I Ate (only) Meat for 10 Days

I've noticed a trend when I don't get a lot of sleep. My, which was last night, the pain is more acute in my feet and it's, it's the, it's a reactive arthritis, acute, bruised type of feeling. I have a stiff back. It's worse in the morning. It's not crazy bad today. I've noticed something. I think if I am too long in the bed, maybe my back hurts more, the stiffness. Uh, too little, my feet hurt. I have Babesia, which is a co-infection of Lyme disease. My feet have hurt for 10 years. It was compounded over the summer when I got reactive arthritis, which is joint pain, and I still have lingering issues with that. I don't know if it's because I was already having foot issues. From time to time I'll have this acute joint pain in my back. Uh, I've got Candida which creates itch. Should I just say it? Uh, athlete's foot, jock itch. Certainly not as bad as it could be. There are some folks out there with Lyme who are experiencing much more difficult symptoms. My heart definitely goes out to them. I have emotional crashes about every 4 to 6 weeks where for 2 or 3 days, just depressed, just feel like just lack confidence, things like that. And then the last thing is, well, I have inflammation in my body, so I gain weight easily. 192.6, second highest I've ever been in my life. How do I look? I mean, it's not bad. It's not Crazy terrible, but I'm gonna get out of control. And it's representation of the deeper problem, the inflammation. Get some chicken broth going. Day 1, already I'm thinking about cheating. I just— I made that birthday meal for Rebecca, chicken parmesan. Took me 3 and a half hours. So proud of it. The leftovers are calling my name. Broth, let me be real with you, never calls my name. Broccoli, yeah, never calls my name. Chicken Parmesan, Alfredo noodles, kombucha, all that stuff calls my name loudly. Let me see if Rebecca's gonna laugh at me or let me do this. She had to go to the laundromat. Lily puked. She puked up that birthday meal last night. I cleaned it up. I still want it. I hope I'm not puking it up later. She said okay. She would never not, you know, she's too kind. She's too kind. You found a piece of broccoli? You want to eat that? That's, that's just good for a toy, isn't it? If you give him the option, he don't take it. He prefers meat, but he will eat some ice cream. I've done the carnivore diet before. I've been carnivore-ish for 2 years, I was interviewing Tara from the Slow Down Farmstead. Great lady. I was saying, you know, I feel like I don't see this sensitivity to foods. I'll, I'll eat a food, I won't have this acute reaction. And she said, well, have you ever done it, the carnivore diet strictly? And to think about it, no, for the 30 days on the weekend I would have some ice cream, some home, you know, I mean, it's homegrown raw milk ice cream with some honey. Uh, that's anybody else's diet, that's a normal person's diet. But, and I never did no dairy, so she challenged me to a 60-day strict and just to, uh, take in pork and chicken occasionally because I don't, I don't know why. Maybe they can be more inflamed. It's pro— I'm thinking it's because they're so heavily grain-fed. As a farmer, I realize just how much basic— well, most, vast majority of those animals' diet is grain. Jacob, I'm starting 60 days carnivore. You got any advice for me? No, strict carnivore too. Uh, strict. So do you have any, uh, predictions? You're gonna get ripped. You think I'll get rid of this dad bod in 60 days? Yeah. Okay, so I can predict that. So we're gonna film these workouts. I'm gonna take my shirt off. Okay. And we're gonna maybe film them once a week.

Well, we're gonna also— I'm doing measurements.

