Lessons from the Ketoverse

The Perks of Going Low Carb Keto

• Graham • Season 1 • Episode 16

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Unlock the power of low carb and keto living with practical, life-changing insights! Discover 10 proven benefits of a ketogenic lifestyle—rapid weight loss, stable blood sugar, sharper focus, reduced inflammation, better mood, and sustained energy that transforms daily habits. In this episode, we dive into real-world strategies to thrive on low carb and keto diets, backed by continuous glucose monitor data and lived experience.

Learn how meal timing, exercise, caffeine, and sleep impact glucose as much as macros, and why ketones boost mental clarity and motivation. We debunk heart health myths, focusing on triglycerides and lifestyle markers, and share why higher protein and strength training are key for muscle, mobility, and longevity. Simplify meal planning with whole foods like eggs, beef, fish, yogurt, olive oil, and seasonal produce, minimizing decision fatigue. For autoimmune or gut issues, explore reset meals and consistent patterns to pinpoint triggers fast.

Ready to break free from the crash-and-crave cycle? This episode delivers a clear playbook for a sustainable low carb and keto lifestyle that supports a sharp mind, strong body, and stable mood. Perfect for beginners or seasoned keto enthusiasts! Subscribe now, share with a friend, and leave a 5-star review to tell us your first step toward better health.

Introduction:

Welcome to Lessons from the Ketaverse. Join Steven and Graham as they explore the keto lifestyle with tips, science, and stories to boost your health. This podcast isn't medical advice. Consult your healthcare advisor for any health-related issues. Get ready to fuel your primal power.

Graham:

Welcome everybody to another episode of Lessons from the Ketoverse. I'm with my friend Steven, and today we are talking about the perks of going uh low carb, uh having a ketogenic uh eating lifestyle. Uh Steven, say hi to the crowd.

Stephen:

Hello, everyone. Thanks for joining us again. We certainly appreciate your support.

Graham:

Absolutely. Thank you, everybody. And uh today we are going to do a bit of a rapid fire on um sort of around 10 uh areas where we feel uh going to a low-carb, ketogenic type diet um has some real uh life-changing perks. And we're gonna talk about some. Uh some we'll uh go through relatively quickly, some we'll go into a little more detail because we feel it's important, and uh we hope you enjoy the episode. So I'm gonna kick uh the first one off with uh rapid weight loss. Uh and I I think um it's important when we talk about rapid weight loss uh to talk about the fact that this is a healthy uh uh rapid weight loss. And when I say rapid, I don't mean within a couple of days, I mean within a couple of weeks, a couple of months, you will notice that you are losing weight. Um, and one of the things that we know about uh some of the new uh technologies out there, like the GLP1 uh drugs, um the one of the um uh the scientists are pointing out the fact that you're not only potentially losing fat, but you're also losing muscle mass. Uh, and obviously that can be a problem for people. Um, you know, everybody has their own experience. Um, Stephen and I haven't gone through those GLP1 receptor drugs, uh, so we will not talk about those today. Uh, but what we're talking about here is uh what happens uh when you go to a low-carb ketogenic lifestyle. Um, in my experience, um, one of the things that happens relatively early is you're losing water. Um I'm lucky enough to have a scale that uh tracks my muscle weight, bone weight, water weight, uh, and fat. Um, and so instead of a you know, the quote-unquote dumb scale that just tells you your total body weight, I'm able to figure out where I'm losing uh the weight as I transitioned over to a low-carb ketogenic diet. Um and notice that the water weight uh was the one that was rapidly uh going down. So what's happening? The body uh, you know, with carbs, uh you tend to retain water. When the body sees, oh, I don't need uh don't need to retain this water anymore, uh, you're flushing uh a lot of water relatively quickly. Um, that has some upsides. That also has some downsides. Um so what one of the downsides is uh you're potentially flushing out a lot of the electrolytes, which your body absolutely needs in order to uh run properly. Um, the cardiovascular system um really uh requires uh the right balance of electrolytes in order to lose, in order to operate. And when you lose uh water rapidly, you potentially lose magnesium, potassium, etc. Um, and one of the things that uh you will want to take a look at is potentially um supplementing with electrolytes for the first couple of weeks and maybe further on, depending on how you're feeling, um, in order to give your body back those electrolytes that it may be flushing out. Um when I uh slowly but surely transitioned over to a low-carb ketogenic diet. Um, I uh, you know, over the first uh three to six months, I was steadily losing weight. Um, it was quick up front and then gradual, a couple of pounds uh every week. Um, and uh I ended up losing a total of about 50 pounds. Um, felt great uh as a result of that. And I did uh monitor uh myself to make sure that I was getting those electrolytes that I needed. So something that uh I think is important for people to consider. So rapid weight loss is uh one of the benefits to uh going low carb keto as long as you uh monitor that carefully. Stephen, anything to say about that one?

