A US Army LPN Veteran & Current VA RN Comes Off All Medications Through The Carnivore Diet

Mission Carnivore Episode 6: A discussion about the benefits of carnivore diet, getting off all pharmaceuticals, lowering high blood pressure, reversing type 2 diabetes, and ending debilitating panic attacks through a proper human diet. 

Carnivore Diet Planning Guide: https://4343867330708.gumroad.com/l/fqtjv
Website: https://www.carnivoresoldier.com
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/6762077700490092
Discord Server: https://discord.gg/eqyzCqtwgd

I'm a retired US Army Chief Warrant Officer living the carnivore lifestyle since March 22nd, 2023. I lost 30lbs in the first 90 days, and continued my weight loss beyond that losing another 14lbs in the following 60 days. I have become much healthier, both physically and mentally in the process. If you’re seeking a sustainable and effective weight loss method, the carnivore diet might be the answer you’ve been looking for!

Join me as I give a military veteran perspective on the carnivore WOE, find great recipes, learn tips and tricks, review carnivore movies, and gain insight on practical ways to fit the carnivore diet into your life! If you follow me, I'm going to be your "Battle Buddy", setting you up for success!

Prepare to be motivated and inspired as I share my success story, offering valuable tips and insights for anyone ready to embark on their own weight loss journey. Don’t miss out on this incredible transformation – hit that play button and let’s dive into the world of carnivore diet weight loss!

DISCLAIMER: I am not a doctor and am not giving medical advice. This is simply a channel about my experience. Please consult your own physician if you have questions or concerns about nutrition, weight loss, or your conditions.

Transcript

Larry A: 0:00

All right. All right. All right. Carnivore soldier coming at you from Austin, Texas. Today, we've got another episode of Mission Carnivore. Mission Carnivore is a video and podcast where I focus on first responders and military veterans embarking on the carnivore lifestyle and focusing on what it's done for their physical and mental health. Today we have someone who's both he's an RN, so it's not really a first responder, but he has been, and he's also a veteran of the U S army. So I'm going to bring him in here. This is Eric. Eric, how's it going, man? What's up, Larry? How you doing? Good. Thanks for having me on. Yeah, it's great, man. Thanks for joining me. I know just a little bit about Eric. When I first started my video channel, he was one of the early supporters that was on and always encouraging the reasons I actually have this YouTube channel is from the encouragement I got, and I really appreciate you, Eric. Jumping and give me all the encouraging words and the feedback to my videos and watching them. I really appreciate that. So thanks.

Eric: 1:00

No, I'm always going to support somebody doing this kind of way of eating and definitely helping veterans and, people that are in very tough positions that need to be eating this way and then feeling better and stronger because I know I didn't for many years.

Larry A: 1:18

Ditto, right? Okay, Eric, let's start off with just tell me about who you are, where you're at. What you do and tell me about your service. Just roll into your intro and your service.

Eric: 1:28

My name's Eric. Registered nurse, been a registered nurse since around 2001. So 22, 23 years before that it was an LPN, a licensed practical nurse or licensed vocational nurse. Most of my career has been in the hospital and I'm about to start a new position with the VA here in Florida. So I have moved to Florida. So I'm going to be doing something different, something that I've wanted to do for a while is help veterans. And hopefully this platform will help me be able to do that and be an example. For people my service started in 1995 active duty. I was an LPN or what was called at that time a 91 Charlie. I was enlisted worked at a hospital started out at Berk army medical center after basic training and my training worked in the orthopedic unit. Got a little, a lot of really good training. There had some really good leaders, really good head nurse and award master went to the trauma iCU. And did a lot of trauma did about 2 years of trauma spent time in Houston had been, I was in a pilot program to get real world trauma. I was living this high accelerated go, go, go type, taking care of, in San Antonio where. Recurring medical center is we would also get civilian trauma. So it wasn't just military. So doing a lot of. Gunshots, stabbings, motorcycle accidents, car wrecks. Just, you name it, we saw it there. So level 1 trauma center. Move from there, went to Fort Leonard wood, Missouri

Larry A: 3:23

been there. Yeah. Lost in the woods.

Eric: 3:27

Yeah. Yeah. It's been about a year there and then I

Larry A: 3:30

got out. Okay. Yeah. That I had my worst allergies ever in Fort Leonard Wood. I don't know about you, but it was terrible for me. My nose ran like a faucet and yeah, I didn't like that too much. So it sounds like you had a lot of excellent experience though with the army. That's really cool. But you did see a lot of trauma.

Eric: 3:51

Definitely. The army, especially, I did 10 years in the reserves. I had a 10 year break in service then did 10, 10 years in the reserves got commissioned. but as an enlisted soldier at a big training facility like Fort Sam Houston, you can learn so much when you get so much training, it's just whatever you're willing and wanting to do. For me, I was still in my early twenties. I was like wanting to learn and wanting to grow and wanting to finish my school and just,

Larry A: 4:24

Yeah, I had a long break in service to, I, I served from, I enlisted in 84 and served until 1990 and then got out and never really intended to go back in, started my civilian career, and then the war broke out after the planes hit the buildings and stuff, and I came back in in 04. And that's when I went in National Guard because I already had my civilian career established and I didn't really want to just completely leave it and it was in I. T. So I ended up starting and signal. Actually, I started in chemical. That's why I was in Leonard would getting trained. And then I went to a medical company. So I was in a medical support company and I was the NBC N. C. O. For a medical support company for four years. So yeah, Been around a lot of whiskeys and a lot of doctors and nurses and lab people, everyone. So it was really cool. Got a lot of experience. I agree though. I think as a kid going into the military, you have the opportunity. I don't know if it's still like that. I assume it is, but the opportunity to learn so much and do things that no one would let an 18 or 19 year old kid ever do, but you get like responsibility right away. If you can show that you can handle it and you're willing to take it on, you can learn as much as you want. That, that was. The amazing part of the military. The good part for me.

Eric: 5:36

Yeah. Oh, I totally agree. I was doing things that likely would never do right now as an RN, as an LPN, intubating those are mainly paramedic duties or anesthesiologist type duties, intubating, cardiac massage being there, helping cracking people's chests, Assisting, or even attempting a lines. arterial lines. Yeah, a lot of really good training that I, at the time I was like, yeah, let's do it.

