Welcome to The Lion's Life, my blog site where I'll be sharing my long journey from the Standard American [Sugar] Diet (SA[S]D) to following a Lion Diet way of eating. I'll be sharing the journey to here and then onward from here, including my struggles and pitfalls and the result of those as well as my successes and what's been working.
This is a journey that started in my mid-40s after I was widowed in 2007 and woke up to the fact that my body was extremely toxic as I had Chronic Myofascial Pain Syndrome and Fibromyalgia, hypothyroidism, insulin resistance and was on my way to being a full-fledged Type II diabetic. I'd lost my husband at the time to cancer and discovering that there were over 400 natural cures for cancer that doctors will never tell you about awakened in me an interest in holistic health as I'd done a lot of research on diet and nutrition and natural medicine during his battle with that disease. I started a course to earn my degree as a Doctor of Naturopathy through Clayton College, which later went bankrupt before I could complete my program.
So I started to do some research and my first step was to go gluten-free because I realized that I had all of the classic symptoms of celiac disease when I read Going Against The Grain by Melissa Diane Smith. I used up the last of my normal foods and replaced them with organic gluten-free ones, and that relieved some of my health issues like the Chronic Myofascial Pain Syndrome, but I came to realize that wasn't quite enough and eventually I completely removed grains from my diet.
In 2010 I remarried and my research continued. A year or two later I discovered the book The Paleo Diet by Loren Cordain, Ph.D. and started to follow a higher protein, lower sugar and carb diet. That worked well for me and I had also been walking for all of those years, and while my health improved considerably I lost 70 lbs., going down to a size I hadn't worn since I left the Army at the age of 19, and my blood test results came back better than they'd been since my early 20s! An eye exam even showed that my astigmatism in my left eye, which I'd been diagnosed with at 14, was gone.
In 2013 I turned 50 and my younger son and stepson both graduated from high school, so I had a graduation cake that I'd ordered MUCH larger than was needed because of the anticipated guest load followed shortly afterwards by my birthday cake and all of the food brought in for the potluck picnic we hosted. I'd also discovered Aldi's and an amazing Philly steak and cheese pizza they had, and I'll go into more details of just what a drastic effect that had on my health in a future post on dairy. Suffice it to say here that I went "off the wagon" in a big way and the weight came back on. I was also unable to walk anymore because I was so short of breath that I couldn't walk down the hallway upstairs. (Again, more in that dairy post.)
Not only did I regain that 70 lbs., but also another 30 for a total gain over time of 100 lbs. I was clinically obese and out of shape in my 50s and facing a move out of state to return home to NH where we wanted to homestead, and I knew something had to change but I struggled to make those changes.
It was years before I got on track again, and it took my husband ending up in the hospital and being admitted to the ICU for three days with a diagnosis of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and placed on four medications for heart rhythms and hypertension for us to both start making drastic changes.
We started out on Keto and have gradually transitioned into Carnivore and finally, by losing our taste for certain things and making conscious choices, to Lion. He still has some things like eggs and coffee in his diet, but I've eliminated all of that and now only eat beef, lamb, bison and salt and drink only water.
I'll go into more details in future posts about the different parts of this journey and how things are going moving forward, as well as resources. I also have a YouTube channel where I'll be talking about it all if you want to tune in!
Be healthy and happy,
~Diane Jarecki 🥩