Losing 52 Pounds in 74 Days
How Battling a Sugar Addiction Supercharged My Productivity
First….Disclaimers
Before diving into this article, it’s important to acknowledge that the methods I employed to achieve my health goals may be perceived by many readers as extreme. I want to emphasize that, despite dedicating significant time to research, reading, and monitoring my various health metrics, such as blood pressure and blood tests, this account should not be misconstrued as an expert opinion or a definitive guide on weight loss and well-being. It’s crucial to note that I am not a Doctor, Dietician, Nutritionist, or any other medically qualified professional. Rather, I am an Investment Advisor Portfolio Manager, sharing my personal journey. Prior to embarking on any diet or exercise regimen, I strongly suggest consulting with qualified professionals to ensure the safety and suitability of your chosen approach.
More Gas in the Tank
These days, my watch alarm faithfully gets me up at 4:45 am — an early awakening for most that, to me, just a few months ago, seemed unimaginable. However, this early morning ritual has evolved into a crucial time for me. In the quiet predawn hours, prior to the rest of my household waking up, I find myself at my most creative. With a cup of black coffee in hand, I dive headfirst into what will be my content creation of the day. My focus is on drafting my daily newsletter, which delves into various investment concepts I provide with iA Private Wealth, and iA PrivateWealth USA, and is shared across multiple platforms like Medium, Linkedin, Blogger, Substack, and Patreon. After posting my newsletter, if time allows, I open up Adobe Premiere Pro, immersing myself in the editing process for any short-form or long-form videos slated for posting that day. These efforts to produce video content primarily are for my YouTube channel, where I believe you can best get to know me. However, I extend their reach by cross-posting on platforms such as TikTok, Facebook Reels, Instagram, X, and various others. These early hours have become a sanctuary for my productivity and creative expression in my daily routine.
HERE IS A VIDEO — JUST IN CASE YOU ARE INTERESTED!
I find it truly humbling when individuals choose to follow or subscribe to my content on any of those platforms. Connecting with me and becoming a part of the community means a lot, and I sincerely appreciate it beyond words. Your support is invaluable, and I look forward to fostering a meaningful connection with each member of the community. SO THANK YOU!
Ok kids! Lets get going to school!
At 7:30 am, my second alarm of the day signals a shift in roles to one that is both fulfilling and demanding — dad duty. This transition is a welcome morning ritual before I head to the office. Although the time spent with my family in the morning, particularly on the way to school with my 3 younger kids is brief, it holds immense value for me.
Once I arrive at work, my pace accelerates significantly. I find myself immersed in portfolio management, staying abreast of market developments, conducting various client or prospective client meetings, and crunching numbers for financial projections — all while prioritizing lightning-fast response times for the many inquiries I get per day — a principle I hold dear in a world that I feel has dismissed the value of a quick response.
Eating is Overrated….
Whether I decide to eat lunch is unpredictable for me these days, but I have learned to love the value of fasting. If I am not scheduled for a lunch meeting with a client, I usually skip it — even after I have already skipped breakfast. I have learned to fully embrace intermittent fasting, sometimes pushing it to the extreme with 23-hour fasts or even daring to tackle occasional multi-day fasts.
Yes, you heard that right — there are days when I don’t eat for three whole days, sometimes more. My personal record, while not the norm is a 5-day fast. These fasts may seem extreme, but they’ve become a part of my journey toward what I feel is responsible for my increased energy and focus.
By the time many are having dinner, I’m often knee-deep in client events, board meetings, or attending functions. If it’s not a business commitment I have that night, I’m usually hustling to support my kids’ sports activities or hitting the ice myself, playing hockey up to four times a week to stay in shape, or doing some long-distance running.
As the clock inches toward 10 or 11 pm, I finally carve out a small pocket of time to catch up on investment news and analyze the futures markets, prepping for the day ahead, or watching a few streaming programs I enjoy. It’s a late-night rendezvous with financial data or some mild entertainment, but the newly acquired energy I seem to have keeps me going.
I Wish it was Like This All Along…
My new routine is a stark contrast to what used to be. There was a time when I constantly woke up exhausted, pushed myself through the day, and energy was in short supply.
The journey up to this point was simple, but far from easy.
Heavy and Tired
I want to go back to 2021 when most days I weighed in at around 315 pounds. This was the heaviest I weighed, and you can see the extra pounds beautifully preserved in my posts from a few years ago.
It’s a familiar story.
When I was younger, as long as I worked out, the pounds came off fairly easily. I had tonnes of energy! But, as the years rolled on, and my weight increased it became a struggle in my life, amplified by the demands of working long hours. Over the years as I got heavier, I got more sluggish, and the ability to get through the day became even more of a challenge. Finding time for the gym amidst the hustle and bustle of my demanding schedule (which often exceeds 90 to 100 hours per week) was and still is a perpetual challenge, and the motivation to work out late at night was quickly evaporating. When I did manage to make it to the gym, I found myself having to work harder and harder just to try to maintain the heavy weight I was at.
