I’ve wanted to participate in the Weekend Engagement initiative hosted by @galenkp since my return to Hive, but something would always come up that prevented me from following through. When I saw the topic for this weekend, I was compelled to lay aside the other posts I’ve been working on and share some of my journey through 2021 and what made it so memorable to me.
There were many changes for me in 2021 and most of the changes were centered around getting more healthy and taking responsibility for my weight and general poor health. So my most memorable moment of 2021 cannot be defined by a single point in time, but by a series of small choices……a small change here and there……a wiser approach to one small aspect of my life and then another. My most memorable moment of 2021 was the culmination of these small choices and life decisions that led to a journey of enlightenment and better health for myself.
I’m working on a much more detailed post about this crazy journey I’ve been on since Feb. 2021 but, in short, I lost 140lbs in 10 months. I’m nowhere near where I need to eventually be, but I’m almost a whole person closer than I was this time last year. In January 2021, I went to my doctor to renew my handful of prescription meds for the multitude of ailments that were directly related to my obesity. They could never get a weight on me due to the capacity of their scales and I would just tell them the weight I “felt” I was at each yearly visit. I knew my weight was out of control, but I was not facing it. That day they had a new scale and it was able to force me to face the reality that I had allowed myself to balloon to 452lbs. I instantly was jolted by the intimately prophetic truth that I would be dead within two year if something didn’t change. So, change I did.
There are a plethora of reasons personally, professionally, emotionally, and mentally that I allowed myself to get to that point, but in reality, in the brutal honesty I like to live in, they are all just excuses. I started a keto eating style the day of the doctor visit because I had lost weight doing that many years before. This time it was slow and seemed to be much less effective and I began looking for something else because I felt I was losing the battle and my grip on my resolve to change. I also started researching Brazilian Jiu Jitsu for exercise because I knew it would be the most beneficial to my job and interesting enough to keep me captivated. Through watching some BJJ podcasts, Joe Rogan, and Jordan Peterson clips, the Carnivore Diet kept popping up. It sounded exactly designed for me, a life-long meat eater and had been tried by several people I respected. I started eating a fairly strict Carnivore Diet in the beginning of February 2021 and also started BJJ at the same time.
The weight began to drop off faster than my clothes could keep up with and I dropped several belt sizes to be able to keep my pants attached to me lolol. The weight loss was amazing but there were a multitude of medical problems that were either completely cured by eliminating sugars and carbs or cleared up by 75% (I’ll go into much more detail in my other posts about eating a carnivore lifestyle). I feel better than I did in my 20s and I know I have a new lease on life that I don’t intend to ever squander or take for granted. I am a better husband, father, grandfather, and cop because of these small daily decisions.
I did this a few months after turning 47 years old. I average 3-4 hard bjj sessions a week and at least 2-3 days of lifting heavy in the gym. My goals for the coming year is to continue to get down to my target weight and my only goal for the rest of the year is to keep making positive choices with food and exercise to maintain that target weight. I plan to eat a carnivore lifestyle for the rest of my life as I honestly feel it is the proper human diet (I didn’t say you had to feel this way lolololol). I hope you continue to practice bjj and I hope to earn my second belt level of blue belt before this time next year.
If you read nothing else….read this….it is NEVER too late to seize your dreams and change the path you’re on…..you can climb whatever proverbial wall is staring you in the face every day….you have so much more inside you than you can even imagine! How do I know? Because an old, obsese man like myself found it inside me…and if I can find it in me….I know it lives in your soul too!
All That Is Gold Does Not Glitter,
Not All Those Who Wander Are Lost
-Tolkien