Larry A: 6:10

That's awesome. Yeah, that's what's cool about. That's a good part of it. There's bad parts. That's a good part of military. I'd say for me anyway, it was great experience. Okay, so we know who you are. I know you know where you're at and you're going to the V. A. Which is awesome. I know a lot of people talk bad about the V. A. I use a V. A. Because I'm retired and disabled. Veteran with service related. I like my service. You'd still have to be, this is the thing, even if you go into civilian hospitals, you have to be your own advocate to get good service. And the VA, if you're your own advocate, you can get good service. I think I've had the experience. I'm sure people have had bad and there's one officer everywhere, but for me, I hear about, I talk to veterans across the world. In the UK and Australia, they don't have nearly the system. We have so much more than they have and I'm thankful for it.

Eric: 6:56

Yeah. Yeah. It's not a perfect system. I think with me being in the medical arena, I think it's helped me navigate better than others. I think where I was wasn't the best VA. I think it's better here. There is no hospital in Pensacola for veterans. So you have to go to Biloxi. Oh, wow. So there are like just outpatient primary care type clinics here and that's where I'll be. So if I would have, for some reason have to go for some acute injury to the hospital, then I would just use a local.

Larry A: 7:34

Yeah, that's kind of my setup. I do have a hospital up in Temple so I can go up there. But if I go to my normal outpatient stuff and just be here for lab work and x rays or whatever, it'd be here at Cedar Park where I normally go. So anyway, okay. So let's talk about why someone with a medical background and, with the history in the military that would do some crazy diet, like the carnivore diet, like what that's against everything you've been taught, I'm sure. Is the medically sound thing to do is eat meat and fat.

Eric: 8:06

No, you're absolutely right, Larry. We've just all been force fed. It seems to me more and more every day, total, just bull crap, I mean, eating carnivore, how I got to it. It was probably two and a half years ago. It was like my health was going down as well as my oldest son. Started to have a seizures and so I was like, literally just praying, Lord, what do I do? What do I need to? And it was like, just started looking up nutrition for seizures and then it came up with keto and so I was like, hey, this may be something for you talking to my son and he was all for it. He was all for. not being on medicine because the medicine that they had him on was slowing him down and he wasn't able to do math. He really loved doing math. So we started keto for a period of time probably after 90 days, I would say we just noticed that it hadn't been working. He had had a couple of seizures. So he went off of it. I was on it with him and then for me, I was doing it for my health at the same time, but also supporting him or wanting to support him because no 1 else in the house was doing that. And then it led me into searching, just continuing to search because I really. Wanted to feel better. That's what it came down to. I really didn't want to be on medication for high blood pressure for hypothyroid, for low testosterone, for anxiety. I'm also service related connection with the VA. And, when you go to the VA, they just, they hear, what drug do you need? Yeah. Like I don't want a drug. I want to feel like my old self or what I think, I should be feeling like on carnivore. I feel vastly better, especially energy wise. I feel so much better. Now I'm off medicines. I haven't even had anything for anxiety and over a week. Which is

Larry A: 10:32

fantastic, is incredible. Yeah, I know the drug. So I was telling you there's a nurse's friend of mine and she even admits it. They're big into pushing the drugs out, that's because they are the government standard of health of care, right? And the government standard of care is, the food pyramid and drugs to treat the symptoms. That's really what it is. It's not really curing anything. So that's why I have so many friends, and I'm sure you do too, that are veterans that have. a dresser full of pill bottles because they keep getting symptoms and they get drugged to treat those symptoms. And it's like a cascade, right? I think they actually have a name for it. I think it is a prescription cascade, but that's what you actually see. And I was afraid of that. I was actually literally afraid of doing that. So I'd Always turn down all the drugs and just sucked it up and drove on because that's what they tell you the army, right? Suck it up and drive on and don't talk about your issues. And that's another issue with the military. I think as you get that internalization and just thinking that, well, everyone else is doing it. So we just have to keep doing it. Right. And that's, you don't want to be the weak link in the chain. I agree with you and I, so I'm not on any drugs, which I'm super happy.

Eric: 11:46

It's always come forward and let us know you're suffering. Well, the minute you do that, you're gone,

Larry A: 11:54

contrary to the messaging that is, no, you won't be held accountable if you're having thoughts of harming yourself, tell us that it's not going to affect your career. wrong. You're not gonna be carrying a gun. There's a lot of stuff's going to change if you go forward. And I, I get why. but they're stuck in a hard place too, because they have to show that they're doing something right. So whenever we had, I'm sure you've had plenty of friends and associate commit suicide. I have. And whenever there was, there's always that work stoppage. There's always the, Sergeant Major brief and command brief. And then there's always the videos, right? I don't know if you've seen the videos that You know, stop soldier suicide videos where they have the actors and they show the signs that these guys said things and gave trigger signs and you're supposed to catch these. So that does two things. I think one, it makes me think that I missed something, right? So it's on me now because I could have seen, he said that yesterday or whatever, right? And the other thing it does, I don't know. It just makes you feel like that's not really a tool in the tool bag. That's that's really just a CYA. Hey, we're, we have a program for that. For me after experiencing this diet, this is a real tool in the tool bag to me. This is something that we can actually be preventative if we get this into veterans hands and first responders hands. Let me move on to what your initial experience with carnivore was when you first started it. How different was it from keto? And also tell me what your keto is like, because keto can mean a lot of different things, right? How many grams of carbs are you doing? What was your keto like? What were you restricting yourself to? Was it a whole food keto? Were you eating a lot of the processed keto foods?