Breaking Point
A year and a half ago, I started making big changes by giving up alcohol. As a regular beer league hockey player, the idea of skipping post-game beers didn’t sound great. But I knew it was necessary to lose some weight. As expected, I started shedding weight. I went from a peak of 315 pounds to around 298. It felt like I was on track to reach my goal weight, which I envisioned somewhere around 240 to 245 pounds.
However, I hit a plateau, and 18 months later, my weight remained stubbornly fixed at 298 pounds. Quitting drinking made me feel better, but in terms of additional weight loss, it didn’t seem to make much of a difference.
Interestingly, during that period, I resumed running after shedding 15 pounds. I was running around 20 miles a week in addition to playing 4 hockey games a week without consuming any beer. Despite these efforts, I couldn’t understand why my weight wasn’t decreasing.
Health Issues
Over the past year, my struggles with gout intensified, with frequent and severe attacks occurring almost weekly, particularly affecting my ankle and leaving me hobbling. During a doctor’s visit, I discovered that my blood pressure had skyrocketed, my uric acid levels were high, my kidneys were starting to see some mild damage, and blood tests revealed an enlarged prostate, compounding the health issues I was facing. Additionally, it’s worth noting that five years ago, I developed mild sleep apnea, necessitating the use of a machine during sleep to manage the condition.
I felt like my body was falling apart, so over the summer, I spent a lot of time reading and researching. I wanted to figure out how I could stop taking my blood pressure and gout medications, and address the other issues bothering me. I wanted to see if there was a way to naturally get back to a healthier state — see if I could heal.
Enter YouTube and the Carnivore Diet
So I did what anyone looking for answers about their health would do, I turned to the internet and to YouTube to search for answers for my gout, blood pressure, and prostate health problems.
While searching for solutions, I stumbled upon the carnivore diet. Watching videos of people sharing their success stories, especially HomeSteadHow’s video, got me intrigued. The idea of an all-meat diet as a potential fix for my health issues caught my attention, and I decided to explore it further. I dug deeper and discovered numerous accounts of individuals who had visibly addressed various health issues through the carnivore diet.
Yet, the claims in the HomeSteadHow video seemed to me, a little too good to be true. I will let you watch the video, but after you do you will see why I remained curious but somewhat skeptical.
I won’t list all the videos I watched as it would make this article quite extensive. However, I’ll share the highlights, focusing on that one from HomeSteadHow and another from the Dr. Shawn Baker Podcast. These stood out and played a crucial role in shaping my understanding of the carnivore diet.
The simplicity of the concept appealed to me, and I started exploring further to understand if adopting this approach could be beneficial for my own health journey.
But then, I stumbled upon a particular video that convinced me it was time to make an immediate change to my diet.
This video was a revelation, unveiling the true culprit behind my health issues — SUGAR. It was the missing link I had been seeking, providing a comprehensive walkthrough that connected the dots and clarified everything.
This is Your Body…This is Your Body On Sugar…
In this video, you will find that humans were not designed to ingest the copious amounts of sugar prevalent in today’s diet.
Sugar is pervasive in almost everything we eat, or it’s converted into sugar through starches or bread. Excessive sugar intake leads to the production of high levels of Uric Acid, causing inflammation in the body. When coupled with a diet rich in meats, it becomes a catalyst for gout attacks. Moreover, heightened sugar consumption contributes to elevated Uric Acid Levels, which in turn elevate blood pressure, and prolonged high blood pressure can lead to organ damage, particularly to vital organs like the kidneys. Recognizing sugar as the common link brought clarity to the various health issues affecting me.
My Addiction to Sugar — and How Very Dangerous it is for ME
There have been a few instances in my life where I’ve felt ashamed, but nothing truly compares to how brutally I ate over the past few decades. Sharing the truth here feels like the right thing to do, and there’s no easy way to put it, so here it is.
I literally filled my body with crap.
It’s a stark admission, but a necessary one on my journey toward better health and well-being.
My best friend Mike used to tell me, “You can’t out-train a bad diet,” so I must confess I had more than an inkling that my eating habits weren’t the best. However, I honestly didn’t realize just how bad it was until I took a closer look. I also was skating and running hard every week, so I thought I could just train more to be able to have sweets. His advice turned out to be a poignant truth that resonated with me as I reflected on the impact of my dietary choices on my overall health. Most people say it's 80% diet, and 20% training, in my case it was more like 99.99% diet.
My diet included an abundance of starches like potatoes, rice, and pasta, along with various breads, chocolate bars, and ice cream. I am embarrassed to say that these were the healthy items. Fast food and other processed foods were also abundant in my diet, packed with sugar and slowly killing me. These seemingly harmless staples, while providing me immense comfort and satisfaction, became the unsuspecting contributors to my sugar addiction.
It Gets Worse..
Sugar, with its insidious influence, plays a cunning role in our eating habits. It’s intriguing to discover that intensely sweet foods can hijack the brain’s reward circuitry similar to the effects of cocaine or gambling. (See source at end of article)
Throughout much of our evolutionary history, these calorie-dense foods were infrequent indulgences, serving as valuable sources of sustenance, particularly in times of scarcity. However, in the modern landscape where these once-rare treats are abundantly available, our brain’s response to them can lead to overconsumption, posing a challenge to our health.
