My Health in 2020
About 18 months ago at the age of 66 years I made as momentous decision to get healthy and fit and live a long, healthy and meaningful life until I was 90 years old.
Why 90?
Well, both of my parents lived to this age and I figured that this gave me a good chance.
As a footnote I have now modified this goal to reaching a kick arse100, meaning well healthy, fit, creative and inquisitive until at least 100 years old.
I have to be very transparent and say quite clearly and openly that at the start of this journey I was at a point that if I didn’t take drastic measures I may not have made it to 70. I had high blood pressure for years, I was pre-diabetic and on the verge of developing Type II Diabetes, I was drastically overweight, I had a fatty liver and a gall bladder full of stones and that was only the tip of the iceberg.
Why?
Due to reasons that I won’t go into here and now I had been drinking heavily, on and off for 3 decades. My oldest son passed away in 2012 and vodka became my beloved companion.
By the time I reached my mid 60’s it wasn’t unusual for me to knock back a large bottle of vodka in an evening. I was addicted and can now acknowledge that I am an alcoholic, albeit one who doesn’t drink anymore.
I’m the person who becomes obsessive about whichever direction I am going in. If it’s the roller coaster to death then it’s full on and luckily also ditto with the far more positive road to health, fitness and longevity. I’ve been like this all of my life but thank god I’ve spent more energy creating health than destruction and devastation.
Thank goodness that I have chosen to travel that road once again as I have done in other periods of my life.
To give you a short history.
I became a vegetarian when I was 18 around 1970 and attempted to live a healthy lifestyle apart from several years of marijuana munchies and a few L.S.D binges.
This healthy lifestyle lasted through the 70’s during which I did detoxes, long runs and other self improvement regimes. In the early 80’s I became obsessed with being healthy and clean and discovered saunas.
The big changing point came in late 1983 when I purchased a casket of white wine to drown my sorrows due to insecurities in my marriage. It tasted like vinegar but took the stress away enough to try it again, and again until I discovered port. Sweet, sugary delicious port and dessert wines. At this point in time I knew nothing about insulin resistance, liver damage or the other harmful and life threatening effects of alcohol.
There is obviously a genetic propensity toward alcohol on my Dad’s side of the family tree.
I slowly but surely moved up the “alcohol ladder” to Southern Comfort, unsurprisingly sweet, sugary bourbon whiskey that satisfied my addiction for sugar and at the same time took the edge off life’s woes.
I wasn’t a social drinker, I did it in the closet.
This habit continued on and off over the coming years until sometime in the late 90s I discovered Vodka. It didn’t smell of anything, it seemed “healthier” with no apparent sugar, here was my new drink of choice.
Don’t let me paint a dark and black picture here. I didn’t drink all of the time. In actual fact during the 90s I was running 10 kms a day, drinking copious amounts of fruit and vegetable juices and living on raw salads and fruit salads.
I weighed 75 kgs and looked and acted as fit as could be expected for someone in their mid 40s who put a lot of effort into being fit, strong and healthy.
But every now and again the demons knocked on the door and the Southern Comfort re-appeared.
Needless to say as the years went on, the addiction to alcohol got worse and worse, justified by some mighty challenging things happening in my life. It took the pressure off, slowed everything down and deluded me into a sense of apparent bliss that was a complete lie.
So fast forward to late 2018.
There I was in my mid 60’s weighing 107 kgs, looking like shit most of the time but kidding myself that everything was OK because every now and again somebody would say that I looked good for my age!
I felt terrible, every afternoon my blood sugar would collapse and I would feel like I was in a complete haze. This went on until about about 6 p.m when I would have my first swig of vodka and all would again appear to be well in the world.
I knew I was on a collision course with death, my feet were starting to go numb and I was drinking more and more vodka and getting away with it because no-one, apart from my daughter really talked to me about my addiction.
I finally made a decision to stop drinking on New Years Eve 2018/19.
I had a certain level of success and went cold turkey for about 3 weeks until I had a minor argument with my wife one night which acted as a trigger to once again buy a bottle of vodka. I drank heavily for about 2 weeks and finally went cold turkey in mid February 2019.
I haven’t touched alcohol since that last drink almost 18 months ago on February 14, the night before we caught our flight to India for a four week holiday.
I acknowledge that I am an alcoholic BUT now I am an alcoholic who doesn’t drink alcohol.
The Journey to Health
In mid February 2019 my wife and I went to India with 2 friends. I had my last drink on the night prior to leaving and went cold turkey as I stepped onto the plane. I had had the foresight to stock up on vitamins, which I took every day over the next 4 weeks as we made our way around India.
I still lacked any real knowledge of how my body functioned and what it was going through but even though I didn’t stop completely I cut back on grains and sugar.
I sat through many meals where my travel companions enjoyed wine with their meals but I didn’t succumb.
When we returned home I started cooking up bone broth and making delicious, healthy soups.
At this point I still didn’t have enough knowledge about what my body needed so I just used whatever I could find to add flavour to the soups.
