Lean and Hard

With my new slow carb way of eating, over a couple of weeks, I noticed myself feeling stronger and less hungry. What the heck was going on?

I don't know if this theory is correct, but there are those who say that a diet high in simple carbs and processed foods causes yeast to flourish in the body. They say that there can be an overgrowth of these organisms that live in all of us but can grow out of control due to high sugar concentrations in the blood.

What's more, people who have a history of taking antibiotics in abundance, like me in earlier years, can kill off many other species of good bacteria, thereby inadvertently allowing the yeast to proliferate freely. The over-abundance of yeast then supposedly causes fatigue and irresistible cravings for more processed foods.

Was this what had happened to me? I know for certain that I craved pizza, pastries, rice, pasta, bread, potatoes, etc. If I tried going to bed without my fix I would be unable to go to sleep without satisfying my cravings. I used to have two dinners every night.

But now, I found that I had more energy, and I could say no to more food! Guess what time it was? Time for exercise and some cutting calories!

See what came next in my next post!

As I've alluded to earlier, I suffered from several health challenges, starting with chronic fatigue that was sporadic but eventually became constant, and ending with morbid obesity and it's attendant complications. My life expectancy was not known to me (I didn't want to know!), but was surely not very long.

It's important to me to explain to you here that I was always receptive to and even looking for answers, even though I didn't think there was anything new under the sun that might prove helpful. The fad diets and miracle cures had become an annoyance years ago. But I understood my predicament and never ever accepted it. So when my oldest mentioned a diet he had been trying called "slow carb," I asked him to explain.

What it boiled down to was this: substitute complex carbohydrates for simple ones. This means getting rid of highly processed carbs like pasta, white bread, potatoes and white rice, as well as sweets obviously, and replacing them with foods that are more "whole," like beans, yams, sweet potatoes and whole grains.

I am a part-time blogger. And I was morbidly obese. So naturally, when I finally found my own pathway to fitness, I had to blog about it.

At my biggest I was 303 pounds large. For a man who is 5' 10", that gave me a BMI of 43.5, which made me morbidly obese. According to Highland Hospital, "Morbid obesity is a serious health condition that can interfere with basic physical functions such as breathing or walking. Those who are morbidly obese are at greater risk for illnesses including diabetes, high blood pressure, sleep apnea, gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), gallstones, osteoarthritis, heart disease, and cancer."

I had gained weight steadily over the years ever since I began suffering from chronic fatigue. My version of this condition included two symptoms that were a lethal combination: a huge, ungovernable appetite and extreme mental and physical fatigue. Lots of eating and little to no physical activity. You do the math.

I tried dieting. Couldn't do it. Berating me and trying to scare me straight didn't help. If you had put a gun to my head and made a credible threat to shoot me dead unless I ate less, I would have had to be shot. I know there are many of you reading this who know exactly what I'm talking about. Go to a nutritionist? What for? I already know I eat too much. Join Weight Watchers? (I did.) Same thing, pointless. Again, you know whereof I speak.

I went to every kind of doctor under the sun trying to find a cure for the fatigue. Homeopath? Sure, why not? Cleveland Clinic? Again, why not? Batteries of tests revealed nothing. Psychiatrist? Yep. I even traveled to the Dominican Republic to see a doctor a friend swore had cured them. Waste of time and money.

Most recently I checked out bariatric surgery. Now that might have helped, but it wasn't covered by my insurance and I couldn't afford to self pay.

How long could I have kept living, continually adding pounds and health issues? I don't think I would have made it much further.

So what happened? What has made it possible for me to get my energy back and my appetite under control? What's allowed me to lose an average of 12 pounds per month and get exercise 6 days a week? I will tell you. It started with a conversation with my oldest son...