One Break Up & A Cup Of Oats Was All It Took

I am going to start by telling how I discovered what exercise and eating “well” were in 2013. It was seeded from one small idea: a cup of oats a day.  

I had my first job in Information Technology and a steady girlfriend. We were together for 7 years, but I knew we didn’t have a future. I was not happy with my current life. I just didn’t love her anymore and I also didn’t love what I spent 4 years going to school for. I was like what the hell do I do now? 

The relationship ended and instead of moving on I stayed clung to it as if it were some sort of solution to my myriad of other problems.  

She wouldn’t have me back and I am still grateful we didn’t get back together to this day. If it weren’t for that pain of confusion and loss, I would have never started my journey.  

I was very confused at this point in my life and didn’t know what to do. So, I started going out to the bar every night and drinking a lot. It just filled the void that I had. 

This went on for a few months until I came out of the rut that I was in. I convinced myself I was in love with this woman and the only way to get her back was to be a different guy. I had to look the part. 

I started each day with a cup of oatmeal. It was a cold Wisconsin morning with the snow blowing and pitch black at 6am. It was time for me to go to make the 30-minute commute to my boring job. This would be my future.  

This cup of oatmeal was the one small change I started my day with. It was my tipping point. What I realized was that instead of eating McDonald’s for breakfast that a 150 calorie (about 12 minutes of running) oatmeal cup would allow me to lose weight.

I was pudgy and pasty. I figured the first part of repair for my life was getting into really good shape.  

I start to eat oats daily and go off to work. The feeling of going towards a goal and knowing each day I had my small cup of oatmeal and that’s another step towards my goal.  

Eventually, I thought I would start jogging. I started off out of breath and had no endurance, but that didn’t matter. It was a sign of progress each day. These little steps of self improvement led to other little steps of improvement.

Then I decided I would start using the weights I had sitting in my apartment closet and start exercising.  I had no idea what I was doing as you can see. That didn’t matter. I just did it.

When I felt that “hunger” feeling at work. It caused me to push through. It was a sign I was moving forward. I would soon be lean and muscular.  

As the winter months passed, I started to do a lot of bodyweight exercises and even joined a gym. It was the first time I stepped into one since high school and I was 27. I had no idea what the hell I was doing and had to read the instructions on each weight lifting machine.  

At this point I was doing the calories in vs calories out model. What I didn’t realize was how this is a terrible approach and strategy to lose weight even though everyone will tell you this is how to lose weight.

As the months went on, I got super lean.  

Was I sexy lean? No. I looked like a skeleton. I followed the calories in vs calories out model like it was an arithmetic problem. If exercise for X amount of time. I will lose X amount of pounds during the week.

The following year I studied to get my personal training certificate and work in a health club. I dropped my entire IT career and future. I didn’t care about anything other than fitness. It became an obsession. I would read articles day and night. It took me over.  

I thought for once in my life I was happy.  

My demons were still there, but they were just masked.  

Fast forward, I started a business, I traveled, I loved, I educated.

I always had the healthy image of what I could be. I would basically gain a bunch of weight, then lose a bunch of weight. Then gain a bunch of weight and then lose that weight over the years.  To do this, I had to try various methods and endlessly experiment with the perfect method.

I BECAME MY OWN MASTER OF SYSTEMATICALLY GAINING & LOSING.

I have used any diet or tool you can think of:

• 2 hours daily cardio
• Fasted Cardio
• HIIT
• The Paleo Diet
• If It Fits In Your Macros
• Gluten Free Diet
• Bulking for Muscle

The two most significant weight loss tools I have discovered during this time were the Ketogenic diet paired with Fasting. This flipped the script on using Myfitnesspal to count calories and go into a deficit.  

With the Ketogenic diet, I did none of those things. I would eat until I was full and then I would still lose weight. Not only that, I was eating cheese and bacon. I had walnuts and veggies with butter. It seemed like I was eating well over 2,000 calories, but yet I got abs.  

I created a free ketogenic course to help others experience this free and easy way to lose weight. I helped them prepare and acclimate to the diet and push through frustrating weight loss plateaus that can occur on any diet.  

Then, I fell into a bad way for about 2 years during the pandemic. I ballooned up to more weight than I have ever carried. I didn’t even know I could get as large as I did.  

I am not exactly big boned and 230lbs a lot for my frame. I would get out of breath easily. I felt lethargic almost daily. I didn’t have motivation to do much at all. I couldn’t even think clearly.  This was the worst I ever felt in my life. I couldn’t even jog because my shins couldn’t handle the sheer force coming down on them.

I knew there were other people out there that felt how I felt. It seems as if you are so far gone that the energy to change is just too much.

Then, I got diagnosed this year with fatty liver disease. 

I started this blog to show what is possible and to apply all of my previous knowledge to regain my health and vitality.

What am I doing about it?

24 days (about 3 and a half weeks) ago at the time of this writing, I have started a carnivorous diet.  This is a 90 day challenge that will test me mentally and physically. My goal is to remove the liver fat and get down to a healthy weight. I would also love to see improvements in all other areas such as brain fog and sleep. The carnivore diet has been touted as being one of the best methods to do this. I am curious to see how I will react on this journey.

This is the ultimate elimination diet. I don’t want any sugar or seed oils (canola, peanut, soybean) going through my liver. I want to reverse my issue.

I am documenting all my progress and sharing.  

Follow me on my journey