02/17/2025
Down to the basics.
It was important to add some of the skills I had learned in school. Some of the basic therapeutic skills I implemented were; journaling, balancing my circadian rhythm, and meditation. Funny, as a therapist, you recommend clients to practice these skills therapeutically and somehow I had forgotten how beneficial it would be for me. It had been a while since I practiced “grounding”; sitting outside in the sun in the early morning was very helpful. My stress and how I dealt with stress needed attention. Surrendering my health to God was helpful but it took a lot to get there. I also started going to retreats for myself once or twice a year. As a therapist, I came to realize that I needed to care for myself especially because sometimes you fail to put yourself first.
David was tough but he had great empathy and that’s what I needed to keep going when I wanted to give up. I had to adjust the type of water I drank and everyday products I used such as: laundry detergent, toothpaste, shampoo, dish soap, and lotion. Not to mention my makeup and cleaners.
The month of August was somewhat of a blur and things got worse before they got better. I was eating bone marrow, liver, very little ground beef and water (i.e.,46g of fat and 23g of protein for each meal twice a day). I also had to buy a keto- mojo (i.e.,a glucose and ketone meter), to keep up with my ketones. During this time I lost 20 lbs and I was only 120 when I started! I kept this diet up for six weeks. I was getting weak and my hair started to fall out. All this made my family and I nervous!
I decided to book an appointment with Zsofia Clemens, who runs a clinic in Australia named “Paleomedicina”. I’ve listed her on my webpage. At this point I could not lift my son or change his diapers. This was sad and depressing. Especially when I updated David about how I was doing. He would say, “you are really sick and it will take some time to heal from all the junk you put into your body” (i.e.,medication, junk food, etc.). If it was not for my faith in God and the support of my family I don’t know if I could have done it. There were times that my family did not understand. How could they? Not even I understood what was going on inside my body. This was the loneliest time in my life. I spent days in bed resting. I started journaling and going outside in the mornings. I kept hearing David’s voice saying, “relax and let your body heal”. I have to admit after a couple of weeks of this I just could not help getting uptight about this whole thing!!
The virtual appointment with Zsofia Clemens went well but she didn’t tell me anything that I didn’t already know. Dr. Clemens said, “eat more meat”! So I was frustrated and after consulting with David he advised me to do more research and do what was best for my body. I started to eat Lion’s again and ate more meat. I did not go back to the paleo ketogenic diet ( PKD) or Zsofia Clemens. I started eating 2lbs of meat and made sure it was 80/20. Eighty percent fat and twenty percent meat. I made sure to salt my food to taste. This helped although my hair was still falling out! I did notice this time around my bowels were much better and I could ingest tons of fat with no problem. One of the positive results was I was now fat adapted! I was still having muscle fatigue. So I kept searching. Through the internet I ran into another Carnivore guru. Dr. Elizabeth Bright studied osteopathy and naturopathy. She also had experience with hormones and the carnivore diet. My appointment with her was months out so I just stuck with Lions until November. It was mid-September at this point and November seemed a long ways away. I decided to look at a local functional medicine doctor to see if I could get him to run some blood work. At this point I was looking at any deficiencies. Which, I thought I had because of the muscle fatigue and hair loss. The functional medicine doctor ran some tests but wanted me to start eating vegetables immediately. I was not interested in adding vegetables when I went all this time decreasing carbs by eliminating fruits,vegetables and grains. Why would I back track?! So I took the blood work and tried to make sense of it. It was very difficult for me to find a medical doctor that supported this woe, let alone write a requisition for the blood work I asked for. I will describe later how I got around this. Dr. Bright requested blood work and pictures, in addition to two thorough questionnaires. This seemed promising yet it was a long ways away. A few days before I went to get my blood drawn, I decided to do a 48 hour fast. This was horrible! My body did enter autophagy. Autophagy is where the body goes through degradation and recycling of cellular components. The first panel of blood work I took was right after this fast and it threw the numbers off a bit. I found out later by Dr. Bright, that I was starving myself and this was increasing my cortisol levels. Not the best idea I had through my journey. Dr. Bright was certainly going to put some pieces to the puzzle together for me. I will talk more about this next time.
