Nowler's Story

[Bob]

17 hours ago, Nowler said:

Around once per week I'll have 400g of prawns in garlic butter

I had to look up what prawns are. I see they are crustaceans, similar to the shrimp we eat over here. 

Thanks for the update. I look forward to hearing more and more about your continued progress

[Torsten]

Hi Nowler,

thank you for sharing this story - I think that Carnivore will help to transform you and change your life!

To be frank I had various Ups and Downs in terms of body weight and lifestyle as well. It was the missing "WHY" that always led to loosing body weight and gaining it back again, eating healthy and then turn back to junk food. In 2023 I finally realized that there is so much to do and achieve in this life, which I will only be able to achieve if I life long enough. That's a very strong "Why" which motivated me to switch my Lifestyle completely. I lost weight from over 230 lbs to 187, I started doing sports which was never a thing going for me. I read several books on Health, Mindset and Success. I completely stopped drinking alcohol and of couse I live Carnivore.  However it was a long road to get there. I started Carnivore and did it for ~4 Months, then I started to walk up to 10k steps per day (starting with 2-3k per day), cutting out the Alcohol was the latest step and I don't miss it at all.

What I want to encourage you is to look for and find your personal "WHY". The moment you have it, things will get much easier and with less effort. Of course you still have overcome your baser instincts regularly, especially when it comes to Movement and Training.

For me living a long and healthy life is the driver for everything I am doing. There will be moments when you doubt and it will help to remember why you have started what you are doing right now. You will make it!!

[Nowler]

10 hours ago, Geezy said:

Fantastic results. Even the activity is great. Every bit of movement is progress. As you get leaner that will improve. Thanks for the update.
Sorry to hear about your redundancy though. Hopefully you find a job that suits you well.
Keep up the good work buddy.


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Thank bud!
I already feel less tried and lethargic than I used to!
Looking forward to improving more!

Regarding the job, thanks for the kind words.
It's not actually a bad thing though as the company and I have an irreparable breakdown of relationship.
I'm done with them and was just trying to see out my days until I got a decent redundancy pay out.
To their credit, they let us know well over a year ago that this was coming.

I believe it's also motivated me to get a move on with improving my situation as whatever job I get next will likely require me to go into the office rather than work from home. Working from home is great! But I personally need to start moving more, and this is going to force me to do that... or be homeless 

A little aside, I have my eye on a paid government programme to become a Probation Officer which applications open up for in September. So I at best just need a job to keep me going until then. But it has to be a job that I don't mind doing in the event my application is unsuccessful and I have to wait 6 months for the next enrolment.

I forgot to add in my update that I have decided to start driving again and have booked in my theory test for July 11th.
I drove in Ireland for a few years on a provisional licence, but I then sold my car to help with Uni costs and haven't driven since. Since then my Irish licence is out of date and now that I live in the UK I have to start all over again.

Looking forward to going off for a nice drive, pulling up somewhere and going for little walks or just chilling.
I didnt realise how much I missed driving until I started thinking about it again (public transport over here is pretty decent, so I have been able to manage quite well without a car)

Edited June 20 by Nowler

[Nowler]

8 hours ago, Bob said:

I had to look up what prawns are. I see they are crustaceans, similar to the shrimp we eat over here. 

Thanks for the update. I look forward to hearing more and more about your continued progress

Yup!
Prawns and Shrimp are pretty similar.

Something I really want to experience is one of those community crawfish boils in Southern America!
The food looks so good and the vibes look amazing!
 

[Nowler]

3 hours ago, Torsten said:

Hi Nowler,

thank you for sharing this story - I think that Carnivore will help to transform you and change your life!

To be frank I had various Ups and Downs in terms of body weight and lifestyle as well. It was the missing "WHY" that always led to loosing body weight and gaining it back again, eating healthy and then turn back to junk food. In 2023 I finally realized that there is so much to do and achieve in this life, which I will only be able to achieve if I life long enough. That's a very strong "Why" which motivated me to switch my Lifestyle completely. I lost weight from over 230 lbs to 187, I started doing sports which was never a thing going for me. I read several books on Health, Mindset and Success. I completely stopped drinking alcohol and of couse I live Carnivore.  However it was a long road to get there. I started Carnivore and did it for ~4 Months, then I started to walk up to 10k steps per day (starting with 2-3k per day), cutting out the Alcohol was the latest step and I don't miss it at all.

What I want to encourage you is to look for and find your personal "WHY". The moment you have it, things will get much easier and with less effort. Of course you still have overcome your baser instincts regularly, especially when it comes to Movement and Training.