If you're not testing, you're guessing. Yeah, one of my primary complaints is back stiffness. It gets— I have good days and bad days. Today was a very bad day. I couldn't do get-ups. Watch, just watch. So you lay down like this, and then I'm supposed to go like this. Okay, now watch my face. Just hurts right in here. Jacob stretched me, did all he could. Maybe something he can do. Mom also said, uh, what's— what you ate the last 2 days? Coffee, peanut butter, chocolate, cake. Maybe I'm inflamed. I feel like maybe a warm-up would have helped me in this case. So I'm gonna try it now. I'm gonna try a vigorous walk, light run, maybe break up a sweat and come back and see what happens. The normal walk didn't help, but listen, I sprinted up the dam Not once, not twice, but 3 times. Let's see if it's still okay. Still stiff, but definitely better than anything we did so far. Oh wow, I'm still grimacing, but I'm doing it. Start off with a really Kind of warming up. Brisk walk, very light run. Got very discouraged because the bottom of my foot started hurting.

I'm sorry.

You remember that?

Yeah.

It's hard to enjoy the run because it hurts. Everything hurts. It was very discouraging and it did nothing.

Didn't help your back?

No.

Sorry.

I tried it midway and then I sprinted up the dam. I sprinted up one time, it was a little better. I sprinted up twice, it was even better. And then I sprinted up a third time. Really letting the disease have it.

It's the HIIT, isn't it?

Yeah. Look at that.

It feels— it doesn't hurt?

It's a little stiff.

Wow, so maybe you need to do high-intensity interval training.

I mean, it's still there. It's not like my strong days.

Right.

But it's a knee— it's a needle move. Like, maybe I'm really some tension with doing HIIT. Is that what you call it?

High-intensity interval training.

Is that what you call it? Yeah, maybe I should figure out how to really do that proper. Yeah. What you making?

Uh, pot roast, chuck roast, and onions and potatoes and carrots.

The whole family is not going carnivore, and one, one thing that we've I mean, I've been doing this— not strict, but I've been doing this over a year now. It's handy that we have a meat, some sort of veggie, and then a starch, and that's pretty much our dinners. What? So basically what I do is eat the meat, and they eat the meat and the other two things. And would you say that works out okay for us?

Yeah, it does. It's hard when I want to make like a casserole or a chili, then I just make you something else.

Yeah, that's what I was going to say. How do you, how do you sacrifice for me during this time?

How do I?

Yeah.

I'm gonna try to not eat chocolate.

No more Dots?

Yeah.

I think the kids are gonna sacrifice by— oh, did you just buy Dots? They need to get rid of this peanut butter. We need to send that up to Grandma's. That's my kryptonite, peanut butter and chocolate. Although at the end of this, if I'm not inflamed, After 60 days of this, I, I'm not gonna be tempted. Yeah, if, if these foods are inflaming me and causing this back stiffness and foot pain, oh my word. Yeah, in fact, if we get the inflammation under control and the itching— I'm itching right now. I'm just gonna eat it because you're rude, or I'd have to itch. The fourth big thing stiff back, joint pain, joint soreness, pain in my knees, and then in my feet, aching pain in my feet. That's probably from the Babesia. Is it Babesia? And then jock itch and athlete's foot, which is probably— I don't think some of it's not related.

I don't think that you have like a topical. I definitely believe that it's probably in your gut because because this is why I have— we shower in the same shower. I've never got—

oh, that's true.

I don't have— I have no jock itch. Not— it's not jock itch, athlete's foot.

We're husband and wife too, and you never— I don't have, uh, you never suffer from this.

I, I don't have any of this. That's why I feel like it's a candida issue. Yeah, I had my own candida issues when I was younger, and when I stopped eating refined sugar, that all went away. So I, I've beat my issue with candida. Candida and Lyme co-infections really go hand in hand. They kind of like thrive off of one another. So I think that that's probably where yours comes in that we haven't been able to really get it, but I'm interested to see what's gonna happen.

I have made a bunch of broth. I was thinking I might eat that for lunch-ish. I'm kind of thinking I might OMAD too, because OMAD is one meal a day. I'm not really hungry. Lunch has come and gone. Breakfast is kind of gone. If I OMAD, even beef stew, just the meat tastes glorious.

It's pot roast.

Okay, because I'm not a big fan, but— He's not.

I love it though. It's so good.

