20 years of pain gone in 8 weeks

I have found pain comes in all forms and manifests in surprisingly benign ways until it hits you like a freight train. That fact is clear to me after 8 weeks of Keto and IF. I don't consider myself stupid yet I look very stupid in how I've lived my life for the last 20 years. From a spontaneous pneumothorax at 19 (smoking) to two peptic ulcers at 21 (drinking) to chronic fatigue syndrome (lots of drinking, drugs, shallow friends and not sleeping nearly enough) and long-term depression in my thirties (time over excess), you'd think I'd have gotten the message. But no, somehow I believed I was special, and when my body was sick I told myself it wasn't. It was the depression that really got the better of me because there were diagnosis and treatments for the others. By that I mean, I wasn't ashamed to get those treatments. Reading Dianetics and the long talk about engrams I had down the local Scientology office didn't fix it (for me). Nor would a load of drugs shopped to me by MDs who think several millennium's worths of natural remedies equates to witchcraft. Only now do I see why I locked myself away from the world for almost 10 years, afraid to be around people; because I felt so low, I didn't feel human anymore. I wasn't listening to my body. If I'd have known about Keto and IF then I'd have been able to solve what was wrong. But I listened to the scare tactics (about Atkins for instance). Not to cry over spilt milk, I see it as a blessing because I appreciate every moment I have now from feeling well. And for that, I have to thank Dr. Berg's passion to go deeper than most into the body in solving common issues with very simple remedies and his simplistic yet direct way of explaining complex mechanisims. Salt: a miracle cure for depression. Who knew? At the age of 41, after trying to solve my ‘low-level’ but prolonged problems by using a beer or six most nights—despite eating 3 eggs and broccoli every day for 10 years—my body started to hurt everywhere. My weight ballooned from an unhealthy 95 kilos (210 lbs) to a worrying 105 kilos (235 lbs). Not huge but enough for my right side to hurt, for my heart to hurt every day, I struggled to breathe lying on my right side, I sweated all the time, my back ached constantly, my legs... generally, most places hurt. Also my depression—as used to it as I was—plummeted again after getting some of my old self back through eating ‘well’. I still drank beer and red wine and LOVED bread. At the start of 2021, my body had had enough. Whenever I passed a beer fridge in the supermarket it wouldn't allow me to look its way, let alone reach in for a nice cold one. In fact, every time I turned onto the alcohol aisle the pain in my lower right quadrant would return, psychosomatically, as if my body had decided to take over the running of me because I'd been so irresponsible. I'd sweat thinking about a beer. My body was screaming at me: no more! I reduced my alcohol consumption from 2-3 big bottles of beer or a bottle of red wine a night to drinking about one to three times a month. Used to getting up with a mild hangover, too—barely noticeable until I stopped drinking competently—I found that when I stopped I had more energy to do things: clean the house every day, (I mean spotless, and I was feeling good after it) and I exercised without skipping a week or three—and I exercised in the morning! Me? Getting up and exercising first thing? Yeah right, I’d never have believed it. But my body was running the show and, finally, I was doing what it told me to like some automaton. And I was smiling more each day. Yes, there were moods too at the start while switching dietary lanes, but there were SMILES on my face, man! Around that time I saw a Dr. Berg Youtube video about right-quadrant pain, and I went down the rabbit hole with him. I found another of his videos about fixing acid reflux (which I had chronically for several years) and that was sorted in a couple of days drinking apple cider vinegar. I was sold! Immediately, I did a three-day fast (because I'd tried years ago and felt good after). When I ate again, I skipped breakfast, then two weeks later I started skipping lunch too and started alternating between OMAD and TMAD. Dr. bergs videos helped with my sweats in that first month. Sage. I was dry in a week. It was a miracle to me! For years, I'd sweated from the slightest exertion. In work, it was the worst, incredibly embarrassing, and it added to my depression. Now when I cycle for an hour I barely break a sweat. To me, that is like Jesus curing the blind! After 3 weeks of IF and keto my ballooning stomach shrunk before my eyes and, probably more important than any aesthetic high I got, I felt something of the old me return; something I'd lost 20 years ago: my spirit, my joy of being alive and my health returning like I'd been transported to another planet where the air was sweeter, food tasted better, sleep came easier and exercise was becoming a joy to do and a doddle. This may sound like an advert for Dr. Berg, but I assure you this is my body talking for me; screaming out: "thank you, thank you, thank you for listening to me and doing something to fix me." Dr. Berg happened to be there when I went looking for a solution. I'll never go back to carbs and running my body on sugar. I couldn't now. I hate cravings and being controlled by food. When I did eat bread I felt sluggish, other food tastes blander for a day, and I found it hard to get going (the return of my dreaded low-level depression). I believe the western world needs to seriously readdress what it advises we humans run ourselves on because if GDP is king and being more productive is the force behind that, sugar is not the answer! Cheap and easy carbs may have fuelled the Industrial Revolution and helped the allies win the First and Second World Wars because the Germans were eating all that slow-release fatty sausage in the trenches while our troops were given (besides methamphetamines) sugar, chocolate, bread, creamed rice and beer to get them going, a nutritional plan that does not make. In this fast-moving world, we need to pace ourselves and stay healthy, and to do that, I believe, Keto and IF is the way. I thank you, Dr. Berg and anyone who dedicates their life to helping others. In my humble opinion, Keto and IF is not a diet it's a seminal moment in the evolution of the human race and a nutrition zeitgeist and the key to our health and happiness. Darran Brennan