Stephen:

Yeah, I was just gonna add, I think it was great that you started with the whole idea of unexplained. If you have unexplained weight loss, you know, we're not uh doctors, we're not giving medical advice. Go see your doctor if it's unexplained. If you're in a regimen of uh uh going low carb keto or carnivore, then clearly the whole notion of that is that you're creating uh an environment that will begin to process and eat that lunch we call fat, uh, that you're you've packed on. And um and that's that's um normal. But again, you should probably talk to your doctor about any of these things first so that they're dialed into what's going on that you can do some blood screening, which actually leads us to our next one, which is around improved blood sugar regulations. So uh, you know, in my personal circumstances, uh approximately a week ago, I uh was about three months late in doing it, but I got my blood uh sugar test done and extensive uh screening, which in the country of Canada um is uh is preventative in nature, which equates to you having to pay for it. But I'm happy to invest in myself and my health. Now, when it comes to improved blood sugar regulation, it's interesting because we've talked a bit about this before. Um, eliminating carbs stabilizes uh blood glucose levels and uh certainly benefits those with pre-diabetes or diabetes. So I'm I'm a living example of that, as well as insulin resistance by reducing strikes and and improving sensitivity. So uh we were just talking offline, Graham and I, before we started this uh broadcast, and we went through some of my lab results. And uh what's interesting is that because I follow this, we we live our values and and this lifestyle. My um A1C from my my um CGM is trying to get 5.7. My uh fasting glucose was uh recorded but not tested, however, my insulin resistance was and I'm well within uh the range here is 20 to 180. I was approximately 46. So I actually do not have insulin resistance. Why? Because I have cut out these carbs. Why? Because I follow a regimen as a diabetic to ensure that I'm not increasing the likelihood of insulin resistance by overwhelming my liver uh in my digestive system to make sure that my uh microbiome is um is uh set for set up for success. By way of example, uh Graham and I are both uh making our own yogurt and we're reintroducing microbes that don't uh actually survive well under antibiotics, they won't actually come back naturally. We can talk about that perhaps on another program if people are interested. But the the simple point that I want to make with respect to this is um uh yet again another example. So we yesterday, for the first time in quite some time, I sat and had lunch with my wife in town to support our local community where the funds um help those that are um disadvantaged, and I had a Reuben sandwich. And um I don't consume bread as a general rule. And what was interesting is I walked from there immediately to the gym. I didn't see a change at all in the first 15-20 minutes uh after consuming it, and then can uh started to work out and I did a heavyweight workout, chest, um biceps, or sorry, the triceps, shoulders, really hard workout. And I checked my sugar, and my sugar was 9.8. And of course, the good news was is I was using all the right muscle groups to absorb that. And by the time I left after my 45 or 50 minute um exercise, my blood sugar had naturally regulated because I used that sugar for the way it was intended. Now I'm not saying um a lot of us did it in our 20s, loading up on carbs before you go to the gym. And so for that, I'm not gonna um there's lots of great stuff on YouTube. What I use is my marker, my coach is my CGM. So I look at that once in a blue moon. Maybe I'll have a sandwich, but I was smart enough to know I can't consume that and then sit in the car and drive for 30 or 40 minutes to go back home because my sugar would have been through the roof. So I immediately went to the gym to burn some of that off. And that's how you get improved blood sugar. It's not just diet, it's mindset. What are you doing? What are you eating and why? Um, what's your state of mind when you're consuming that food? Because again, if you're if in a state where um you're releasing the hormone cortisol because you're in a stressful situation, you're watching something violent on television while you're eating, that's going to affect the parasympathetic and sympathetic system or the vagus nerve. So all of these things, these habits that we have, all come into improving blood sugar regulation. Obviously, the keystone is diet, but it's also lifestyle. And you and I talk about that a lot. It's not just, you know, cutting calories, it's not just eating meat. It's it's thinking about do I need to eat. If you're not feeling well, then then there's you're likely, unless you're on a deserted island for an extended period of time, are not going to die, just the opposite of using some of the fast stores in your body as fuel. And it's a very efficient fuel. And it will improve blood sugar regulation and it will put less stress and load on your body. And one of the key things around improved blood sugar, too, I should should mention that I've I've actually seen is watch your intake of um caffeine products. Right now, there's new studies that come out that say that do not consume caffeine products for eight hours before you're planning on going to bed because you're interfering with the switch of serotonin to melatonin, which you refers to go to sleep. And you'll see, in my case with the CGM, if you have had uh food andor caffeine uh a few hours before uh dinner, like obviously three hours is the recommended amount of time between your last meal and when you go to sleep. Uh, you could you'll if you do snack or you do have something later, you will see the staccato of your CGM regulating insulin and trying to process the sugar when you're that your most inactive state. And you should be. That's when you're supposed to be in REM and you're supposed to be healing. So all of these things will affect your blood sugar regulation. It's not just what you eat, it's how you eat, when you eat, what do you eat with it, when do you sleep? Are you interrupting your circadian rhythm? Is the quality of the food that you're consuming, even though it may be uh essentially keto, have other things that are adulterated in it that may be causing those spikes. And even with my blood tests done last week, even my uh uh uh phot uh phlebotomist had said that she she herself was wearing a CGM. She herself was taking uh control of her health, wanting to regulate her sugar, because she did a test, um, had one of the one of the members of the team um test her blood sugar and she actually slapped on a CGM because it was elevated and paid out of pocket. And what was fascinating is this is a healthy person. This is a non-diabetic, and I want to share the story because it's so compelling. She said, Maybe once a year I'll revert to being a kid, and she was, I would guess, in her 40s or 50s. And she said, I'll have a glass or two of chocolate milk. She said, Steve, I had that glass of chocolate milk. She said, My head was spinning, my sugar went went from five something to 12.8 in 15 minutes. And I said, I went there faster than that because there's a 15-minute delay in it taking that reading. So it was almost instantaneous, which we understand. When somebody is um a uh type one diabetic and require the sugar, they bite into an orange in a matter of seconds and and their their sugar will regulate. So uh what's fascinating is this is a healthy person who's seen these spikes and won't remain, she understands, healthy very long. She's already um self-described as being overweight and having other um indicators of inflammation and so forth and those markers. And here's a person that does this for a living reading other people's blood who's concerned um about her own. So improved blood sugar regulation is something that should be part of your lifestyle. And whether you're a diabetic or non-diabetic, think of it as a provider of measure. It's far easier to correct while you're healthy than it is to react when you're not.