Right, and if people don't know, I've got Babesia. Is that what it's called?

Babesia.

Which is a co-infection of Lyme disease.

Okay, so this last summer you, you had a blood test and you had— it showed that you had past infections of Lyme.

Yeah.

And Bartonella, which is a co-infection. And what it showed that you had an active Babesia infection, and we actually never treated a Babesia infection. Come to find out, Babesia is actually a blood infection. So, um, that's been a different— it's different than the other infections. We've never treated Babesia before. We're currently treating it, we have been treating it for, for a little bit, and we're still in the—

in, in it. This is the only non-carnivore thing I'm taking. Uh, these are herbal treatments, aren't they, Rebecca? Yeah, herbal supplements. Ale Complex, Abarth— I don't know what all this means— Abab, and A-Inflam. You take it twice a day on an empty stomach. That's not hard when you, uh, OMAD. It tastes terrible. It's awful. Oh really?

Yeah. Maybe that's like not getting better.

Yeah, okay, how long?

30 seconds or a minute.

Yeah, I think—

Read the directions, dude.

You know, this carnivore thing, it's not really gonna be about that. It's gonna make me more dedicated to the hyperbaric, to the ice bath, to the weight training. When you do one thing for your health, you end up, uh, makes it doing a lot more for your health easier. I've landed on the carnivore diet because it's the most nutrient-dense food in the world, uh, super easy to digest. I'm concerned about the natural toxins that are in the plants too, that are there really from themselves to protect themselves, but it's more than that. This video might end up called something like the carnivore for 60 days. Actually, I want to do this strict thing for 60 days. Our last carnivore video was popular, but the— and the— what I wanted to do was I did one on I ate carnivore for 30 days and didn't stop, and I documented that the whole day, that whole time. Didn't necessarily vlog about it, I didn't vlog about it, and then just put it out as one video. And I was wanting to do that with this I think I'd rather you come along on the journey. I may miss out on another viral video, but I think it's more important that you come on the journey. And I think it's more than carnivore. I don't think carnivore is the cure-all. I don't think the diet is the cure-all. I think I have a bad disease that's going to need a lot more than that. I don't expect it to touch certain things. I don't even— I don't expect it to touch reactive arthritis. Probably, if I were to be honest, I would half expect it to touch my Babesia. But I do it because what else am I going to do? There are, there, there are other things I am going to do. So what else am I going to do? I am going to do other things. And, and it, it may— this may be more appropriately themed 60 Days of Healing because I want to get more serious about making sure I get the vitamin D from the sun, being consistent with the hyperbaric chamber, taking my supplements well, my herbal supplements, keeping up with acupuncture, consulting with doctors, with my doctor, multiple. We're gonna have a call with, with 2 doctors on this diet and other things we're doing. I want you guys to be on this journey because it's been more of my life. We don't necessarily always have this epic farm chore or project to do. We've kind of got this dialed in, and the kids help so much with the chores. Mixing it up today with a little bit of smoked Redmond salt. It's a different flavor. Hamburger cheese is like 70% of the burger experience for me, but that's looking pretty good. Eggs kind of making up for that. Cook the eggs in the beef grease. Let's try it. Smoked egg and beef burger. I didn't get any beef. What do you say? It's great. Hopefully it won't get old because I'm gonna have this a lot. Beef tenderloin, searing it on both sides, and we're gonna pop it into this oven. I'm not excited about this. And then she told me, you know, that's actually sirloin.

No, it's filet mignon.

Filet mignon. And then I'm starting to get excited because that's like a steak, it's not too chewy, and I only got one side of my teeth. It's pretty handy. I'm gonna put it on a cooking rack. Wednesday I was feeling strong, but today I could almost trash talk them for I'm so strong now. If that— and I've lost like 7 pounds. 7 pounds in 5 days. I had some serious inflammation.

Yeah.

And what if, Becky— I mean, I felt good this many times in a row before. 2 trainings, 4 days. But what if, what if I don't start feeling sore again.