While we were in India we started walking more and more. Looking back I now realise that I had fabricated an excuse that I couldn’t go on long walks due to my peripheral neuropathy which manifested in numb and burning feet. When in actual fact what I needed more than anything was movement and exercise.
Probably up to June 2019 I just got by on gut feeling. I had cut back significantly on sugar and grains but still lacked any functional knowledge about what my body needed.
I’m pretty certain that Georgie and I went on more and more walks during this period. So I was finally moving again.
These were the murky months when I just winged it. I really had no idea what I was doing but I did feel a bit better, I wasn’t drinking and I was losing a small amount of weight.
We had a 4 week trip booked for Bali in mid July so I had something to look forward to.
Around June Georgie became interested in something called “bio-hacking”. I would be cooking in the kitchen while she watched YouTube videos that I could hear parts of, but I must admit I thought it sounded like a load of crap from where I was.
One person that she was following was a guy named Dave Asbury. He had a business called “Bulletproof” and one thing that he talked about was called Bulletproof coffee, he also talked about something called intermittent fasting.
First I’ll talk about the coffee.
What is Bulletproof Coffee?
Well, it’s a mix of freshly brewed coffee that has a decent amount of organic grass fed butter and a couple of tablespoons of M.C.T oil vitamized into what becomes a creamy hot drink.
OMG, it sounded horrible!
I had always dreaded the idea of going to Mongolia or Tibet and being invited into a local home and being offered a cup of Yak Butter Tea. It had been a standing joke for years and Yak Butter Tea was possibly the most insidious beverage I could imagine yet here was a person telling me that mixing butter and oil with black coffee could help me lose weight and become healthier!
Finally, after much noise and denial I decided to give it a go myself. I really was expecting the worst. I had imagined a slimy layer of grease on top of my coffee and cringed at the thought.
Well, I was shocked and surprised when I had my first cup. It was delicious. Tasty, creamy and filling.
This experience was possibly what prompted me to move forward and start listening to these bio-hackers.
All I knew at the time was that what was recommended was to have one of these bullet proof coffees in the morning as a replacement for breakfast. Apparently it would mimic fasting and keep me satisfied until lunch time.
Enter Intermittent Fasting or Time Restricted eating as I now call it.
Because I had no real understanding of bodily functions like insulin resistance, cellular activity, micro-nutrients etc at this point not eating for 14-16 hours seemed like a good place to start.
We went to Bali in late July and returned in mid August. I’m pretty certain that we started time restricted eating when we returned to Melbourne.
Ketogenic Diet and Time Restricted Eating
Up until this point (August 2019) I had been playing around with a few healthier activities like walking, eating less grains, cooking up my own bone broth and making soup, eating less sugar/fructose and had lost a bit of weight.
It was in August 2019 that we put the foot on the accelerator. It was also at this point that I started toying with a healthy ketogenic diet featuring more leafy greens and cruciferous veggies the I had eaten for many years.
I started preparing food to take to our business so we could have our first meal of the day at around 12 noon -1 p.m.
I remember very clearly my first day of “time restricted eating”.
I had a vague idea that cruciferous vegetables were good for us. I stopped eating around 8 p.m and the next morning I purchased some organic cauliflower and broccoli and steamed it at lunch time, slathered organic grass fed butter on it and gobbled it up. It tasted glorious, probably because I was so hungry.
I also started listening to podcasts on ketogenic diets and time restricted eating. I hadn’t found the best data yet but what I did find was good enough to get the ball rolling.
Podcasts have been a significant part of my journey to improved health. The more knowledge I had under my belt the better job I did at actions that would contribute to Georgie’s and my improved health.
Like any new learning curve you first have to find the correct, workable information.
To do this you have to wade through lots of different information sources.
I discovered a guy named Eric Berg who seemed OK. The good thing about his YouTube channel is that a) his videos are short and to the point and b) he explained body functions quite simply so I could start getting a better grasp. I also watched a few clips from a guy named Thomas DeLauer which helped me on my way.
I really have to express my gratitude to these guys and what they were putting out. Prior to beginning my new learning journey I really had no understanding of insulin resistance, Type 2 Diabetes, Fatty Liver, why I kept putting on weight and why I felt tired each and every afternoon.
I got enough information from what they were saying to put my foot in the water and eventually immerse myself.
My daughter is a Naturopath and had tried to help me but I suppose that it’s not too easy for a daughter to be treating her father, especially when there were things that I didn’t want to “fess up to” back then. She could have easily told me all of these new things I was learning about but like any learning process you really have to find out for yourself, at your own pace and level of understanding.
There are never really any magic wands in life. Just persistence on a chosen and given course.
Having no real grounding in biology or chemistry certainly didn’t help. My initial response was to cut out sugar, carbs, bad fats like all vegetable oils and as much processed food as possible and to do whatever I could to make my meals as tasty and nutritious as possible.
By September I was starting to lose weight and I was also starting to feel a lot better.