For me living a long and healthy life is the driver for everything I am doing. There will be moments when you doubt and it will help to remember why you have started what you are doing right now. You will make it!!

Hey bud!
Sorry, I almost didn't see this.

Thanks for the words of encouragement.
Congrats on your progress also!

I really do need to start with some regular walking.
I think I'll download one of those tracking apps which log/chart my walking stats. I reckon something like that might encourage me to do it a bit more. Slowly increasing over time.

Thanks again

[Geezy]

Yup!
Prawns and Shrimp are pretty similar.

Something I really want to experience is one of those community crawfish boils in Southern America!
The food looks so good and the vibes look amazing!
 

Oh my brother I could hook you up with a crawfish boil. We generally try to do at least one a year. I’ve been known to hurt myself eating them mudbugs.


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[Bob]

On 6/20/2024 at 9:24 AM, Nowler said:

I think I'll download one of those tracking apps which log/chart my walking stats.

I've used "Map My Walk" in the past and found it to be user-friendly and very useful.

[Nowler]

On 6/21/2024 at 9:25 PM, Bob said:

I've used "Map My Walk" in the past and found it to be user-friendly and very useful.

Sorry bud, I only saw this now.
I'll try that app out, thank you

[Nowler]

Quick update:

Tuesday night I got back from a 6 day trip back home to Ireland for my moms birthday where I knew I be consuming carbs. I was wondering - and a little anxious - how I would behave after re-introducing carbs... would I slip up and struggle to get back on track with no/low carbs when I got back to the UK?

From the very first carb I ate in Ireland I almost immediately felt like crap!
There was no indulgent "oh I missed this" moment AT ALL!

One thing that struck me the moment I arrived back at my moms house is the sheer amount of high/all carb food items in their house! My reaction is how I imagine a vegan would feel after opening one of our fridges (13kg of ribeye in mine) 
My mom has listened to me over the last few months and dropped the amount of carbs she eats a little (has lost a lot of fat too!), but looking at the food she stocks the house with, she could be doing a lot better! 

I knew on the day of the party I would be drinking beer, so I planned in advance that I was going to break keto 1-2 days before consuming an Irish-amount of beer, which I did, but I still had a horrible reaction to the sugar laced beer. This surprised me because I believed that reintroducing carbs 2 days prior would avoid this. Evidently not!

In the airport on the way home I decided to get something from a fast-food place (Burger King) while I waited on the bus. This was my first fast-food since getting back on carnivore-keto back in April, and I thought it might be a bit of a treat but again it really wasnt... I didnt enjoy it at all! I don't think there was "anything wrong" with the food, as fast as crappy carby fast food goes... I just didn't crave this... I wanted a nice big ribeye cooked in butter, maybe even with an egg or 2 on the side!

This is the morning of my 3rd full day back home in the UK again and 3rd full day back on carnivore.
I wish I could say I feel great again but unfortunately I picked some sort of illness up (probably on the plane, or maybe at the party). However, while I am physically ill and feeling rough, my diet is good again and this fills my soul with satisfaction knowing that once the illness and raw cough is gone, I should be back to how I felt pre-trip home.

Some of this crappy feeling may be in part due to switching back over to keto again as the poisonous carb effects leave my body. All will be fine in the next 1-2 days 

My takeaway from this experience:
It just reinforced my desire for a carnivore/keto lifestyle!
My fear that I would fall back into uncontrollable diet habits were not realised at all! It was the opposite!
Next time I have an event where I know I'll be drinking, I'm just going to stick to spirits/liquor instead. And if I have a mixer, then sugar free.

I will weigh myself for the next update.
Peace!

[Geezy]

When I used to drink a lot I had a saying whenever I’d wake up with a hangover from imbibing too much.
“Sometimes I just gotta drink too much just to remind myself why I shouldn’t drink so much.”
Now that you’ve learned the lesson you can forget the mistake.
Now this is no reflection on you as everyone has to choose their own path but in my case, when I became carnivore I made a commitment to my health that nothing would detour me from eating right. A month after I started I had a birthday and my daughter made me a cheesecake. Now you’ve got to understand, this is her specialty and she makes the best cheesecake in the world. No brag, just fact. Well my commitment is so strong that I had no desire to have any. My wife thought it would hurt my daughter’s feelings but it didn’t matter to me. My health is more important. I asked her if she was hurt by my refusal and she said not at all. She’d rather I be healthy.
My determination for changing my lifestyle was when I was on a gurney in the emergency room with a team of doctors and nurses working on me trying to get my heart back in rhythm for the fourth time. I turned my head towards my wife and with tears in my eyes I told her”I’m done, I can’t take this anymore”.
Sometimes it just takes the right motivation.


