Carnivore For Life Episode 8: Kicking Ass After 60, A UK Professional Rejuvenates His Life Through Carnivore

Join me, Carnivore Soldier, as I interview Alex, from the Carnivore For Life YouTube channel (@CarnivoreForLife65). Alex is a retired UK professional and current swim coach who turned every aspect of his life around through adopting the carnivore diet, adding a renewed energy level, vitality, and positive outlook.

Strap in for a great story!

Carnivore Diet Planning Guide: https://4343867330708.gumroad.com/l/fqtjv
Website: https://www.carnivoresoldier.com
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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!

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

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All

Larry: 0:00

right. All right. All right. Carnivore soldier coming at you from Austin, Texas. Today we've got another interview with another UK carnivore. This is for the podcast, The Carnivore Way, where we interview YouTube content creators for the carnivore lifestyle and discuss all things carnivore with them. So I'm going to bring in My mate Alex here. How's it going, Alex?

Alex: 0:24

It's going absolutely great, Larry. Thanks very much.

Larry: 0:27

Alright, so the way I'm going to do this, I'm going to drop these little banners in with questions. So let's start off with you just introducing yourself. Why don't you tell the fans out there who you are, what you're about, and how long you've been in Carnival, that kind of stuff. Okay,

Alex: 0:38

great. Yeah. My name's Alex. I'm from Liverpool in the UK. I'm age 65. I'm in my 66th year in 2024. Celebrate my 66th birthday in August this year and I'll be receiving my official UK pension. So that's something to look forward to. I've been married to Michelle, my wife, my rock. And, behind every guy, there's a very strong woman, I think. She's just amazing to me. We've been together. 40 years this year. 40 years. Crazy in July. And we've been married for 34 years this coming September. So, really proud of that. We've got two grown up kids. Sophie's 31. She's married to Andy. He's a police officer. Really fantastic couple. I'm so happy for them. They've been together 10 years. They are both carnivore. Alex Jr. He's 22. He's at home still. I can't kick him out yet. Can't kick him off the nest. He, I'm proud of him. We had struggles a couple of years ago in college. He just didn't know a direction. And When I told him that even when I retired at 50, 15 years ago, I still didn't know what I wanted to do in life. That made him realize that he didn't have to go to university, he didn't have that pressure and he found his way in the retail sector in the UK. He's now at 22, a store manager for a top it's not a flagship store, but it's a big store in Liverpool. It's a global retail brand, and he's the manager, and he's 22. I just could never have done that when I was his age. So I'm really proud of my kids and obviously my wife. I retired in 2008. I'd been working from 1975 in the civil service in the UK and local governments. It wasn't a sedentary lifetime, a lifestyle, but I did travel around the country doing property valuations for people on welfare benefits. So it was like a, it's called a senior executive officer. It was just a title, but it was a really enjoyable job. But as I got into my the middle, you know, 20, 20, 20 Oh five. It got really stressful. Now I've got opportunity to take retirements. When you're 15, you take retirements. I don't know about you, but I just felt cognitive dissonance. I was joyous. I was, exhilarated. Suddenly, I didn't have a vehicle and I just didn't know what to do. So that was one of the crucial times in my life where things were going great because I lost the stress from the job. But also I started going down the path of drinking too much alcohol, eating too much crap food, starting to feel sorry for myself. But fortunately, within the first 12 months, I volunteered to become a swim teacher because Sophie was such a fantastic. Competitive swimmer. And then for the last 15 years, I've been a, some people say I'm a top coach and swim teacher. I've worked with all the top UK swimmers Rebecca Arlington, Steve Parry who runs a major was it swimming franchise in the UK? I was a coordinator and events manager for them. I absolutely loved it. Lockdowns came along, destroyed everything, took away all my self esteem and My employment and Michelle's book, you know what I got it back and I'm thriving. I'm having the best time of my life. Life changed again in April, 2022, when I came across a YouTube video about fat and what it's all about and what it's not all about. And so I became a carnivore on the 1st of May, 2022. And that's it for now. Yeah.

Larry: 3:59

Yeah. I retired my fifties to 2019. I retired from the Texas army national guard as a chief warrant officer. And I was the network engineer for the division, the net ops chief basically. And which is network operations and I was 53. Yeah. So I was young. And so I started a company doing inspections on real estate, which I did. And I still own that company. I just don't do as many as I used to. And then I got recruited by a university to be a wireless network architect, which is what my forte was from the army. I was a network engineer. So now I have that purpose going, but I tell you what, it was still a downhill slope on my health and my mental health. Once I retired, I was still not, I couldn't run anymore. I wasn't going to the gym. I really rarely got off the couch unless I had to do something. I hated doing chores. And when I found carnivore, all that changed. It was a life changing event for me. So yeah, same with you, man. Same deal. And the pandemic, the lockdown that had a lot to do with stuff that, mental and physical too, it accelerated things for me in the wrong direction. I became a carnivore March 22nd, 2023. So I'm behind you, but by about a year. Okay. Let's jump in. So what prompted you to start it? What did you see? Was there, what was your aha moment, your epiphany? Did you see a video? Did you talk to somebody? Was it Joe Rogan? Who was it? Who turned you onto this thing?

Alex: 5:22

Well, I've documented the epiphany. It was almost like a eureka movements, I've found it. Inadvertently, really, I was just on YouTube. When you are semi retired as the swim teacher, so only do about 12 to 20 hours a week. I haven't watched mainstream media for about 10 years. I just got sick and tired of it. Go down rabbit holes, come back up them. And YouTube, it's got everything. It's got the, it's like the internet, isn't it? It's got the worst of everything and the best. You've just got to be a good researcher in your own right. And I remember sitting in the next room in the conservatory or Like a porch extension. You guys have I was watching TV. Fact fiction. The documentary came on because I was the chef in the house. Mediterranean diet 80 20 80 percent plant based 20 percent lean meat. No fatty meats. I was interested in this and I followed the channel called Young Man Cooking. It's a guy from Hong Kong. Phenomenal plant based diet, but whole foods, none of your junk, not spinach trying to look like a burger. It was all, healthy stuff. But I was 203 pounds in weight. When I was in my twenties, I was about 145 pounds. And so I was drinking too much, eating a lot of toxins. And I just watched this And I thought by now and a half, I went, I'll play that again. I'll play that again. So it wasn't one particular person. It was just my brain went, you're doing something wrong here, or you've been doing something wrong for at least 50 years. So played it again and the interesting thing was they were normal ordinary people like those guys. They weren't influencers They weren't hey, look at this great product, you know buy it today and it'll be rubbish tomorrow. It was real I can't remember the guys who were the doctors but again, I just connected to them. I think I played it three times that day

Larry: 7:10

When you talk about them being normal people you mean those three people that Put the glucose monitors on and ate two different weekly meals, right?

Alex: 7:17

Yes, that's it. So you've watched it yourself. I think you know,

Larry: 7:20

of course I did a review on it. Yeah.

