Storytime!

Been meaning to do this for a while but given my recent metrics in health I wanted to do a thread on them and where I've come from along with some thank yous 1/24

I'd always been a big kid, not strictly fat per-se because earlier pictures that I have had me pinned as pretty thin but something changed in my late teens - Started gaining weight despite being active & STRONG, I was always the one people went to for anything lifting 2/24

Something else started creeping in at that point in my life and what was that? Bipolar depression. No matter how active I was I couldn't run from the self loathing binges that I went into. My mental health just bombed out so hard in my teens despite having so many friends 3/24

Soon I found myself in my 20's at my highest weight of 320lbs, so many health problems and this guy? Would soon be given a HBA1c of 119, yeah you read that right with lipids that would send someone spiralling with trigs hitting 4.8mmo/l. SO HEY NOT GOOD! #t2d was my new norm 4/24

Threatened with insulin I got my HBA1C down to the 70's months later with some modicum of medication but that didn't stop the spirals. Feeling crap, being told to lose weight and then binging the pain away so it goes until my HBA1C afterwards was 104. Insulin tiiime! 5/24

This is probably a week after I was told that, still at my largest size but upon panic searching the internet I came across the @Diabetescouk forums and desperately asked for help. The members there rose up and elevated me, giving me all the information about the condition 6/24

So I embarked on my #lchf adventure from that point and within a few fretful weeks I started to get myself on track, now at this point I wasn't SUPER low carb, I was still eating fruit and some pasta but I was carb counting a whole bunch to make sure I wasn't going too far 7/24

Soon though, almost a month after I started? I got the good news from the diabetes specialist I was referred to after that horror appointment and it was a HBA1C of 42! Officially in remission by most medical standards, I was over the moon but it wasn't all happiness 8/24

I soon realised I had gained a new 'friend' along the way and that was orthorexia whereupon one becomes far too obsessed with healthy eating. I actively had panic attacks in the supermarkets over what I could and couldn't eat which extended to socialising too 9/24

I struggled with this for a while, I kept on the low carb train and didn't break and binge but what I did do? Was push things too far on the fasting front. If I couldn't get what I wanted to eat? I just didn't despite the hunger. Which ended up with me fainting one day 10/24

That was a turning point, I realised when I scared my friend witless in the middle of a busy shop that I had to start thinking of just what I was doing. I was hurting myself unnecessarily over food! I still was negotiating what I could and couldn't eat and so? I burned out 11/24

Thankfully I didn't undo all my work but doubled down when I started looking into #keto and finally it started t come together for me because I stopped negotiating. What I was doing before was heinous and ugly, it wasn't a sudden epiphany that came to me but a long slog 12/24

It's why I always say my advice has a caveat that YMMV because my body is different to everyone elses and what works for me might not for others. Especially given the mental issues that plagued me because of my choices, I wouldn't wish that on another 13/24

I wish I could say that it all just came up tops right away for me but it didn't, I'd plunged my HBA1C to 29 in my next review but I was miserable and losing my mind with the constant obsession. Self experimentation and discovery can be real ugly sometimes 14/24

HOWEVER! I did manage to figure it out eventually, I stopped being so neurotic about food and fell into a natural fasting schedule that felt so natural to me and what's more? Medication free! Only took Metformin for a year at max along with sitagliptin and now? All gone 15/24

Now what I can attribute to my success was not listening to the purists out there that believe that it is their way of the highway, you have to find your own path and sometimes that can mean doing *gasp* something they don't tell you to do?! Crazy I know but it's true! 16/24

Twitter was a goldmine for people like this and I am going to try and list a few here that did inspire me, not necessarily keto but they are the ones that really did give me such insight into health both physical and mental that helped me past my mental blocks 17/24

Picture in honour of the frowning face of @vincentninja68 whom has superb advice and wonderful taste.

@RDValerie with her straight talking attitude and willingness to learn and share.

@FitzgeraldSTA for showing me that even us DnD nerds can get fit and crush goals.

18/24

@Mangan150 and @tednaiman for being two of the outspoken people that often I saw in the low carb-sphere that inspired me and even to this day share their expertise that inspires me.

@jerryteixeira because this man shares such astounding bodyweight exercises FOR FREE.

19/24

There are so many more and I have to say thank you to some friends of mine too that always were so supportive and beautiful during this time like:

@TheKnightOfEtro @reitfoxx @Querquedulae @_RikaChuu plus Kay whomst is not on Twitter and so many more, you know who you are! 20/24

If anything all my friends that have stuck by me during these horrifically trying times of self discovery deserve the world and more. I wanna tag you all but at this point I have a feeling that it would become redundant, I love y'all on here that follow me 21/24

So even in the midst of all of this insanity that is 2020 I wanted to be positive in saying that hey... This is me now with a HBA1c of 33 (5.2%) and 0.4 mmo/l of trigs. Remember the initial results? Yep. I crushed my condition and feel better than ever 22/24

It's been an acute mental battle over this past year but I feel that I am in a better place health wise to deal with whatever comes my way. I have stopped with the neuroticism and it has caused me to become much healthier than I was even during my bout of orthorexia 23/24

My message to all? Never stop learning, never give up and always be willing to listen to the other side because you may find that middle ground you were looking for.

Thank you for reading! 24/24