That'll be great.

A cupcake will not tempt me. Yeah, peanut butter will not tempt me. That would actually be exciting.

That would be—

I'm glad to give it up. I am afraid I'm gonna just relapse and it's not gonna make any difference. All my fear is I'll lose weight. I know I'll lose weight. Yeah, and that's it. And I want this to be so much more than a diet.

And you won't have any relief from pain.

I'm afraid I'll still have a sore back, still have lower back joint problems, problems in my feet, the, the yeast. Lily made hot dogs and I got to get better about planning. These have— they don't have sugar in them, they're grass-fed. They do have spices, organic Spices. You think that's okay, Rebecca? Like less than 2%?

I mean, you have to live, you know what I mean? I think it's gonna be okay.

And I did the spices in the nacho— in the—

in the taco beef.

We're gonna do the Redmond's season mix, I'm sure.

Well, I don't have to.

I guess you don't have to on mine. Well, I was— what am I gonna do though? I love butter on it. I must have liked the hamburger that way because I did it again today to double dog— double because I have a hot dog today, hot dogs. But what I found out is I'm cooking them, I'm frying the eggs hard, and I know they're better if you barely cook them, but I'm gonna fight only so many battles. I like them better really cooked, and I cooked them in the beef juice and it just has this smoky smoky grill type flavor. That was— that's a lot of fun. We're doing the before and after fat test. This is the before. You ready? Yeah. What do I do?

Stand there.

Do the worst one first. This is the best part. Let me get a picture.

Oh, I'm generous too. I pinch hard.

Do you? So you make me appear thinner than I am?

What was it?

1.

All right, is that good? Raise this up a little.

I honestly don't know until I run the numbers.

All right, all right, make sure it's relaxed.

Uh, 3/4.

The suspense. Tell me if I'm fat or not.

How old are you? 43?

Yes, sir.

Because it's saying you're at 22.2%.

That's a heavy boy.

It's not accurate. Yeah, see why I don't do this with people all the time?

Well, if you did, you would be better. 18. 18% body fat.

Which is how much?

That's probably pretty good, huh?

So according to this, uh, male 40 to 49 year old, yeah, you're in the good range.

Oh good. Yeah, but I want to be better. Where's the better range?

Uh, you just got to drop down to 16.2.

And what am I?

That's the excellent range.

You're 16.2 and I'm what, 18.9? Okay, got to lose 2.

So fat mass, which 150 pounds of lean mass. And again, this is all just— we have a, we have a, uh, like a measurement. So now when we remeasure, we at least know the difference. So whether it's accurate or not, it's definitely not, but we at least know where we are.

So I'm 10 days in. Already I've lost 8 pounds. My back is a lot less stiff. I think it's been this good this long before, but we're getting pretty close to breaking a record. So, so, so far so good. It's definitely getting harder. My family eats normally, and I don't— I'm not tempted to eat vegetables, although a good Greek salad might call my name every once in a while, but very rarely. The things that are calling my name are more like dairy. Rebecca makes this mean gluten-free mac and cheese, gluten-free biscuits, the starches, the starches, the white rice, butter, yogurt, just a different coldness. But this morning I realized, you know, that could be feeding the Candida. The strict— I think it's worth it. I think it's worth it to try this strict thing and see how it helps. And it reminds me to be more dedicated across the board. I hope you guys will join me. Hope you'll stay tuned over the next 50 days. You can also follow me on Twitter. Just got a Twitter account. @VictorJustinRhodes is the name there, and I'm updating once or twice a day there in more real time. I love you, and I thank you. I'm gonna document this journey more because I need you guys. I love— and it completes my joy to share this journey with you. It also keeps me accountable, and and makes me stronger and more able to do this. And I know many of you are suffering from chronic illnesses, and hopefully this can challenge and encourage you to continue strong in your journey and your approach, whatever it is.