Alex: 7:22

Yeah. Yeah. And again obviously the algorithms kick in, don't they? I didn't even know what algorithms were then and fat fiction. So fat, the movie came up, I think fat to Dr. Sean Baker. And I'm never sitting there going, who's this guy, and he's like this, isn't he? And it was just the fact he was walking through the grounds of his house. I thought, well, that looks like a doctor's house. It's massive. It's in the States. And he's walking and walking and he starts talking about the diet. And I was thinking, wow, he's going to die of a heart attack. All the things that, all the things that we react to, indoctrinations, which, I'm not saying it was a bad thing. That's just the way my life was. But I couldn't believe he had a cap on, baseball cap on. He was talking about American sports. And so I watched the whole video and obviously over a couple of days, Dr. Ken Berry turned up. So I went into Michelle and I went, Hey babe we didn't like sugar anyway. I knew it wasn't a good thing to eat, but I like my sweet stuff. I like the savory stuff, but our children never had sugar. Uh, knowingly in their food, they've never had a cavity ever and the 34 and 22 when I was there about eight or nine, I had about nine fillings in my house because my mom, she, killed me with kindness. I remember saying to Michelle, let's go into the kitchen where I am today. So those covers behind me. I opened every single one. I knew where everything was. I would pick up a tin and go fifth ingredient. This is sugar. So I started going on a bit of a detective thing. And I thought, right, I'm gonna find some products here that haven't got sugar. I'm going to show Michelle. And I think It's not an exaggeration. 95 percent of all the tin stuff, the boxes, the pouches, the frozen stuff in the freezer, sugar appeared either as maltodextrin or saccharin or whatever it was, because about 70 different names of sugar. And I started to get really angry. Yeah. Not hangry, but angry and I was thinking. I'm a sucker here. I'm starting to realize that somebody's played a game on me. So she sat, I don't think she sat down with me, but I explained to her what I was going to do. And, she's my girl. She said, I'll support you. Let's see what we're going to do. So we took everything out of the pantry, out of the the cupboards, out of the freezer, threw away any perishable stuff and gave all the stuff that wouldn't perish to Michelle's mum. So we took it down, gave all the food away and I start, so I thought to myself, right, let's go to the local supermarkets. The meat wasn't that great, but luckily for me, I'd already started going to a butchers called Stanton's. About half a mile away and I walked in there, said, listen, guys I've started this diet. I didn't tell him what it was, but then I started going there every week and basically realized this guy is serious about this. So, slightly from that, I started watching, Dante from Ferrigno freedom, is day one to one 25. I'm sitting there getting more and more intrigued realizing these people are in this younger than me, but they're not a twenties and thirties. They're close to my age. And I was at the point probably at in 2022, when I was starting to feel as if I was going really downhill, 65 is coming up, uh, I'm going to be a pensioner. It was all a mental situation following the lockdowns as well. Just quickly on that, I said to Kerry from Homestead how I was mentally depressed, but I didn't realize it. I was in that fog. And here's why I realized there wasn't it with the hindsight. I've lost control of my life. Most men, I'm sure, I've heard an expression before men, most men live lives of quiet desperation. And I think I was at that point where I was thinking, I didn't realize it, but suddenly an awareness, it's out of control and I'm losing it. So I went into a really bad place just before I found fact fiction. And when that came along, it was like, as I said, an epiphany moment. I then went on to Dante, Dave Mack. Again, Dave's got so many issues which he's documented fully and I was like, this is making me feel so much more confident about what I'm going to do. And then I saw Amanda from Carnivorous Me, and I've said to Amanda personally when I spoke to her on the 24 hour live stream, I had tears coming down my face watching her have the guts, the courage to sit in front of a screen and show the world how she was struggling with her obesity. I mean, she, I can't remember what a poundage was or a pound weight, but I just sat there and you know, you get that gut feeling as we carnivores do. I went, this lady's going to do this. So obviously I subbed to her channel and Dave. And then. That's where my starting point was. It was Chafee Kiltz, all different characters. Dr. Ken Berry was the one who gave me my main library of videos. So I just battered the videos, eight hours a day. Totally obsessive, OCD on Carnivore. And then after that first month I'd lost nearly a stone in weights or say 14 pounds, 14 pounds. So that was my fantastic start. It wasn't so much a person who got me to Carnivore. It was the YouTube algorithms and me having the guts to follow through on that documentary.

Larry: 12:38

And that's why it's so important for people to like and subscribe to videos because once you do subscribe to someone, if their video pops up, you need to watch it right away because in the first hours, like a golden hour, the algorithm determines What it's going to do with the video based on what subscribers do. So if subscribers ignore it, it's probably not going to get put up. If subscribers jump on it and leave a comment and watch it all the way through, probably going to get shared out and that'll save someone else's life. You don't necessarily have to be a YouTube content creator. You can just be in the fight by watching and supporting your YouTube content creators. So if you are sitting at home, if you do have time and you see a content creator publish something, jump on it. If you're supporting, support their message. Yeah, I agree, man. That's really good stuff. And that's kind of what I did too. Mine was Dante Fragno. The first video I saw when I was looking for Jeep parts, and I thought, well, I was like looking to put a Jeep part on my Jeep and I saw them and I'm like. Man, that can't be real. And then I watched it all like, okay, that was real, but it can't still be here. Like, and so then it looked, you know, this is years later. You can't still look like that. And I was right. He didn't look like that. He looks better now. I went and looked, I was like, Oh my gosh, the guy's still on it. And now we're friends. Now he's been on my live streams and, we've done interviews. He's a great guy. And but I felt like I kind of knew him. Like you said before, when you're a carnivore, you feel like you kind of know people because they're laying out their heart on the line and are talking and kind of know who they are.

Alex: 13:55

Larry, I just, as I say, it's a gut instinct. I haven't come across a carnivore that I haven't liked so far. They come across empathetic, very patient, very reasonable people and, balanced, very balanced.

Larry: 14:11

Yeah, for sure. All right, let's jump into what are the physical mental effects? You can list some of the things that have changed in you that you've noticed for you and your family. If your family's doing it. So you said your son or your son in law and your daughter are right.

Alex: 14:26

That's right. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. We'll start off with them. Um, so the, uh, we'll obviously watch this on replay. In fact, she was around today. She'd gone shopping with them all. And I said, how'd you fancy an interview? On stream yard? No, no, not yet that. So I thought, okay we're 10 percent in. But Sophie has struggled with her weight and she's on her dad's side. I, my metabolism slowed, I'm sure, over the years, but she, Sophie has got a sweet tooth all through her 20s. I'd say she was a very competitive swimmer, but she struggled with her weight over the last 10 years. And I think she'd agree with me that it's through comfort eating and a bit of complacency and, being addicted to sugar. Most of us are sugarholics. But again, I think. Looking back, she didn't have a big enough challenge or why, as we always talk about the WHY to change, and Andy's the same and they both did CrossFit. You've heard of CrossFit. Yeah. I used to CrossFit