Eric: 13:30

Yeah, I think it it continued to morph into going to Costco and finding all those keto, processed foods. And then also did something called AIP autoimmune paleo. And I continued to search out for paleo friendly cookies and, just things like that, you can do like carob chips that tastes like chocolate. A lot of the things that we've been program to eat for pleasure, they also mimic that. And I think that's 1 of the things that being a food addict. And getting a lot of dopamine, a lot of pleasure from eating those sweet treats and things like that, that. I knew I needed to at least eliminate her period of time to see just to really it's been a just a trial and error. Just what's going to work. What's not going to work. Let me move on to what's next. my initial experience, it was hard. Keto was hard for me. Carnivore hasn't been hard. by then was fed up and I was having a lot of blood pressure issues still taking medicine. I was still having these ridiculous spikes and blood pressure. I believe they were due to the specific blood pressure medicine I was taking was stopping a sodium channel. And when I started. Adding a lot of Redmond sea salt and drinking a lot of mineral water. I think my body was having a negative reaction. So once I stopped the medicine, my blood pressure has been great.

Larry A: 15:08

That's awesome. How the body can self regulate when it's given the right minerals.

Eric: 15:13

You just took something out of the chain that was changing things for the negative. So yeah, I haven't had blood pressure medicine in probably close to seven months.

Larry A: 15:23

That's pretty awesome. Okay, so we're getting into that now. So what how is this way of eating actually affected your physical health? What were you like before and what changes that you notice physically?

Eric: 15:34

Let's see. What day am

Larry A: 15:35

I on? Yeah, what day are you on? That's a good question, too. I Got a counter somewhere. I think I'm 220 or something. I think

Eric: 15:42

I'm at 180 something. Yeah 183

Larry A: 15:47

Nice. I got the same counter. Yeah. Let's see what I'm at.

Eric: 15:50

So what's that? A little over six months.

Larry A: 15:53

Yeah. Yeah. You're halfway half a year. So I'm at two 13.

Eric: 15:57

That's great. Yeah. When I started this, I had gone to see my VA primary. My blood pressure was through the roof. They're like, Oh, we need to add some more blood pressure medicine. I was like, Oh, my gosh, I had since probably to 2. 5 years or 2 years earlier been told I was diabetic. My, my a 1 C was like, almost 9. Wow. I was getting skin tags all over my body. I was getting a boil. I had a really bad boil had to have Lance, which was horrible under no. No, lidocaine or no, nothing was horrible, but I won't go into that detail. You

Larry A: 16:43

were type two diabetes diet related, correct? Yes.

Eric: 16:47

Yep. So that's pretty much what triggered this whole journey that I've been on, which ultimately led to carnivore. After seeing my primary, I was just like, I'm done with it. I had been watching videos of Dr. Barry and Dr. Chafee and, other kind of influencers in the space. And I was just like, I'm going to do it. I'm just going to start eating meat. And I think around that time, it seems like that reverse show came out. So I started watching that and it was just like, right. I'm going to do it. I'm going to take it 1 day at a time. I'm stopping blood pressure medicine at least for a few days to see what's going to happen. But yeah, I was diagnosed with hypothyroid probably about 4 years, 5 years ago, I was on using testosterone for hypogonadism blood pressure for over a decade. Anxiety medicine, that really came about the time when all this started, I was in and out of the ER for several times or just ridiculous anxiety that came out of nowhere. My wife and I, on our 19th wedding anniversary, we went to a new Orleans and unknown to me. I had a panic attack, walking down Bourbon street and the crowd, just the crowds and just that my hearing couldn't, have denied us real bad. And yeah, me too here. And I was like worried that I was going to have to fight some guys and here I am by myself, not in the best shape. You know, just, it had me down for sure. And so they're like, Oh, take this medicine. And I'm out of taking it for two weeks. I was like, I'm not taking this. And then maybe a year later, I started using it frequently just because the anxiety would just it was almost debilitating. I couldn't work.

Larry A: 18:27

Were you also self medicating beyond drugs that you were prescribed?

Eric: 18:31

At that time, I was using a lot of alcohol.

Larry A: 18:34

Yeah, that's me. That's where I went to bourbon. That was an easy

Eric: 18:39

for me. I started with I don't know if you've used, I'll tag in my Instagram channel with cigars and booze. I do cigars too. Yeah. Yeah. So, I've done cigars for a decade and I just was self medicating with mainly beer. But then once I became type two, I was like, well, I'll stop doing beer and I'll go, I'll move to bourbon. Some occasional tequila, but mainly bourbon, but I haven't drank in in April. It'll be two years since I've had a drink.

Larry A: 19:04

Congrats, man. Yeah. Yeah. I do drink occasionally when I go, it's social when I go out with people because I don't drink at home. Like I used to drink at home every night I would have one or two drinks. Yeah. Before I went to bed and that was self medicating. That's exactly what it was. Yeah for anxiety and stuff. And I was proud that, hey, I'm not on any pills or anything, but I was drinking. So I was definitely mitigating. So that, that show you mentioned reverse, that is is that Dr. Barry show or is he just in it?

Eric: 19:30

Yeah, he's just in it. It was I think it was a guy that was told he had diabetes. He was kind of a. Okay. Film type guy. And then he knew a lot of people. It looked like that had that were on dialysis because it puts a picture of that in the show, which me having done or provided inpatient dialysis for over two decades, that's something that definitely has affected me. And I could see me moving towards that with my health. Yeah, and that was a big deal was like, I don't want to be on dialysis, even though it's you can live a long time on dialysis. I wasn't wanting to be in that position.

Larry A: 20:09

Yeah, for me, I had to my mom died of Alzheimer's and I saw that tragic, terrible death, which is a long, drawn out, terrible way to go. And she died 10 years older than I am right now. So that was 2017. That was my wake up call. And I'm like, wow, I don't want to go that route. And that's the route I felt I figured I was going. So I had to figure something out now. I didn't find it till this year, but I had started trying different diets. I, and I had limited success in all of them. Initially, keto alternative fasting and intermittent fasting, all these different ways of trying to eat. They worked initially, but I always fell off. This is like you said, this is the first time it's sustainable and easily sustainable. It really works. That was big for me. Okay, let's jump to mental health. So You said you had anxiety. What other symptoms or mental health issues do you think you had or did you knew you had that have been affected in a positive way on this diet?