Other Activities
Saunas
I have been doing saunas since 1980. They have been an integral part of my life for the past 40 years. We have an Sunlighten infra red in our home. I even did saunas during my drinking periods and I really believe on a gut level that they saved my life. About 6 months ago we started toying with hot and cold. I never thought it would be possible to jump into very, very cold icy water but I have to say I am pretty much addicted.
I have about 5 60 minute infra red saunas each week and as it’s winter in Melbourne our swimming pool is pretty chilly. After each sauna we literally jump into the pool and immerse ourselves in chilly water.
OMG I feel amazing after I do this.
Weights
I did resistance training back in the 90s when I used to run a lot. I stopped around 2000 when my youngest son was born. I haven’t really done anything apart from lift heavy things from time to time at my Art Gallery.
I have now decided it’s time to get into a bit of weight training again to build up my muscle, mainly for reasons of health with a bit of vanity thrown in for good measure.
There is a whole lot of information available on muscle loss in your 60s and the profound effects that this has on future mobility, balance and general health.
Colonics
Even though I haven’t done a colonic for about 2 years I have done them on and off since the mid 90s. I’m not so certain about their effectiveness anymore but I’m also going to look back into the therapeutic benefits and then decide whether to use them into the future.
I also used to do regular coffee enemas but once again I’ve pretty much stopped this over the past 4-5 years.
Sleep
I listened to several Matthew Walker podcasts over the past couple of months and when I found out how and why sleep is so important I made a decision to do my best to get 8 hours sleep a night. Well, I’ve been doing that for about 6 weeks. I really notice the difference when I don’t get 8 hours. I’m a real late bird so getting to sleep early isn’t feasible. I’m lucky because my wife is also a bit of a night owl. The good news for me is that I am now semi retired (even though I still do quite a lot of work) and I don’t have to get up early so we sort of sleep until we’ve had 8 hours.
Stress
My stress levels are way down. I’ve spent most of my life creating stress.
My older son was a Type 1 Diabetic which he really struggled with. I was his major care provider and spent a large percentage of my time between the late 80s until 2012 when he passed away engrossed in his survival and well being.
He was pretty much certainly bi-polar as well but my family never acknowledged this. I’ll not go into it here as it is a whole chapter of my life that I will address in more detail one day.
Needless to say the stress that I experienced in relation to his condition was immense and took its toll.
I drank to take the pressure off and then went to my business each morning where more stress was waiting for me. I finally reached the point that I really believed that if I wasn’t experiencing stress then I wasn’t working hard enough. Go figure!
The stress has decreased considerably over the past 12 months. It’s so low most of the time that I can honestly say that it is not part of the health equation for me 99% of the time.
Mental and Spiritual
I have pursued self improvement most of my life.
I have made a few mistakes along the way and have found myself in quite a few “bubbles”. The good news is that I am now in a better place than I have been at any time during my life.
My current solution is to adopt the viewpoint that I really “don’t know anything” which leaves me open to new ideas, research and concepts.
I could talk about my viewpoints but I really don’t need to as the older I get the more I realise that life and living on a day to day level is all about simplicity and organization. That is where the power lies.
I am completely open to learning and wake every morning hoping to discover something new that will make my viewpoint of life even simpler and less complex.
One thing that has been great is what I call my “Defrag Blues”.
I have always loved writing about my life and thoughts. Over the years I have kept diaries, written letters which never got sent, written my viewpoints in notebooks but recently I got the idea of defragmenting my thoughts and mind each morning before I start my day.
I somehow got this idea indirectly from a Tim Ferris podcast.
I started this new activity in May 2020. I’ve got a section of my Blog which no-one reads but doing it this way gives it a sense of formality. I just write whatever is there at the start of each day.
Sometimes there is nothing too write about but invariably when I start I just get into something and it’s amazing where it ends up. This has been a hugely therapeutic activity which really does defragment my thoughts, viewpoints, reactions and feelings. It’s really great, as Donald Trump would say.
I look at it as a form of meditation that creates a heightened level of mindfulness and creates space between me and my thoughts, reactions and emotions.
Over the past 12 months I have continued to learn more about the biology and chemistry of the body although I still have a long, long way to go. I discovered that the best information about health comes in the form of long form podcasts by genuine health researchers like Dr Rhonda Patrick, Peter Attia, Valter Longo and other health specialists and researchers of their calibre.
I have stuck to a healthy low carb diet with no sugar or junk food.
My biggest vices are blueberries and cream and the strongest drink I have is my homemade Kombucha and my one black coffee in the morning when I wake up.
I have been walking further, faster and longer and can genuinely feel my fitness returning. Now it is August 2020.
I have lost approx 18 kgs since I started.
I hover just under 90 kgs. I’ve been stuck there since January but that’s OK for now. I’ll put a bit more attention on losing some of the stubborn unsightly areas. I am really feeling optimistic and recently upped my lifespan goal from 90 to a kick ass, healthy and fit 100 which gives me about 32 years to enjoy my wonderful life.