Graham:

Yeah, really well said, and and it is an incredible story. Um, one thing I wanted to jump in for those that haven't uh listened to previous previous podcasts of ours, um, CGM is a continuous glucose monitor. So Steven wears that to track his uh blood sugar levels uh in uh almost real time. Uh so he's not waiting, you know, once a year for the blood work to come back. He's actually able to monitor that um in response to whatever he's eating at the time. And uh the other thing, if you haven't listened to previous podcasts, is Stephen uh was a diagnosed diabetic. Um, and he no longer is a diagnosed diabetic as a result of the regimen that he is um uh he's put himself on, the lifestyle change that he's done, and I should say um a relatively permanent lifestyle change because he's been able to maintain that for a couple of years. Um a lot of people think diabetes is not reversible. Um Stephen is an example of somebody that uh shows that that is not the case. So um maybe the most important thing, uh improve blood sugar regulation at the end of the day, no matter what eating lifestyle you are on, uh reducing the amount of sugar that uh you ingest into your body is an extraordinarily positive thing across the board. And we'll talk about a few other uh benefits as a result of lowering blood sugar. Uh a quick one uh for number three is uh enhanced mental clarity and focus. So, what do we mean by this? Um I I remember in 2001, 2002, so we're talking about three, four years ago, um, the I I had what a lot of people described as mental uh fog, um, so brain fog, and didn't know uh what caused it. Um, you know, there were a lot of uh rumors at the time that it could be um you know pandemic related, it could be um the um the vaccine uh related, who knows? Um it could also be um that they're you know your eating lifestyle and uh the kind of nutrients that you're ingesting in your body could be causing this as well. Um, regardless of the original uh cause of it, um over the time that I uh reduced the amount of carbs and went to more proteins and fats in my uh my eating lifestyle, I noticed that my brain fog um disappeared. It not just disappeared, but I also um was able to solve problems that I wasn't able to solve before. I had a whole lot more energy um than I had before. I wasn't crashing in the middle of the afternoon and uh you know wanting to take a nap. And um, you know, therefore the last couple of hours of the day I was kind of useless. Um, I was no longer useless. I had the same amount of uh brain uh energy um that I had at 10 in the morning uh that I did at three in the afternoon. Uh what's going on here? Well, the brain can run on glucose, and people think, well, I need to eat uh sugar or uh glucose or carbs in order for my brain to operate. Well, your liver can actually produce um the any sugar that you need. So uh our bodies are already built, um, and certainly parts of the body need uh glucose in order to run efficiently, but we don't need too much glucose. Um what happens when we eat uh fats and healthy fats? Um we our brains uh convert, or sorry, our bodies convert that into ketones, and our brains uh actually prefer in a lot of studies show that our brains prefer ketones over glucose in order to run. Uh the brain can run on glucose, but it doesn't do so very efficiently. Whereas with ketones, you think about like a uh a superfuel. Um if you're you know at the drag strip and you put the superfuel in, the car is gonna run a whole lot better than if you uh fill it up with uh you know gas from the gas station down the street. And so ketones really are a superfuel fuel for the brain. Each of us is gonna experience uh this um in in order to assess how our bodies react to this, but certainly um one of the big things that I noticed was mental clarity was off the charts compared to even a couple of years before. Stephen?

Stephen:

Yeah, I think that was uh an excellent explanation in terms of uh enhanced mental clarity and focus. But I also think that one of the things that that goes unmentioned here to some extent, because there's lots of information out there on brain fog, is also the effects it has on behavior. Because one of the dimensions I noticed at my peak period of being unwell from diabetes was I also lacked the motivation. Because when you're in a constant state of um discomfort and you're angry at how you feel, and all of the things we've talked about in previous podcasts that affect the quality of your life, it is hard to say, yeah, you know, right now I'm gonna sit down and update my resume. Um, or I'm going to uh go ahead and go outside and throw a ball with the with the dog when I feel you know nauseous or I'm I you know I'm not feeling well. So those things are pretty common. And I know there'll be a lot of people out there that resonate with it, is that when you eat at a restaurant where there's a lot of this prep food has all kinds of adulteration in it, you'll sometimes come out and go, Man, you know, I don't feel great. And you're likely going to find that the conversations you're having with whoever it is that you're with, be it your partner, your kids, the all the above, it's hard to focus or concentrate on what they're asking or what they're doing, and you'll probably find yourself getting in a bit of trouble because you you're not you're not focused, you're not paying attention, you know, and you know, you're driving a vehicle and you're maybe not as being as careful as you could be. So um I noticed that in my life at that time that that was pretty common, is my focus was detached on going, am I going to survive getting through the meal I just had given how I now feel 20 minutes later? And that that compounds the the uh wedge that's created from poor quality food and um and leading to our next thing around inflammation is now you're in an inflammatory state, you know, me as a man, which is biologically I think impossible. If you were to look at my stomach, you would think I was soon going to be having twins because I would go from nothing to massive, you know, um uh swelling uh and dissension and um and being extremely uncomfortable. So um uh yes, I started buying pants that had an elastic band so I could I could manage uh that kind of kind of inflammation. And um, as we've discussed before, you know, plant-based irritants and carbs um can lower your uh systemic uh inflammation, ease joint pain, autoimmune systems, and other chronic conditions for sure. And the inverse applies as well, is as you continue to pile on foods that are uh, you know, as a baseline require you to be a PhD chemist to understand with uh you know uh diabental benzene with bromine bromine and pH 5. Like it there's there's there's it's it's very difficult to expect that your body is going to be able to manage a food that can sit out if it's even a food for for months on a shelf, years in a can, um, months in a jar, and that's somehow healthy. You know, um we've talked about this before, even with breads back in the day when we were kids, the loaf of bread was was green within four days, you know, and now in North America, you know, you find a thing like a treasure hunt in the back of the fridge that's been there for three and a half weeks, and um, you know, it still bounces off the countertop like like like uh the the day that it was made. So reducing inflammation is key to what we already described, which was blood regulation, rapid weight loss, uh, if you and mental regaining mental clarity. If you have inflammation in your body, that's a warning sign. You have some kind of uh metabolic process that's going on in your body where your body now is in a fight state, it's fighting whatever's going on. Um, and and and in its extreme, which we can talk about um perhaps in the next session, is it will form in IBS. It'll because your body will just simply go, hey, you know what? Um I'm too stressed out. So now you're not even mentally aware, but your your physiology is stressed, and it's going to release and get rid of, it's going to send a signal, hey, forget about trying to digest that. We're just going to purge, you know, and um, and that was a pretty common occurrence, and which is a strong indicator of inflammation. How about you, Graham? What was your experience with inflammation?