Eric: 21:13

For the most part, it's been anxiety. I was probably for the last 2 years before I started carnivore. So probably 2. 5 years ago, I would have maybe. Every three weeks to six weeks, I'd have a, like a panic attack, like I would get up at 2 a. m. And I would just be pacing around the room. My wife's like, what's going on? And I'm like, I have no idea. Literally, I can't hear, I was just freaked out. I don't know what, I started having dreams about one guy that, that I took care of in the army. It was one of my. First guys that passed and he would come back in my dreams and tell me that he did, he told me, he would tell me in my dreams, what he said to me was like, don't let me die. And so I'd wake up, just in a panic state. I haven't had a panic attack like that. I don't even know it's been at least three to four months, which is great. Yeah, sleeping better. And I think that has a lot to do. I was taking the anxiety medicine just at bedtime to help me sleep. And I'm like, why am I taking this? When I got here to Florida, after all the stress, it lightened up from our move and, my wife just. being stressed and kids stressed. And so I was like, Hey, I just, I don't want to be on any medicine. So it's definitely improved my outlook. I'm not feeling, I don't really have any like down or blue days, like I used to have, you'd have these kind of ebb and flows, good and bad. And it's like with carnivore, you're up in the 70 or 80th range. You're just like up on this. It's almost like a high. Yeah. Well, it's not as intense as it was when I first started it.

Larry A: 23:17

It's pretty rock steady though, right? For me, it's rock steady. It's like my not only energy levels, my mood rock steady. And I had days where I get depressed too. I'd wake up, it'd be a sunny day. There's nothing going on. There's no you. Outside influences are terrible. My job's fine, but I wake up be depressed. I didn't know why I was like, wow, this is just a sad day, and that doesn't happen anymore for me either. No, and then anxiety. So I want to bounce back real quick to your son. So he had these, yeah, these seizures. Have you seen that documentary with the film producer that had a son that had seizures? I think it's. Fat documentary.

Eric: 23:58

I don't think I have.

Larry A: 23:59

Okay. I did actually have a movie review on my channel. So you might want to check it out. It's a great documentary and it's free. You can download it. There's links on my YouTube documentary review where you can watch it for free on Tubi or on YouTube, but it starts out and the guy's son is having seizures and they're terrible and lots of seizures every day, like so bad that. They're trying every medication. I mean, this guy was so wealthy because he was the producer for like airplane and the naked gun series movies that you and I grew up loving, right? He's very successful and had no limit in budget. So he took a son to the best doctors, the best hospitals. And they tried every drug and none of them worked. And they finally, and they even did brain surgery on this little toddler who was two and it was pretty horrific. Right. And they did everything and they said, Oh, well, all you got to do is he's just going to keep having seizures and he's going to slowly get retarded and you're just going to have to take care of the rest of your life. And that was their answer. And he's like, Oh my gosh, that's terrible. So he just went down into the basement one day. And this is the 90s. So the internet wasn't really a big thing then. And in the basement, they had a library. And he looked up and he found a ketogenic diet. For these seizures, right? These epileptic seizures and took it to his doctor. It's like, why didn't you tell me about this? And the doctor's like, well, we haven't gone through all the medications yet. Which is the standard answer. But really as a parent, wouldn't you rather say, Hey, we can try the diet. If that doesn't work, then we'll go to medications and then maybe we'll do brain surgery, but that's not the way it works. Well,

Eric: 25:35

it was the exact same thing. It was us approaching our second neurologist because the first one was, he was a professor at one of the teaching hospitals and he just. He wasn't willing to even have an open conversation. So it was like, okay, let's find another neurologist. Found one that was definitely more open. He had started on something for OCT OCD type behaviors and probably within a few months had a seizure that he had never had before. I had a grandma seizure. I thought he had actually his heart stopped. Oh, wow. So I did a couple of chest thrusts on him and he began to, but began to breathe. I think it was just me being in a situation with my oldest son. Being very uncomfortable in that situation he was just in a post tickle type state. But he was taking something for the, and I was like, hey, you know, this could potentially be a side effect seizures and we were just. No, it's not that, it's not that. Yeah. So then after a couple of medicines, then it was, Oh, I'm, researching nutrition, which then came up to approaching our neurologist. Hey, and then he was like, well, you need to see a dietitian. And so we were at that time, we had already started it. I'd already started the cooking and it was pretty much stage three, four keto where you very few carbs. And then she was pretty much do Atkins. Add in the process bars and shakes and I pretty much was like, no, we're not going to do that. We're just going to stick with whole foods. Just mainly chicken beef. A little bit of broccoli, maybe just a small amount of sweet potato. As little as he could get away with and it was both of us. We were doing it. We're working out he was playing rugby at the time and so he was doing well with it. He was actually really doing well. But as he kept having seizures, it was like, hey, you probably going to need to stop doing rugby. Wow, so this resolves and he was 16 and so he was starting to drive. So he had to stop driving, which was, a huge shot to him. Yeah, and then it was ultimately off all medicines, including the stuff for OCD. He had one more seizure his last year in high school and he hasn't had one since. So it's been in April, it'll be two years. Thomas quit using

Larry A: 28:27

alcohol. Yeah. Is he still on a keto or a carnivore diet? No. Okay. He's on a standard.

Eric: 28:34

He's a stamp for the most part. He's a standard.

Larry A: 28:37

So what do you play in rugby? Because I played second row for a military team and then for Michigan State. I don't know.

Eric: 28:45

I don't know the positions that well. Okay. That's fine. He was mainly the guy. And he would throw it in on the side. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Okay. He was mainly that guy. So I don't know. He wasn't like half back or anything like that.

Larry A: 28:59

Yeah. I was a ruck and roll guy. I was one of the second row. So the props and the hooker would be in between us. Yeah. He

Eric: 29:04

was second row then if that's

Larry A: 29:05

okay. Oh, cool. So it must be a tall

Eric: 29:07

guy, huh? Yeah, I'm 5'10 he's about 6'1 6'2 Yeah,

Larry A: 29:12

that's me, I'm 6'1 6'3

Eric: 29:14

And he had really blossomed, when we started that. You got, he got up to 2'10 a lot of muscle. Even his coach was like, man, what'd you do? And it was like just eating keto a lot. And then we transitioned into keto, which then he shed a little bit.

Larry A: 29:32

Yeah. It makes me wonder after finding this diet, because I don't know about you. How old are you now? I'll be 54 in

Eric: 29:39

December.

