Growing up as a kid I was not heavy or ‘fat’. I was just a solid kid. There were no restrictions to food in the house. It didn’t matter if it was white bread, sugary cereal, hotdogs, or popsicles. We ate breakfast and lunch with Mom, and diner as a family. If we were not at school we were exploring the neighbourhood, riding bikes, building forts, trying to fly off the playground equipment like Superman, or getting our boots stuck in mud. We were active. If there was a need for a ‘snack’ it was a PB&J on white bread or cheddar cheese and crackers with some sausage… if it wasn’t close to lunch or diner time. It was quickly followed by a shoo back out the door. We didn’t want to spoil our appetite you know… (can you hear your Mom right now?)
Up until I was 16 I would ride my bike everywhere. If I didn’t have my bike I would walk. It was my freedom, until I learned to drive. Even then though, I would ride my bike until I was 20 as a car was not a constant in my life. I would play baseball, football, go for hikes in the river valley or mountains, swim, Competitive weightlifting, and throwing events in track and field like shot-put. I am ok with sprinting but distance running was not my thing and still isn’t. When I graduated High School I was 250lbs. It was what I consider my ‘perfect’ weight. I held steady there for several years until life in the real world happened.
Once I got into steady jobs, I was working evenings, weekends and night shifts. My lifestyle habits started to change. I didn’t have time for all the things I use to do. I would work and come home, sit in front of the TV for hours to escape the world and shut off my brain. I was tired constantly. I still didn’t eat all the time, but I was missing meals, sleeping in, and not being social or active. I became a bit of an introvert. I got stuck in the rut of life.
I met the woman who would become my wife in 2001. She brought me out of my shell for the most part, and I was happy and social again. But the damage was done to my weight. I was pushing into the low 300’s. over the next 20 years it steadily climbed up without abandon. I tried the usual diets to get back to my perfect weight. I did Weightwatchers. I followed the Canada food guide with total devotion. I weight out all food portions. I followed the advice of dieticians and religiously ate every 3-4 hours. I endeavoured to never miss a meal, even if I wasn’t hungry. After all, the advice was coming from ‘trained experts’. I learned about the Atkins diet in 2006 after visiting a weightloss specialist. He was big into the LCHF (Low Carb High Fat) diet program as a way to heal and repair the body, and recommended the diet to the majority of his patients. That WORKED!…. for a while. I lost a bunch of weight and it seemed like I finally found an answer to my problems. But in the end, I found it too restricting and it too failed after a year. It seemed like no matter what I did, all the weight came back and then some.
I always had a feeling that my weight issues were not necessarily what I ate. I would do plans where I would eat constantly and then plans so restrictive calorie wise I would eat next to nothing. They all allowed me to loose weight but failed to keep the weight off. I was getting more convinced that my issue was more hormonal than physical. After all, my weight was not an issue until I hit puberty.
In 2011 I went to see a Naturopath. After talking with him and discussing my issues he said to me that the weight I am carrying is not from poor diet and overeating. It is from food intolerance and my body’s reaction to the intolerance. It was causing inflammation, and a total system malfunction in my body. He recommended doing a Food Intolerance test to see what is going on with me. After a quick finger prick and a few blood samples later he sent the samples to a lab. The result came back about a week later. It turns out that a good majority of what I have been eating I am intolerant to. The biggest ones were Dairy, Soy, Grains (wheat, barley, rice), potatoes, and beans. He said he had NEVER seen a dairy intolerance result as high as mine before. But, it explained WHY I had the most success with a LCHF diet. It essentially removed the majority of my reactive foods. And my body was starting to heal itself. On a side note about dairy. He said that when it came to dairy, cheese was ok. It had to be a hard cheese like parmesan or cheddar. The amount of the reactive protein in the hard cheeses was minimal once the cheese was fully cured, so inflammation from it would be minimal.
After discussing my results with my parents, my Mother informed me that as a kid I did not drink milk. It was a choice I had made around 10 years old. She told me I shouldn’t drink it because it wasn’t good for me. Being a stubborn kid, I wasn’t going to be told I couldn’t eat something, so I started my dairy journey. Now, here is the reason why my Mother told me this info, and keep in mind it had been forgotten by me for YEARS….
When I was born, I was 2 months premature. I was not allowed to leave the hospital because I was, what back then was called allergic to milk. Breast, cow, goat were no good. I couldn’t keep them down. I couldn’t eat and grow. They finally found and tried Soy milk, and I was able to tolerate it. I got stronger and healthier. I got to come home. The availability of soy milk in 1977-78 was next to none. So I was switched to solid food as quickly as I could. So my decision to drink milk and eat dairy was a HUGE mistake made by me. Before I gave up milk later in life I was drinking about 2 litres of milk a day. That didn’t include sour cream, cream cheese, various soft and hard cheeses, and creams in my coffee. Dairy became a big part of my diet. And my body paid the price.
So, even after all the information I learned from the naturopath and even more success with LCHF diets, I still could not shake and keep off my excess weight. After another year of dedication and change I just could not sustain the lifestyle. I craved starchy foods like breads and popcorn. Sugary snacks like fruits, chocolate and cakes. Treats like Ice cream and cookies. I tried to manage them with cheat days. I tried just giving in if the craving was too much to handle and was all consuming in my head. I tried, and tried, and tried. I eventually failed. I filed all I had learned about my body away in my brain, and inevitably I reverted back to my ‘there is nothing that I can do about it’ attitude and continued on with life unchecked and disillusioned. Dairy, starches, and all. Something was still wrong. I was still missing some piece of the problem with my body. I still didn’t have the whole picture to my weight problems.
The end of part 1.
The Life of Craig 