Graham:

Yeah, it uh for me, you know, uh when we say inflammation, um, that's gonna mean different things to different people. But uh, if you've ever heard of anything ending in itis, um, then that is inflammation. So arthritis is a very common thing. And I noticed that my uh my my joints weren't feeling quite as good as they used to. Uh, I chalked it up to being old. Uh, didn't know what was causing it. Thought my body was just sort of uh, you know, um yeah, we're Stephen and I are both in our 50s, like getting on our late 50s now. Um, so chalking it up to getting old, well, it actually uh what we realized is it was actually what we were eating. And so I noticed my joint pain kind of all but disappeared. Um, certainly a rotator cuff injury that I had 20 years before uh that was uh severely inflamed. Um all of a sudden I could start using it again. And uh, you know, I didn't do anything uh but just change the way I eat. I was also able to exercise more as a result of uh it not being as sore. So it's amazing, and it's actually connected to the next one I want to talk about how much uh these things can be debilitating, right? Uh if you have arthritis, all of a sudden you don't want to exercise uh those joints uh because it's too painful. When you don't exercise something, uh uh you you don't use it and eventually uh you lose it, as they say. And so uh before I get to the next one, I just wanted to remind everybody, please, if you're enjoying what you uh listen to, uh please like and subscribe uh to the episode. It does not cost you anything, um, uh, but it does uh help spread the word. So essentially by doing that, what you're saying is, hey, uh somebody in you know the same boat as me, you might also benefit from listening to this uh podcast. Um, and it can make a difference in people's lives, and that would be as a result of you liking and subscribing. So uh please help us out if you can. It does mean a great deal, and we thank you for those that have already done that. Um, for me, the next one again connected is increased energy levels. So when your body is feeling better, um, so your arthritis is gone, you maybe your back pain um that was inflamed is is feeling a little better. Uh, you don't have um the kind of irritable bowel syndrome that you had before, and now all of a sudden you can actually go for a walk, you can go to the gym because everyone knows uh when you have irritable bowel syndrome, uh it actually can be very um life-changing as you know, as a result, where you say, I just don't want to do anything anymore because I want to be close to my my bathroom at home, for example. Those are very real things that people experience. Um I remember feeling, you know, we have a we have a uh a dog and I love taking him for a walk, but I remember feeling like I it's hard for me to get off the couch. I'd have to actually motivate myself. And it was more me wanting to walk the dog than me wanting to go for a walk for me, as well as benefiting the dog. Um, and so um I struggled to, you know, take him for a half-hour walk twice a week, uh, and but tried every day to take him for a short one. Um, as I changed my eating lifestyle, I found that I couldn't sit on the couch anymore. Um, increasingly over time, uh I had to get off the couch and I had to go for a walk. I really like going out and walking in nature, even if it's on the sidewalk with lots of trees or near the water or whatever it is, um, everybody has a different uh situation that they're in. Um but just getting outside and um, you know, uh checking the birds out, checking the trees out, um, it can be really good for us. Uh can be really good for our uh our positive energy. And so over the course of probably six months, I found myself not only not struggling to get off the couch, I had to. And now it was once a day for half an hour, and then it was once a day for an hour, uh, and then it was twice a day, three times a day, to the point where sometimes the dog who always tells me if he wants to come for a walk, he always knows that I'm gonna be going out three times a day at least. Uh, he'll come running down the stairs and all excited to go for a walk, and usually comes for two out of my three walks. Um, but I'm now at 10 miles a day, 13 kilometers a day, and I have all the energy in the world. And whether I'm walking first thing in the morning or late in the afternoon or after supper, uh, I feel like I still have the same level of energy. Um, and it's become a little bit of a challenge for me now. Can I sustain, you know, walking 10 miles a day, 13 kilometers a day, every single day, regardless of the weather? Uh, I've been able to do that for the last couple of years as a result of uh changing my uh eating lifestyle and and you know reducing the carbs significantly. Stephen, how about you?