Larry A: 29:40

Okay. I'm 57 and I feel right now I could go back in the army today and be in better physical, mental shape and be a better soldier than I was my last two years in the army. Which was 2017 to 2019. Just because I actually feel athletic again, I feel muscle coming on. I'm sprinting, I'm running. I'm in my injuries that had piled up are healing up, which is amazing. Cause I thought they'd be here forever. My back. Yeah, you just think that, right? And I figured my whole life is gonna be a gentle downward slope to death. And hopefully it would be a long gentle one where I wouldn't have terrible diseases. But I really felt like I was not empowered. Like I was just along for the ride.

Eric: 30:23

Yeah, I think we mentioned it, probably within four or five years of me being in the reserves, it was, I can't run anymore. I've just couldn't do it. I was just physically. Gone. And so then they put you on a walking profile, which is still, it's still pretty hard.

Larry A: 30:43

It's hard. You got to speak. I know I was on a walking profile the last two years and also it's not only hard, but it makes you feel like less of a soldier. Like you're not part of the team because you can't do your PT test. Right.

Eric: 30:53

Yeah, well, I think in the reserves most of the people aren't walking profiles, so it wasn't that big a deal, if you'd have been on it when I was active duty, yeah, it would've definitely been a big stigma and a big big negative for

Larry A: 31:05

your career. Yeah. When I was in, in the Guard, you couldn't be on a walking profile for most of schools unless you got a waiver. So you had to be able to run to get into the school, and they always did a PT test when you got there. So all my whole career I was in good shape. And I used keto several times to get into shape for schools and to get ready for my record APFT, right? Because you have a record one, you have diagnostic ones. So diagnostic ones, yeah, you never want to fail one, but it's not as important as your record one. And probably the same in the reserves, right? Yep. Yeah.

Eric: 31:38

Twice a year and you could kind of pick where you were going to fall in that. You know how you did. I don't think I ever failed one, but I was close. Yeah. I was real close, especially when I, before I even got off active

Larry A: 31:52

duty. The only one I ever failed was I failed a run when I had the flu and I shouldn't have done my PT because I should have not done it. But I decided, well, I can do it. you know, the whole suck it up and drive on. I don't want to be the guy who's not going to PT because I'm, and so I went with the flu and I failed the run. And I got, yeah, that was the mistake I'll never do again. I'm like if I remember sick again, I'm just not going to do the PT test. And yeah. Sick call. Yeah. Do sick call. So anyway yeah. All right. So let's talk about, you've talked about your sleep quality. I think that's huge. And for me, my sleep quality, when I go to sleep now, it is freaking deep. I mean, I'm getting quality sleep. And the other thing is I'm. I'm a big, I'm big time in favor of taking a nap. So I like taking a 20 minute nap during the day if I can get one and I do frequently and I get great sleep and I just feel like I'm when I wake up now, I used to wake up and be pretty groggy and I'd have to get coffee and do my allergy pills and do my protocol to get my nose clean. My allergies aren't there and I wake up, I just spring out of bed. I have energy immediately. I'm ready to go and do stuff. How about you?

Eric: 33:02

There, it's been different here and there. I've had like periods like you where I just I have really deep sleep where I'm like five hours and I just feel great. I have other days that I'm, you know, I'll usually go to bed around 10, 30, 11, and then every morning I get up at the same time. So 7 a. m. between 630 and seven, I wake up. I may stay in bed for 30, 45 minutes, or I may get up and go let the dog out and feed her and that kind of thing. Might get a cup of decaf here and there. I still use it a little bit with some heavy cream, but it's usually more if I want to, have a cigar, I'll have a. A cup of decaf just to have something besides water. But yeah, sleep, especially maybe even being off caffeine. I know there's a little bit in decaf. I'm not really sure how much, but I haven't had any like caffeine jitters or which I was getting off caffeine before I started carnivore just because of the anxiety. I was seeing someone and they were like, get this book. And it was talking about sugar, tobacco alcohol and caffeine to eliminate those and see if that improves your anxiety. Well, getting off the standard American diet, it's a big thing to help my anxiety. And so I've slowly added caffeine back. I haven't had any alcohol, but I've started adding some tobacco back to definitely not like I was. I was a four to 10 stick a day.

Larry A: 34:41

Oh, wow. Yeah. You were much more into it than I was. Yeah, my form of social thing I would have made by myself rarely, but always when I'm with my army buddies, I'll have a cigar, and a drink, that's just what we do. And we, you know, that's our thing, social,

Eric: 34:55

uh, I played golf today and I didn't have a cigar. It's usually, when I would go play golf, I'd have a one or two.

Larry A: 35:01

Yeah, that's a great feeling. It's empowering, I think, to not be addicted to sugar, to foods. I'm not addicted anymore, so I can choose what I want to do when I want to do it. I can choose to have a drink when I want to or not, which I usually choose not to. Occasionally I do. So it's super empowering. And when you talk about the standard American diet and your anxiety, I don't know if you saw my post today and the other day about low cholesterol levels and mental function. I think a lot of people are overlooking that and they're still pushing this low cholesterol diet. And, it's, there's plenty of studies out there and the National Institutes of Health is, highlighting them that point to a low cholesterol level is common in people that have mental issues, including anxiety, bipolar disease. They're prone to violent acts, including on themselves. So a lot of people when they do blood tests after suicide, they find a lot of them had low cholesterol. So there is correlation. Of course, we know correlation is not causation, but when you get all the data points and put them together, you get a theory that even the NIH acknowledges that, low cholesterol is probably not a good thing for us. And I think that's the main thing that this diet introduces. And for me, man, it was like within two weeks, I was It was like a switch went on. I don't know about you, but my mental health and my attitude and my motivation level. I saw you said you clean house a little more and stuff. You give me that's the kind of stuff to me too. Like I would get up and want to do dishes. It's so weird because that was not me. Yeah,

Eric: 36:32

Before I would go out on the patio and have a cigar and coffee and I would do that many times a day or I would go to the cigar lounge if I wasn't working. And I would just hang out there and do nothing. And I, I don't do that anymore. And that was a long pattern for me. Just hanging out with army buddies or hanging out with guys and just shooting the shit, getting to know people and I really don't do that anymore.