This deceptive mechanism leaves individuals craving more, prompting continued consumption even when the body has had its fill. The consequence is overeating, as the usual cues indicating “fullness” are muted by the impact of sugar on the brain.
In short..the more Sugar and Carbs you eat, the more your brain thinks you are hungry — so you eat more Sugar and Carbs
For me, the allure of these carbohydrate-rich foods created a cycle of dependency. Little did I realize that the seemingly innocent indulgence in these items was significantly impacting my overall health by elevating sugar levels in my body.
My Start On Carnivore and the Benefits so far….
Starting the carnivore diet hit me very hard. The first week, especially by day three, I was dealing with night sweats, fever, headaches, and brain fog — like going through withdrawal. It was hell on Earth. Turns out, these symptoms were likely my body’s way of adjusting as it shifted from using sugar for energy, to relying on fat stores for energy. It was very rough, but it signaled a big change in how my body was working on the carnivore diet.
During this period, my diet consisted solely of meat and hard cheeses, particularly varieties like marble or cheddar. I indulged in steak, eggs, bacon, chicken, fish, shellfish, oysters, and plenty of fats to fuel my body through this carnivorous journey.
It took around 10 days before I began to notice improvements. The persistent headaches started to fade away, and the heavy veil of brain fog began to lift. At that point, I could feel a genuine sense of improvement and progress.
Around Day 6 or 7, I observed an intriguing change — I no longer found pleasure in eating the third meal of the day. This caught my attention because I had seen in some videos that certain carnivores comfortably embraced the concept of eating just one meal a day, something I had previously sworn I could never do.
Nevertheless, as I started feeling satisfied, I decided to cut out the third meal. Surprisingly, before I knew it, I found myself also skipping the second meal, settling comfortably into a routine of one meal a day. Essentially, I unintentionally embraced a natural intermittent fast, extending to 23 hours per day. This all happened around Day 14.
Longer fasts and the Energy Explosion…
Around day 21, I began pushing the boundaries of my fasting routine. It started with a 2-day fast, then extended to 3 days, and eventually culminated in an ambitious 5-day fast. This progression marked a significant evolution in my approach to intermittent fasting, revealing newfound resilience and adaptability in my dietary habits.
I successfully completed five 3-day fasts and one challenging 5-day fast, all while maintaining an active hockey schedule of four times per week. Simultaneously, I tackled my Series 65 exam, a crucial step in securing my US registration in Texas. By day 30, I experienced a remarkable transformation, feeling almost superhuman with an abundance of energy that left me wondering how to channel this newfound vitality.
Health Benefits…
The increased energy wasn’t the only benefit! Since adopting this diet in late August, the notable benefits include:
- Elimination of Snoring: No longer experiencing snoring.
- Asthma Improvement: Ceased the use of Asthma inhalers (Ventolin and Advair) with noticeable strengthening of the lungs.
- Blood Pressure Reduction: Significant decrease in blood pressure, leading to a reduction in medication.
- Gout Medication Reduction: Meaningful reduction in gout medication due to lowering of Uric Acid Levels.
- CPAP Machine No Longer Needed: No reliance on the CPAP machine for sleep.
- Improved Bloodwork: Drastic improvements in bloodwork, including a notable decrease in PSA levels.
- Weight Loss: Impressive weight loss of 52 pounds in just 74 days.
- I don’t wake up tired: I feel rested and energetic all day long
P.S. I haven't always been perfect…
Despite the remarkable progress I have made on the carnivore diet, it’s important to acknowledge that I’m not perfect, and at times, the discipline I have tried to maintain has failed. The allure of sugar remains an extremely powerful temptation for me, and I’ve faced cravings that proved impossible for me to resist. There have been five instances in that time where I succumbed to the draw of sugar and indulged in cheat meals. Halloween, in particular, posed a significant challenge, and I found myself navigating through a tough period of giving in to the cravings. I view my sugar consumption as an addiction, and trying to maintain abstinence of sugar is crucial for the success of this diet. Yet, it’s an ongoing and arduous process, highlighting the difficulty of breaking free from the grip of sugar’s influence on my eating habits.
To Anyone Reading This..
In conclusion, if you can relate to my journey and sense a similar struggle with sugar, and have similar symptoms like gout and high blood pressure, I urge you to take a closer look at your own sugar intake. Be honest with yourself about the role of sugar in your diet. Recognizing it as a potential threat to your well-being is crucial.
Sugar, as I have experienced, can be exceptionally dangerous and challenging to overcome. Prioritize your health by making informed choices about what you consume. Consider the impact of sugar on your overall well-being, and if needed, take steps towards reducing or eliminating it from your diet. Your health is a precious asset, and making mindful choices can pave the way for a healthier, more vibrant life. I hope that sharing my journey in this article helps you conquer the challenges I’ve faced and find success in your own pursuit of a healthier lifestyle.
The Good News is, I will be healthier and live longer, the bad news is, that means more articles you will have to read! :)
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Joe A. Macek, FMA, CIM, DMS, FCSI
Investment Advisor, Portfolio Manager
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