Stephen:

Yeah, I I would completely agree with uh your statements around energy. I mean, yesterday I I would have really liked help from a local guy that does help me with uh with uh my uh wood collection because I heat my home predominantly with wood. And uh I've had a a few micro bursts, I think, over the course of the summer that have knocked down massive trees. And um, you know, I spent a couple of hours uh uh cutting a tree that was already down and then recovering it. And um, I mean these logs were uh taken from a uh a birch tree, uh a couple of birch trees actually, uh, and they're quite heavy and dense. Um the basswood was a little bit easier, but the point was that I was lifting, even though I work out three or four times a week, significant amounts of weight. And I think I've touched on this in previous discussions on how in the past I would literally soak through what I was wearing when I was a full diabetic. And um, I was listening to chill music, uh jazz on my headphones while I was lifting these logs and tossing them in the trailer and pulling them out of the woods with my A T V. And um, I really wasn't even that tired. I was just like, okay, it's getting dark. I'm gonna I'm gonna call it a day and go in and have dinner. My wife made me an amazing uh turkey, uh turkey stew. So uh I was a happy camper. Yeah, I'm a bit sore this morning because uh it was a very physical thing on top of my my uh chest workout yesterday. So I got all of the necessary work in, and there's absolutely no way when I had inflammation, when I had brain fog, when I had uh full diabetes and IBS, there was no way I would be able to do that level of activity. And that was eight years ago when I was diagnosed, and I have more energy now, and I'm stronger in the gym and I'm more capable in doing these sort of outdoor activities, which is its own uh therapy uh really, which also helps with mindset. So yeah, I think um you know, energy has such an important role overall in terms of how you feel. Uh, and I think it's worth mentioning too when we what we've covered so far is that a lot of the symptoms that people are are are feeling will collectively disappear like IBS, like brain fog, like uh being overweight. They it's it's it's kind of a a chain of fact that that occurs. Um, and you'll see improvements in multi positive points of your life, which I know for you and me, Graham, was a strong motivator. It's like, hey, you know what? I'm onto something here. You know, sure I'm paying 109 bucks for three steaks, but I feel really good after I consume one of those, you know. And uh um and I think that's uh that's a a big part of it. And I think the next one I'm gonna take uh because it's actually very pertinent right now is better heart health and cholesterol management. So uh as everyone understands or or maybe it's worth mentioning is cholesterol management's um a key uh a key component of what the liver does so uh the measurements of LDL and HDL are pretty common blood screenings one thing that they tend to to to miss is your triglycerides and your uh one of the the points of morbidity that they check for for uh your heart health is um your uh creatine um levels so there's a lot of debate about um statins I refuse to take statins um for personal reasons one because I know uh uh and later in life it can lead to sarcopenia and I have parents that have been on them for 30 plus years and I've seen them waste away from it as well as still have uh pain and still have moderately managed uh cholesterol so in terms of cholesterol management for sure my cholesterol was much higher when I was consuming ultra-processed foods some people will have higher higher cholesterol ratings LDL and HDL and um that's just a fact and the LDL they consider the bad one but the one I would focus on or that I focus on and again I'm not giving medical advice is my triglycerides. That's what I want to know. And what's interesting is my triglycerides were way higher as vegan vegetarian. My B12 was really really low um because I was consuming a vegetarian vegan diet and you and I just talked about this offline with all of my results and my B12 is excellent my zinc is excellent and I'm not even really taking supplements anymore Graham the only thing I take is magnesium and zinc before I go to bed and I have like a thousand dollars worth of vitamins out there that I used to need because I was a vegetarian vegan that are now collecting dust and um and that's okay. That's I'm okay with that. If I can get the required nutrition and my blood results are showing it my CTM is just not showing it from you know an ancestral diet I'm pretty confident cavemen didn't have access to pharmacies or supplements um so I I'm quite quite pleased that I've reached the point where I have things well managed. I'm not as concerned about cholesterol as I am triglycerized. My body produces probably more LDL than the average person, but I don't believe from all of the other indications of my blood blood screening that cholesterol for me is a problem to a point where I would ever change what my body's doing under this diet in favor of taking a statin and reverting back to my previous lifestyle. I don't need a pill to fix me, I need to fix me.

Graham:

Yeah I I I couldn't say it better myself. Next on the list here for me and I want to touch on this one for a second is mood improvement. And what does that mean? Well um they used to think that if you had irritable uh gut irritable bowel syndrome um that it um sorry if you had any sort of depression or anxiety mental illnesses that a lot of people experience that this would actually have an effect on the gut and you you would get irritable bowel syndrome you would you would have autoimmune problems. They're actually realizing it's the other way around and they're starting to teach this um when your gut is not healthy uh it potentially has a negative effect on your mood um and uh Georgia Eid wrote a book called Change Your Diet, Change Your Mind uh she was one of the people on our list of influencers if you haven't listened to that podcast we uh highly recommend it because those people changed our lives and we feel like they can have a positive uh impact on yours so what's going on here with improvements to mood um yeah I had a friend the other day who um uh you know we've been friends for over 40 years and uh you know certainly like uh we're we're more brothers than friends um at this point uh we've known each other most of our lives and uh he said something uh when we got together uh for a little uh uh uh uh day road trip and we always enjoy doing that uh and catching up and he'd been going through some uh stressful times so um the selling of his business as well as some construction at home um so nothing necessarily that um uh he was causing but you know life happens and it happens to all of us and uh he's you know at the end of the day he we actually uh talked the next day um on uh on something we wanted to follow up on and he said you know uh I I went to work on Monday and for the first time as long as I can remember I uh I was in a good mood and it was as a result of spending the entire day with you and it really got uh me thinking about how important mood is to our um our life our our life um our life and happiness so when you are uh in a positive mood because you've got good energy you're not feeling sick uh with irritable bowel syndrome or um sore uh you know arthritis uh sore joint um uh you know in your body all the things that we talked about today when uh those things are in a negative um it can affect our mood um and vice versa so when your mood is affected negatively uh you start to um draw energy from other people uh and there's nothing wrong with drawing energy if you think if if we think of ourselves as a battery are you recharging other people's batteries or are you draining their batteries and sometimes you recharge sometimes you drain that's what great friends do they they uh they're there when the other person's battery is low to recharge and vice versa but if there isn't a vice versa you are actually draining uh the batteries this can be uh with your relationships at home this can be with your close friends this can be uh people at work if you're not in a good mood um you are potentially going to be draining other batteries if you are in a good mood you're potentially able to recharge other batter other people's batteries and um since I changed my eating lifestyle I've been able to uh be there for other people in a way that I couldn't be before when people were struggling I had the energy to go in and support them in any way that I could to get them through that uh challenge and out the other side and I know that I've made a positive impact on uh I'm lucky enough to have some really great really close friends I would I'm lucky enough to have been able to make an impact on that.