Larry A: 37:03

Yeah, I do less of it. I still do hang out with them and I value the relationships obviously, but it's not like I do it for me now. I do it just to be part of the social group. And I think I was doing it for me. Like you were probably filling time, passing time. Yeah. Just

Eric: 37:20

passing time until we die. And I was like, I don't want to do that anymore. And people are like, Oh man, we miss you. And I'm like. Hey, you're welcome to come to Florida and we'll go hang out on the beach and we'll go play golf and we'll go eat, we'll go get a steak or something. Absolutely. If you want to have a beer or a cocktail, be my guest. No, we'll have some cigars. Hey, we'll have a great time.

Larry A: 37:45

That's cool. All right. So let's talk about how you stick to this diet. So this diet is not. a conventional diet. Obviously, it's well actually is, but not by modern standards. So how do you find motivation to stick to a diet Do you get bored? And what do you eat in the typical day now? And maybe like what you started with. Can you tell us about the transition? I'm sure it's different.

Eric: 38:06

I'm a creature of habits. I tend to eat primarily ground beef or ribeye. I also have been on a specific butter, cream, cheese, beef, broth and salt like a steak sauce spread. So I put that on everything. It's just the same as if I was eating butter with it. I tend to like this particular recipe that I've been using it almost since day

Larry A: 38:34

one. Okay. You gotta share that one with me for sure. Email it.

Eric: 38:38

Yeah, I did a video on YouTube and prepared. Oh, did you? Okay. Yeah. But it, I got it from Marie

Larry A: 38:45

Emrys. Oh yeah. She's got some good stuff. Yeah.

Eric: 38:48

Yeah. She's mainly keto, but. I guess I heard her talking on that reverse show and she was mentioning it. I was like, Hey, I need to go try it. Cause it got to a point where I was like, is this going to be like my daily? And that steak sauce is literally it's held me on to keep doing it because it's so satiating, like for my mental health, I don't know why. It's just creamy. It's has all these flavors.

Larry A: 39:17

Is that the brown butter one with the truffle

Eric: 39:20

salt? I don't use the truffle salt,

Larry A: 39:24

but yeah, that's that one. I've made that, and it is fantastic. I have used the truffle salt in it and it doesn't affect me, so I can. And I've shared it with my neighbors and stuff. That's, that, I'm definitely making that for Thanksgiving that I'm hosting. But it's an amazing steak sauce. I know that one. Yeah,

Eric: 39:39

and that's, that, I make a double batch, once or twice a week. So it gets a little pricey. If, I eat a lot too and my wife eats it, she's still, she's not as strict as I am. She's mainly been ketovore she still will have some organic chocolate here and there. Every now and then, like, we went to Gatlinburg, I would have a little bit of organic chocolate. It didn't really affect me negatively, but I'm like, I don't want to, it's like being an abstainer. I just need to be off of it. That's me. I know I need to be off of it. So if I partake, yeah, it is,

Larry A: 40:22

that's why I fell off of keto every time. For one thing, I never eliminated sweets, artificial sweeteners. I always had artificial sweeteners in my diet. Yeah. And because that's keto, right? They're like you can do this. And because of that, I always had cravings. I did the

Eric: 40:39

same thing. I would have the monk fruit or the erythritol or, and it was like, those things were, you're always told you have to have fiber. So your gut microbiome needs to have this to survive. And this, and it's it's not true. Right. The crazy thing is when I tell people, they're like, What about your fiber? I have the best bowel movements I've ever had in my life. I don't understand what you're even debating here. And as longer it goes, people like, especially my army buddies are like, and they've got these beer bellies like sticking out and they're like, dude, you're like older than me and you look in a great shape and I'm like. You can do this. 30 days, bro.

Larry A: 41:30

30 days. That's

Eric: 41:31

what it takes. You'll lose 20 or 30 pounds in 30 days. Likely,

Larry A: 41:36

And your brain functional change completely. I've not talked to one person, not one that had not had their, that did this for real, like actually did the protocol and didn't have better brain function. Not one. Yeah.

Eric: 41:51

Yeah, I don't think I've talked to anyone that I mean, my wife, maybe she's probably the 1 that like, hasn't been like the, I mean, she has gone full bore on her job. She went to another level on her job. Which I think led to her like getting some burnout, which I'm thankful for her being here now and doing just doing telehealth and not doing a lot of travel type therapy. She's a speech therapist. Okay, and so she's slowing down, which is fine. Yeah, slow down and get your bearing and reset and, shoot your reshoot your asthma then move, go to another

Larry A: 42:33

lane. Right?

Eric: 42:36

Yeah, it's been good for her moving here and knowing she's teetered back and forth on carnivore and just key to whore and even. Kind of eating some more standard American stuff. And she's told me like, I don't feel as good. And I'm like, yeah, because you're used to those ketones and you're used to your brain not having the fog and it's, it doesn't take long to come back.

Larry A: 43:02

Yeah. A whole food diet. even if it's got veggies in it is so superior to anything that's manmade. I'm a Christian, so I believe in a creator, but even if you're an evolutionist, whichever way you are, if you look at manmade foods versus natural foods or God made foods, manmade foods are always a cheap imitation at best. And at worst, they're an abomination, a poison. And I think that's what we have now. And most of our diet is an abomination, a poison of manmade. Constructs that aren't even food that just they're just calories, right? But everything has calories like wood has calories. You burn it, right? Calories does not constitute food. Food is proper nutritional, substance for your body. And everyone's body is different. Proper nutritional substance for a cow. Completely different than proper nutritional substance for a wolf. And we're different than that too. Yeah, you could survive on whole foods that aren't carnivore. And you can survive on standard American diet foods. You can for a long time, we did, but it's not optimal. Yeah.

Eric: 44:07

Well, I mean, look at our expected life expectancy that's based on a standard American diet. Absolutely. If you weren't eating that since day one of birth or even in utero and you ate an ancestral correct diet for your whole entire existence. Who knows where you go to? Yeah. 120, 130 years,

Larry A: 44:29

140. Look at Maggie up, Maggie White up in Canada, 83. And she's jumping over fences and wrangling bulls and living a life. Like I want to be, that's my hero.

