[WARNING THATS A REALLY LONG POST] Carnivore for an half year, here is the story of how i found the way. I knew great victories, I knew fighting with myself into crazy training to feel I deserved any calories I ate and so I knew REDS, I knew the slow descent into hell and i finally knew that fatal injury which makes you realize that you need to stop the nonsense... I remember get out of the hospital with canes because my hips were completely f*cked and two days after already doing 5km walk with the canes, recovery was not even something existing in my stupid head... Then I knew what it is to be at the bottom with not a single physical capacity left and to have to develop everything again, during this period I oriented myself more than ever on endurance, (I was before someone really explosive doing lot of sport of high intensity and impact) during this endurance era I kinda make peace with myself and were not as strict as I always been, I was changing after years of military routine... but endurance is endurance I slowly started to become the perfect type of the "zombie runner"... seriously all these guys doing endurance, especially when it's start to expend to marathon or even more are mostly not feeling in good shape at all... after months and months to continuously complete weeks over 70km the injuries started to show up again but not as a one and only explosion like the first time but more little ones at intervals... outside of the high volume factor I was not eating enough again as I always did... and not the good food (I always been strict on my diet but "strict" based on what?... on usual poor recommandations that gives most of sports guys... So with all those little injuries i finally got bored. And I decided to stop to run FOR EVER! I actually started to hate it. Then I discovered "race walking" (if you never seen it look a few videos the movement can look a bit weird but that's a wonderful activity) I always walked a lot but at this moment walk became a sport! So I combined it with strength training (the only activity I never stopped for almost my whole life)... I felt in better shape than ever during this time but it was still something weird... I was always inconsistent, especially mentally... I'm a severe autist and yes it's not help me to feel good every days but I don't want of that excuse to let my own life f*cking me... one day I have just no idea from where but after considered and experimented everything with food I finally discovered something I never heard before "the keto diet"... at this moment I needed to move really really quickly, even consuming extra amount of oats on the few last days to bring forward the date by which I will no longer have any carbs into my house LOL... I never felt bad at the beginning in keto, probably because I had the chance that for years I always had a relatively reasonable distribution between fats and carbs in my diet compared to most people that eat a standard type diet. My performance stagnated for a while but I never have a fall. But the progress out of the gym came to an impressive speed! Headache, constant drowsiness, heatstroke, anxiety skyrocketing after meals, constipation... all was gone! and it's only now that I name all these issues that I realize how I was miserable when I was as it seems leading a healthy life, eating what is considered as "healthy foods" and aside of it being a great sportmen... Bullsh*t.... The keto diet was already a great improvement, but not everything was solved like the arthritis and joint pain I developped over years of eating sh*t and training to the limits, as well as a bad thermoregulation, my relation with food was still bad as I was constantly continuing to track my calories intake and stayed to a relatively low daily intake... I think the final transition has finally came of a sudden boredom of spending so much time to eat per day... I eat really slowly and in keto I was eating a lot of veggies so it was endless... I firstly got ride of the veggies, then during 2 or 3 weeks i finished the 2 foods I had in reserve at home, which were olive oil and nuts, then the cupboards ended up empty and the only things I had to think was to go get my meat, my butter, my eggs and my cheese, that's it. The carnivore definitely ended the last issues mentionned that were remains in keto. And the most crazy was about the sport, I came a beast in carnivore, it's simple the hormones start living again! No more digestive fatigue too, ou dont realize how it consume to digest... After five years of struggle with myself, to loathe my fate I'm back. Probably my greatest pride is to reach again numbers of cals I not saw since about 4 years, reaching close to 3k , 3k yes... but 3k for someone that is 160cm and 47kg! Until now I was almost limiting to strength training every day and "race walking" as became much rarer, but now that I am completely adapted to this diet I have the desire to do more again! (without going to excess for sure) And by doing more I will eat more and my greatest challenge is now to get some additional weight to simply have more reserve. I actually eat 2 times a days, on a whole day I eat about 500/750 gr of meat, and lot of cheese and eggs, and there is the butter... I'm on a consecutive streak of 100gr per days for months and months 🤣 but now I'm closer to 150gr a day. Hope some smiled reading my post. Take care. J
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I have read numerous articles and testimonials about the mental clarity that comes from the cleaner diet. My interest has sort of been piqued as of late because I am not sleeping through the day or the night.
The first few months of carnivore I didn't really have tons of energy per se, but it was like just having a steady supply. I was getting more done during the day, at least more than before, and my sleep actually improved. (Lifelong shift worker, rotating 12-hour shifts both days and nights so my sleep patterns are far from normal. I sleep much better during the day than the night and my sleep is 9-3/3:30 day or night.)
I have not had the 'mental clarity' I have read about. The closest thing is that when I wake up, I am up, and there is no going back to sleep. I am not what has changed as of late but my 3 or 3:30 has shifted back to 'before 3' and there is no going back to sleep. Been up for awhile now and this seems to be my new norm.
Yesterday I had what felt like a really good workout between 5AM and 7AM. I carried my mom to an appointment and home by 9:30. Fed animals, hauled a week's worth of garbage to the dump (two houses), put brakes on the back of my buddy's car, pulled my son's dishwasher out to replace a diverter motor, walked their dog for about a mile or so, fed the baby so my daughter-in-law could walk the other dogs, and then pulled the dishwasher again last night to ohm check the motor when he brought the meter home. I ate two chuck steaks and the day sort of caught up with me. I was dog tired after eating and could barely hold my eyes open at 8PM. I made it to just about nine and went to bed. I slept like a rock til 2:30 or so, and here I am.
For the last month or so I have tried everything I can think of to go back to sleep but as I said, when I wake up, I am up, like, my eyes open and my feet hit the floor.
Ready for the day, except it is the middle of the night. LOL
The sleep itself is good, and I wake up rested and feel charged. It is like my clock has shifted and my new bedtime is 8, and sometimes like 7.
Noting has really changed as of late that I can think of that would trigger a change in sleep patterns, especially after having them engrained over the last 35 years.
This is how I end up being one of the weirdos in the gym at 4:30 in the morning. LOL
Scott