Larry: 15:24

when

Alex: 15:24

I was in the army. Yeah. Yeah. Sophie used to deadlift. She's just phenomenal. But I think she got to the point where she was thinking, I want to settle down. She's been married now, I think it's nearly three years and obviously she wants children. And again, I don't think she'll mind me saying, I hope she doesn't give me that. But her doctor or her gynecologist said, so you need to lose weight. And she's discussed saying, whatever I'm eating is not working. My, my weight regime's not working. She's a gym fanatic. Doesn't swim like she used to, but like me when she realized that I lost I went from, I'd say 203 to about 165 in eight months, in the first eight months. And she said to me, how many times have you been in the gym, dad? And I went. You're not going to believe this not once, and I do work at a leisure center where I get free membership, but I'm so busy with everything else. I said to Michelle, all this subcutaneous fat's gone and I haven't lifted one weight, which I've gone back to. So our Sophie's not stupid. She went right. Dad's doing something which he's never been able to do, which is change direction and get so many benefits. So I started talking to her about what I was doing and she said, dad, I'm going to do this. Now this was about four months ago. She yo yoed as we always do. We all of us roller coaster. We get off the wagon, we get off the horse, but she got back on it. And she came out today and I could see that carnival glow in her eyes. And Larry, I wish you were sitting next to me because you would sense it because she's found. She's now pathodactic, definitely. So is Andy. And because they're supporting each other, they've both got really stressful jobs. As I say, Andy's a police officer. We do turn to food, don't we? Or drugs, or whatever it is to reassure ourselves or soften the blow. But now she knows that that's not the thing to do. She's got to change her nutrition journey. And so, getting back to what you were saying, Sophie is on a fantastic journey. Alex is 22. When I was 22, as you say, if I'd have heard about this, I'd have gone, I'm going to have a good time. You know what I mean? It's going to get in the way, but he has cut out as much crap as possible. And, I will speak for him now. He's karma. He's got a stressful job as a manager of a large store. 22, he hands it like a pro, and it definitely does filter into the family. Michelle's not a carnivore. She does unintentional keto bore no rubbish. That's the point with Michelle and she's great. She can have a half a glass of wine. She can put that down. No problem at all. I will go to the first bottle and I'll stop. But I used to be like this, you know, let's have another one. And again, it was reward based. It was all stress busting. It was nothing to do with the wine. It was what the wine was doing to me initially. But it's the after effects, it stimulates you, but then becomes a depressant. So again, this is why I think Carnivore is helping me so much because it's making me, I don't know, really face my final hurdle, which is alcohol consumption. Where I'm from in Liverpool, there's a strong drink culture, like many places in the world. And I remember coming, all my family, all my friends in Darstan, which is a dark area of Darstan, of Liverpool, South Liverpool. It was, in the fifties, sixties and seventies, it was thriving. It was a very good area. Lots of docks, lots of businesses up and down, but there was a pull on every corner and people in that area worked hard, but they played hard and they drank hard as well. And that sort of like just filtered through to me. I started drinking when I was 16. And so I've had plenty of practice right into my sixties, but this diet and this. mental awareness has really made me focus on that's the challenge that I've got to overcome. And so far it's been successful. I don't think it'll ever be an end, but as I say, compared to how it was two years ago. It's just phenomenal. So the physical side of it, I've lost all my medical issues. I've lost the psoriasis, which I have on my neck, elbows. That was just purely through stress. It's in the family. No more acid reflux. I was on Omeprazole BP tablets. I was on three medications Ebisartan, Lisinopril. And again, hindsight's a wonderful thing, isn't it? My doctor said to me 20 years ago. I wasn't big at the time, but my BP was obviously high. I was, I had a slight arrhythmia. He said, you'll be on these for life, Alex. Now, even then I would challenge things. And I said, well, why? And he goes, well, unless you lose a considerable amount of weight and get yourself fit, it's not going to happen. Here's a diet sheet. And that was the last time we spoke about blood pressure and the diet sheet was high carb, low fat. So no wonder things never changed. But I say in those In the 20 months so far, I'd only given up one tablet about three or four years ago, so I was determined to get rid of them. But as I say, about eight months ago, I just gave up completely. I use a really good quality BP sleeve and my, my blood pressure is amazing, especially when you look at something like Dr. Berry, who talks about what blood pressure really should be. I can't, I just can't deny how I feel. I say I feel decades younger. The no more bloating. You've seen probably some of my previous pictures. My face was like a bowling ball I'd say no medications at all. I even was on like levothyroxine for a while and I came off that. My body is probably in a better state than it's been for 30 years in terms of no medications activity levels and energy. I don't get halitosis anymore. I don't know what people talk about that, but I used to suffer with gum bleeding. And again, people said to me, Oh, it's gingivitis. It runs in the family. Well, it doesn't now. It's crazy. My memory's improved. I'm doing two languages at the moment. I've tried Chinese, but, Mandarin is so hard. It's really hard because it's not, it's not actual alphabet. It's

Larry: 21:10

tones. It's not a Western language. Yeah. I

Alex: 21:13

mean, I try and speak I say like Ni Hao and stuff like that because a lot of Hong Kong Chinese swimmers in my groups and they are British Hong Kong and they're like, why are you talking like that? Even though they know what I'm saying, they go, guys, I want to bounce it off you because I really want to try and develop my, here. And they're like, nah, I'll just. And they've got like Liverpool accents like me. So that is quite amusing. Little things like skin tags, which I thought is an age thing. They all went, my family, my granddad used to have skin tags around their eyes. I've got a prosthetic right knee that was replaced in when I was 50 because of osteoarthritis. And again, I think with hindsight, that was a pity. It got me down having to have a prosthetic, limbs of sorts at the right age of 50. And that slowed me down as well. But today I forget I've got a knee replacement. It's crazy. I can even squat back even further than I could. I can do breaststroke again, which I couldn't do because of obviously that lateral rotation. And again, it has to be the carnivore diets or my ma my, my nutrition change because I couldn't do these things like 2, 3, 4 years ago. It's just insane. And so they're the main things. One other thing as well, I think I had IBS about 2015, I had a ventral hernia. 2016 was diagnosed with diverticulitis again'cause it was such a high grain, high carb diet. I was given a diet sheet when I had the diagnosis and again, all it said was it high carbs, low fats? So that was just making things even worse. And then I actually had to have my abs reconstructed in 2017 because I split them. And again, I know that was all to do. With the catalog of the IBS and diabetes, I can never prove it, never had it medically diagnosed, but I think back to myself, why on earth did all those things happen? I wasn't, I'm not a drug addict, my alcohol was manageable, what was going on in my life which made it. And I, as I say, I have to look at myself and say, it was my diet. Sadly.

Larry: 23:16

Yeah. And, going back to what you said about your daughter and not having the why. Yeah, I don't know if you saw my recent video about how not to fail. I just did a video on that. How not to fail. So anyway, I talk about developing the wine. One of the things I compared to is, the reason people won't do, I give a couple reasons people will fall off the diet. One is Because every diet they've done to this point has failed. So they believe this will fail in the back of their head. They've never seen a success in their life. They never have. So not sustainable anyway. So they go into this thinking that the vehicle is flawed, right? That's what they're thinking. But the reality is the vehicle is not flawed. And I challenged him. I said, listen, if we were to get into Alex, if you were to get a contract, I got in contract with your daughter today and we opened an escrow account. I put 25, 000 in there and said. At the end of 31 days, if you do not stray from the carnivore diet, you get 25, 000. Do you think she'd have a problem? Do she mean tempted? She'd go to Thanksgiving. She'd go to Christmas. She could have candy in her office all day long. And guess what? She got 25, 000 waiting there. Cause she trusts that she trusts my check in an escrow, right? What she doesn't trust is the diet. Cause if she did the same trust in the diet you couldn't pay me 25, 000 now to leave this. I'll tell you that right now. And that, so I just threw that out in a video cause I think that's a, an important point that people come into this. And then they bring in, the other thing is when they do come into the diet, they bring in failure patterns, like what can I eat X, Y, or Z knowing full well, it's not animal based. Can I have a cheat day? How do you feel about me doing this? And they throw that out there because they want people to, confirm that they're okay doing it. Yeah, but really those are patterns that failed in the past. So I would say this is a vehicle that works. Don't bring in failure patterns and hit it hard for 31 days to see what happens, then make your decision. Yeah. Make a deal with yourself, put a 25, 000 check in your escrow with yourself. And go forward and do it like, and then that's what I did. I'm sure that's what you did. I, when I went in, I said, I'm going to be like Cortez. I'm going to burn the ships. Yeah. I'm going to be like Napoleon. If you want to take Vienna, take Vienna. I'm not going to halfway do this thing. And if it doesn't work, it's because it's flawed. Not because I didn't put maximum effort. Cause I'm a maximum effort guy. So that, and of course it did work just like you