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[Scott F.]

@Geezy. Yep. Sometimes it is the pat on the back that gets us going and other times it is the kick in the pants. And even sometimes it is the severity of the kick in the pants. I am sure 'being close to the other side' is a tremendous motivator. 

I'm still on the Carnivore diet, close to 60 days in now, and in time I am thinking it becomes the Carnivore Lifestyle. Time will tell.

Although I am not having any types of cravings now, there was a time when I would just about kill a 'mofo' for a good piece of cheesecake. If hers is, indeed, the best ever, I would kill multiple 'mofos'. Just saying.

Back to reality, I have been actually hungry only twice since May 8th. No cravings even as I walk by the Little Debbie cake aisle (they were the gospel for a lot of years). 

For me, and this is just me, the not being hungry makes it very easy for me to continue. I am not calorie counter and if the 'two pieces of lettuce and a half a carrot' leave me hungry, then I eat. Those type diets never worked for me. This one allows me to go stretches without eating or snacking and the meal-to-meal effects do not push me off the wagon.

Sort of babbled/hi-jacked the thread. My apologies.

Scott

[Nowler]

All god bud.
You're not hijacking.

It's reasonable to think that something bad happening and even the severity of said thing being a great motivator - I would be inclined to think the same. However, I saw something last week when I was back in Ireland that was very thought provoking to for me.

My stepdads brother (45ish) was told he has throat cancer a few short months ago (the 4th-5th person in his family - all others died from it) and at my mom's party I watched as he walked out to the smoking area, stop at the threshold where the smoking area meets outside, where it was raining. It was almost slow motion for me as I watched him stop, look at the rain, and then reach into him pockets for his cigarettes.

This blew my mind!
After being told he has throat cancer and now waiting what will likely be 2 months for something medical, he is STILL smoking!?! 

I used to smoke years ago, so I know what the addiction feels like, but fkn hell... if I was told I had cancer while I was smoking I like to believe I would immediately stop! Wouldn't you?!

Edited July 6 by Nowler

[Nowler]

1 hour ago, Scott F. said:

I'm still on the Carnivore diet, close to 60 days in now, and in time I am thinking it becomes the Carnivore Lifestyle. Time will tell.

Although I am not having any types of cravings now, there was a time when I would just about kill a 'mofo' for a good piece of cheesecake. If hers is, indeed, the best ever, I would kill multiple 'mofos'. Just saying.

Back to reality, I have been actually hungry only twice since May 8th. No cravings even as I walk by the Little Debbie cake aisle (they were the gospel for a lot of years). 

For me, and this is just me, the not being hungry makes it very easy for me to continue. I am not calorie counter and if the 'two pieces of lettuce and a half a carrot' leave me hungry, then I eat. Those type diets never worked for me. This one allows me to go stretches without eating or snacking and the meal-to-meal effects do not push me off the wagon.

Sort of babbled/hi-jacked the thread. My apologies.

Scott

Congrats on finding your golden ticket buddy!
I too have tried other diets in the past and like you I would definitely kill some mofo's when I am experiencing the cravings  The discipline just wasn't there for me!

Now that I have almost entirely taken the addiction out (sugar), I find that I too can go long spells without feeling hungry.
Another profound difference for me this time around is that I look at this as a lifestyle rather than a diet. Similar to how I view losing fat... All these years I was focusing on the wrong thing.

Rather than the aim being "to lose fat", I am just trying to live a healthier life and any fat loss is a bonus.

I wish you continued success bud!
 

Edited July 6 by Nowler

[Scott F.]

Similar story. My Pops was a heavy smoker and a drinker as well. 

He had lung issues and had almost an entire lung removed. Within months of rehab and recovery he started back smoking. Some years later the lower left lobe was removed from the other lung and put him on oxygen. 

He quit drinking but kept smoking. I never quite got the thought process there, but the addiction (any addiction) is real.

Small world.

Scott

 

 

[Nowler]

Humans are an amazing species...
But man are we strange!

[Bob]

On 7/5/2024 at 7:26 AM, Nowler said:

My fear that I would fall back into uncontrollable diet habits were not realised at all! It was the opposite!

This is because you've found something that is not only taking off the weight but is literally making you feel like a million bucks compared to your previous lifestyle and habits. You have a newfound resolve and a strong focus to go along with it.

