We’ve been writing about food here on Chi Wulff (and its predecessor Best Fly Fishing Yellowstone) for over a decade now.
Our team, and I, clearly love to eat, and have shared what’s ended up being an impressive number of recipes we’ve enjoyed as a family (and with friends) for a long time. We’ve tried to cover a number of different food bases, have cooked everything you’ve seen here over the decade, and still have a pile of recipes in the queue.
Frankly it’s been a blast, and while it’s not going away, the Friday Feast will be changing a bit from this point forward. Here’s why…
The Proverbial Fly in the “Damn I Love to Eat” Ointment
Despite a pretty damned active lifestyle chasing various fish species across the Northern Rockies, raising an outdoor-loving family, running a medical practice, and eventually even owing/operating a horse farm/event center in Montana at the same time, my body began to manifest a common consequence of rolling past 30 (or 35) coupled with a simple principle of metabolism and physiology –
You can’t outrun (or out exercise) your fork, especially when you love good food.
Like many of my American friends and neighbors, despite an ever-growing waistline and lessening capacity to participate in the more extreme functional activities I was used do doing, I still considered myself (for the most part) – fat but fit.
And like many of you, there’s a bit of physical baggage that accumulated as a result of being active over the years. Mine included a partial rotator cuff tear from lifting a buddy’s raft loading out on the South Fork during a hail storm (and a re-injury body slamming a purse snatcher running through a Washington farmers’ market a few years later), a meniscal tear wading on a high water day on the Gallatin, and tibial plateau fracture in a freak rafting injury two years later.
Then the Damned Health Wheels Came Off
A few years ago, I wrote about it here, I woke up one morning peeing blood and ended up being diagnosed with a contained, low-grade renal cancer; treatments and a bit of stress associated with that process (treated damned successfully by the way) blew my weight out to what I found personally to be alarming levels.
I became cranky, couldn’t sleep well, had heartburn, a dysfunctional gut, a full-blown metabolic syndrome, and more; worst of all, my fly fishing and other outdoor pursuits were hammered.
Finally, the straw that broke the camel’s back was the development of an idiopathic thrombocytopenia (low platelet count) out of the blue (in retrospect, very likely the result of a leaky gut and my overall metabolic dysfunction).
I was desperate, damned unhappy, aging at a rapid clip, and finally ready to try something radical to change the course I was on.
The First Life Change That Turned the Tide
Though I’d been reading and researching possible ways to right my metabolic ship (which was obviously on course for disaster), somewhat ironically it was business guru and part-time economist, Karl Denninger, who had been writing about his journey to reclaim his health and recover function, who finally got my full attention about changing my paradigm.
In a nutshell, the core of that life change was beginning to first and foremost take a hard look at the food I was shoveling down my piehole. Like most Americans, I was eating well over 200 grams of carbs a day, a fair proportion of those being the very worst ones possible – highly refined grains and sugar, along with suboptimal proteins, and lousy fats (yep, the seed oils we’ve all been told are “healthy” are absolute disasters in reality).
Our approach to food changed over the course of several months to a healthy, fresh carb, moderate protein, higher fat diet; we followed that for over a year with great results, though for a variety of reasons I’ve been following a nutritional ketosis (keto) eating plan for nearly a year now, which has been frankly astounding as to its benefits.
The Second Life Change That Turned the Tide
Recognizing that it was well past time to get off my ass and get moving, I started a resistance exercise program, lifting consistently initially 4 days a week (now 3 days a week), along with stretching, a bit of martial arts, yoga, and a walking program (as much as 40 miles/week).
The food program above has wrought the majority of change for me, though I’m in the best physical condition of my life since competitive athlete days in high school.
170 Pounds Lost and Still Getting Stronger and Leaner
Long story short, I’ve dropped 170 pounds (as of yesterday) and am a new man in terms of my ability to function, my outlook on life, my daily energy, creative abilities, concentration, and attitude. My bloodwork is better than at 35, and we’re eating more creatively and frankly better food than we ever have in our time as a family.
And oh yeah, fishing, hiking, hunting, and other activities are a hell of lot more enjoyable, and I’m running off and leaving some of the youngsters behind.
Inspired by the changes in my own life, and given the fact I’ve been pelted by friends and family for guidance in effecting similar changes in their own lives, I’ve started a health and wellness coaching business – Older Bolder Fitness, and pursued a bit more up-to-date training on the current best science and practice in human nutrition, something all but devoid (sadly) from my medical training. I have a particular interest in helping those who have lost hope in regaining their health and getting back in shape; that was me just a couple of years ago.
For those interested, I’ll share a bit more detail next week in the second part of my Friday Feast ‘Confession’.
So Where’d the Friday Feast Go?
From this point forward, I’ll still be posting a Friday Feast, basically the same game we’ve been doing here for years, thought it will be posted over on our health blog – Older Bolder Life. I’ll be linking over from Chi Wulff every Friday, in fact today’s Friday Feast is Chicken Etouffee, see it here.
Cheers, and now’s the time to be thinking about physically (and metabolically) tuning up for the spring hatches and hunts…