Alex: 25:35

did. Right. Yeah, exactly. Well, I did a video pre Christmas. But I think it was more of a review video and I remember that I don't know if it was Einstein who did the quote, but it was if you keep doing the same thing over and over and over again and expecting different results, that's the definition of insanity. And I think on that video, I did say to people, I must have been insane for years and I was speaking on behalf of the masses as well, especially myself. And that's how I've gone through life. When things work, okay, it's great. But, I used to even tell people about those successes, but when things don't work, and you keep on doing the same thing. We've got family and friends like who have actually gone on official diets, go to clubs and everything and sign up and, bet your bottom dollar every time. I won't mention names every time they've come away from that and, they've done well and, they get lots of plaudits. Three months later, you keep and you go, Oh, so you're going to go back into that club, are you? And they go, Yeah, yeah, yeah. Cause they've had their little cheats. And the thing is. It's like, you don't have to remind people, they're not people, not stupid. That was the thing that got you into the mess in the first place. So as you say, if you don't burn your boats, you're just going to keep going back and going back and going back. And with that 25, 000 escrow, it was two and a half million. I know it's out that money is not my main driving force. It makes things easier for me, but it's not my driving force at my age. I would actually say to you, there you go, guys, I'm staying on carnival. Yeah, me too. Yeah. One thing I didn't touch on on your question, which I should have done was the mental aspect or the mental effects are. They're the main driver for me. Nowadays. Now that I've looked back over the 20 months, people do say to me, Alex, you've got your mojo back. You have got that energy. Your behavior, your positivity. I've always been a glass half full guy. The mental effects obviously of the pandemic. Think about how this has affected people all over the world. If you haven't got an outlet or a vehicle, or you haven't got fantastic support, Man, it must be the worst thing in the world. And but, as I say, the timing of that fact fiction movie was a blessing from somewhere. And my mental state today is sharp. I'm sharper than a beam when I I've said to Sophie, because Sophie's 31. And I said, I was 34 when you were born. So I can actually remember whole days of how I felt. I was like skipping along. I'm a dad, I've got a wonderful wife. I've got a beautiful house. I've got a really good job, even though it's stressful, halcyon days for me. And I feel now as if I've actually gone back in time and brought that forward like 30 odd years. And again, another video I did recently I found a stock video and it was about a guy climbing up the hill. Now I used to see myself sliding down fast, but now that's where I am. Now I'm climbing that carnivore hill and it's just incredible. Absolutely incredible.

Larry: 28:33

Yep. And on the standard diet, we were more like Sisyphus, right? Pushing the rock up the hill, getting crushed by it every day, every day. And then, yeah I actually used that quote and it is Einstein that said that in that video, I, at the end, I'm like, if you keep doing the same thing and expect different results, that is the definition of insanity and that was Einstein said that, but yeah, you couldn't pay me 25 grand. No, or any money to go back. Because like you said, I actually feel like more of a man. Now, again, I feel like I've regained my manhood because I feel very confident in everything I do now, everything. And that, yeah, that's true. That's pretty amazing. So that's great, man. So let's talk about being a father and a husband. How has carnivore affected that? I know we talked about being a man how do you think that's changed or affected you being a father and a husband?

Alex: 29:21

I think, well, talking about being a man, I mean, that's old fashioned, Larry, but you know what? Some people are, shall we say, who are woke won't like that, but I am old fashioned, mate. I think we should go old fashioned back. And, what you're saying, this is why I think we get on so well. You talk my language and that's how I feel. I feel like I'm a man again. Yeah, I remember watching, I think it was the Hobbit series and the king, I don't know whether it was What was it? I don't know if it was the actual Hobbit or the other ones where the king He's in this castle and he's gone and he wakes up one day and he suddenly becomes the king again. I haven't seen these DVDs for years and I need to get them out. And I thought to myself that's how it feels. It feels as if you are, again, be careful what you say. I'm top of the class. I'm the king of my castle, I'm the head of the household. I'm seven years older than Michelle, but she looks to me for advice. I look to, for her, for advice and support. I do feel like a good old fashioned bloke again. It's just incredible. Sophie, I think she, they quietly say things to me dad, how's it going? What have you had today? And, but there's not been one negative comment in the whole 20 months from my family, which I did expect because I was the chef, I was the cook. I have to say thank you to them for this is online, the fact that they've supported me so much. Also like a new year's resolution of mine was. To start cooking again for them, even if I'm going to eat at a separate time, let's get back to the old ways instead of somebody coming in saying, Hey, dad, what's for tea? I've had a ribeye that doesn't work. You know, that's not family to me. You've got to be the head of the household as well as Michelle. And you've got to say to people like we're going to eat together. We're all sitting down together. We're going to talk about what our day's been like, what we're going to do tomorrow. This is your meal. This is my meal. And we're both going to be happy. So, yeah, I think. It's a, if anyone's starting carnival today, it will probably create a few little frictions. And, you might change what you're doing. I'd say I was the chef and I was the cook, but now the family is starting to cook more for themselves anyway, which is great. They're learning things, but you know, I think it's important that you maintain, the nucleus of the family and you do the things that you did before carnival. But that's one thing I think can sometimes trip people up is right saying, right. I'm the carnival. I'm doing this. If you're not carnivore, you do whatever you want. That can be a big negative and I'd say to people, try and reverse that as much as you can. But so far, being a carnivore has been a blessing for me as a father, and a husband.