Stephen:

I know that uh my eating lifestyle changes have improved my relationships at home uh in measurable ways and so mood improvement I think is not something that people necessarily think about uh when they're thinking about uh changing their eating lifestyle it's often to do with weight uh and other factors like energy but mood is something that um can be significantly improved by going to a low carb sort of ketogenic diet uh fueling your brain with the right um fats that turn into ketones that make your brain run better uh and your overall general mood uh can be improved and that can have a significant effect on uh the the the people in your life um and you're able to recharge their batteries what uh what do you say about that Steven Yeah I think you cover that really well and uh perhaps as a somewhat of a summary of the ones we talked before is the next one I want to touch on as autoimmune disease really so um autoimmune disease is like for instance a lot of people say well um diabetes is um metabolic and that's correct it's a metabolic illness and type one isn't um it's actually an autoimmune disease and generally like whether you pick i IBS versus IBD or type one versus type two really fundamentally it comes down to is you don't want the disease part of it because IBS is um can essentially the symptoms can overlap and can be very similar uh with IBD but IBD has structural damage done to it so you've actually done something that's totally you know somewhat permanent and and uh chronic so you know micro's colitis uh in my family so uh thankfully not colitis so there are ways to to manage that inflammation and in our opinion from my own experience not having an autoimmune disease but certainly being well along um the path of metabolic syndrome uh I can say that my inflammation markers have dropped as a result of being on a low carb keto in carnivore. And I just want to clarify for the audience for a moment is one of the strategies that I've used that might help is um because I work out a lot, I'm in the gym a lot and you're going to touch on the next one related to protein intake and strength and so forth. One of the things that I've I've really found fascinating with my CGM gram is if if I I feel like you know maybe a little congested or or what have you and I had my yogurt at lunch and I had my salad and I had you know my protein not in that order. It would pretty much be the opposite is the salad, the protein and then the fat. So we would again point you to one of our influencers which is the glucose cottis uh on on stacking but that being that being said one of the one of the key features for us is um the fact that um there is relief whether it's autoimmune if it's if it's chronic or acute uh you can still help manage it and what I found one of the easiest things on my stomach if I'm having some kind of inflammatory reaction even though it's it's short term is to revert to just I'll have a steak and I won't go too crazy with the Montreal steak spice. All right so shout out to Montreal for making their own steak spice so so I'll I'll just modulate and and and then my sugar will be awesome the next day. I won't have any swelling you know I'm you know back to to being in my rhythm or my routine. So just listen to your body and if you're in a situation where you have an auto autoimmune disease already then you probably want to consider being as as um regimental about this as both you and I are is uh you know for for me it's not a treat to have ice cream at our amazing ice cream store down the road. That's a recipe for my IBS to show up halfway home which I really candidly don't want it's not worth it it's not worth the sugar and and you'll find too as you you go through this process folks because you're used to being on a keto diet uh diet and as Graham talked about earlier you're using ketones um more regularly it doesn't feel good I can tell you wearing a CGM if your sugar's really low or if it's really high it feels the same. You don't feel good you feel nauseous you're you feel a little bit dizzy uh your eyes start stop working well like you're trying to focus on what you're reading and you can't all of a sudden it's 10 feet from your hand instead of the usual five if you're like me and resisting uh wearing glasses so those are all kind of markers that you dial into and go, okay, this is how I'm going to manage the more dialed in you are especially for those of you that have you know sadly progressed to the point or inherited genetically a autoimmune disease my son would be one of those um then um you it's even more important for you to do this because um the chances of reversing it obviously are are not likely you won't with type one you can with type two as we described but you can certainly live your life in a way where you have the same level of comfort regardless of what brand they just describe this illness as. What do you think of that Grant?

Graham:

Yeah um so well said I I think you know the autoimmune um side of things I often hear from people who are going through very real autoimmune um gut issues uh and they are trying to go from expert to expert to expert um in the healthcare system or sick care system uh depending on how you look at it um because it's not preventative it's um actually dealing with uh symptoms once uh you are sick and they are uh being told here to try this medication, try that medication and we're not here um to get in the way of that um but uh one of the things that we always encourage people to do is if they are going through an autoimmune um uh disorder and it can be a terrible experience um don't forget that you are yeah you know you you're you are your first healthcare professional um everyone else is secondary and so um try and do some research uh you know listen again to uh the top influencers um the great thing is once you listen to one or two um that think a little differently um pull research papers out that maybe you didn't know about uh on the specific issues that you're going through um they will introduce you to other people whether it's guests or whether they're ref referencing them and they may have um uh lifestyle changes that you can try um that are going to contribute to a positive autoimmune um system so uh a a stronger autoimmune system they can be very debilitating um and it is definitely worth your time to uh spend some time to listen to people that think a little bit outside the box um in order to uh give you uh some information that you may not otherwise have that can have make a real change in people's lives. Um I looked at the last two that we had for our podcast today and uh Stephen I wouldn't I'm gonna throw you a curve ball I'm gonna take the last one uh because you are a pro when it comes to uh number nine on our list um I can talk a little bit about walking long distances but uh you uh are you know in the sort of the top uh percentile when it comes to um you know building muscle in the body so I want you to take that one so for me uh my last one is simplified meal planning this is a very real thing um as I you know the the more I walked the more I listened to um you know people who thought outside the box the more I listened to those people the more I realized uh what I thought about food uh was wrong all along I was looking at the front of the food packages and if I saw some reference to healthy I thought well that must be good for me I'll grab it because what do I know? They're the experts I'm not and the more um expertise I gained in understanding how specific foods um and what effect they have on the body so how they actually impact the body and how our body processes them I was able to uh make significant changes to uh what I eat um and the the biggest changes are the sheer number of things that I put back on the shelf after turning the uh package around and reading the ingredients and there were certain ingredients that I wanted to stay away from um lots of sugar I wanted to stay away from seed oils like canola oil um that was that's my choice I didn't want to put those things in my body anymore uh I wanted to eat real foods that I recognized as real foods that my grandfather or grandmother would recognize as real foods that's a great way to look at it um because a lot of the foods in the grocery store our grandparents would not have recognized when they were uh kids and so the more I was able to put foods back all of a sudden my uh grocery cart went from full to the brim and we've all been there I'm sure to uh maybe a quarter full um my we've talked about this before in previous podcasts so we encourage you listen to those but the grocery bill didn't necessarily go down by much because whole foods real foods uh you know well sourced meats um you know the positive saturated fats uh the the more expensive grass fed butter um all of these things are um going to be more expensive you know I I get my eggs from an Amish farm um that uh where the uh chickens uh run around outside all day eating the bugs and whatever else they want to eat as opposed to what they're being fed. And you can tell when you crack open that egg um it it just looks a whole lot healthier. And so not you know some of these things don't necessarily reduce your bill. Just because you have a quarter grocery cart full as opposed to a full grocery cart does not mean your grocery bill goes down. But what it does mean is what you're buying is nutritious. And at the end of the day we need to think about food as nutrition not just what we put in our mouths. And so it also you know simplified meal planning also means I'm not stopping at McDonald's, Wendy's whatever it is for a fast meal. And sometimes we don't even count those as meals we just count those as snacks. There's no real such thing as a snack they're all meals. And so the simplified meal planning was probably one of the um one of the most stress reducing parts of this is when I go to the grocery store, I spend pretty much all of my time at the outside of the grocery store uh going through the whole foods, uh foods that I recognize. Every now and then I'll find a packaged food that actually has good ingredients inside and seems to be well sourced. And so then when I wake up in the morning uh my meal planning is I'm gonna have lots of eggs. I'm gonna have some kind of uh beef uh for my first meal and then uh you know as it gets to the end of the day um I'm gonna have um something um that is that consistent with real food whole food food that I can recognize uh and that will that is going to be some healthy carbs uh mostly uh protein and fat and uh it it absolutely makes my life easier I no longer have to snack um if I do snack it's gonna be a little piece of cheese or some olives or something like that not because I don't love uh to eat uh crackers or cookies or chips I do love to eat those things I just don't want to eat them anymore because my body's got the nutrition it needs it's not sending signals to my brain uh through the vagus nerve to say hey you got to eat something right now uh my blood sugar is fairly consistent throughout the day um and so simplified meal planning is something that um has been a real stress reducer for me uh and might made my life uh just a little bit easier eating two meals a day and not snacking almost ever. Steven?

Stephen:

