon, among other things.
I spent the next month doing research and preparing myself to convert to this new dietary paradigm. I had a complete blood panel and cardiac workup for a baseline and started my journey on April 1st, 2017. With the support of my family, and a lot of longing for all those things we are used to eating, like bread, potatoes, and the hardest for me, ice cream, I persevered. It was not without stumbles and cheat days or cheat months, but I kept coming back to it and have made much progress. Over the course of the last year, I have lost 47 pounds, more than that if you count the weight I lost more than once! I still have further to go, but I wanted to share this with all of you. Partly to reinforce it with me, but also to maybe give someone else some hope.
At the beginning of this year, I started swimming to get more cardio fitness and am swimming 1 ½ miles, 3 times a week now. I feel better than I have in nearly a decade and I am looking forward to this years adventures in the wilderness.
As Always,
Stay Vigilant and Be Prepared
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