Larry: 31:48

Yeah when you talk about eating non carnivore food with the other family members, you can still eat a very healthy meal as long as it's whole foods and you have no processed foods. You cut seed oils, trans fats, cut out processed wheats. and you cut out sugar and you are basically hitting 85 percent of the health benefits. I think, you're not getting the carnivore benefits because the carnivore benefits are way above that, but you are getting the health benefits where you're just getting a healthy meal, which even most keto people don't do that. I didn't, when I was keto, I did not do that. I was eating quest bars and all this stuff that's maltodextrin and net carbs and all this. I was, it was nonsense what I was eating. Now I did lose weight, but it wasn't even close to what I could have achieved. Yeah. So yeah, I agree with that. And then being a dad for me at 57, I have a 14 year old son. Cause I started late. I didn't get married till I was 40. I had a pretty good run as a single guy and here I am. I'm single again. Right. But being a dad, I know. I was a better dad because I was older initially, but now I'm head and shoulders above where I was performing. I just want to be a great dad and I'm there and I have so much energy and enthusiasm as I'm about being a dad. And you know that, I guess that energy enthusiasm had been sapped and it's not there now. It's now it's there, man. I have time. I want to interject with him. I want to talk to him. I want to find out what's going on in his life. And I love it. We have a great relationship. And he's a carnivore now and I didn't force him either. So what I did was I became carnivore in March and I only had him every other weekend, which during the school year, that's the deal. So I kept a shelf with his food on it and I threw everything else away and I vowed to just make as healthy of food as I could for him, we're not going to give him garbage, absolute garbage every now and then Mac and cheese and stuff, it was still some of the stuff he liked, but it wasn't like primarily garbage, no chips, none of that junk. And then he saw me heal and he knew I couldn't run. I hadn't run since 2017 cause I hurt my ankle in the military. So 2017 to 2019, my last two years in the army, I couldn't even run. I did what's called a walking profile for my PT test, which you march, you do a three mile march at speed instead of running and it still hurt my ankle, but I could pass it, but again, I felt like less of a man, less of a soldier because I couldn't maintain the standard and that I've been, my whole life. And I was an athlete. I played rugby. I played lacrosse. I was an athlete all my life. Yeah. And here I was getting fat and losing the standard and he saw me able to go run and sprint and he saw me lose, 23 pounds in the first month. Yeah. And he said, dad, do you think he plays soccer football and he had a a foot injury. And he said, do you think it'll heal my foot? I said, I don't know, son, but you could try it, it won't hurt. So he went and he's like, well, in Jan in July, I gave him for a whole month. And he said, well, in July, let's do it. Let's go hard carnivore. I'm like, fantastic. Let's do it. So we waited until July, July, we went a hundred percent carnivore. And I kind of felt back to the first day of July. I took him to a pool party with his friends. And the parents ordered pizza and he jumped in line to get pizza. And I said, Hey buddy, I said, you know, we're carnivore, right? And he goes, Oh, you're right, dad. I said, it's okay. You can, I said, you can peel the top off or you can start tomorrow. He goes, Nope, I'm carnivore. He goes, I'm not doing either of those. I'm like, all right, son. And that's the way he is. He's just, he's, but since then he has shaved three minutes off his three mile time placed PRS in every race he's run. Cause he runs cross country and track too. And did his first finish at first top five finish he's ever had and beat guys he's never beat before. And then the last weekend of soccer, the last weekend of the season, they had a tournament. And he played three. Games that weekend and didn't sub out once. Wow. And he came to me and said dad I don't get tired anymore and he's running fast the whole time. He didn't slough off at all. So I mean Go ahead.

Alex: 35:31

I was gonna say what's the impact with his like his peer group? Are they aware that he's on carnival because i'm sure that would affect you know, how people treat him

Larry: 35:40

Yeah, I make carnivore lunches for him And I'll grill a burger with cheese on it and cut it in strips and throw it in his thing. And he'll just eat those like finger food. He'll microwave them and eat them. And then bacon in there and cheese slices, like a hard cheese. I put a little, and then I put a cheese wisps, which are fried. Pure cheese or like crackers, but they're pure cheese or Parmesan. So nothing but pure, real food. And they don't have any problem with that. He just eats that. But when I see him in a track race where all his, and in soccer, when all his mates are. Carving up at halftime before the game and before the race, he's just drinking water and they're all eating oranges and they're eating all these and he doesn't eat anything. He just eats. He just drinks water. So no one gives him a hard time though, because he's performing. In fact, his coach has noticed that he's actually accelerating like rapidly, more rapid development than they expected. And he's a kid now. I think it's changed his motivation too, because he goes to school an hour early every day at 7. 00 AM and he runs for an hour before school. And he didn't have to, that's voluntary. And I wasn't that kid. That's dedication. I drive him, but I wasn't that kid that did

Alex: 36:48

that. But he's got such a good role model and that's the powerful stuff about it. It's fantastic to hear.

Larry: 36:53

That's part of this too, right? You become a role model that's worth watching, I think, when you do this. And because it changes you, that's part of that becoming a man and doing things. Yeah. So Alex, it's not all, it's not all easy times when you go carnivore, right? There's still life still happens. So what are your greatest challenges with carnivore or even outside of catch a carnivore? Yeah, I think

Alex: 37:16

when I look back on the obviously May, that was the epiphany moments, but it was when I started ramming it down people's throats, if you pardon the pun, and I started to think, oh what have I done here? I found the the golden nugget, but people don't want to know. And so that was a challenge, negative Cognitive dissonance for myself and also from other people as it's as if you're trying to sell something to somebody like when somebody knocks on your door and you go, yeah, what do you want? And so that nearly stopped me. But as I said, I did get support from the family, but I didn't get keto flu or any sugar withdrawals because my diet wasn't It was more about the plant based diet, not the sugar for me, because I did have a lot of diet coke, but not actual sugar in my particular foods. It was just in the families, but I knew that after that first month, the 99 percent was positivity and I couldn't think of anything to stop me from doing it. I thought the biggest challenge was going to be like the weekly or monthly shopping because I'd go into our local Aldi, we, I think you have Aldi in the States. We do. And I, I thought it was pretty decent food. And then all of a sudden I realized most of it down the Middle Isles was absolute junk. And, so again, I was starting to struggle with how I'm going to get my food from, then I found obviously my local butcher, which was great. And again, I think only maybe with the family nucleus of eating together, it caused disruption. I think I can tell other people as well that I started to get a bit obsessed with it. I was starting to get real. I don't think I've got OCD. I'm a Virgo and we are perfectionists apparently on the star signs, but me and Michelle are both, both Virgos and you can't have us both in the kitchen at the same time. And we, we could not put an Ikea wardrobe together. We'd kill each other because we're both perfectionists. So I was so blessed that she backed down and she just let me do what I want. And obviously a couple of months later started developing the channel. I think the main thing was the family. Interaction. I started to eat on my own all the time, and the second one was when we went to a couple of social occasions on Father's Day in the UK. I think it's June or July, so that was just a couple of months in 2022, and Alex and Sophie decided to take me for a slap up meal in a very trendy bohemian part of Liverpool. On the way, they were very quiet and, I'm sitting in the back like the king being driven and those things. I'm not going to have a drink today. I'm just going to have a really good time with my kids. And so they hadn't touched carnival, but they knew they'd seen the changes. So we walked into this very trendy restaurants and they have this big, big, massive menu like that. And they were going, they were sitting there like that and they were going, I said, what are you doing? And they go, we're trying to find something for you to eat. And I went, Whoa, I said, if there's something that's going to be plant based and I know it's not going to kill me today, guys, chill out. But he could see instead of them really looking forward to it, they were panicking thinking that we're going to say, we're going to take that out for his meal. And he's going to be so disappointed. Well, they had lamb, they had a chatuchak, was it chatuchari or chatuchak in Spanish? Oh my God, all that stuff. It was fantastic. I had a, I think I had a main shoulder of lamb about that big, tucked into that. I said, no veg, no sides, but they still brought it out anyway because they, it's not their fault, but they're thinking, Oh my God, the guy's not going to eat anything today. I didn't taste any veg and then I had the cheese. I had the was it the chorito? I had a great time. I ate more than them. So at the end of the meal, we were having a drink and they were like, Dad, What a weight off our minds. And I say, guys, this is not what this should be about. But I just said to him, listen, guys, if I feel like a plate of mushrooms or onions or something, I know that's not going to give me any sort of histamine reactions, which I've looked into, like oxalates and lectins, I'm not going to Become this sort of like robotic carnival because life isn't like that, I've got a friend on YouTube and she's called herself imperfect carnival. And I said to Sarah, Sarah, we are all imperfect carnivals to a degree, something will come along and it will knock us off. We've burnt our boats, but sometimes, we've got to face the facts that we live in a society and we have to operate that way. So if somebody comes along and you think, you know what, I'm going to have ice cream. It's only going to be one and they're going to make sure it's the one with the least sugar in. Just go for it, but for God's sake, don't hit yourself over the head because you're going to reject the whole thing. You're going to resent it and you will just not do it. And then the why you were doing it becomes irrelevant. And it's, unless it's that big, that obviously makes you a perfect carnivore. I could name one or two carnivores who are, should we say almost perfect.

