Wake Up Calls
When a wake up call moves you to act.
This morning I was listening to Courtney Carver’s Stress Less challenge where she asks you what your wake up calls have been. In the last several months or years, what were they?
One of the biggest wake up calls was when my husband found out he had cancer in 2014. Another wake up call was when I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder type 2 in my 30s while in grad school.
Who would have thought that cancer and bipolar disorder would be greatly helped by what we chose to put in our mouths?
After a friend suggested the ketogenic diet as an adjunct for conventional cancer treatment, we began a deep dive into learning to eat differently. During that time, we discovered Miriam Kalamian, who briefly consulted with my husband via Skype. Back in early 2015, she had an e-book out; now Miriam has a phenomenal book published, called Keto for Cancer. As we began to eat in a drastically different new way, our lives began to change.
My husband’s tumors shrank and he never experienced the usual side effects such as nausea that come along for the ride that is cancer. The oncologist and nurses who administered the blood tests before infusions often commented on how well his numbers looked.
“Whatever you’re doing, keep doing it!” This was the comment repeated by oncologists year after year. Now almost eight years in remission from cancer, the new oncologist in Austin, TX repeated the same comment earlier this year to him. “Whatever you’re doing, keep doing it!” He was surprised again that at nearly age 60, my husband isn’t on any pharmaceutical medicine, and every number, including his HbA1c, cholesterol and WBC looked good. This must be a rarity in modern day American hospitals, someone not listing any pharmaceutical meds when given a clipboard by the nurse to fill out before your doctor visit.
Meanwhile, as I began to eat keto and low-carb, my bipolar symptoms — mostly oscillating depression and anxiety began to lesson. When we used to live in California, where I was born, my psychiatrist and therapist in Oakland suggested I ramp off the anti-convulsant medications I used to take for bipolar disorder. Convinced I was on the spectrum, they suggested I lay off sugar and flour. Just simply doing that, I began to feel even better. But when I began eating keto, and even tried a stint at eating carnivore, my symptoms improved drastically. Another thing was that while my husband was battling cancer in 2015, my own general practitioner warned me I was prediabetic. Again, the keto diet did wonders for my HbA1C and fasting glucose.
Recently, a study on bipolar using the ketogenic diet with Dr Eric Westman and Dr Georgia Ede showed tremendous promise on this way of eating changing metabolic health and mental health. I’m living proof of that.
Though not perfect, I feel better now than I did in my 20s, 30s and 40s.
One thing I should mention that my husband and I did during his cancer was check our GKI (Glucose to Ketones Index) often. Now in 2022, we still check our GKI every once in a while, to keep on track.
We’re not 100% keto, carnivore, or low-carb, but we’re about 80%. It really helps to monitor your numbers every once in awhile to steer our ships back around when we’ve veered off course. We haven’t upgraded to a continuous glucose monitor yet, sticking to using Keto-Mojo and Heads Up which is enough for us for now.
In 2017, we sold our house in Oakland and moved full-time into a RV with our son, deciding to world-school him as we traveled across the U.S. and Mexico. Now we temporarily have stopped the RV life to reside in Austin, TX, where my husband grew up so our son can have his own room in our rented apartment.
A wake up call can send you on a trajectory towards bliss.
What are some of your wake up calls?