In the same manner, I can deviate a little here and a little there (and I mean, RARELY) and I know it's not going to derail me and send me on a bender. In the past, I would cheat and then couldn't stop, and next thing I know I was up 40 pounds again. 

This time I am more disciplined, thanks to carnivore.

 

You said as much yourself here...

On 7/6/2024 at 12:53 PM, Nowler said:

Rather than the aim being "to lose fat", I am just trying to live a healthier life and any fat loss is a bonus.

Focus!

 

On 7/7/2024 at 10:56 AM, Scott F. said:

He quit drinking but kept smoking. I never quite got the thought process there, but the addiction (any addiction) is real.

My condolences. A friend of mine who used to work for me went through something similar, in that he was diagnosed with COPD. He could have bought himself several more years, but just couldn't give up the smokes.

[Orweller]

On 7/7/2024 at 2:42 PM, Nowler said:

Humans are an amazing species...
But man are we strange!

We're getting stranger every year! 

[Nowler]

UPDATE

After weighing myself yesterday I was down to 367 lbs (down 43lbs since April).
I still feel great, and have been noticing a certain confidence.
Before I was feeling mentally and emotionally weak/fragile, but now I notice almost a swagger.
I am as strong as ever in terms of my diet too... I dont care about takeaways etc!

I took my niece out 2 weekends ago and we ended up going to the cinema where I had popcorn.
For me I would often say that I need to have popcorn while at the movies - it's the ways it's always been for me and I love the experience, but now I think I am going to bring some of those beautiful fatty Droewors with me in future and munch on those instead! Keto snack!

Being honest, I did eat 1.5 small slices of my nieces pizza as it was too big for her, but it didnt taste nice to me.
I ordered a full rack of ribs but it was only when it hit the table that I saw it was swimming in BBQ sauce, which I reckon was full of sugar. I still ate it, but it took me 3 days to feel on top of the world again. I did wonder at the time while I kind of panicked when ordering and didnt take the time to read it correctly. Oh well... what's done is done and apart from feeling a bit off for 1-2 days it wasnt too bad.

I've been thrust into the job market recently due to being made redundant (yay for redundancy money!) but I am not worried or feeling anything negative about it all really...
Sure, I need to get back to work soon as money will run out, but there's a strange air of confidence in me that I have not felt since I was in my 20's, and I believe it's all nutri-bio-psych based (starting with my diet)!

The carnivore/keto diet has me running much smoother and I'm losing weight.
I'm being forced to leave the house more also, in part due to looking for work but also because I am getting a few long overdue things looked at before the medical insurance from my previous job runs out at the end of December.

Having left a 5 year role in a private pensions company, I applied for a general role in a small bank. The first stage of having "a causal chat" when great. So great that they asked me to have a chat with another manager in a different area where they said that since they feel I might be "overqualified" for the initial role, I may be a better fit for a 6 month contract as a business analyst (much more money that my previous roles).

I graduated from an internal business analyst role in my previous job, but that's it... so I am not confidant about landing this role. I had the interview for it today and it went good, but I reckon if someone with some actual day to day experience as a BA applies (which is likely) then they will beat me - which is fine, I'm just being realistic.

Let's see what happens!
Applications open up soon for a paid probation officer programme (slightly better pay than my previous role) in August, so I will definitely apply for that. The process for that will take about 6-7 months (expected to start in March), so it works well with the 6 month BA role if I get it.

Life is good at the moment!
 

Edited July 26 by Nowler

[Geezy]

Great testimony Nowler, even the shortcomings. They are lessons to learn and your attitude shows that you are learning from them and not feeling defeated. Good on you sir. As I like to say “Wisdom is born of scars.” So lesson learned, bring your own food or fast. Eat the toppings on the pizza not the dough and always as if the ribs will be slathered is sauce and request it baked.
Your upbeat attitude about looking for a job is inspiring as well.
I hope you find something you love.


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[Bob]

17 hours ago, Nowler said:

Being honest, I did eat 1.5 small slices of my nieces pizza as it was too big for her, but it didnt taste nice to me.
I ordered a full rack of ribs but it was only when it hit the table that I saw it was swimming in BBQ sauce, which I reckon was full of sugar. I still ate it, but it took me 3 days to feel on top of the world again.

Just some suggestions....

1) Eat the pizza toppings but not the crust. I do this often.

2) Scrape as much BBQ off the ribs as you can, and don't fret the rest.

Whenever I am thrust into a situation like this, I do my best to compromise and eat as clean as possible.