Larry: 41:51

DC learning to live. Stage four cancer will make you a perfect carnivore.

Alex: 41:56

Thanks for saying that because I was struggling then to think of something that big. But man, if you've got something like that, you've got Jack Prosperous. I've got friends a guy called Carl who's a swimmer, Carl Barclay. He, when I first met him, sorry, I, when I saw him last June and he said to me, Alex, what are you doing? Cause he was a swimmer, a top swimmer. And I was obviously the teacher on poolside. And he's seen me go from 2XL UK size to medium. I'd seen him for 12 months and he just stopped in the water and went, Alex, what have you done? I was like, he says, you look like half the man. He was genuinely complimentary as a guy and I went, I've gone on a thing called a carnivore diet. So he said, I'll have a chat at the end, put down, he went on carnivore for three months and then I said to him, why are you not going to do it anymore? He goes crazy precious. He said I will tell you. And he doesn't mind me saying this. He's been diagnosed with prostate cancer. And he knew that the sugar elements and the glucose and all that stuff was obviously the thing that was not helping him at all. So such a blessing to hear him say that. And I think he's still looking at the whole aspect of carnivore. He understands the relationship between, metabolism, but yeah. I've gone off. I've gone off on the track now. I'm like yeah. Getting back to the negativity. To me, it was all about the social aspect and just kicking it off with the family book. I know you've watched some of my videos. If you look up my Lion Diet journey in November, I did a Desi Diet diary. It was a breeze and I thought it was going to be horrendous. After the first week of being tied all the time, I just act like a king. I literally did feel like king of the jungle. And so I would say probably 95 percent of my carnival journey has been a rousing success, it's a thriving, it's a never ending journey, but I say about 5 percent is just family and socializing. Yeah. For

Larry: 43:43

My biggest drawback or challenge would be dating. Because it's very hard because the three hills people will fight to the death on our politics, religion and diet, apparently. And people are like I don't mind. And I'm like, okay, we go out to dinner, I eat a steak and that's all I eat. Or we can't meet up for coffee because I don't drink coffee. I'll drink water while they drink coffee. It's just, it's weird. I mean, I don't like going out to dinner because their steaks are not as good as mine. And they cost. Four times as much, at least. And, uh, you know, so it's really a difficult social aspect to date. So I'm really looking for a carnivore girlfriend, I guess. And it's, they're not that many yet. So hopefully we'll get one down the

Alex: 44:22

road. You've got me thinking now, maybe we should design a

Larry: 44:26

carnivore dating app. I think Michaela Peterson is starting something like that. I think she might be. I've heard about it. But I don't know how far it is, but yeah, that'd be a great idea because I'm sure they have a vegan diet dating app. They have to, and why not do it? Okay. Let's talk about your YouTube channel. So your YouTube channel at carnival for life 65, correct? Correct. Yeah. Yeah. So why you started that?

Alex: 44:52

Yeah, I had a as you well know, I'm not very good with the old tech, but I had started a YouTube channel for Alex's. Little baby Bengal cats during lockdowns, that's obviously cause all our things are taken away. All our habits and that I started a YouTube channel and but sadly little thing died after 10 weeks because of a check and genital chest issue. Oh wow. Sorry. And if I wasn't depressed then I was majorly depressed after that because I saw Alex take his little baby kitten into the veterinary surgery and help to have it put to sleep and When you hear another man cry, especially when it's your son, it breaks your heart, as I'm sure you well know. And so I just, I kept the channel, but I think I had 10 subscribers. Yeah. I was looking at it, and obviously when I spoke to Kerry, I just sent him a messenger message saying, Hey how homes and how I'm already a channel subscriber because I liked all this, the whole, I've always wanted to live in the country. And so I followed Kerry for months before that anyway, but it wasn't a, notification bell thing where I was watching everything, but I watched the the one he has nearly 2 million views on when he's cleaning out the ash in the, on the homestead, but I'm just fascinated by his channel. And then so I reached out to him and he said to me, let's get an interview like we're doing tonight. And finished that interview, I was on my mobile phone and I came away and I had that exhilaration. But obviously I've been a carnivore for a while and this was like somebody asking me questions like you. And I was like, blah, blah, blah. I just had to just vomit all over him, all my excitement. And the guy was just so welcoming like yourself. And I was thinking to myself, I need to do this again. I really got that buzz and that book. And I thought, right, I've got to do something about this. I think I'd already started it called carnival for life. I'm not too sure. But after that, I said, right, I'm going to do some shorts here because I'm not very confident about being in front of the camera. And also I didn't know how to do live streams. I'd never heard of stream yard and so on. My, my camera equipment was horrendous. Obviously I've been buying. Webcams, I've got me two laptops. And so it was that thing about the first few months was tumbleweed where nobody listened to me. Understandably. I totally understand that. Like I probably would have dismissed the whole thing. And then I thought, right, what the hell do I do? So I thought I'll make a powerful video and I got about 10, 000 views, nine to 10, 000 views or hits. And I was like, Oh my God, this thing works. So it made me take things seriously. And some of the comments I got were so stupendous, not horrendous. And it was that side of me where I do like to give, I think I am a giver in life, for the sake of the giving, my my stepdad always says to me, never refuse hospitality because you'll offend the person who's trying to give you that hospitality. And that's how I see it in life. If you want to give out, if that person takes that, that, that's a blessing to me. So I did a couple of shorts, got some interest that I started getting subscribers and the subscriber level went, and I thought, what the hell am I going to do? And so I started making a couple of videos in the kitchen. They were horrendous. They were absolutely horrendous. But you know what people were saying to me, Alex, keep it real. We like your accent. I've got lots of US subscribers. Lots of people I felt were over 50 who were going along the same journey who just didn't want to do anything on YouTube. So I thought, you know what stuff this, I'm going to do it. I'm going to go for it. It's a new hobby. I'm going to learn some skills. I might meet some new people who are not because I want to meet them, but because I know they're struggling like me, at least I can tell them what's been happening to me. And obviously my health and mental health have improved even further since I've been doing the what's it called? The YouTube channel. I'm so happy with what I'm doing for me to do live streams with groups like yourself. That's something I would never, ever have done two years ago. So yeah, I'm really happy with the channel. And thanks for all your subscription as well.