Yeah I think the two meals a day was exactly what I was going to hit on is it's hard to argue with the math that if you're eating two meals a day instead of three and no snacks, you're cutting your bill by 30%. And then you take uh quality over quantity as you said you it it looks um like you know you're still spending um more money but I I equate it to like going to a restaurant. Of course you you accept the fact that you'll pay more for that same bottle of wine in a restaurant. You accept the fact that you're gonna pay more money for that steak. So what's interesting you know you and I have talked about this I don't go to restaurants very often I used to go on a very regular basis probably once a week um sometimes possibly two and you and I in our work lives used to spend time together having lunch um because we worked side by each and uh the nature of our jobs we worked long hours and we would take a break and have a few laughs and we were always consuming food court food and um you know it was always a race to see who was going to need the washroom first. So um you know that food that you just purchased it was rent uh rented it wasn't it wasn't actually nourishing. So um I say that tongue in cheek a little bit but uh the reality is that as you said meal planning is much much um uh simpler because you are getting quality over quantity and for us uh because I live in a remote area when I do get into the bigger city areas and can hit my favorite uh uh butcher and they have 15 permutations of chicken breast stuff with you know ricotta cheese and asparagus and all these other extraordinary things for me now that's a cookie that's a treat and it's still nutritious and delicious. I don't have the same same uh desire for those things and one thing I wanted to point out about you mentioning about liking cookies and chips and so forth just a little little footnote um and I'm I'm I'm making a public admission of guilt here is um my wife sent me to our our country store the other day where literally there's nothing in there uh that you should that's probably any healthier than consuming the uh fuel from the gasoline point if um compared to what's on the shelves. So I I went in and I saw chips and I went, you know what I haven't had dill pickle chips for a very very long time. You know what could possibly happen? And I think that's worth exploring. So my wife is a vegetarian as I've said in previous uh podcasts and obviously I'm keto carnivore. So we don't eat the same things. We have separate meals and all of that. The only thing we consumed that night that was the same and I want to say I don't have small hands but I consumed approximately two handfuls of chips and I was grateful as was she that we had separate washrooms in the house that we could both use because it was we both bloated significantly we were comparing uh you know tongue in cheek who looked more pregnant me or her and it was and the next day I felt awful um I I was I felt nauseous and what and actually it was a victory and people say well what do you mean it was a victory well one it's curbing me off of doing that again anytime soon number two it sent a clear signal and this is this is interesting um it was an epiphany for me I've worked really really hard you are as well we're making our our own yogurts we're introducing the right microbiomes I don't have four dysbiotic bacteria in my stomach anymore Graham so guess what happened my body doesn't know what to do with with that poisonous grossness um that's in the in the chips with all the chemicals because the diotic bacteria that used to feed on that aren't there anymore so my body naturally reacted in an aggressive way to say hey stupid that wasn't such a good idea so here's where you're gonna spend the next 40 minutes right so uh and I yeah just to jump in there Stephen because you brought up such an incredible point um when you eat uh a very consistent simple uh diet or eating lifestyle you can then chalk up how you feel to adding certain foods and in the past if I wasn't feeling well I would always chalk it up to some kind of bug that I must have got and you know whether that's uh a cold whether that's you know I've got an irritated bowel I would always chalk it up to some external you know bug when I went to a more consistent you know eating almost the same thing every day and and not feeling bored with it just feeling good and and loving how I'm feeling whenever I had some extra thing the next day oh I've got gas oh I'm you know feeling like this oh I've my bowels are a little irritated oh my brain's a little bit slow I knew it was that one thing that I ate it wasn't a bug or a cold so I wanted to throw throw it back to you but that's kind of uh you know a potential benefit here of having a very very um you know basic way of eating is you know exactly how something like a handful of chips affects you. Exactly yeah yeah I think that's a great thanks for adding that on there and I'll I'll just wrap it up um with uh what is now number 10 high protein intake for muscle maintenance so I've been lifting weights since I was 16 years old and um uh you know trained uh in the military as a relatively um elite athlete uh in martial arts and um other sports and so I've never lost the the drive uh to to use the gym which for me is a place it's a cathartic it's a place where I I can I'm not a bodybuilder I'm I'm a muscle retainer and uh so the the big thing that I'm fighting at 58 is to see if I can maintain and occasionally increase uh the amount of weight I do, the endurance that I have and really predominantly focusing on doing activities that will actually improve um morbidity outcomes because one of the key things they say where your body starts to show likelihood of a premature death is when you there are certain exercises that you can't do that fail from from the legs. The legs are are very very important because if you lose mobility, you can't walk you're gonna live a live a more sedentary lifestyle which is more of a longer term thing but in the short term as well is um we all are aware of relatives that have fallen that are elderly and they break bones and and often the the the the cases at least in my family then is once that happens you don't have a lot of time left. So the whole point is to ensure that you're getting sufficient protein to allow for the build building blocks to be there to retain your muscle why many experts Dr. Berg um and many others talk about how after the age of 40 men will start to lose a percentage um a measurable percentage of muscle mass every year. So by the time you're 60 I've seen numbers between 20 and 40% muscle loss. And the best way for those of you who work out as I do, the best way to prove that it is or it isn't I don't walk around with a tape measure wrapping it around my biceps. I focus on uh what's my body doing can I still do the same weight can I curl 80 pounds or 90 pounds today? Can I bench press I don't I'm not gonna say the amount uh can I bench press what I normally bench press can I get in an extra set can I do additional reps when am I fatiguing? Am I going to failure? Is my rotator cup that's been damaged in martial arts bothering me? So I'm dialed into it differently I'm not trying to impress anybody that never worked for me anyway. And I'm just I'm trying to to to focus on making sure that in a pervasive sense the quality of of food that I'm taking in my system is working for me and not against me. Because to your point, you know not even be able to being able to get off the couch and walk the dogs I have a lot of property huge hills. I walk the one of the biggest hills in this area virtually every day. And the days that I don't walk it's either A um pouring rain or B, I'm in the woods walking the hills that are there with my dogs and um I still feel the glute strain because it is it is a pretty extensive hill. And I can talk while I'm doing it because I've had people you know walk with me and I can maintain a pace and have good VO2. Like those are all factors that drive back to one common principle is um how are you managing your health comes today and in the future? What is it that you're doing today that'll make tomorrow easier for you and it all starts with diet especially our at our age cutting out the things that are unhealthy and ensuring that you have sufficient uh exercise and being mindful. If you're in a state aggressive state um you know with road rage or whatever and then you think you're gonna sit down and enjoy that high quality meal probably best to skip the meal to be candid because your body's in an inflammatory state and it's gonna react to that. So there are asymptomatic reasons for that to happen but the chronic lifestyles that we lead are the really the slow moving bullets or trains that'll will will run you over. And that's what you and I are trying to teach here is we're just two regular guys. If if uh we can do it other people should be able to do it they just have to have the same drive to to do so what do you say to that Graham?

Graham:

Yeah I mean I think you summed it up and and I one of the things that I I don't know if Steven uh he certainly mentioned it before is yeah Steven is that 58 year old in the gym that the 24 year olds look over and go holy crap I can't actually do that. How can he do that? And um you know the fact that he says he's able to lift more today than he uh you know was able to lift Of 20 years ago, I think says everything about you can easily blame your body not responding the way it did when you were in your 20s on age, or you can uh you know summarize from at least this podcast and some of the other ones we've done, and and you know, uh ones that are done by smarter people than than us. Um perhaps it's what you're ingesting that you can blame it on. And uh that is a whole lot easier to fix than Father Time, uh, which uh stops for nobody. And I think that's such a wonderful way to end the the episode. Thank you everybody for listening to another episode of Lessons from the Ketoverse. We hope you enjoyed uh this episode and uh maybe learned something new today. Uh I know I always learn something uh when I listen to Stephen. Thank you, Stephen, uh, and we'll talk to you next time.

Introduction:

Thanks, Graham. Thanks for tuning into Lessons from the Ketoverse. Join Stephen and Graham next time for more keto tips and stories to fuel your health. Subscribe, share, and let's keep the keto vibes going.