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Interview with Sim

It has been a year since Sim’s original Carnivore Diet Success Story.

1) How would you currently describe your current way of eating?

My current way of eating is 2 meals a day in a window of about 6
hours. The window can vary depending on how I recover from training.
Generally, I have minced meat with some eggs as my first meal after
training, and a bigger meal with some more fatty steak around 16:00
(4PM)

2) What have you learned regarding nutrition over the last year?

I’ve learned two important things:
1. Context is important. There’s so much going both within and beyond
nutrition that influences what is needed for a person at any given time,
and these parameters change and so the context changes. I got to
understand that what is right is based on individual context. A general
template can work and does work for the general population. If we look
at any given population as a bell curve, it’s clear that the majority
fall in the middle and that a generalized template tends to work for
them. The outliers on both ends of the spectrum need context and
thus a very different approach.
2. The second thing I learned is the importance of organs in this
context. We all know how important our organs are for our health and
digestion, though I think it’s easily brushed aside as given that your
organs are either healthy or functioning optimally. Increasing my
understanding of organ function has been a major impact on how to
approach my nutrition.

3) What health & Fitness improvements, and/or setbacks have you experienced in the last year?

I had a major setback because of accidental poisoning. I tried to
use oregano oil from a brand that turned out to be too highly
concentrated. I had just hit my stride, was the leanest I had been in a
decade by being carnivore for only 4 months. The diet worked like a
charm, best I ever felt, great energy. The oregano oil took all of that
away by destroying my gut, destroyed my digestion to the point of me
literally not being able to digest. Everything felt like a brick in my
stomach, even water was totally indigestible. My sleep tanked, my mood
tanked. My liver and gallbladder were highly affected. My gallbladder so
much so that I couldn’t break down fat nor salt. From there my thyroid
down-regulated into hypothyroidism. Which lead to a complete hormonal
crash. My sympathetic system was completely overburdened by trying to
compensate for my poor liver function. This started in the middle of
June and got progressively worse until the end of August. The subsequent
months from September to January were a real struggle. I slipped into a
minor depression, I had panic attacks, my training just ground to a halt
because my energy was so low.

At the beginning of February, I got on board with Dominic Rapson
(@orinins.nutrition) who guided and rehabbed me and my organs with a
holistic nutrition protocol that is carnivore-ish. It took a long time
for things to heal, given the extent of the damage. Though with
Dominic’s guidance I finally close to 100%. My gut sensitivity to foods
was already high and is even higher now, though I don’t mind as much
seeing that all my organs are back to optimal function. Dom got me all
the way back here with nutrition alone, psychologically I’m in the best
place yet. Physiologically I’m in a good place, leaner and building
decent muscle volume again. So this speaks to the power of the diet to
come back from something that laid me out for almost a year. Without Dom
this wouldn’t have been possible. Hence what I wrote above, that the
individual context and knowledge of organs really play an important role
when something is very wrong.

4) What are your health and fitness goals in the year ahead?

My goals are to drop down to 6-8% body fat, which will just happen by
training the way I do. Devin Kelley (@devinpkelley) is coaching me on
the strength stuff, his approach is very precise, so I’ve already been
packing on more muscle in 2 months. Both the fat loss and the muscle
gain will be an extension of the work we put in and the guidance from
Dom on the nutrition. I’d like to be about 5kg heavier be
next year and about down 4% body fat.

5) Anything else to add? and where can people follow your journey?

This period of rehabilitation of my organs showed me in no uncertain
terms how important our physiology is for the expression of who we are.
I will never take that for granted again. My mood, energy, focus, and
cognition have surpassed my peak from last year. In light of all this, I
also started a holistic health platform called Reclaimer Method, which
you can find at @reclaimermethod or www.ptgmethod.com.
For anyone interested to follow me personally:
IG @simvandaele
www.simvandaele.com

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Ketogenic Endurance – I hoped you enjoyed this post.

If you like what I am about, check out the below.

Amazon

Carnivore Fit Expanded edition – my eBook and Paperback looking at why meat is good for you, why plants are bad, and how to exercise on zero carbs.

Low Content Books – Carnivore & Keto inspired Journals, Notebooks, Diaries, and Planners.

Media

• The majority of my personal journey is documented on Instagram.
• Carnivore Diet Success Stories Facebook group.
• Carnivore Diet Success Stories Newsletter.