Larry: 48:49

Yeah, I hear the same thing. I started my channel years before, but it was to share home videos for our family. I digitized from VHS and 18 millimeter to digital and I posted it on YouTube. So family could watch them. And then I did, I became a drone pilot in 2016. I had some drone videos on there, but I had 20 subscribers and they were just family and friends and now, and then I just repurposed it on August 7th and that's when I launched my channel. And it just took off and just being yourself and being honest and sharing, what you think and what you think will help people that, that makes a big difference. So absolutely. Well, can

Alex: 49:25

I just say on that as well? When I, when your child first came on to my recommended list. It was your army intro. Was it lift your boots up and burn them up? I was sitting there going, Oh, I like this guy. And then you came on and said, Hey, Hey, Hey. And so, you know, the intro was an eye catcher and the hook was, it was a, Hey, Hey, Hey, I just love Ella. I'm gushing now, but that was a fantastic intro. And then obviously I was telling Michelle, my wife about it and she's going, what does he say? And I go, you've got to watch it yourself.

Larry: 49:54

I appreciate that. It's just, and that developed too, if you watch my first video, it's just like really robotic and stiff and I'm just like, hi warriors, it's like super. Not exciting, no intro video. And then, I saw some of your first videos too, and they were pretty stiff, and you've gotten a lot better. Now you're just like relaxed. Now you're just like talking to me. Yeah. All right. But again, conversation.

Alex: 50:14

Yeah. You don't want to go too cool, I think, because I think that will definitely put people off. And it will put people off who probably want that information to spark them up. So it is a balancing act, isn't it? Don't get

Larry: 50:25

too polished, right? Don't do too much production, for me anyway. Some people can. I think the primal timeline, he's a polished guy and he's going to have polished videos. And that's good for his style. Not mine. Mine's more like a debrief in your face.

Alex: 50:40

Yeah. But I like Pete because he is, when he talks and he's in obviously the forest or the woods, he's got that super video edit technique and then he just talks real. And the balance is superb. I, again, I say, I think yours are quite technical, mate. Don't put yourself down.

Larry: 50:53

He has great humor in his too. I like his little ad. He does. Yeah, super. So what would you say are your goals now for YouTube channel? I'm sure they're changing from when you started, but where would you like your YouTube channel to be, to stand for, to accomplish?

Alex: 51:07

When you look back, you see how people's channels grow. The first video I did with Kerry from Homestead, how when he talks about me being nearly 65. I was frothing at the mouth when we got 80, 000 views. Now I think we're nearly hitting 190, 000 and people are still commenting on it. And I thought to myself, how far can you go on this? How many people can you reach? If there are 8 billion people on this planet, it could be more, it could be less. How many people are struggling like me and you and Kerry and all that, the people we see on, whatever age group they are, particularly over fifties, how many people can you reach? And so, My goals are to obviously just keep doing what I'm doing, trying to polish it up a little bit, but making sure I keep it real. There's only so much you can talk about yourself, so I think I'm going to go down the road of live streams more. I like doing interviews like you do. Edit the interview. I can put, it's a recording like today. I can always put some pictures on. I'm more relaxed like I am now. I was petrified about the tech going wrong. So I am going to invest in the tech. I did a live stream with Kerry. I think it was the day after it's on New Year's day. And I did mention to people that it's been monetized. Now my channel has been monetized for quite a while, but as I said to you I'm not a worshiper of money. Money is. Is a tool and what I probably will say to my subscribers in the future is guys, I'm going to invest in more invested technical equipment. So I've got a Christmas present off Michelle. It's a 4k webcam. It's not that good, I share what you want for Christmas as well. Well, peace and she goes, yeah, but what do you really want? And I said, well, what about a webcam? And so she was like, yes, at least I can just go on Amazon and buy that for you, And I said, and why? While you're on it, get me some earphones as well. So I am gonna develop it. And again, I am uncomfortable talking about the money, the money side, about the monies. But I will be telling people as we go along, if anybody wants to do any super chats or as it gets bigger with things like ad revenue. I will talk about that to people and I will explain to them that I'm going to develop the channel and just get it as big as possible. And also ask people to support the Healing Humanity Project. That went really well on Tuesday. I did actually shout out to people. Yeah please. Yeah. I didn't expect anything, but I thought, let's give it a go. And I was grateful for some of the UK carnivores on their questions. They actually put a super chat on and that sparked me up again. I'm not as fearful as it was about talking about money, but I certainly will mention to people that are monetized and I want to see if that develops.

Larry: 53:32

Yeah, I'm monetized too. And but I, it pays for my subscriptions. There are a lot of subscriptions to use, editing software, StreamYard, professional, get 1080p, get better quality video to pay every month. That's 60 bucks a month, whatever it's, 50 bucks here, 40 bucks here, 60 bucks here. It starts adding up and my monetization basically covers that. And lets me buy things like microphone, camera, lets you, it's not, it's, and compared to my salary, it's pretty it's a joke. I can go do my business. I can do it. Yesterday I did a commercial building inspection for about three hours and I made easily double what I make monthly on this channel in one, in three hours. It's not real money. It's really just a passion project. And I tell people that they want to support me, they can support, and I appreciate it. And I do encourage it and it will go towards the quality of the videos and me being able to, make more videos. That's really what

Alex: 54:23

it is. I agree. I think we're both in the same boat. Some of my subscribers have said, Alex, do not, apologize to people for this because, for example, that cameras over. 75 the laptop side, the more renovated. I've spent hundreds and hundreds of pounds because it is like you. It's a passion project. And I know that what I'm doing is going to change people's lives. It's not because of me, but the message that we all send out there. It's not cheap. You've got to invest. You've got to invest. Otherwise, it's just, it's not going to develop at all. But as you say, passion project and I've got a new hobby as well. It's a new hobby for me.

Larry: 55:00

Yeah. I wake up every morning early. I'm a four 30, five o'clock AM every morning. That's just me. Cause I'm military indoctrinated. My dog does do I feed him at five 30, but between four 30 and five 30. I'm reading emails, answering them all and reading all the comments on my YouTube channel, answering them all. I don't leave anything unanswered daily. And that's like the highlight of my day, really. It starts me off and every now and then there's a little turd that leaves something bad, but 99. 9 percent of them are amazing. And, they, they say things like, you've given me the motivation I need to get back on this or whatever, that's. That's amazing. I, all I'm doing is just sharing and making it. And that's all you have to do. Sharing is caring. And that's a fact. And if you're not gonna make a YouTube video, like I said, support YouTubers like us and other ones that have a message that you agree with and you think will be valuable because by you sharing this message, maybe this video here, maybe you get this video. And not only do you like to subscribe, you share it on social media and say, Hey, look at these guys, look at these guys talk about this crazy diet and what happened, that can make a difference in people's lives. And my, my channel is focused on military veterans, active duty and first responders, because, we have a high suicide rate in that community in our community. And I really believe a lot of it has to do with the diet, the standard American diet, the low cholesterol, low fat, low sugar diet pushes that fulcrum over to where, when they run into a problem, it's easier to commit suicide than if they had run a standard diet on a healthy diet where they could handle the things much better. Coming off a standard American diet. The difference in my mental health, and I'm sure yours was huge, drastic. I can totally handle it. I'm not stressed out like it was. I'm not, it's just crazy. And I, I know, cause I've been there, I've been to the dark place. I've lost more friends and associates in the military to suicide than to combat even after 20 years of war, which is not unusual, and so that's my heart. That's what my channel is about. And so I want my channel to hit 25, 000 this year. We hit 6, 000 New Year's Eve. I want to hit 25, 000, not because it's about me, because it's not, it's because that means we've hit 25, 000 people plus, maybe a million views by then, who knows? It will be well over a million, actually we're at 300, 000 views now. It'll be over a million views and that is the goal, right? That's the big goal. And you too, and then the other thing is I want to help people like you. I want to help other YouTubers. I don't compete with you. I don't compete with any, if there's a YouTuber next door that was during carnivore, I don't compete with him. Yeah, I don't compete with any of you guys. We're all Fighting in the same war. It's like being in the army You don't compete with the soldier next to you You can be with the other side and the other side is big farmer big food and government That's the big that's the other side. That's what we're competing with.

