Hello, I am a 56 year old male that about six months ago quit a well paying IT job because of poor health. I probably weighed around 350 lbs. (I am 6' 3") and I am sure I was pre-diabetic if not outright diabetic. I could hardly walk, and my breathing was terrible. I intended a walk-about in Europe figuring I would force myself to get into better shape, made it as far as Iceland, hurt my already bad knees even more and came back to the U.S. to get my COBRA insurance in case I needed knee replacement. I spent a month feeling sorry for myself and saw an ortho doc about my knees. I was told I am too young for knee replacement without trying everything possible first. Doc gave me steroid injections in both knees, helping one but not the other. Doc also gave me a mild NSAID for the discomfort. I then found a place that uses gel treatment for joints. It does a series of injections of a gel into the joint that replaces the missing cartiledge in that joint. It also includes a physical therapy component but being that I live in the U.S. with the worst health care system in the first world, the insurance company would only pay for the injections, not the therapy. But by this time I was already doing exercising on my own. After that first month of feeling sorry for myself and finding out knee replacement was not an option I decided to see if I could fix myself. So the first thing I changed was to start exercising three times a week. I started in early September 2012. I use a recumbent bicycle on a mag trainer for my exercising. I started doing intervals: 2 minute warm-up, 30 seconds hard pedaling and then 90 seconds at a slow pedal. I started with four sets and then did a two minute cool-down. Within a month I noticed much improvement in my breathing and my knees were not so bad--I no longer needed a cane to walk. At the end of September I change the way I eat. I started a slow-carb diet that I got out of a book by Timothy Ferris. If anyone wants details, send me an email. I then started researching healing arthritic joints via natural cures. I am continuing my research because there is a lot of terrible information out there, especially about eating and especially from the FDA and so called "dietitions" and "nutritionists". I will add that after another month I started doing isometric exercises for my entire body--one body part a day. It has been 23 weeks since I changed the way I eat. I have lost 46 lbs., 9% body fat and increased my water % 6.7% (still dehydrated though). I am changing from the original slow-carb way of eating to a more customized diet. While the slow-carb way of eating has helped me lose a lot of weight, I still have physical problems related to sleep and joint pain that I believe will go away when I hit on the right combination of foods for me. One other thing is that when I had blood work done at the end of November 2012 all my markers were in the normal range so no longer pre-diabetic/diabetic. I also believe I surprised my doctor about the amount of vitamin D3 I take and the amount of whole eggs I eat. So for all the older hippies out there that are starting to feel their age I can maybe be of some help. Send me an email and I will be more than happy to share my experiences with weight loss and healing. I have documented my weight, body fat % and water % everyday and have a record of the changes in an spreadsheet, including a graph of the changes. The following is a bit about my past for those that are interested. Lots of drugs and drinking when younger. I got off the drugs and drinking on my own, no treatment of any kind and I believe we all have the power to end addictions ourselves. Anyway if you continue reading I hope you enjoy learning more about me and again any one that wants to learn more can contact me through email. My parents were always fighting. No love shown in my family. Being raised from age two to six by my male-hating grandmother. I remember hiding in closets often when I was at my grandparent’s house. I also learned to speak only when spoken to (which was not very often). So by the time I started school I was afraid of leaving my home. The previous four years taught me it was only safe for me at home. I started smoking cigarettes when I was twelve or thirteen, even though I was into sports heavily. I was very good at hockey (I was over 190 cm tall by the time I was thirteen). Because of my grandmother and my sisters I was scared to death of girls. (My sisters were 3 and 4 years older than me and they and their friends had a lot of fun doing mean things to me). I could not fight back as my father told me if I touched them I would get the belt. I did not like getting hit with the belt, so I just took the mean-ness my sisters dished out to me. I was raised catholic and attended catholic schools so I was well indoctrinated in that religion. At 16 I read a book called "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" and was introduced to the term "Manifest Destiny" (God wants us to convert/kill the heathen indians and take their land and put it to good profitable use) So being a christian was no longer possible for me. This is the early 70's and drugs, drinking and partying were very common. When I was 16 I left the catholic secondary school and went to a public school. I had gotten in trouble and like much of my life I ran (or hid) from it. It was at this time I was introduced to lsd and magic mushrooms and many other drugs. I have tried just about every drug out there at least once. Didn't care for many of them. but there were several that I really liked. Mushrooms were one of them. But I also did a lot of drinking. All of these were just an easy way to hide from my problems (mainly very negative thoughts about myself). This is also the time of the sexual revolution and I missed most of it (afraid of women and had no clue if a woman was trying to pick me up). I treated everyone as a friend. But the experiences on lsd and mushrooms made me think that there was more to existence and during these partying days it stayed in the back of my mind. The drinking and drugging lasted until my late twenties. I had quit cigarettes in my early 20's and I knew I could stop a bad habit if I really want to. So I stopped doing everything except marijuana and very rarely, mushrooms. I quit them several years later. But I did do a lot of reading during that time because I was always curious as to why a person that is tall, was often told how attractive he is and was a natural athlete and quite intelligent could hate himself so much and be in such fear of living. It took me until my late forties to deal with those issues. I did have enough sense to realize that a person needs to at least like himself and preferably love himself, before he is much use to himself and others. I am now at the point that I do like myself very much. But because of my experiences I can understand why some people get trapped in drugs and drunkenness. But for me there is a happy ending. I am who I am because of all those experiences. I have forgiven everyone in my life that I believe caused me harm, especially myself (forgiving does not mean forgetting and it definitely does not mean you have to like what happened). And I realize that it was my thoughts that were most at fault. So now my thoughts are much, much better and my current life reflects that. Axel
Hello Axel:sunny: That was quite an intro, I did not think I would read it all, but ya kinda pulled me in. I was glad for the happy ending I hope you find stuff here that you like, there is a lot going on to chose from :gossip: Love..