Eric: 44:38

I've taken care of some people like that, that were. Literally, I took care of a man. It's been 10 or 15 years ago, but he was 94 and he was still getting in and out of a dump truck, but he was mainly eating meat. He didn't eat a lot of carbs, but he ate a lot of meat, but it was in his upper 90s and still doing just. Things like, you're not supposed to, you're supposed to be retired.

Larry A: 45:09

Yeah. That's a construct too. Retirement is a construct. There's a lot of constructs out there that we just accept as normal, right? Free meals a day, construct, right? That's breakfast being the most important meal, construct. It's all manmade. That doesn't exist in nature. So yeah, we have a lot of things that we have to overcome mentally for this diet. For me, it was really difficult to think, Oh, I'm going to eat a lot of fat and that's going to be good for me. And my cholesterol is not a thing I have to worry about. That's gonna be good for me, right? My, my total cholesterol level. So there's a lot of interesting things that you really have to fight. It's, it really is a battlefield in the mind and the body. But the good news is it happens so fast. Like you said, 30 days, man, within 20 days, you're going to see drastic changes. And if you really commit to this, if you make it your Rubicon, cross it and go that you will actually see real

Eric: 45:56

changes. Again, if you start out eating lots of fat, it may be a week. If you're, you change over to be a fat burner and you get a fat adapted, it

Larry A: 46:09

can be very quick.

Eric: 46:11

Yeah, my, my one army buddy that's here. He's the one he, it's almost like we were led to move here to help him. I'm also a Christian and also believe that, I'm given another chance to help. I want to help veterans. That's my, that's where my leading is, but it just starts with one, and one and goes to two and goes to three and it goes to, guys like us, being willing to stand up and, tell our story.

Larry A: 46:44

Yeah. Yeah, that's me. Not being a medical guy. I have, I feel like I don't, I can't give medical advice or, but I can share story, my story and others, right? I can be a voice. I'm a technical guy, so I can make a channel and broadcast. And that's what I'm gonna do. And also what I can do is I can view other content creators and support them. And I think that's where everyone can get into this fight, right? If you're just a veteran or first responder and you're not going to create a YouTube channel, that's fine. Thank you. Just go out and support content creators. They're putting out the message you agree with that, you know, to be true. And that includes, I

Eric: 47:19

heard you say that a while back and it was just like, that's what we all should be doing, right? There's so much room. It, we don't even know how big this space could be. There's plenty of room for everyone to be involved. If you decide to be a content creator and, I'm not the technical guy, even though I was kind of in a, in a technical role, years ago I'm learning I'm reading about YouTube, yeah. Yeah. How to do these things a little bit better and how to get comfortable. So yeah, I'm still learning that. I

Larry A: 47:53

think when I was in the military, we'd have missions and they'd talk about what's going to make a successful battle is not the colonel or the major. It's going to be some PFC that makes a decision on the battlefield. That's going to make the difference in that battle. Right. And always historically has been worth Sergeant. It's going to be someone with boots on the ground in the heat of the battle that makes that decision and the same with You too. Yes, Dr. Barry is great. All these, you know, Dr. Chafee is great. Dr Baker. But those are like the generals, right? They've got their message out there. Now we need to carry that fight into the populace. And we need to make that dent. And that's what exactly right. So we can actually sway the tide of the war into our favor at the ground level. And

Eric: 48:39

I think that's what we've been kind of, you know, that pendulum has Is still on the side of, oh, my gosh, that's bad for you. It's still there. Oh, yeah, it's starting to come back how long that coming back takes. We don't know, but I think. You're starting to see more things out in the public in the media. But there, there's definitely people out there that don't want us to eat meat. There are people buying up land that don't want us to eat meat and they're creating synthetic meat and nobody's buying it. No, no one's buying the stuff.

Larry A: 49:19

It's definitely the cheap imitation, right? It's not nearly as good as a ribeye. That's crazy. All right. Let's go into this. I'm going to give you the floor here and at the end, we'll talk about your YouTube channel. But first I want you to, if you were talking to a veteran directly today, who's watching this, who was considering it, or maybe first time they've heard of carnivore diet, what a veteran or first responder, what advice would you give them on what to do and how to start?

Eric: 49:44

I always tell people you have to have a big why. What's your why is your why? Oh, I just want to be slam and fit and it's probably not going to be big enough for me. My why was I want to be around to see my grandchildren. I want to be off all medicine. I had a list. What's my why I did a different program when I did the protocol 1 of their things was what's your why. Yeah, what's your why and then do your research. Don't just jump into it just eating a 10 patties a day and expect that you're not going to have issues. You're not going to be craving or you're not going to be going out with your buddies or your girlfriend or your wife or, your spouse and be like, put in uncomfortable situations. You need to be prepared you know, for me, food preparation is big. I'm not a gourmet chef by any means, but just. I recently brought, bought a Blackstone, so just having that and the ability to cook a lot of meat, it's definitely freed me up even more than it already was just, cooking 4 to 6 patties at a time. Now I can do 20. And so now I can feed myself and my wife for three days. It gives me more time in my day where I'm not prepping food. So yeah, just learning, getting on the, like your channel, getting on other influencers channel having, if possible, having a battle buddy, having someone to do it with you. I know you talked about your neighbor doing it. My wife and I did it when I switched it to carnivore. And by then she had seen, she's like, Hey, I'm willing to do it. I'm willing to try it. That's awesome. And then do it for 30 days, see how you evaluate your, you know, again, do an after action review and AR after your 30 days. And say, and do I feel better? Do I look better? Because you're likely going to be a yes on both of those. And then see how far it can go. I'm on day 183, you're on day 216 or whatever. And we're still thriving. We're still humping. We're still, literally talking about going back in the military. But I'm in the same boat. I'm like, doing sprints the other day, I haven't done sprints and oh over 10 years,

Larry A: 52:18

isn't that weird that we want to sprint? I never thought I would sprint again in my life. It's just weird that you want to, right? It's I want to go see how

Eric: 52:28

I, I walk every day. I do 10, 000 or more steps every day and I have for the same amount of time and it's like. When I was walking last week, I just started sprinting and I'm like, I can't stop.