Alex: 57:40

I've said it in some of my videos. It's like being in a war Yeah, but I think we know what we're fighting for and as I say, it's I don't want to get Conservation or political or whatever, but there's so many other influences and so many things that can distract us. But, down the torpedoes, full steam ahead, get the, get those blinkers on. That's how we feel.

Larry: 58:00

Now you're quoting American revolutionists. I love it. Listen, that's what it was all about back then. And it's still what it's all about. This is our Boston Tea Party moment, right? We're going against what they call the science. So this is, I like to call it our Copernicus. Galileo moment, right? Where we're saying, Hey, guess what? The earth's not the center of the universe. The galaxy doesn't rotate around and everyone's saying, yes, it does. And we're like, no, look at the science. It doesn't. And we will win because we're right. And sooner or later, you have to win.

Alex: 58:29

Yeah. The thing about science though is, they always say it's settled. I don't agree. I think science challenges everything, at the moment with the medical science, the nutrition science, things are up in the air, and I think the likes of Dr. Chafee Berry and Kilt and so on, they, when I say to people, Oh, I think they think you're going to say, Oh, I watch this YouTube channel, this influence. And they go, no, yeah. It's a doctor shape. He's a neurosurgeon. He's not a neurosurgeon. I know that, but he's obviously a resident. Yeah, he's a resident, not a resident. I've got Dr. Kiltz. I've got Dr. Berry. He's an MD and they stink. This guy's talking about top professionals here. So that's where their cognitive distance can be rattled a little bit, it just reassures me that as I say, we're just on the right road.

Larry: 59:15

Yeah. And I've got a scientific background. I, when I was in the Navy, I first joined the military. I was on submarines. I was a nuclear power plant operators, went to nuclear power school. Did a lot of physics, a lot of reactor principles, a lot of, thermodynamics. I did all, I did math all the way up, physics all the way up, all, and then I did it commercially for several years before I switched into computers. And now I'm into wireless, which is another physics type of deal. When you're a wireless engineer, it's all physics and you can't change the laws of physics. But here's the deal. You're right. There's no part of the scientific method. There's not one step in the scientific method that says, trust the authorities. That's not a sign. It's always come up with a theory, test the theory, propose your theory, and then accept all challengers. And they have to prove you're wrong. Einstein did it that way. People still try to challenge his stuff. Yeah. Yeah. And that's what it is. It's a theory. That's all it is. Yeah. So true. So true. Even carnivore is a theory. That's what it is. Yeah. But you know, we can see the results. So there's so many data points, right? That it starts looking pretty good. It's looking pretty good from my

Alex: 1:00:16

side. Yeah, absolutely. I love it. Absolutely love it.

Larry: 1:00:20

How can people get in touch with you and follow you? Of course, I would recommend everyone watching this video to follow and like and subscribe to Carnival for Life 65. But how else can they get in touch with you, Alex? Yeah,

Alex: 1:00:29

thanks, Larry. Yeah, as you know, I'm probably more confident in the last couple of months than I've been for a long time. I was on Twitter, which is now X, and that's where I started my, um, my documenting I quite like Twitter, it's a brutal app, but I went into a group called Carnivore Diet, so you only had members in that, but That was a good start for me. I've got many, many pictures of all my meals and stuff like that doing BBB and E. I did try Lion Diet for about a week or so, about maybe 12 months ago. So that's documented in there. So if anybody wants to watch, follow me on or look at my stuff on Twitter, it's Alex Cannon. So it's A L X without the E and then C A N N O N. So Alex Cannon. I'm on Instagram it's alexcarnivore, lowercase, and Facebook, I've got my own page, obviously, which is private, but I've started a Carnivore for Life page as well, so that's open to the public, and it's only going to have carnivore information on, I actually got booted out of a carnivore Facebook group because I was obviously, plugging my channel. I forgot to read the rules, which said, don't plug your channel. So they kicked me out of one and I've joined another two, but I put a couple of New Year's Eve stuff out about me and Michelle at at our wedding party, not our wedding, but a wedding party. And there was a photograph of me and her full length and I've got to say I was really proud of it because I looked at myself in a suit and I went, I've got quite emotional thinking that was me 30 years ago. And I've got this beauty on my arm and the glitters, glittery suit and Michelle doesn't look 58. And, allie Wells compliments that she's like you sexy couple. And I was like, yes. And also it was Carrie Mann made a little comments as well about being a movie stars. And it could be easily construed as being big headed. It's not about that. It's about putting it out there saying to people, look, if I can do this at 65, you can do it too. So I'm on Facebook, as I say, Carnivore for Life Alex Cannon at Twitter and Carnivore. Was it Alex carnival in lower case on Instagram? Great.

Larry: 1:02:32

I'll reach out to you on Facebook. I don't know if we're, I don't know if you're following me or if we're following each other, but I'll make sure I check.

Alex: 1:02:37

Cause I'm not really on Facebook that much. I haven't had time to actually go through that. But now that Ali is following me and stuff like that. I'm getting lots of recommendations from a lot of U. S. carnivores who I recognize. So I am going to sit down, possibly next weekend, and probably print as many as I can. But again, that keeps the momentum going, doesn't it? And

Larry: 1:02:56

I've got a group, and you're welcome to share your videos. My group, DC does, my group is the Carnivore Diet Exchange. And the reason I call it the Carnivore Diet Exchange, it's a forum to exchange ideas about the carnivore diet. So, DC's in there. A lot of other guys are YouTubers. I recommend go ahead and post your videos. Yeah. I want to, like I said, I want to cross pollinate. I want to get people because some people may not, they may not connect with me or they may, but maybe you're a better fit, so I recommend do that,

Alex: 1:03:23

yeah. I said this on the, on my, I'll speak to the Carnival Brothers yesterday. I did a live stream with them. Have you spoke to Rhett and? Ashley? No, I have not. Brothers. Yeah, check them out. They, they've, again, great journeys and I was saying to'em that, people think, oh, the carnivore diet community's too large now. No, it's not. It hasn't started. And I am constantly, every time I find a new carnival video, I go and I sub it. Even sometimes that looking at the videos, I don't care. I want to get as many reference points as possible. And if I go onto a channel, and as you say, I don't like it. I'm not going to be negative about it. I'm going to say no, that's not my priority at the moment. I'm more interested in maybe like somebody like Laura Spath or whoever, I'm looking at Chris's journey where he's had a lot of an operation to remove excess skin from obviously losing all the weight. That's where your little, that thing's to spark you. So I just think the carnivore community just hasn't started yet. That's

Larry: 1:04:16

true. I agree with that. Well, Hey man, I'm going to drop you out. We're about an hour. Will you stick around for a second? So I say goodbye after I show it to our people. Great. All right, guys. Once again, another great talk. This is a fantastic guy, Alex. You need to follow him, check his stuff out. And all I got to say is stay strong and overcome carnivore soldier out.