Larry A: 52:46

I'm doing it.

Eric: 52:47

I wasn't. I wasn't winded. The crazy thing was, I was like, my cardiovascular was like amazing and I'm like, should I test this? And I even went, I went and got signed up for a gym. Nice. And I haven't worked out hardly any on doing carnivore. I've lost almost 40 pounds. And maintain that 40 pound weight loss for. The whole time without hardly, walking, that was it. Maybe some pushups here and there. But yeah, I was able to crank out like 20 pushups. Yeah. And I'm like,

Larry A: 53:25

wow. Your PT test score would be pretty good at your age.

Eric: 53:28

I was like 20. I could have kept going and I'm like do I keep going? I'm like, I don't want to tear anything. That's, it's as you age, you're like, am I going to break something or tear

Larry A: 53:38

something? That's me. I didn't work out much. I got an x3 system, which is a rubber band system because I've got injuries that are, I've got things that aren't going to heal because the tissues are just, ruptured muscles, pectoral muscles ruptured. It's not going to grow back to my shoulder. That's not going to happen. I got injuries that just aren't coming back. So I have to worry about overloading my joints, but I do like getting a good workout. And so I would work out 40 minutes a week. Okay. For 10 minute sessions to failure and one exercise to failure. That's all I did. And I only did that for the last 12 weeks. And then I would walk, that's it. And I didn't run cause I couldn't, but actually I have started running again and my ankle is completely healing. It's amazing. Cause I was not able to run since 2017. So I thought that was gone too. I thought, and then sprinting thought I'd never do that. Yeah, it feels great. If I, like I said, I feel like an athlete again when I'm sprinting, I feel like I'm an athlete and it's kind of sad that I didn't have that my whole life, to be honest, but I'm very grateful to have it now. Yeah.

Eric: 54:38

Oh, I feel the same way, Larry. Just grateful and thankful for every day for sure.

Larry A: 54:44

Yeah. That's almost like a second

Eric: 54:45

chance. Yeah. That's how I

Larry A: 54:47

feel. That's me too. It's a new lease on life, literally, which, you know, people throw that around, but. This is legit, literal, a new lease on life. So,

Eric: 54:57

yeah, well, we've cut some spiral stairs in our living room, in this house we're in. And so I've been grabbing hold of those and doing chin ups.

Larry A: 55:06

Wow. So I haven't tried that yet. I can

Eric: 55:08

do. seven, eight in a row without any issue. And I haven't done chin ups in years. Right. And I really haven't you know, when I was in the army, I would always work out and was always active and, heavy lifting, but yeah, for the last five years, I've hardly done anything in my

Larry A: 55:29

life. Yeah, me too. Being an athlete in high school and college and then in the military, I was always in good shape and I was physical. And I knew how my body responded to exercise very well because I did it a lot. And then once I hit my fifties, that started changing where I could do the extra exercise and still not get the results. My body still is going the wrong direction. And in fact, injuries piled up and made it even harder. So this is completely reversed that. So yeah it's a, it's, I call it my hot tub time machine. It's pretty cool. All right. Let's talk about your YouTube channel real quick. We've brushed on a little bit. You want to get this message out. So tell me about why you started the YouTube channel and what your goals are for it. And this is the YouTube channel below, by the way, it's at Eric carnivore RN, correct? And you also have other social media too, right?

Eric: 56:21

Yeah, I'm on Instagram Twitter. Okay. Why I started, well, same name. Yes. Okay. Derek Carnivore. And why I started a YouTube channel?, I started putting just steak videos. Because I love to cook. I love to cook steaks and see how can I get it to the next level? Then I would go into a lot of these chat forums and talk with people and I met this 1 particular person that was actually lived in Memphis. Her name's Rachel. And it was like, oh, you're in Memphis. Instagram. And she started recording her journey, kind of like redoing carnivore and she's like, you know, you need to do it. And then she sent me like bill from Alaska. Oh, yeah, yeah. And I'm like, why am I not tracking this? And so it was mainly just. For a tracking, and I think it's been a big learning curve. Just in how to start it, how to do it, when to do it, you know, those things. So I'm still learning still early phases. I can do it off camera, do shorts and do those. No problem, but it's the getting comfortable, I've asked you questions on Instagram as far as what kind of this you're using, what kind of that? But yeah, why I did it was just to track it and then ultimately move it into something. I don't know where that is right now, but maybe it'll come to me. I'm still kind of writing things down as far as who do you want to help? Who do you want to influence? I know it's veterans. I'm like, yours is 1st responders. Maybe mine is nurses. I know there's a lot of burnout out there. I know there's a lot of PTSD from. Thank you. The big time we had a few years ago with the infection global and, pandemic and see, I don't know exactly where it's going to end up. I do just want to tell people, hey, this can change your life.

Larry A: 58:36

Yeah, the nurses channel would be great because, I kind of consider nurses almost first responders anyway, especially if they've done, er work, you've done a lot of trauma work. So you're right there working with what comes in on the wagon. I mean, yeah, that's pretty, pretty close. Yeah,

Eric: 58:51

and I have a lot of, booboo bus paramedic type friends that, hopefully with me, they follow me on Instagram and hopefully they see and hopefully, they're going out there. I've linked things and they can go and see my videos and yeah. That's great.

Larry A: 59:10

And, if you ever have questions on YouTube stuff, I'm new too, but I've done a lot with it and I am a technical guy. I do have a lot of good technical things I can help you with. And if you ever want to do a live session, I don't know what your Wednesdays are like, but I have Wednesday night hump day hangouts. And you're welcome to join us and be on a panel just answering Q and a and discussing things. So we can, sure. All right. Well, we're out of time now. It's been fantastic talking with you, Eric. You too, Larry. I appreciate it. I'm going to drop you out and I'm going to say goodbye to everybody and then stick around and we'll talk for a minute. Okay. Sure. Well guys, that was another awesome interview. Another great mission carnivore with a veteran and healthcare provider. And just want to tell you all how much I appreciate you. If you like this channel and like what I do, please like, and subscribe the video and hit the notification bell. So you see whenever it comes up, guys, all I got to say now is stay strong and overcome carnivore soldier out.